College Courses

Spring 2020 COURSE OFFEREINGS

HUM 253 – The Mystery of Evil (formerly "Iniquity")

Meetings: Tues & Thurs, 2:00 - 3:15pm, UNL Newman Center
Instructor: Dr. John Freeh, Director of the Newman Institute
Credit Hours: 3

“Today I have set before you life and death, a blessing and a curse, choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live.” With these words the Hebrew book of Deuteronomy underscores the “mystery of iniquity,” that human tendency to choose what is destructive of self and others.  If, as Origen says in the 3^rd century, “the power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all,” why does humankind continue to choose evil? And how can we comprehend the claim of Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost that “only in destroying I find ease”? The battle between good and evil lies at the heart of the human story, and some of literature’s most memorable characters – Medea, Faustus, Macbeth, Raskolnikov – provide a foundation for beginning to explore and perhaps understand this ancient “mystery.” By looking at these and other characters, as well as relevant texts from philosophers and theologians, this three-credit course will attempt to discover patterns of thought and action in those who embrace evil – and in those who reject it.

Required Texts: Euripides’ Medea; Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus; Shakespeare’s Macbeth; Milton’s Paradise Lost; Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment; Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral; shorter readings as assigned

HUM 255 – Undaunted Courage: The Heroic Life 

 
Meetings : Mon & Wed, 3:30 - 4:45pm, UNL Newman Center
Instructor : Dr. John Freeh, Director of the Newman Institute
Credit Hours : 3

UNDAUNTED COURAGE: THE HEROIC LIFE Ancient and modern cultures hold courage - physical, mental, moral and spiritual - to be one of the key measures of human greatness. Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas are alike in recognizing its importance. C.S. Lewis says "courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of all the virtues at the testing point."  From the physical courage of Hector in Homer's  Iliad to the moral courage of Antigone in Sophocles' play, from the long-suffering of Job in the Old Testament to the perseverance of Beowulf in the defense of his people, examples of heroism always inspire and arouse admiration. This  new three-credit seminar, taught by Newman Institute Director Dr. John Freeh, will study the theory and  practice of courage through the ages.
 
Required texts:  The Book of Job, Sophocles'  Antigone, Homer's  Iliad, Aristotle's  Ethics (Book 3, section 6),  The Martyrdom of Polycarp,  Beowulf, Rostand's  Cyrano de Bergerac, Faulkner's  Unvanquished, and Josef Pieper's  On Fortitude, along with selected articles, essays and poems.