Office hours: MWF 10:20-11:00; TuTh 2:15-3:00 Office: Johns 111JA Phone: Christianity and Politics

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1 PSC-375A Christianity and Politics Benjamin Storey Office hours: MWF 10:20-11:00; TuTh 2:15-3:00 Office: Johns 111JA Phone: Christianity and Politics This course will examine what St. Augustine called the two cities: the earthly city and the city of God. For two thousand years, Christianity has existed in a tense, changing, sometimes fruitful, and sometimes explosive relationship with the political communities that have been its earthly home. Our course and lecture series this year will ask, What is the true nature of the relationship between Christianity and politics? Is Christianity a religion for slaves, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau argues? Or, as St. Augustine suggests, is Christianity the ultimate aim of the psychic longings that animate political life? Daily Schedule: January 13: Introduction, Pascal, Pensées, s1-s111 (p. 1-24). January 15: Pascal, Pensées, s112-s220 (p ). January 20: Pascal, Pensées, s221-s277, s329-s414, s452-s460, s559-s570 (p , , , ). January 22: Pascal, Pensées, s618-s625, s669-s690, s739-s743 (p , , ). Friday, January 23, 4:30 PM: Essay I, (6-8 pages) due by . Tuesday, January 26: College Republicans/Tocqueville Program Lecture by New York Times Columnist Ross Douthat, The Futures of Christianity: Saving the Church in 21st Century America. 5:00 PM, Burgiss Theatre, Trone Center (CLP; Attendance Strongly Recommended). January 27: Rousseau, Emile, Book I (p ). January 29: Rousseau, Emile, Book II (p only). February 3: Rousseau, Emile, Book II (p only). February 5: Rousseau, Emile, Book III (p ). February 10: Rousseau, Emile, Book IV (p only). February 12: Rousseau, Emile, Book IV (p only). February 17: Rousseau, Emile, Book IV (p only); Social Contract, Book I ( ). 1

2 February 19: John Scott Class Visit; Social Contract II, 1-7, 11-12; IV.8 ( , ; ). Thursday, February 19: Tocqueville Program Lecture by John T. Scott (UC-Davis), God and Man in Rousseau. 5:00 PM, Watkins Room, Trone Center (CLP; Attendance Required). February 24: John T. Scott, The Illustrative Education of Rousseau s Emile (Moodle). Wednesday, February 25: Essay II (8-10 pages) due. February 26: Robert P. George, A Clash of Orthodoxies (Moodle). March 3: Cornel West, The Making of an American Radical Democrat of African Descent, Prophetic Christian as Organic Intellectual: Martin Luther King, Jr. (Moodle). March 5: Robert George and Cornel West Class Visit; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Moodle). Thursday, March 5: Tocqueville Program Lecture by Cornel West and Robert P. George, A Conversation about Christianity and Politics. 5:00 PM, Watkins Room, Trone Center (Attendance Required). March 10, 12: No Class (Spring Break) March 17: St. Augustine, City of God, Book I, Preface, chapters 1-9, 11, 15-25, 29, 34-35, and Book II chapters 1-7, 12-21, 29 (p. 3-15, 19-20, 23-38, 43-44, 48-49, 51-59, 63-80, 91-93). March 19: No Class (President Davis s Inauguration) March 24: St. Augustine, City of God, Book III chapters 6, 8-10, 15, 21, 30, Book IV chapters 1-7, 15, 27-34, and Book V preface, chapters 1, 9-21, (p , , , , , , , , , , ). March 26: No Class (Storey Conference Travel) March 31: St. Augustine, City of God, Book VI chapters 5-7, 10, Book VII chapters 5-6, 12, 26-27, 29-32, 34, Book VIII chapters 1-13, 16-19, 27, Book IX chapters 6-9, 13-15, and Book X, chapters 3, 9-10, 12-15, 21, 28-29, 32 (p , , , 283, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ). April 2: St. Augustine, City of God, Book XI chapters 1, 9, 16-22, 26, Book XII chapters 1-9, 22-24, 27-28, Book XIII, chapters 1-15, and Book XIV chapters 1-7, 10-25, 28 (p , , , , , , , , , , ). April 7: Daniel J. Mahoney, Beyond Nihilism: Religion, Liberty and the Art of Mediation (Moodle). 2

3 April 9: Dan Mahoney Class Visit; Pierre Manent, Christianity and Democracy (Moodle). Thursday, April 9: Tocqueville Program Lecture by Daniel J. Mahoney, Christianity and the Religion of Humanity. 5:00 PM, Watkins Room, Trone Center (Attendance Required). April 14: No Class (Furman Engaged) April 16: St. Augustine, City of God, Book XV chapters 1-8, 22, Book XVI chapters 8, 30, 35, 41, 43, XVII chapters 6-8, 13, 23, XVIII chapters 1-2, 18, 22, 37, 39, 41, 46, 52, 54 (p , , , , , , , , 801, , , , , , , , , , ). April 21: St. Augustine, City of God, Book XIX, chapters 1-2, 4-21, 23 (last paragraph only), 24-28, Book XX, chapters 1-2, 9, 11, 30 (p , , , , , , ). April 23: St. Augustine, City of God, Book XXI chapters 1-2, 4-5, 8-9, 12, 16, 23-24, 27, Book XXII chapters 1, 6, 8, 12-13, 17, 27, (p , , , 1070, , , , , , , , , , ). April 28: Conclusion; Essay III (8-10 pages) due at class time. ASSIGNMENTS, PARTICIPATION, AND GRADING Breakdown of Course Grades: Participation and contributions: 20% Essay I: 20% Essay II: 30% Essay III: 30% Total: 100% Participation: Your participation grade will consist of two elements: (1) Attendance at every class meeting and all guest lectures is expected; after 2 unexcused absences, every further absence results in the loss of one partial letter grade (B becomes B-, B- becomes C+, and so on). You are expected to be present not only physically but mentally: perfect attendance without active class participation amounts to a C for this portion of your grade; the addition of regular participation earns a B; frequent, helpful, intelligent participation earns an A. 3

4 (2) On several occasions over the course of the semester, I will ask you to respond to a reading or one of our guest lectures with a comment or question submitted by . Although these contributions are expected to be brief, they are also expected to reflect serious engagement with and reflection on the reading or speaker in question. Essays: You will be required to submit 3 pieces of formal writing for the course: a 6-8 page essay on Pascal, an 8-10 page essay on Rousseau, and an 8-10 page essay on St. Augustine. These essays are expected to be highly polished reflections that demonstrate careful reading and deep engagement with our authors, forethought in planning a coherent essay, and careful editing for style and argumentative coherence. GRADE SCALE Grade Values Grade Ranges A 4.0 A A- 3.7 A B+ 3.3 B B 3.0 B B- 2.7 B C+ 2.3 C C 2.0 C C- 1.7 C D+ 1.3 D D 1.0 D D- 0.7 D F 0.0 F Guest Speaker Biographies: JOHN T. SCOTT John Scott is Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of California at Davis. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his M.A. and PhD from the University of Chicago. His primary research is in the history of political philosophy, with a specialization in early modern political thought. Most of his work in this area has focused on the thought of Jean- Jacques Rousseau, although he has also published studies of Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Hume. His articles have appeared in such leading venues as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Journal of the History of Ideas, and History of Political Thought. He is the author of The Philosophers Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding (with Robert Zartesky); the editor of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Critical Assessments; and translator of Tzvetan Todorov s Frail Happiness: An Essay on Rousseau (with Robert Zaretsky), Rousseau s Essay on the Origin of Languages and Writings Related to Music, and, most recently, Jean-Jacques Rousseau s Major Political Writings. 4

5 ROBERT P. GEORGE Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He has served on the President's Council on Bioethics and as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. His recent honors include the United States Presidential Citizens Medal and the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland. In July, 2013, he was elected Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School, he earned a doctorate in legal philosophy from Oxford University. He is the author of In Defense of Natural Law, Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality, The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion and Morality in Crisis, and Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism, and co-author of Embryo: A Defense of Human Life, Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics, and What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense. CORNEL R. WEST Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his new memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. He appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, Colbert Report, CNN and C-Span as well as on his dear Brother, Tavis Smiley s, PBS TV Show. He can be heard weekly on public radio with Tavis Smiley on Smiley & West. He has appeared as Councillor West in two Matrix films and has done hip hop, soul, and spoken word recordings. His work seeks to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice. DANIEL J. MAHONEY Daniel J. Mahoney is Professor of Political Science at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. His areas of scholarly expertise include statesmanship, religion and politics, French political philosophy, and antitotalitarian thought. He currently serves as the Augustine Chair in Distinguished Scholarship. He earned his BA from the College of the Holy Cross and his MA and PhD from Catholic University. He is the author of books on Raymond Aron, Charles de Gaulle, Bertrand de Jouvenel, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and has edited or co-edited many books, including The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, , and The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in a wide range of public and scholarly journals in the United States as well as abroad. In 1999 he was the recipient of the Prix Raymond Aron, an award named after the distinguished French political thinker who renewed Tocqueville's conservative-minded liberalism and vigorously opposed totalitarianism in all is forms. 5