Message of the Old Testament Rodney Ashlock
BIBL 211.H1 CRN 11118 MWF 10:00-10:50
I teach upper division Old Testament text courses, Hebrew, and freshman and sophomore survey courses. In the honors section of Message of the Old Testament we will not only explore the basic content of the Old Testament, we will take a journey through time and space and become more acquainted with the world of the Old Testament. We will also wrestle with some of the thornier issues that come with a serious reading of the biblical text. Issues such as the election of Israel and the current political tensions in the Middle East, science and the biblical account of creation, the justice of God and the problem of suffering are just a few of the topics we will cover and discuss in the class. In addition to the Bible, we have used books like Thomas Cahill's The Gifts of the Jews, and Elie Wiesel's Night to help us both appreciate and come to grips with this strange, old/new world we call the Old Testament. My hope is that by the end of the semester you will come to love and appreciate the Old Testament as much more than a rule book and outdated history, but as the living, breathing word of God that instills life
In addition to teaching Bible courses at ACU, I also preach for the Westgate Church of Christ here in Abilene. I am married to a wonderful Cajun cook and love all things Louisiana!!!
Message of the Old Testament Mark Hamilton
BIBL 211.H2 CRN 11123 TR 8:00-9:20
Stories of heroes and villains, songs of ecstasy and fear, wise sayings, and raw prophetic oracles—these forms and more fill the pages of the Old Testament. Students in this course will experience the Old Testament not as a dusty book of hopelessly archaic worldviews and ethics, but as a living word deeply embedded in the human quest for God and God’s quest for humanity. We will examine the Old Testament as literature, history, and theology, paying attention to its religious teachings and artistry, as well as its implications for contemporary life.
Since he was in college eons ago, during the Reagan era, Professor Hamilton has spent almost every waking moment thinking about how these ancient texts came to be and how they work together. As a scholar, he writes about ancient Israel's life and thought. As a preacher and teacher, he tries to help others think through what the discoveries of our ancestors mean to us today as we also search for the same God who met them at Sinai. This course is thus about more than dead people—it's about life for Christians who must think and act in an increasingly complex world.
General Chemistry 1 Greg Powell
CHEM 133.H1 CRN10617 TR8:00-9:20
Dr. Greg Powell's passion for science and lively lecture style make for one of the most exciting chemistry courses you could imagine. Topics include gas laws, types of chemical reactions, shapes of molecules, types of bonds, and properties of elements. Compared to regular sections of General Chemistry, the Honors section moves at a slightly faster pace, covers one extra chapter, and has livelier discussions. Any major is welcome, but if you suffer from math anxiety this course could be hazardous to your health! Professor Powell has been teaching chemistry at ACU for over 20 years. He earned a B.S. degree from ACU in 1980 and a Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University in 1984. He also enjoyed a one-year postdoctoral study in the U.K. at Cambridge University before joining the faculty at ACU. His research interests include the synthesis of new transition-metal complexes and the use of ionic liquids as reaction solvents. In addition to General Chemistry, he teaches Inorganic Chemistry and Molecular Modeling.
Fundamentals of Communication Kristina Campos-Wallace
COMS 111.H1 CRN 10422 MWF 10:00-10:50
This course takes a new twist on the speech class. During this class students will learn all of the theories of communication and speech, while learning to discuss and argue an important social issue. During the fall of 2006 the topic has been problems in the American educational system. Past and future topics include, poverty in the Third World, and the plight of minimum wage workers in America. For each of these topics students are required to read the traditional textbook from COMS 111, and are introduced to the social problem through an additional text. Students who have experienced this new approach to the basic speech class have overwhelmingly enjoyed it. Some of the students from the Spring 2006 class commented: “I enjoyed being able to learn about and discuss the issue of extreme poverty throughout the world.” “I really liked the discussion on End of Poverty, I thought it was neat to make that our focus for the year, the discussion made me think about poverty, something I had never really been forced to think about.”
Kristina Campos-Wallace is an Instructor in the Dept. of Communication. She is currently completing a PhD in Rhetoric and Political Communication, with a specialization in Race and Gender Studies, from Texas A&M University.
Fundamentals of Communication Lynette Sharp Penya
COMS 111.H2 CRN 10423 MWF 2:00-2:50
COMS 111 is a basic communication course which overviews human communication principles and skills. Specifically, this course focuses on building skills in interpersonal relationships, small group discussion and problem solving, and the preparation and delivery of presentations. Students in the honors section will hone their public speaking skills through team presentations both inside and outside of the classroom. One student who took the course when the focus was on the tsunami crisis commented, “I enjoyed the class projects – they encouraged me to consider issues our world faces and then do something to help.”
Dr. Lynette Sharp Penya is an Associate Professor of Communication. She earned her doctorate from the University of Kansas with emphases in persuasion and legal communication. She has conducted research in the areas of legal communication, social cognition, crisis communication, political communication, and communication education. Before coming to ACU, Dr. Sharp Penya worked as a legal consultant.
Composition and Literature Kyle Dickson
ENGL 112.H1 CRN 10342 MWF 9:00-9:50
Dr. Kyle Dickson is an Enlightenment Man who enjoys going to the theatre and reading Johnson’s Dictionary in his spare time. This spring he taught an Honors colloquium on Satire and a survey of British writers from Beowulf (neither British nor technically a writer) to Jonathan Swift. His research interest relates to the changing topography of London after the Great Fire, and after teaching with ACU’s Study Abroad program in Oxford for two semesters he has almost weekly West End withdrawals.
In the Honors section of ENGL 112, we’ll do things a little differently. We will be exploring ACU’s new edition of Shadow and Light: Literature of the Life of Faith and the works of an artistic faith community whose diverse membership includes Leo Tolstoy, Emily Dickinson, and Flannery O’Connor. Our writing will emphasize the interpretation of literature but will also ask students to articulate more personal statements of belief. You can find examples from last fall in the “This I Believe” essays and podcasts on the Honors website <http://www.acu.edu/thisibelieve>. His primary objective is to help students find their own voice through personal and research writing and respect the voices and beliefs of others. Come ready to read as much as write, to speak as well as listen.
Honors Seminar in Social Sciences Caron Gentry
HCOR 120.H1 CRN 10023 TR 1:30-2:50
**This class counts as a social science credit**
This course focuses on issues of poverty as it relates to the three fields of psychology, sociology, and political science. Thus, the Honors Seminar in Social Sciences is an introduction to and comparison of those fields. This is a service-learning course designed to help the student apply the three social sciences to issues facing America. HCOR 120 uses the three fields to look at the reality of living in poverty in America and it is specifically geared to challenging the class’s assumptions (including Dr Gentry’s). The course focuses on citizenship, community, and stewardship while the students serve at some of Abilene’s non-profit agencies, such as Abilene Adult Day Care, Hope Haven, and Boys and Girls Club. Class time relies upon lively discussion; otherwise, it’s just boring. Students have said, “This was one of my favorite classes because of the depth” of the coursework.
Dr Gentry lived for four years in Scotland and half of her life in New England (but she’s a Texan by heritage). She also has an eight-year-old, co-dependent Dachshund named Penny.
Honors Humanities I Mark Cullum
HCOR 221.H1 CRN 10018 TR 12:00-1:20
HCOR 221.H2 CRN 10019 MW 2:00-3:20
This course is intended to explore the foundational works of western literature, philosophy and art. We will read such authors as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Seneca and Augustine. The relevance to later history and culture will be continually evident, from Homer's influence on literature to Plato's influence on theology. Students will be encouraged to engage in a respectful but vigorous exchange of ideas with the ancients. To this end students will write regular essays on the basis of readings and essay prompts. These essays will develop students' ability to communicate and persuade. They will be read in class and used as conversation starters, with regard to the issues they raise. This course will not be lecture intensive. Lectures will be used, where necessary, in order to prepare for readings. But the core of the course will be the writing and discussion of the essays. Grades on essays will therefore be the largest component of students' final grades. However, there will also be three multiple choice exams over shorter, additional readings, in order to fill in gaps of historical knowledge.
Honors Humanities II Joe Stephenson
HCOR 222.H1 CRN 10020 MWF 9:00-9:50
This course will cover one thousand years of history, literature, art, music, and diseases. We will study the medieval and Renaissance periods, from roughly the year 750 to roughly 1750. Poems such as Beowulf and The Wanderer from England, The Divine Comedy from Italy, and the Song of Roland from France will begin our study. We will proceed through cathedrals, crusades, and Chrétien de Troyes. The high middle ages in England will be represented by morality plays and mystery plays, as well as Chaucer and the highly eccentric autobiography of Margery Kempe. And what would the middle ages be without some philosophical theology, the Black Death, and church architecture? Plunging headlong into the Renaissance, we will consider especially the Italians such as Petrarch, Castiglione, Raphael, Michelangelo, DaVinci, and Machiavelli, as well as the Englishmen Thomas More and Shakespeare. The French will be represented by Descarte and Molière, the Germans by Martin Luther and Bach, the Dutch by Erasmus and Grotius, and the Africans by Equiano and Phillis Wheatley. The course ends with a look at a Mozart Opera and the enlightenment.
Joe Stephenson is a Renaissance man himself, so to speak, having studied English and European Renaissance literature, especially drama, during graduate studies at the University of Connecticut. He has also visited most of the great museums of Europe and the rebuilt Shakespeare's Globe in London. Thus, when he runs out of things to say or gets laryngitis, he always has pictures to show.
Honors Humanities III Chris Willerton
HCOR 223.H1 CRN 10021 TR 1:30-2:50
Civilization after 1780 is familiar territory for most students—French Revolution, Darwin, American Civil War, Women’s Suffrage, crumbling of Empire, Harlem Renaissance, two World Wars, Picasso, Orwell, Warhol, the Internet. But notice how many of these examples are Western and secular? That’s the trouble with familiar territory—if we assume that’s all there is, we go ignorant of the rest. To confront that ignorance, we’ll use vols. 5-6 of Fiero’s excellent textbook The Humanistic Tradition, which focuses on the West, but will make connections to the Asian and African continents, postcolonialism, and world religions. Before choosing further readings or films, I’ll poll the students to be sure we do new material. Shusaku Endo (either The Samurai or Silence) is a strong candidate. Several films or plays would work—I’m thinking Fellini, Stoppard, Kurosawa, Soyinka or Beckett. We’ll see. Modern civilization is a romp and a heartbreak, and when we laugh it’s to keep from crying. I’ll sum up the course with a great Broadway refrain: “Something appealing / Something appalling / Something for everyone / A comedy tonight!”
Most of Dr. Willerton’s teaching assignments are in world literature and modern English literature. But he has team-taught honors courses in social science and in Bible, traveled in Ireland, written electronic hypertext and an opera libretto, earned a black belt in Taekwondo, helped out on a medical missions trip to Honduras, and directed the ACU Honors Program for 22 years. He does some things that he’s not very good at, believing that the fun is in taking the risk.
Honors Seminar in the Arts Joe Stephenson
HCOR 240.H1 CRN 10022 TR 9:30-10:50
HCOR 240 is designed as an interdisciplinary fine arts credit for Honors students. The class will begin with an academic look at various interpretations of Romeo and Juliet in several artistic media: drama, music, visual arts, ballet, and film. Students will search for connections between various artistic expressions in group presentations and spend time exploring the cultural offerings within reach of ACU and greater Abilene. Some time will be devoted to a Christian’s response to the arts and responsibility for the arts. During the second part of the semester, the classroom will convert into a laboratory for the creation of art. An interdisciplinary performance event will cap off the semester. Although details were still being worked out at press time, some sort of Christmas-themed event heavily involving music (there are rumors of Bach being involved) is likely. The creation of visual art is also possible. Mr. Stephenson is a Renaissance man (which means he reads Shakespeare in his free time) who holds graduate degrees in both music and English.
Honors Colloquia (restricted to Honors Program students who will have completed three semesters of college before fall 2007):
Logic and Belief Jason Holland
HCOL 411.H1 CRN 10024 M 6:00-9:00, Sep. 3-Oct . 1
What contributions can axiomatic thinking and deductive reasoning make toward a Christian's foundational beliefs? What connections exist between Euclid's Axioms for plane geometry and your own Axioms of Faith? What are the implications of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem to the Christian thinker? What is the role of paradox in the foundations of mathematics and how is that connected to Christianity? How have people tried to argue the existence of God and how can mathematics help or hurt these arguments?
These are some of the questions that we will explore in an honors colloquium devoted to some of the contributions that mathematics can make in the Christian thinker's life. There are no mathematical prerequisites to this course. No background beyond high school Geometry is assumed. Just bring your curiosity and desire to be a better Christian thinker.
Jason Holland is an associate professor in the department of mathematics at Abilene Christian University. His areas of research include lattice-ordered groups, f-rings, Boolean algebras, and other strange sounding mathematical objects.
His favorite people in the world are of course his wife Beth and his 5 year old son Jonathan. He is a novice at philosophy, particularly mathematical philosophy, and is looking forward to learning from some bright thinkers in an honors colloquium.
Zen, Clay, and Culture Kenny Jones
HCOL 421.H1 CRN 10025 T 6:00-9:00, Sep. 4-Oct. 9
Ever wondered what Zen, pottery, and Quantum Mechanics have in common? These are a few of the topics we will explore in this clay studio/cultural discovery course. Our topics of study will include: Zen/Taoist philosophy and Christ’s sayings, the interplay of art and science in 21st century culture, a how-to introduction to ceramics and handbuilding with clay. This colloquium will culminate in a Raku glaze firing and Asian food symposium. You will make ceramic vessels that will be yours to keep along with some quantum foam. No prerequisites and no previous art experience is needed, only “beginners-mind”. Due to studio constraints, class size is limited.
Since he ate his first bite of Play-Dough, Associate Professor Kenny Jones knew that the clay medium was one that could enrich his life. This of course lead to a MFA in studio art and an artist / teaching career that has included museum work as well as, you guessed it, ceramics and 3-dimensional design. He has become a strong proponent for the happy accident within intentional reflection and work. This is due to the fact that every award-winning artwork that he has made had an “accident” occur at some point in the process. “I began to notice that if the artwork turned out exactly as I’d planned it was boring and never won awards”, Jones said. Maybe it is the influence of friends and roommates who provided an Asian point of view but he now habitually looks for Consilience between supposed opposites: East/West, Accident/Control, Art/Science. This course, Zen, Clay & Culture, will explore a jumping together of knowledge that spring from the lavish experience of working with clay, and keeping true to his roots, eating is part of the course. Don’t worry only food materials are used for this part of the colloquium.
Mind and Healing Pat Hernandez
HCOL 431.H1 CRN 10026 R 6:00-9:00. Aug. 30-Sep. 27
The spiritual, emotional, and physical aspects of our lives are intertwined. Through this brief journey together, I hope you see the parallels between the health promoting strategies and the spiritual formation strategies. In the health profession, revealing the "root of the cause of disease" is paramount to reduce its occurrence. Likewise, we will investigate underlying causes that hinder spiritual growth. As a health care provider, building trust to bond is an integral step to healing. Other levels of bonding promote wellness, such as family relationships and listening to our heavenly Father. We will explore these multifactorial aspects from different aspects—psychoneuroimmunology, cultural, and spiritual. Chinese medicine and curanderismo approach health more holistically than mainstream U.S. culture. At the culmination of this journey, I hope you see that spirituality is an important component of wellness. I hope that these principles continue to transform you throughout your life.
Ambition and Simple Living Monty Lynn
HCOL 441.H1 CRN 11209 F 6-8:50, S8-5, U 1-4, Sep. 21-Sep. 23
“The art of being poor in spirit is to distinguish between use and ownership,” wrote John Chrysostom in the fourth century. Although wealth and fame perennially distract Americans, we have deep spiritual and historical roots in living simply, in discovering bounty while being poor in spirit. From the Puritans to the transcendentalists, the arts and crafts movement to livable wage protesters, we’ll reflect on nuances of simple living movements in American society. Be prepared for a weekend trip to South Texas where we’ll work with a small lay monastic community that has lived simply for half a century, and/or for a tour the same weekend of Austin’s latest experiments in environmentally-friendly architecture. Come experience simplicity.
Biblical Opera Greg Straughn
HCOL 451.H1 CRN 11210 F 6-8:50, S8-5, U 1-4, Sep. 7-Sep. 9
Since its birth in 1600, opera has frequently turned to Biblical stories for inspiration. This colloquium will center on three operas whose subjects are taken from scripture or whose story is a Biblical allegory. Gioacchino Rossini's Moïse et Pharaon (1827) - plagues, pharaoh, and a parted sea; Giacomo Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots (1836) - the story of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 16th-Century France; Jules Massenet's Thaïs (1894) - a stripper turned saint and the monk who loved her.
All of the operas are drawn from the nineteenth-century French repertoire, so the colloquium will also examine French attitudes towards religion, anticlericalism, tradition, and decadence. These attitudes are shaping and motivating forces in the above operas. Their stories, while based on a Biblical truth, are so grotesquely transformed as to render that truth impotent. This kind of decadence “fixes the real with repressive and regressive ritual, religious, erotic, aesthetic elements, piling form on to form to stifle truth; but still, out of some residual, guilty recognition of fact, allows glimpses of historical reality to persist.” (Jennifer Birkett writing on French surrealist and decadent author Joris-Karl Huysmans).
The Culture of Life in America Deb Williams
HCOL 461.H1 CRN 11211 F 6-8:50, S8-5, U 1-4, Sep. 14-Sep. 16
A Google search of “culture of life” offers an interesting assortment of pro-life sites, including those of some government officials, with a rare blog or site on health care and war issues. What are the implications of a “culture of life” in America? To what degree would an emphasis on life impact our penal system, our health care system, our foreign policies, our views on human rights in our own country, our views of death? This course will unpack a phrase that is too freely bandied about, separating it from its stereotypical meanings and explore areas that cannot be ignored if we truly support a culture of life.
In places I’ve lived, I’ve learned that I could buy seaweed in packages varying in size and flavoring, or buy sugar in 7 or 8 varieties (depending on the food or drink you’re concocting). I’ve also learned that plimsoles are children’s shoes used for physical education and that baseball gloves are “conditioned,” not “formatted.” Learning is an exciting prospect, whether I’m living in an unusual place, such as England or Hawaii, or just down Judge Ely because our life experiences enrich our intellectual pursuits so that we can better appreciate the richness and complexities of concepts and situations. In “A Culture of Life,” we’ll bring our life experiences to bear on various perspectives about some of the complex implications of life in America.
Medieval Spain Ron Morgan
HCOL 471.H1 CRN 11213 Takes Place in Oxford
Students who are already planning to study abroad in Oxford in Fall 2007 will have the opportunity to earn Honors Colloquium credit during the group’s trip to Spain. Plans will be announced in early summer for the fall Honors Colloquium based in Oxford. Dr. Ron Morgan is working on the possibilities for fall. When plans are set, the Honors office will notify you in time to sign up for colloquium credit.
