Cultural history examines culture and traditions of human societies. In this course, we’ll examine Catholic Cultural History. We will learn the basics of Catholic culture while at the same time discovering the Good, the True, & the Beautiful.
Total classes: 13
Duration per class: 55 minutes
Prerequisite: None
Suggested grade level: 9th to 12th grade
Suggested credit: One full semester English
Instructor: Kevin O’Brien
Instructor email: kevin@classeswithkevin.com
Course description: What are some of the basic things all educated Catholics should know? Sadly, most Catholics don’t know them! From the point of view of Literature and its impact on culture, the basic “everybody should know this” stuff would include the issues we will examine in each class meeting.
Course outline:
The general scope of the Bible: what sort of books does it include and what’s the overall story it tells? How does the biblical narrative fit into the Great Empires of history?
Who is Job and why do people say, “the patience of Job”?
Who is Bathsheba and what happened to David because of her?
What is the Allegory of the Cave?
Who was Julius Caesar?
Who is St. Paul and why does his writing fill so much of the New Testament?
What were the Confessions of St. Augustine? What is the City of God?
What were the Great Heresies and why should we care?
What is a Troubadour and what do they have to do with St. Francis?
What was the Reformation?
What happens in Hamlet?
What is the Enlightenment?
Who was Mark Twain and why don’t people read him anymore?
Course materials: The instructor will provide all course materials FREE as PDF files.
Homework: Quizzes and Final Exam graded by the instructor. Plan on about 2 hours of homework per week outside of the classroom. Grading will be a combination of automatic-grading on Moodle and instructor assessment.
- Teacher: Kevin OBrien