Education Commons^™

Gilgamesh To Blade Runner: Teaching The Catholic Intellectual Tradition In Rscc104, Christopher J. Kelly

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Professor Kelly describes his teaching of the core curriculum course in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at Sacred Heart University. He states "that our careful reading of Genesis, Augustine, Blade Runner, Gilgamesh, etc. provides them [students] with certain tools with which they will be able to reflect upon their own “contexts.” This is exactly what I ask them to do for their capstone project in the course. It is an assignment many are loathe to do because I keep it fairly vague, which requires them to do some self-initiated thinking and work. The payoff, however, has enormous potential. If I …

Leisure And Liberal Education: A Plea For Uselessness, John E. Jalbert

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

A liberal education informs a person in the proper use of leisure. Liberal education, as the word liberal suggests, is intimately connected with the idea of personal freedom.

The central role of the liberal or liberating arts is to free us, if only for short periods of time, from mundane affairs, from the need to subordinate our lives, wills, and intellects to external demands, from the need—whether real or merely felt—to place ourselves under the sway of the marketplace in order to make a living. After all, human excellence requires more than the material ends that are procured through labor, …