LECTURE NOTES       
HUMANITIES CORE COURSE,
FALL QUARTER, WEEK THREE
11-12 OCTOBER 2010

Quote of the Day:

“Some men see things as they are and ask ‘why.’ Others dream of things that never were and ask ‘why not.’” –George Bernard Shaw
         

 

Overview of the Coming Three Weeks, Part 1:

          --where we were.
          --where we are headed next.

Rationale for Humanities Core Course (HCC):
         
          --the “what” of humane studies—a set of subjects.
          --the “how” of humane studies—a set of methods and related skills.
          --what makes the humanities “humane” anyway?
          --what any good HCC must enable.

Overview, Part 2:

          --where we are on the fall-quarter path through:

 The Human and Its Others
Divinity – Society – Nature

“The fall quarter will consider the limits of mortality and the need to develop values that transcend material interests. Here we will consider non-anthropomorphic conceptions of divinity in Greek philosophy and medieval theology. We will also look at anthropomorphic ideas of god in the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam”

--where we were as to “what”: HAPPINESS as central in Hellenistic philosophy
--where we are headed as to “what”: COVENANT as key to “western” religions
--where we were as to “how”: close logical argument and debate
--where we are headed as to “how”:  close reading (“continuity” reading and

“cross-examination” reading; at times a bit of the “scavenger hunt” game) plus analysis and interpretation (the “moral of the story”); the practiced reader can legitimately be regarded as to some degree a co-author.

Interlude: Transitional Classroom Exercises and Reflections

Mantra (a secret for your success).
Litany of Thanksgiving; Prayer for Serenity.
Meditation vs. Investigation: Epictetus and Epicurus as founders of religions.
Buddhism and Positive Psychology http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/
Stoic/Epicurean successors from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” to:

--Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
--W. Clement Stone, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude
--Wayne Dyer, Your Erroneous Zones
--Deepak Chopra, The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of
Your True Self.
--The “Complaint-Free World” movement, www.acomplaintfreeworld.org

In sum, American culture, low as well as high, is heir no less to Athens than to Jerusalem.

Overview, Part 3:

--Covenant as governing idea in our consideration of the “western” religions through their scriptures over these three weeks: command and prohibition, empowerment and restraint, creation and destruction

                            

--Ancient Israelite Religion (no longer practiced): the ancestral covenants

The Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis)--11-12 October
The Mosaic Covenant (Exodus)—13-14 October
The Davidic Covenant (Samuel)—18-19 October

--The three descendant covenants:

Christianity, the Davidic Covenant Fulfilled and Extended—18-19 October
Islam, the Abrahamic Covenant Corrected and Restored—20-21 October
Rabbinic Judaism, the Mosaic Covenant Complemented & Continued—25-26 October

--Nationalism, the religious covenant(s) secularized as patriotism replaces piety—with concluding reflections on relations among overlapping covenants, and resulting American “religious etiquette”—27-28 October

 

Overview, Part 4:

Does this part of HCC bring different answers to the classic questions of
Epictetus and Epicurus?

Yes and No. More exactly, it brings a change of subject with a shift in typical attitudes and topics from decorous, “classical” order to indecorous, “romantic” subversion:

*Prudent caution, no; reckless risk, yes. 
*Life as in “a happy life,” no; life as in “life or death choices,” yes.
*Tranquillity, no; agitation, passion, conflict, even war, yes.
*Theomorphic anthropology, no; anthropomorphic theology, yes.
* Male friendship and intellectual fraternity without kinship, no; women,
   children, marriages, extra-marital relations, sibling rivalries, kinship with no
   mention of friendship, yes.

 

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT (Tanakh, the Book of Genesis)

Preliminary note on translations used in this part of HCC and linked on its syllabus.

1:1-4:16

first creation & first, implicit covenant
second creation & second, explicit but limited covenant [“Adamic”]
second covenant ruptured
first murder
second covenant partially repaired

6:5-11, 17-23; 8:15-22; 9:1-17.

[Note that the Guide and Reader has only 9:1-7. Read 9:8-17 online at the http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8165
link, above in the syllabus on HCC website. Note that though we are reading this Judaica Press translation in Week 1, the syllabus also contains a link to the New Jerusalem Bible, which contains a different translation of Genesis and Exodus as part of its Old Testament section.]

second covenant ruptured
the Great Flood
third covenant [“Noachic”]

 

                                     THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
 

12                            first, peaceful articulation

15                            second, more violent articulation

16                            human threat and first fulfillment

17                            circumcision and definitive articulation of the covenant 

21:1-21 – 22:1-19     divine threat and second fulfillment

25:1-18                     death of Abraham and third fulfillment