Minor in Humanities

18 units

The humanities minor is an interdisciplinary program that 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 program is its flexibility—students have the option to fulfill anywhere between one and five of their General Education requirements through the minor’s courses (also known as the Great Works Option for General Education). Beyond that, students can choose how to complete the minor. This program shows a student’s 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:

Course List

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:
HUM 321	Core Texts in History 1
HUM 322	Core Texts in Literature 2
HUM 323	Core Texts in Aesthetics 3
HUM 324	Core Texts in Philosophy 4
HUM 325	Core Texts in Christianity 5
ART 354	History of Ancient Art and Architecture 3
ART 356	Writing 3: History of Modern Art and Architecture 6
ART 361	History of Early Christian and Medieval Art and Architecture 3
ART 362	History of Renaissance to Rococo Art and Architecture 3
ENGL 377	Shakespeare
ENGL 410	American Novel
ENGL 466	British Novel
HIST 389	Modern American Intellectual History
HIST 401	Humanities Seminar
MUS 351	Ancient, Renaissance, and World Music Literature
MUS 352	Writing 3: Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic Music Literature 6
MUS 455	Late Romantic and 20th-Century Music Literature 1
PHIL 315	History of Ancient Philosophy
PHIL 316	Medieval Philosophy
PHIL 320	History of Early Modern Philosophy
PHIL 340	Writing 3: Concepts of Human Nature 6
POLI 360	Classical Political Thought
POLI 363	Modern Political Thought
POLI 376	The American Founding
SOC 298	Basic Sociological Theory
SPAN 332	Literary Masters 2
SPAN 431	Spanish Language Poetry and Short Story
UBBL 310	The Rise of the King: I and II Samuel 7
UBBL 340	Romans and Galatians 7
UBBL 341	Thessalonian and Corinthian Epistles 7
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 Theology requirement.

⁶

Meets the General Education Writing 3 requirement. 

⁷

Meets the General Education Upper-Division Bible requirement. 

Program Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this program shall be able to:

1. Familiarity with Great Works: Demonstrate familiarity with great works from at least three General Education categories from multiple disciplinary perspectives.
2. Reading, Studying, and Responding: Demonstrate skill and flexibility in reading, studying, and responding to great works.
3. Liberal Education: Articulate the value of a great works approach to a liberal arts education.
4. Christian Perspective: Articulate a Christian perspective of truth and life.

Faculty

Program Director

Ethan Schrum, PhD, History

Affiliated Faculty

Thomas Allbaugh, PhD, English

Paul Boles, PhD, Theology

Alexander Koops, DMA, Music

Carole Lambert, PhD, English

Christopher Noble, PhD, English

Daniel Palm, PhD, Political Science

Windy Petrie, PhD, English

Abbylin Sellers, PhD, Political Science