How to get the most out of The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton with Dr. Henry Russell:
- First, carefully read the course details below and obtain the book.
- Prepare a course notebook for note taking during reading and lectures.
- Students begin their coursework by reading Chapter One of The Man Who Was Thursday.
- Next, click on Recording: Class One and watch Dr. Russell's lecture.
- Students should then click on Quiz: Week One. After completing the quiz it can be self checked or checked by parents. Answer keys are provided in that week's module.
- If you need review, go back and watch the recording again and/or go over the Power Point.
- Repeat until all 6 classes are complete plus the Final.
- Once the course is completed to the parent's satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end to be filled in and printed for your records. Make sure to record your grades (HSC does not provide record keeping services).
Total Classes: 6
Suggested Grade Level: 10th to 12th or college
Suggested Credit: ½ semester credit; for full credit, precede with Dr. Russell’s course on The Screwtape Letters.
Prerequisite: Ability to enjoy reading and discussing the works
Course Description: At the turn of the 1900s, anarchy was a political fad as powerful as global warming is today. More locally destructive, anarchists murdered several heads of state (ranging from President Mckinley to the Archduke Ferdinand), numerous public servants and fueled the statist revolutions of the communist era. European nations vastly increased their power by developing their secret police in response to the public panic created by these lunatic figures.
G. K. Chesterton, the great Catholic man of letters, writes one of the most startlingly original novels of the 20th-century in response both to the original source of anarchism (the imitation of Satan’s non serviam) and to the faithless response of modern man to such a threat. In the process Chesterton delineates, beautifully and entertainingly, the way that the very God who created and sustains order is so far beyond order (as puny human minds comprehend it) that He appears wild, chaotic and even threatening to our stubborn desire to reduce the cosmos to our control. Thus even as he defends the need of a conservative and humane order, Chesterton is the poet of a God wildly beyond our most soaring imaginations.
Course Materials: The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton (see below for links)
Homework: Dr. Russell will provide quizzes, essay topics, and final exam to be graded by the parent. Answer keys provided.
- Teacher: Henry Russell