Athens and Jerusalem: Ancient Integrated Humanities

What kind of universe is this? Who controls our fate? Can we overcome death? What is justice? What kind of life is worth living? Can men have immortality? Can virtue be taught? We have been asking these questions for a very long time, from Gilgamesh and Genesis to Meno and Malachi. This course aims to introduce students to the questions that spur on the Great Conversation of Western Civilization, along with the answers we have inherited from our predecessors--the Greeks, but also the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Hebrews.

Course Objectives:

1. To understand and practice thoughtful reading.
2. To value clear written and spoken communication.
3. To encounter some of the perennial questions that Western civilization is trying to answer.
4. To compare how ancient cultures answered these perennial questions.
5. To begin to understand the Biblical answers to these perennial questions.

Texts:

• Holy Bible (Instructor will use NASB)
• Enuma Elish
• Gilgamesh
• Selections of Law and Wisdom Literature of Egypt and Mesopotamia
• Illiad
• Odyssey
• Oresteia
• Selections from Herodotus
• Selections from Thucydides
• Selections from Plato
• Selections from Aristotle