Literature as Prophecy
This class taught by Dr. Robert Alexander, Literature Professor at the University of Dallas, will explore John Paul’s Fides et Ratio and Benedict’s “Regensburg Address” and then follow them with the works of two of the greatest apologists of the Christian faith in our age, C.S. Lewis’ Abolition of Man and G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. Neither work goes directly to our faith but instead takes on the major lines of thought of the modern secularist and basically demolishes them—with reason. If anyone is in doubt about the principal lines of thought of the modern mind, he’ll not only discover them here but experience how good minds answer them. We’ll do these four works with a mind to treating them as a preparation for the gospels, Matthew and John, to see how reason can prepare for faith and even strengthen it. The goal of our work will be to bring faith and reason together, to find their perfect unity in Christ. The Catholic Church is the only institution on the earth that brings those two powers together. Can we meet on their axis? Can we bring them to the world in our call to evangelize? This is the challenge our course will help prepare us to face.