United We Fall: How Bad Ideas Destroy America

America as a nation is unified by a geographic location, the color of money and an April 15th tax bill; beyond that we are merely an empire with nowhere to go but down, driven by a conflict of opinions about the nature of reality and man’s purpose in it. The reason for this “conflict of opinions” is that man’s religion is a working process that works steadily toward systematizing his life for better or worse (Gal.6:7; Eph.4:17-18). Reason in general and faith in particular will always order a human beings world systematically by providing the unifying principles by which all things are knowable (Rom. 2:14-15; Psalm 119). If it is the true faith of Christianity and a well developed philosophical system, it will provide coherency, order and predictability to society (Col.1:17). But a false philosophy, similar to an equally false faith, instead of providing coherency, order and predictability, in other words a working system, will provide only cultural destruction because it leads humanity astray (Col.2:8) and into a crisis of meaning (Eph.2:2) and a misunderstanding of what his purpose is on earth (Eph.2:10).

Course Objectives:

1. Telos of this course is to consider and ponder how America “gave up the ghost” due to its initial compromise with, and eventually commitment to bad ideas, bad economics and bad politics.
2. Equally, students will be encouraged to become proficient in the conversational approach to learning: close readings, interpretive questions, and Socratic discussions of the texts.
3. Students will develop lateral thinking skills by way of analyzing and synthesizing themes and motifs from various texts and strive to write persuasively about the perennial human questions of human stewardship and flourishing.

Texts:

• Idols for Destruction
• Vision of the Anointed
• Dependent On DC
• Becoming Europe
• Bible