Arts and Letters Nondepartmental

Associate Dean
:
    Stuart Greene, Ph.D.
    Dept. Tel.: (574) 631-8636

AL 27001. Visiting Scholar Studies
0 credits, Akai (0-V-0)
CRN 3797  ID # AL 27001
A zero-credit course for students engaged in independent research or working with a faculty member or a member of the University staff
on a special project. Registration requires a brief description of the research or project to be pursued and the permission of the director
of the summer session.
 
CSEM 23101. Perfect God, Imperfect World: The Problem of Evil
3 credits, Major (3-0-3)
10:30-11:45 MT RF 6/17-7/31
CRN 3530;  ID # CSEM 23101 01
Last "add" date: 6/22
"Drop" dates:  refund, 6/26; last, 7/10
The College Seminar is a unique one-semester course experience shared by all sophomores majoring in the College of Arts and Letters. 
The course offers students an introduction to the diversity and distinctive focus of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame. 
Specific sections of the College Seminar vary in their topics and texts but all feature an interdisciplinary approach, commitment to engaging
 important questions, employment of major works, and emphasis on the development of oral skills.  Every College Seminar syllabus includes
works that approach the topic from the perspective of each of the three divisions of the College:  the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. 
This particular section, entitled, Perfect God, Perfect World:  The Problem of Evil will address the following:  If you could ask God only one
question what would it be? According to a recent survey most people would ask, "why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?"  If
God is all-good, all-knowing, and all powerful, how does one explain the existence of moral and natural evil in the world?  This course will
explore the "Problem of Evil" as treated in theology, philosophy, psychology, literature, and the arts.  The course will include readings from
Scripture, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, C.G. Jung, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Elie Wiesel and others.

 
Participants will be encouraged not only to examine how this question has been treated, but also to derive a personal position on the nature
of evil, its presence in every day life, and how best to respond to it.