Friday Session 2   

Beyond simply serving as a spiritual or moral guide for believers, the Bible offers a panoply of concepts that smack up against the modern world. These ideas include: the problem of evil; doctrine of original sin; who or what was Jesus; what will the end times look like; and, theodicy, or the justice of God. This course intends to dissect each of these concepts by providing an overview of interpretations using historical, linguistic, and, when possible, religious contexts on the way to offering how each might be understood today.

Lena Horne, Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand, and Hugh Jackman are some of the stars we will watch and discuss as we travel through the history of movie musicals. Our lectures will include the great musical Broadway adaptations of the 1950s, the lavish Roadshow musicals of the 1960s and 1970s, and conclude with the movie musicals of today.

We all ask ourselves the big questions of life. What is morally right? What is our ultimate purpose in life? What is a good society? This course will introduce you to the answers given in Indian, Chinese and Japanese thought. The course emphasizes the role of these philosophies/religions in the social-political life and on the artistic expressions (from calligraphy to film) of the peoples of Asia and how these philosophies/religions influence our world today.

What makes spy films such a mainstay of popular cinema? Someone assumes a secret identity, masquerades as someone else in a high-stakes battle between good and evil, and whips audiences into a frenzy of suspense. What is not to like? We will screen and discuss films about Cold War spycraft, reality inspired political capers, and clever, often hilarious send-ups of the genre. Movies will include Goldfinger, Marathon Man, True Lies, The Lives of Others, and Argo.