Veritas Humanities: Ancient and Classical World: January 2011

Friday, January 21, 2011

January 24-28: Week 4 of the Second Semester

Paradise Lost in Eden and England

Monday: 1. Paradise Lost, Book VI

2. Survey the Books I-III Test

3. Finish or nearly finish watching Cromwell

Tuesday: 1. Paradise Lost, Book VII

2. Finish the test on Books I-III

3. Writing assignment on Western Civilizations,

Ch. 14 Europe and the New World Encounters, 1500-1800

Wednesday: 1. Paradise Lost, Book VIII

2. Discussion of Western Civilization, Ch. 14

Thursday: 1. Paradise Lost, Book IX

2. Test over Oliver Cromwell, the Man and the Movie; Stuart Kings

3. Preliminary Sketchings of the Cromwell Paper

Friday: 1. Paradise Lost, Book X

2. Further work on the Cromwell Paper

3. Further work on Paradise Lost

Readings for the week:

Paradise Lost, Books VI--XII

Western Civilizations, Ch. 15, State Building and the Search for Order in the Seventeenth Century

Friday, January 14, 2011

January 18-21 Sharing The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth of England:

The Revolution of the Saints

To the Lord General Cromwell

by John Milton

Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud,

Not of war only, but detractions rude,

Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,

To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed,

And on the neck of crownèd Fortune proud

Hast reared God’s trophies, and His work pursued,

While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots imbrued,

And Dunbar field, resounds thy praises loud,

And Worchester’s laureate wreath: yet much remains

To conquer still; peace hath her victories

No less renowned than war: new foes arise,

Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains.

Help us to save free conscience from the paw

Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw.

Tuesday: 1. Paradise Lost, Book III: The Decrees of God for Man's Redemption

2. Finish "Revolutions" by Simon Schama

Wednesday: 1. Begin Paradise Lost, Book IV

2. Begin the 1970 film classic, Cromwell.

Thursday: 1. Test over Books 1--3 of Paradise Lost

2. Continue discussion of Book IV

3. Continue film Cromwell

Friday: 1. Paradise Lost, Book V

2. Test over Tudor and Stuart Kings--names, dates, key events

3. Continue film Cromwell

Readings for the Week:

1. Paradise Lost, Books 3--5 (Book 6 due by Monday, January 24)

2. Western Civilizations: Chapter 14 Europe and the World: New Encounters, 1500-1800. We are trying to examine Britain in class and explore the larger world events on our own.

Be mentally preparing to write about Cromwell. We will not be writing factual biographies, but trying to answer the question of his ideas and practices.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

January 12--14 Post Snow Storm Studies

Puritans and Paradise Lost

Wednesday: Resume watching "The British Wars" by Simon Schama

Review over Timeline for the Stuarts

Thursday: Test Over Book One of Paradise Lost

Watch portions of "Revolutions" by Simon Schama

Friday: Test Over Book Two of Paradise Lost

Continue with Simon Schama, discussions of the Stuart kings, Civil War, and the Rise of Cromwell.

READINGS DUE BY NEXT TUESDAY:

1. Books 1--3 of Paradise Lost (Books 4--6 to be read next week.)

2. The Story of Christianity, Ch. 17, "The Puritan Revolution." We may have read portions of this before, but you need to get the 'whole picture' of the Stuart kings, the Rise of the Puritans,the Civil War, the time of Cromwell, and the Restroration.

3. Have portions of Elements of Style read: Part I Elementary Rules of Usage and Part IV Words and Expressions Commonly Misused.
4. Read chapters 1-5 of Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith.
5. "Epic as Cosmopoesis" should already be read and marked.

“Heroic narratives tempt the reader to escape from the commonplace and the ordinary, whereas the epic has as its goal a deeper understanding of the basic dimensions of the human enterprise. Epic is thus by its very nature concerned with knowledge.”

Marilyn Stewart, from Epic Cosmos, p. 185.