Summer 2005/Pasadena
Two-week intensive: July 18-29
TC529
McEntyre/McEntyre
TC529: TOPICS IN THEOLOGY AND LITERATURE: THEOLOGY
AND THE AMERICAN
LITERARY IMAGINATION. John McEntyre and Marilyn McEntyre.
DESCRIPTION:
- In this course we will read excerpts from Calvin, secondary
writings on Calvin, and more recent reformed theologians in conjunction with
full-length works by three major American writers: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman
Melville, and William Faulkner. Students taking this course will learn basic
techniques for reading theology and literature and will be able to make
judicious cognitive and affective connections in considering the distinct
methods of the individual disciplines of theology and literature as well as in
relating one discipline to the other. Designed to help cultivate habits of mind
and reading practices that will help in ministry, the course will address
questions such as: How do these particular theologians and writers help enlarge
and specify our understanding of providence, grace, nature, sin, community? How
has Calvin (or perhaps more to the point, a particular kind of "Calvinism")
been of particular relevance to the development of both theology and literature
in the U.S.? How did Hawthorne, Melville and Faulkner each wrestle with the
claims of Scripture, with American religious life, and with the influences of
New England "Calvinism"? The skills developed in the process of this discussion
will be transferable to other interdisciplinary studies, giving the pastor, the
preacher, the artist, the caregiver, or the theologian greater ability for
integrative thought.
RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY:
- We will read primary sources in theology and literature in order to
understand and utilize these resources for various ministries but primarily in
teaching, preaching, and caregiving. As we read and respond to classic texts in
theology and literature, we will clarify the gifts offered in doctrine and
fiction, deepen our understanding of the significance of the work and person of
Jesus Christ, and extend our knowledge of the power, truth, beauty, and
function of the Christian story and its intersection in literary
fiction.
COURSE FORMAT: Classes will meet daily for two weeks for four-hour sessions of
lecture and discussion.
REQUIRED READING:
- Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. Vintage Books,
1991.
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Penguin, 1993.
- Kerr, Hugh T. Calvin's Institutes: A New Compend. Westminster/John
Knox, 1989.
- Melville, Herman. Billy Budd and Other Stories. Penguin Books,
1986.
- Course Reader.
RECOMMENDED READING:
- Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in
Western Literature. Trans. Willard Trask. Princeton University Press,
2003.
- Hunsinger, George. Disruptive Grace: Studies in the Theology of Karl
Barth. Eerdmans, 2001.
- Steiner, George. Real Presences. University of Chicago Press,
1991.
- Woods, Ralph. The Comedy of Redemption: Christian Faith and Comic Vision
in Four American Novelists. University of Notre Dame Press, 1988.
ASSIGNMENTS:
- Attendance is required. Participation in discussion is expected
(33%). One-page daily reflections (33%) and one 8-10 page paper (33%). Daily
reflection papers will be submitted at the end of each week of the class
meetings; the long paper will be August 12.
PREREQUISITES: None.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM:
- Elective. Meets the MACL in Integrative Studies requirement for an
interdisciplinary course (IDPL).
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.