Reformation & Enlightenment - 11th Grade

This recommended reading list is based on two assumptions: first, that the class meets twice a week, with more time to read and prepare available for the first discussion than the second. Secondly, this course assumes two 18-week semesters. Educators may tailor these recommendations to fit their own schedules.

Because our mission is to apply the Christian worldview to the great conversation, we begin each year by assigning books designed to encourage students to better understand and apply the Christian worldview. These first few weeks establish an important foundation for students, reminding them that they are responsible for taking every thought captive for Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

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Reading List

• Week 1
• How Now Shall We Live? by Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey
  -read chapters 22-24 and 26-32
• Week 2
• The Compact Guide to World Religions ed. by Dean Halverson.
  -read chapter titled "secularism"
• Worldview Academy Lecture Series - Apologetics.
  -watch and discuss "Blind Faith" lecture
• Week 3
• The Reformation by Owen Chadwick.
  -read chapter two "Luther"
• Lend Me Your Ears ed. William Safire
  -read Luther's speech at Diet of Worms
• Week 4
• "Concerning Christian Liberty" by Martin Luther
• Turning Points by Mark Noll.
  -read chapter 7
• Week 5
• The Reformation by Owen Chadwick.
  -read chapter 3 titled "Calvin"
• The Protestant Reformation: Major Documents, ed. by Lewis Spitz.
  -read Zwingli's "First Zurich Disputation"
• Week 6
• The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin.
  -read pages 57-102
• The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin.
  -read pages 173-177, 213-227, 260-264
• Week 7
• The Reformation by Owen Chadwick.
  -read chapter 4 titled"The Reformation in England to 1559"
• Turning Points by Mark Noll.
  -read chapter 8
• Week 8
• Roots of American Order by Russell Kirk.
  -read chapter 7
• The Reformation by Owen Chadwick.
  -read chapter 5 titled "The Growth of Reformed Protestantism"
• Week 9
• Turning Points by Mark Noll.
  -read Chapter 9
• Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.
  -read scenes 1-8
• Week 10
• Presentations
• Week 11
• Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.
  -read scenes 9 and following.
• Othello by William Shakespeare.
  -read Act 1
• Week 12
• Othello by William Shakespeare.
  -read Acts 2-3
• Othello by William Shakespeare.
  -read Acts 4ff
• Week 13
• Thanksgiving Break
• Week 14
• Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes.
  -read Prologue through Chapter 17,
• Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes.
  -read Chapter 18 through 23
• Week 15
• Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes.
  -read Chapter 24 through 33
• Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes.
  -read Chapter 34 through end of Book 1
• Week 16
• "The Mercy of Pocahontas" by John Smith
• "Of Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford
• Week 17
• New Atlantis by Francis Bacon
• Canons of the Synod of Dordt
• Week 18
• FINAL EXAM
• Week 19
• Orientation
• Complete Works of John Donne.
  -read"Song," "The Indifferent," "Community," "The Cross," Holy Sonnets 1-6, 9-11, 14 & 19
• Week 20
• Complete Works of John Donne.
  -read "That Women Ought to Paint," "Christmas Sermon 1621," and "Meditation XVII"
• Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes.
  -read Meditation 1
• Week 21
• Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes.
  -read: Meditation 2
• Early American Poetry by Jane Donahue Eberwein.
  -read Poems by Ann Bradstreet "The Prologue," "Before the Birth of One of Her Children," "Contemplations"
• Week 22
• Early American Poetry by Jane Donahue Eberwein.
  -read Poems by Edward Taylor "Prologue," Meditations 1 and 32
• Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.
  -read MacPherson's introduction, pages 30-45
• Week 23
• Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.
  -read chapters 10-13
• Pensees by Blaise Pascal.
  -read Book 1 (Sections 1-17)
• Week 24
• Pensees by Blaise Pascal.
  -read Book 1 (Sections 26-27), Book 2 (Sections 1-11)
• Pensees by Blaise Pascal.
  -read Book 2 (Sections 20-31)
• Week 25
• Roots of American Order by Russell Kirk.
  -read chapters 8
• To Honour God: the Spirituality of Oliver Cromwell.
  -read chapter 21-29
• Week 26
• Political Writings of John Locke.
  -read Second Treatise of Government, Chapters 1-2, 4-5, 7
• Political Writings of John Locke.
  -read Second Treatise of Government, Chapters 8-11
• Week 27
• Preface to Paradise Lost by C. S. Lewis.
  -read Chapters 1-7, 13
• Paradise Lost by John Milton.
  -read Books 1-2
• Week 28
• Paradise Lost by John Milton.
  -read Books 3-6
• Paradise Lost by John Milton.
  -read Books 7-8
• Week 29
• Paradise Lost by John Milton.
  -read Books 9-12
• Pepys Diary by Samuel Pepys.
  -read The Great Fire
• Week 30
• Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope.
• A Modest Proposal and Other Writings by Jonathan Swift.
  -read "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity in England"
• Week 31
• Letters Concerning the English Nation.
  -read "On the Pensees"
• Lend Me Your Ears, ed. by William Safire
  -readJohn Wesley's "April 29, 1739 Sermon"
  Also The Life and Diary of David Brainerd.
  -read Biography of Jonathan Edwards
• Week 32
• The Life and Diary of David Brainerd.
  -read pages 119-134 of Diary, and Journal Part 1
• Against Slavery: An Abolitionist Reader by Mason Lowance
  -read Essays by John Woolman:"Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes" and "A Plea for the Poor"
• Week 33
• The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
  -read Books 1-2
• The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
  -read Book 3
• Week 34
• "Causes of the American Discontents" by Benjamin Franklin
• Lend Me Your Ears, ed. by William Safire.
  -read"Liberty of Death" Speech by Patrick Henry
  Also Lend Me Your Ears, ed. by William Safire.
  -read John Witherspoon's sermon: "The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men"
• Week 35
• Common Sense by Thomas Paine.
  -read pages 1-100
• Federalist Papers.
  -read 10, 51
• Week 36
• The Autobiography and Other Writings by Benjamin Franklin.
  -read pages 85-108
• FINAL EXAM

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• Ancient
• Medieval
• Modernity

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