The American Revolution established a tradition of Democratic rule and thought, which is not with ambiguity. This course examines three stages in the development of the American republic in terms of the ideals preached and the realities actually practiced. The first stage is the original context of the American Revolution. The second stage is the early part of the nineteenth-century, and the third stage is our own era. This course emphasizes several issues rising out of that discussion, including the difficulties of pluralism and the controversies regarding religious language in political speech.
Evaluation is based on class participation, oral presentations, and a paper.
Mr. D. Billings. Although mathematics may not have that effect on most people, the natural sciences often do. Warnings that studying science carried a risk to faith were discussed in the writings of some Christians early in the history of science-long before the emergence of old earth, evolutionary, and other theories some Christians have objected to. In this course, students try to uncover what underlies that intuition, and they try to discover whether it is only appearance or something more substantive. Student evaluation is based on completion of reading, a research project, and a class presentation.