Heroic Journeys & Human Hearts

Enroll by 2/28/25 for the Early Bird Discount

Each seminar session is a Socratic discussion-based class where students actively engage with great texts, deep questions, and each other. The focus is on critical thinking, interpretation, and dialogue—not passive lectures.

email the tutor with any questions : dylburns@gmail.com

What Happens Each Week?

Before the Seminar:

• Students read the assigned text (or selected chapters/passages).

• They reflect on key themes using provided guiding questions (optional).

During the Seminar (90 - 120 minutes):

• Opening Question: The instructor poses a thought-provoking question related to the text.

• Socratic Dialogue: Students debate, analyze, and build on each other’s insights.

• Textual Exploration: The instructor steers discussion by referencing key passages.

• Connections & Themes: We link ideas across different works & historical contexts.

• Closing Thoughts: A final reflection question encourages students to synthesize what they’ve learned.

 Course Schedule & Readings

Each week we will meet and share our insights into the assigned reading.

Semester 1 : July – December 2025

(Focus: Foundational Epics, Classical Thought, Early Christianity)

Unit 1 : Epic Foundations & Classical Greece

Weeks 1–2 - The Epic of Gilgamesh

Mortality, friendship, heroic quest

Week 3 - Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction (Cartledge)

Political & cultural context for Plato, Aristotle, Aristophanes

Weeks 4–5 - Genesis & Exodus (selections)

Creation, covenant, divine justice, moral law, liberation

Weeks 6–7 - The Republic (Plato)

Justice, ideal society, philosopher-king

Weeks 8–9 - Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle)

Virtue, eudaimonia, practical wisdom (Books 1–3, 6, 10)

Weeks 10–11 - The Clouds (Aristophanes)

Comic satire of Socrates, philosophy vs. sophistry

Unit 2: The Roman Empire & Early Christian Influence

Week 12 - The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction (Kelly)

Governance, society, culture of Imperial Rome

Weeks 13–14 - The Aeneid (Virgil)

Fate, duty, empire, moral heroism

Week 15 - Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)

Stoicism, personal virtue, inner discipline (brief selections)

Weeks 16–17 - The Gospel of Luke

Christ’s teachings, parables, kingdom of God

Week 18 - The Book of Galatians (Paul)

Early Christian doctrine: grace vs. law, justification by faith

Week 19 - Luther’s Commentary on Galatians (Martin Luther)Reformation perspective on Paul’s epistle, theological debate

Week 20–21 - Confessions (Augustine)

Memory, sin, conversion, Christian introspection

 Semester 2: January – May 2026

(Focus: Moral Crises, Existential Struggles, and the Last Mythic Frontiers)

Unit 3 : Moral Crises and the Search for Meaning

Weeks 1–2 - Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan)

Allegory, Puritan spirituality, salvation

Weeks 3–4 - The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

Aestheticism, morality, vanity, corruption

Week 5 - Selected Poems (Emily Dickinson)

Individual faith, mortality, nature (poetic brevity)

Weeks 6–10 - Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)

Obsession, fate vs. free will, the unknowability of nature

Week 11 - The Fire Next Time (James Baldwin)

Race, identity, religion, moral urgency

Unit 4: The Last Mythic Frontiers

Weeks 12–13 - The Autumn of the Patriarch (Gabriel García Márquez)

Power, decay, myth vs. reality

Week 14–16 - Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry)

Western myth, honor, mortality, end of an era

Final Reflections (May 2026): Thematic synthesis, closing discussions