Fall 2024 Christian Studies Course Guide

This list represents courses with substantial content in Christian history, theology, culture, the Bible, and the relationships between Christianity and other religions. These are courses that have been recommended by past Beatrice Institute Christian Studies Fellows and Faculty Fellows. By including courses on this list, Beatrice Institute does not endorse them or take responsibility for their content.

Interested in taking a course at a different university? Through the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education, you can cross-register for one course per semester for credit! Learn more about how this works for University of Pittsburgh students and Carnegie Mellon students.

University of Pittsburgh

NUR 1014/ENGR 1711: Happiness and Human Flourishing

TR 10–11:15 am
Dr. Grant Martsolf, Dr. Ryan McDermott, Dr. David Sanchez

Aristotle wrote that “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” The modern west, however, is facing a happiness crisis. We are experiencing historic levels of depression, anxiety, and lack of meaning. Cultures around the world and throughout history have had a lot to say about the nature of happiness. In this interdisciplinary class, we explore different conceptions of happiness and work to develop a capacious definition of happiness as “human flourishing.” We then turn our attention to the pre-conditions necessary to promote human flourishing and survey how various disciplines might be oriented toward the flourishing person. We conclude the course by reflecting on the course material to help students reflect on their own lives and how they might construct flourishing lives in college and beyond.

Carnegie Mellon University

80207: Philosophy & Literature: Tolkien, Lewis, and the Inklings

MW 3:30–4:50 pm
Dr. Jake Grefenstette

What is the relationship between philosophical content and literary form? Does literature simply "dress up" or even distort the claims of reason? Or is literature capable of expressing certain kinds of truth that philosophy does not (or cannot) express? This course explores the work of the "Inklings," a group of early 20th century Oxford thinkers committed to a strong version of the thesis that literature can articulate even "create" unique kinds of truth and meaning. We examine the creative and philosophical work of the four principal members of the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams) and take up their debates in the work of later scholars including Martha Nussbaum, Nathan A. Scott, Douglas Hedley, Judith Wolfe, and others. The first half of this course examines the philosophical writings of the Inklings on problems of ancient and modern philosophy alongside questions of literary genre and form. In the second half, we bring these philosophical frameworks to bear in close readings of some of the Inklings' most famous works, including The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings.