2017-2018 Undergraduate General Catalog
2017-2018 Undergraduate General Catalog » Courses » CIVT - Civitas » 200
Addressing Bonhoffer's primary notion that responsible individuals are obliged to act on behalf of others, this course offers a semester-long study of the University as text. The course will examine the culture and environment of Augustana, with particular attention paid to how the expressed values of the institution come to be embodied in a physical, intellectual, and spiritual community. Readings and instructors for the course address those values from a number of disciplinary perspectives.
Consistent with Bonhoeffer's admonition that action be "in accordance with reality," courses under this heading emphasize the empirical and theoretical knowledge about the natural world necessary for living a responsible life in the twenty-first century.
Courses under this heading consider the ways in which personal responsibility as understood by conscience, and social responsibility as understood by laws, both correspond with and challenge each other.
Courses under this heading address Bonhoeffer's belief that "responsibility presupposes freedom and freedom can consist only in responsibility." Courses will also address the tension Bonhoeffer identifies between freedom and obedience, and real situations in which that tension may have a difficult resolution.