PHYSICAL EDUCATION COURSE SELECTIONS Cardiorespiratory Fitness | Fall/Spring Semester Course This course focuses on cardiorespiratory fitness using treadmills, stationary bicycles, stair climbers, rowing machines, elliptical trainers and walking/jogging around the track and spaces around our school. Focus is placed on general endurance of the respiratory and circulatory system, and providing knowledge in safe workout principles. Eligible Grade Level: 10th, 11th, 12th | Prerequisite: none
RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY The Religion & Philosophy Department exists to serve the mission of the Porter-Gaud School by educating students in the questions and pursuits of ultimate concern. As an Episcopal school, the Department of Religion & Philosophy engages students in the story of Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures and the person of Jesus in the Gospels, examining their virtues, morals, and ethics, and in the tenets of other world religions through respectful, inclusive, and age-appropriate ways so that graduates understand and appreciate the global diversity of world views. As we seek to educate students in the questions and pursuits of ultimate concern, the Religion & Philosophy Department values its work as an academic department. Thus, it is distinctly separate from Chapel, pastoral care, Versty, and all other forms of ministry and/or discipleship. Course Offerings: New Testament / Ethics
The Problem of Evil
RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY COURSE SELECTIONS New Testament/Ethics | Fall/Spring Semester Course This semester-length course engages students with the Judeo-Christian tradition as well as the dominant competing worldviews of our culture. All the while, it aims to provide students an understanding of these worldviews and their impact on the development of a cohesive pursuit of “the good life.” Towards this end, we shall (1) explore the concept of worldview and its impact upon ethical considerations, (2) study Theism, Deism, Naturalism, Nihilism, Existentialism, Eastern Pantheistic Monism, and Postmodernism, (3) discuss and debate various classic and contemporary ethical concerns, as well as (4) cover an overview of the Hebrew Scriptures and a survey the New Testament with a particular emphasis on the Gospel of John. Eligible Grade Level: 11th; 12th | Prerequisite: none
The Problem of Evil | Fall/Spring Semester Course “If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an eradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete.” These words were offered by Victor Frankl shortly after his liberation from the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. They represent the experiences of a man who endured and witnessed some of the gravest occurrences and darkest moments in recorded history as well as a man who nevertheless sought meaning and purpose therein. Frankl’s experiences of suffering - of evil (perhaps no other word suffices) - are of course unique in their particularities. They are, however, also universal in that they reflect the experiences of every human being. As Frankl observed, suffering is indeed ubiquitous, and there exists no culture, no religion, no philosophy worthy of the name that has not sought to make sense of it. In this course, we shall investigate and reflect upon humanity’s various efforts to understand, to explain, and ultimately to endure suffering. This shall include responses to the “problem of evil” from a broad range of sources including Eastern and Western religion and philosophy, sociology, psychology, etc. Ultimately, we will together seek a broader and deeper understanding of the human experience - that of others as well as ourselves. Eligible Grade Level: 11th; 12th | Prerequisite: none
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