Special
History 1121, Western Civilization I
For the first reading exam read one of the works from Ancient Judaism, Greece, or Romans.
I. Ancient Judaism .
A. From ancient Judaism: I recommend one or more of the books of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Books of Kings, Chronicles, one of the Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, or Micah).
As you read the work (s), relate what you read to the themes of Judaism as a culture:
· God is wholly other than mankind or creation;
· God made a covenant with his
· God is accomplishing his purpose in history and will eventually end history when he has accomplished his aims.
II. Ancient Greece.
A. From Classical Greece you might try poetry (Homer. Either the Iliad or the Odyssey.), history (Herodotus, Thucydides), drama (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes), philosophy (one of Plato's dialogues), or biography (Plutarch, Lives).
As you read, relate the work to the themes of Classical Greek culture:
· This world is orderly and man can discern that order;
· Man as a reasoning creature is worthwhile because he can discern the rhythm of forces which governs things;
· The good life for man is one of moderation, balance, harmony; the ideal social life is that of the polis.
III. Romans.
A. From the Romans: I recommend one or more of the biographies by Plutarch, selections from a historian (Livy), one of the writings of the politician-philosopher Cicero, Vergil's Aeneid, Julius Caesar's Gallic War or something by the philosopher-imperial advisor Seneca.
As you read, look for the moral and intellectual qualities admired by the Romans: duty, self-subordination, seriousness, self-reliance, and simplicity. In the Aeneid look for the Roman sense of destiny about Roman rule (Try to concentrate on what we did not cover in class).
For the second reading exam read one of the works from Christianity, the Greco-Roman Synthesis, Islam or the Middle Ages.
IV. Christianity
A. From Christianity: I recommend from the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, one of Paul's Letters (Romans, First or Second Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians).
As you read, relate the work to the themes of Christianity as a culture:
· God became human and voluntarily suffered, died, and rose to free individual human beings from the limitations of their nature and the defects of the natural world and to give them eternal life as unique persons;
·
The future as well as the past assumed new
significance as man waited for and joined in achieving the coming of the
· Empowered by their new-found freedom and worth as God's own, human beings had a powerful ethical basis for living which permeated all social relations and human activities.
Instead of reading a single work from the New Testament, you may want to do a topical reading. For example, see the following on the New Life, End Times, and the New Heaven and Earth. Also, see references on the End Times as cited on a web page created by Dr. James Tabor. If you choose one of these options, try to read as many of the passages cited as possible.
V. Greco-Roman Synthesis.
A. From the Greco-Roman-Christian synthesis: I recommend Augustine's Confessions or City of God.
As you read, relate the work to the developing synthesis of
VI. Islam
A. From the topic of Islam, the work to read is the Qur'an or Koran. I have no specific suggestions about what parts to read. You may start with the references I made to specific parts of the work. Another idea is to look for references to the five pillars of Islam. A third way is to look for references to the more controversial themes of Islam: the jihad; the "Ahl al-Kitab" or "People of the Book"; the Dar al-Islam, or Lands of Islam, and the Dar al-Harb, or Lands of the Infidels; the "dhimmi" or tolerated Christian or Jew.
As you read, compare the concepts and beliefs to those of Christianity and Judaism. You might also see for yourself whether I am right when I compare the work to the Judaic and Christian parts of the Bible.
VII. The Middle Ages
A. From the medieval period, the era of the First Europe: I recommend that you try one or more of the following:
a. The Song of Roland puts forward feudal ideals, especially the virtues of courage and loyalty. Illustrate these by references to the work.
b. The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi depicts the strength of simple piety as reflected in the Saint’s life. How is this an insight into medieval life?
c. Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, among many other themes, centers on the pilgrimage theme (questing faith in search of God). Relate this theme to the basic thrust of the First Europe as a culture. For another Divine Comedy site click here.
d. Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is another look at the pilgrimage theme. Some tales seem purely spiritual; others as secular as anything you might find today. What do you make of Chaucer's work? Does it contradict what I have said about the outlook of the First Europe?
e. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica is heavy going, but you may want to dip into it. Aquinas is the Master of Scholasticism.
f. Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ is one of the best examples of medieval pietistic writing and sums up the ideal of following Christ: “. . . we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.” If you read the work, relate its themes to the outlook of the First Europe.
g. Peter Abelard’s Story of My Misfortunes (Historia Calamitatum) is fascinating for several reasons. Whether you are interested in medieval university life, the controversy over “universals,” or just like a good love story, the Historia is absorbing. Ask yourself how the work throws light on the culture of the First Europe.
For the third reading exam read one of the works from the Era of Transition.
VIII. The Era of Transition
A. From the Era of Transition (1350-1650) I recommend one of the following:
a. Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man. How does this work illustrate the search for a new view of man?
b. Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince. How does Machiavelli's classic treatise on political behavior illustrate a search for a new view of the state?
c. One of Martin Luther's works. (e.g., Address to the Christian Nobility) How does Luther's work illustrate that Christendom, the concept of one people, one faith, is ended?
d. Thomas More's Utopia. How are the views of Utopia a questioning of traditional thinking?
e. Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly. What is Erasmus saying in this work?
f. Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus shows the drive toward individualism in Faustus' search for power and pleasure. But Faustus dies at the end. What is the play saying?
g. It is impossible to skip William Shakespeare while treating this period. Although Shakespeare's work is often too complex to reduce to simple themes, I encourage you to think about certain questions when reading one of the following:
· Othello. Is the character Iago representative of the Machiavellian outlook? Does Desdemona represent the traditional values of love and fidelity being destroyed by Iago's rationalistic view of life? And what do you make of Othello himself?
· Hamlet. Do you see conflicting values at work in the character Hamlet or in other characters? Does Hamlet "hesitate" because he cannot decide what the truth is? Or because of uncertainty about the possibility of truth? And is the play a prefiguring of Sigmund Freud's terrible myth of the Oedipal Complex? Hamlet struggles to achieve maturity without being able to model himself on either of his parents, or any other adults for that matter. Or on any fundamental natural order?
· King Lear. Do you see evidence of the conflict between the old social order and the new, old values and new ones? Do you see any character who represents the Machiavellian outlook? What does Lear learn from his suffering?
· Macbeth. Macbeth seems to be a Machiavellian in striking down the king to get the throne. But is his own destruction at the end of the play a reaffirmation of traditional values? Or a new view of humanity?
h. Last, but not least, John Milton, Paradise
Lost. Considered by many to be the great English epic poem, Paradise
Lost has as its theme the Fall of Man and man's eventual redemption. Is
this theme a throwback to the First Europe and to old authorities? Was Milton,
Puritan to the core, writing Paradise Lost as an affirmation of his
theology and political philosophy, in reaction to the restoration of the Stuart
monarchy and the Church of England? I raise the question because Milton some
years before undertaking Paradise Lost had contemplated writing a
national epic based on the legends of King Arthur. When he came to write his
poem, however, King Charles II had been restored, along with the established
Church of
This list is suggestive and not definitive. However, if you wish to read something not on this list, you must have my approval.
If you wish to look for full-text versions of these or any other works on the Internet, click on the following URL http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/. You can either read the work on-line or print a copy. (Hint: save the copy as a text file and print it from a word processing program).