Philosophy

Philosophy As A Way Of Life

Core

Philosophy at its inception was understood as a way of life, not the reserve of experts. This course recovers this approach to
the philosophical enterprise, asking what it means to live philosophically, whilst cultivating a humble heart and bold curiosity.
For the Christian, this pursuit of truth ultimately means seeing the divine Logos throughout the world and our lives.

Taught by Colin Redemer.

Runs 1/10-3/19/22.

Auditing: participate in readings and live class sessions, but no graded assignments and no course credit
Full course part-time: individual classes on a for-credit basis; you can later apply them toward a Certificate or Degree
Full course full-time: for-credit courses (at least four per term) toward our Certificate or M.Litt in Classical Protestantism

Description

This Core course will be taught by Davenant Teaching Fellow Colin Redemer, and will run from January 10th through March 19th 2022. The syllabus is available here.

What do you think of when you hear “philosophy”? For many of us, the word conjures images of dense, dull monologues of Enlightenment reason and logic. Others, Christians especially, may picture learned men high on their own knowledge and learning, but a million miles both from real life and from the Christian God. Philosophy is, for most of us, irrelevant both to our intellectual and day-to-day lives. This is not helped by the fact that hardly any students engage great philosophical texts for themselves any more; instead, they recevied potted summaries in philosophy textbooks.

But this is not how philosophy was thought of at its inception by the ancient Greeks, or by the earliest Christian thinkers who brought philosophy into the service of theology. Philosophy was understood as a way of life, not the reserve of experts. It was not an exercise in reason, but a reaching out to grasp the fullness of reality – both the created reality available to the senses, and the uncreated reality of God himself.

This course recovers this approach to the philosophical enterprise, asking what it means to live philosophically, whilst cultivating a humble heart and bold curiosity. Students will engage great philosophical texts first hand, and plumb their relevance for a fully human, Christian life. For the Christian, this pursuit of truth ultimately means seeing the divine Logos throughout the world which he has made.

NOTE: this a Year Two compulsory course for degree-seeking students.

Colin Redemer is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Saint Mary’s College of California and Vice-President of the Davenant Institute. He loves teaching on the intersection between History, Philosophy, Literature, and Christianity. His writing has appeared in the Englewood Review of Books, Evansville Review, Sojourners Magazine, The Federalist, and the Tampa Review.

Online only, runs 10 weeks, meeting 2 hr./wk. via Zoom. Students will also have the option to participate in class discussion on the Davenant Common Room Discord server. Register to reserve your spot and schedule will be set after a poll of participating students; if the class time does not fit your schedule, you will be eligible for a full refund.

This is a graduate-level course. Although a BA is not a necessary pre-requisite for this course, students should come prepared to do graduate-level work.