What is the great works curriculum? The Great Works curriculum offers students reading and interaction with the works that have most profoundly shaped Western culture. While many colleges offer literature, philosophy, and music overviews, utilizing a textbook to summarize the major ideas that have influenced Western civilization, the Great Works curriculum guides students through the original manuscripts, in translation. So we will read works by authors such as Plato, Augustine, Shakespeare, and Nietzsche. Additionally, we will study Great Works of music by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. Our goal is not simply to join in the great conversation, but to better understand the root ideas of the culture of this world in which we are called to minister. By reading the great works of western culture in the light of the Great Book, we are better able to compare and distinguish between the city of man and the city of God. How did Augustine respond to Plato? How does Shakespeare respond to Machiavelli? Â More importantly, the Great Works classes will weigh these influential ideas against the wisdom of Scripture.
WHY IS IT NEEDED? The Great Works program is needed because ideas have consequences — ideas march out armies. Scripture, however, is indeed able to thoroughly equip one to discerningly engage the ideas of the world, exposing both their merit and their error.
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