Description
This Philosophy course will be taught by Dr. Joseph Minich, and will run from June 30th through August 23rd.
Interpreters of our civilization often invoke something called modernity. But just what is this phenomenon? What sets apart our moment from past moments? Alternatively, are the differences between past and present overblown? Asking and answering such questions inevitably involves a reading of human beings and of the story that they’re in. In this course, we will look at how several thinkers interpret man and his story relative to the question of modernity. Our goal will be to learn from and critique these thinkers in order that we might gesture toward a more complete understanding of our civilization, as well as our task within it. Among the items discussed will be the nature of secularism, the debate over whether we live in a “disenchanted” age, the relationship between modernity and communal trust, and the role played by non-intellectual factors (technology, etc) in all of the above.
Dr. Joseph Minich (PhD, The University of Texas at Dallas) is Faculty Chair and Professor of Philosophy at Davenant Hall. As part of his work, he also co-hosts the Pilgrim Faith podcast. The founding editor of Ad Fontes and former Editor-in-Chief of the Davenant Press, he is the author of Enduring Divine Absence (Davenant Press, 2018) and Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age (Lexham Press, 2023). His public writing can be found at The Calvinist International, Mere Orthodoxy, Modern Reformation, and Ad Fontes.
Details
Online only, runs 8 weeks, meeting 2.5 hr./wk. via Zoom. Students will also have the option to participate in class discussion on the Davenant Common Room Discord server.
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.