Each semester, the Newman Institute offers a selection of integrated humanities courses. Below is a selection of past courses, which can give you an idea of the types of questions and texts that students explore at the Newman Institute.

ENG 241 - Introduction to the Great Books I: Seekers, Sojourners, and Pilgrims

Fall 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

UNL Transfer Equivalency ID: CLAS2T*@

Instructor: Dr. John Freeh, Director of the Newman Institute

Credit Hours: 3

Aristotle rightly observes “all men by nature desire knowledge.” And the fundamental knowledge each of us seeks has to do with the most pressing questions of existence: What is life’s meaning and purpose? What is happiness and how may we obtain it? What or who should we love and how ought we live? Drawing from the rich heritage of Western literature, this course attempts to lay the groundwork for a lifelong consideration of these and other questions. Each of the seekers, sojourners and pilgrims studied, from Homer’s Odysseus to St. Augustine, from Boethius to Shakespeare’s Prospero, wrestle with the age-old questions that remain with us today. What they discover sheds light on our own efforts to understand the human condition.

Required Texts: Plato, Apology; Homer, The Odyssey; Marcus Aurelius, Meditations; St. Augustine, Confessions; The Wanderer and The Seafarer; Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy; Dante, Inferno; Shakespeare, The Tempest; Pieper, Josef, On Hope; shorter readings as assigned

HUM 251 – Humanities Seminar I: Love and Friendship

Fall 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

UNL Transfer Equivalency ID: GNCR***@

Instructor: Dr. John Freeh, Director of the Newman Institute

Credit Hours: 3

What is “this word ‘love’ that graybeards call divine?” So asks the poet concerning the greatest of realities. For Dante, love “moves the sun and the other stars.” For Shakespeare, it is an “ever-fixed mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken.” William Blake sees it as the reason for our existence, asserting that we are “put on earth a little space / That we may learn to bear the beams of love.”  Love in all its manifestations – in romance and marriage, in friendship and family – is a theme that lies at the very heart of our shared human experience. This interdisciplinary seminar explores the nature of love as understood by Aristotle and Augustine, Dante and Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Willa Cather, among others.

Required Texts: Shakespeare, King Lear; C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves; Plato, The Symposium; Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn; Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII; Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop; Song of Songs; Dante, Vita Nuova and poems; Dietrich von Hildebrand, On Marriage; Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Joseph Pieper, On Love; Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale; shorter readings as assigned

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ENG 244 – Introduction to the Great Books II: The Literature of Mercy, Compassion and Forgiveness

Spring 2017, 2018, 2019

Instructor: Dr. John Freeh, Director of the Newman Institute

Credit Hours: 3

 “Our twentieth century has proved to be more cruel than preceding centuries,” Nobel laureate Alexandr Solzhenitsyn once famously remarked, adding that the “world is torn asunder by the same old cave-age emotions as greed, envy, lack of control” and “mutual hostility.” This second-semester introduction to the Great Books seeks to provide insight with respect to the problem of human cruelty and suggest remedies through a deeper understanding of mercy, compassion and forgiveness. One such remedy comes through Shakespeare’s Jewish moneylender, Shylock, who implies that mercy is possible only when human beings see the “other” as somehow related to themselves. “Hath not a Jew eyes,” he poignantly asks his Christian adversaries, going on to argue the case for a common humanity which transcends any and all differences.

 Required Texts: Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice; Shakespeare, Measure for Measure; Chaucer, The Franklin’s Tale; anonymous, Everyman; Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter; Greene, The Power and the Glory; Newman, The Dream of Gerontius; shorter readings as assigned

HUM 253 – Humanities Seminar II: The Mystery of Evil (Iniquity)

Spring 2018, 2019, 2020

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 – Humanities Seminar III: Undaunted Courage: The Heroic Life

Spring 2020

Instructor: Dr. John Freeh, Director of the Newman Institute

Credit Hours: 3

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.
 

Evening Seminars 
 

An Evening Seminar for Adults: Seekers, Sojourners and Pilgrims 

Spring 2018 

Instructor: Dr. John Freeh, Director of the Newman Institute

Aristotle rightly observes “all men by nature desire knowledge.” And the fundamental knowledge each of us seeks has to do with the most pressing questions of existence: What is life’s meaning and purpose? What is happiness and how may we obtain it? What or who should we love and how ought we live? Drawing from the rich heritage of Western literature, this course attempts to lay the groundwork for a lifelong consideration of these and other questions. Each of the seekers, sojourners and pilgrims studied, in works from Sophocles, St. Augustine, Shakespeare, and others, wrestle with the age-old questions that remain with us today. What they discover sheds light on our own efforts to understand the human condition.
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The Psalms as Divine Poetry: Truth, Beauty, and the Art of Sacred Scripture

Fall 2018
Course Instructor: Dr. Vern Steiner

“The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” So begins what C. S. Lewis regarded as “the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.” Hebrew poetry, which comprises about one-third of the Old Testament, enhances the beauty, conviction, and mystery of how the Bible speaks and how readers respond. By means of the poet’s literary craft, the poems in Sacred Scripture are able to stimulate our imaginations, arouse our emotions, challenge our intellects, and move our wills. After considering what makes biblical poetry poetic, this seminar will highlight a close reading of selections from the Bible’s most celebrated book of poems–the Book of Psalms.

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Keys to the Kingdom: Seven Encyclicals for the Modern World

Fall 2018, Spring 2019
Course Instructor: Dr. John Freeh

Jesus entrusts to Peter and to his successors the power of the keys: the capacity to teach authoritatively on matters of faith and morals. One important source of papal teaching is the encyclical, a letter that considers particular issues in light of Christ's salvific message. From Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum to Benedict XVI's Spe Salvi, modern encyclicals deal with subjects ranging from capital and labor to faith and reason; from the sexual revolution to the effects of relativism; from growing consumerism to the loss of hope in life's meaning and purpose. Taught by Newman Institute Director Dr. John Freeh, this seminar will study seven of the most important encyclicals of recent times.
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Tolkien, Friendship, and the Pursuit of the Good

Fall 2019
Course Instructor: Dr. Helen Freeh

Tolkien’s great work, The Lord of the Rings, shows how the power of friendship strengthens the individual as well as the community. Countering the modern tendencies either to exalt or to isolate the individual, Tolkien’s trilogy demonstrates that the bond of friendship is essential for the common action needed to confront and defeat evil. This seminar will journey through Tolkien’s Middle-earth by reading and discussing the Fellowship of the Ring. Some of the questions to be explored will include: What is the nature of friendship? What virtues are necessary for its perfection? How does Tolkien’s understanding of the human person challenge current notions of individual fulfillment? A spring seminar will continue with The Two Towers and The Return of the King.   
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The Quest for Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy

Fall 2019
Course Instructor: Dr. David Arias 

Beginning in wonder and ending in wisdom, the discipline of philosophy seeks to satisfy our natural human desire to know what things are and why thing are the way they are. Over the millennia, philosophers of every age have asked and offered answers to profound questions such as these: What are the most fundamental causes of the universe? Can we prove that God exists Are there moral absolutes? We will follow Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas as principal guides in our attempt to sketch trustworthy answers to these and other perennial philosophical questions.