Minor in Humanities
18 units
The interdisciplinary humanities minor offers students opportunities to develop the arts of deep reading, thinking, and conversing about humanity’s greatest questions while living in an age of social media that often discourages these practices.
A hallmark of the humanities minor is its flexibility—students have the option to fulfill anywhere from one to seven of their General Education requirements through the program’s courses, designated by the HUM prefix (also known as the Great Works Option for General Education). Beyond that, students can choose how to complete the minor. This program allows students to show their ability to integrate disciplines in thinking from multiple angles about essential human questions.
Humanities courses have roots in the liberal arts. The liberal arts provide the foundation for a comprehensive liberal education, which prepares students not for a specific profession but for life itself, for the moral, intellectual, social, civic, and spiritual maturity and growth that accompany a life well lived. A successful liberal arts education prepares students for the proper ordering of all spheres of life and for a lifetime of learning. The liberal arts are preparation for the lofty and rigorous discipline of understanding in its fullness “the truth [that] shall make you free” (John 8:32).
Great works of history, literature, art, philosophy, and theology offer the most enriching content of the liberal arts; they are living teachers speaking to each generation with rare wisdom. Through study of such works, students of the humanities integrate the liberal arts with one another, with education as a whole, and with Christian higher education in particular.
The first task of the liberal arts is to secure the liberation of the mind from those many fetters that can bind it, notably ignorance, prejudice, and the influence of the passions. In and through this essential freedom—the freedom of the mind—humanity manifests itself. The integrative principle of the liberal arts is the idea of humanitas.
Requirements
The Humanities minor consists of 18 units, including four core courses and two electives:
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses | ||
| HUM 221 | Core Texts in History 1 | 3 |
| HUM 222 | Core Texts in Literature 2 | 3 |
| HUM 223 | Core Texts in Aesthetics 3 | 3 |
| HUM 224 | Core Texts in Philosophy 4 | 3 |
| Elective Courses | 6 | |
| Select two of the following: | ||
| Intercultural Knowledge and Competence 5 | ||
| Civic Knowledge and Engagement 6 | ||
| Core Texts in History 1 | ||
| Core Texts in Literature 2 | ||
| Core Texts in Aesthetics 3 | ||
| Core Texts in Philosophy 4 | ||
| Core Texts in Christianity 7 | ||
| History of Ancient Art and Architecture 3 | ||
| Writing 3: History of Modern Art and Architecture 8 | ||
| History of Early Christian and Medieval Art and Architecture 3 | ||
| History of Renaissance to Rococo Art and Architecture 3 | ||
| Shakespeare | ||
| American Novel | ||
| British Novel | ||
| Modern American Intellectual History | ||
| Humanities Seminar | ||
| Ancient, Renaissance, and World Music Literature | ||
| Writing 3: Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic Music Literature 8 | ||
| Late Romantic and 20th-Century Music Literature 1 | ||
| History of Ancient Philosophy | ||
| Medieval Philosophy | ||
| History of Early Modern Philosophy | ||
| Writing 3: Concepts of Human Nature 8 | ||
| Classical Political Thought | ||
| Modern Political Thought | ||
| The American Founding | ||
| Basic Sociological Theory | ||
| Literary Masters 2 | ||
| Spanish Language Poetry and Short Story | ||
| The Rise of the King: I and II Samuel 9 | ||
| Romans and Galatians 9 | ||
| Thessalonian and Corinthian Epistles 9 | ||
| Total Units | 18 | |
- 1
Meets the General Education Humanities: History requirement.
- 2
Meets the General Education Humanities: Literature requirement.
- 3
Meets the General Education Humanities: Fine Arts requirement.
- 4
Meets the General Education Philosophy requirement.
- 5
Meets the General Education Intercultural Competence requirement.
- 6
Meets the General Education Civic Knowledge and Engagement requirement.
- 7
Meets the General Education Theology requirement.
- 8
Meets the General Education Writing 3 requirement.
- 9
Meets the General Education Upper-Division Bible requirement.
Faculty
Program Director
Ethan Schrum, PhD, History
Affiliated Faculty
Paul Boles, PhD, Theology
Carole Lambert, PhD, English
Christopher Noble, PhD, English
Windy Petrie, PhD, English
Abbylin Sellers, PhD, Political Science