This is our catalog of courses. We will occasionally adjust the course listing to reflect the addition of new courses and the retirement of others.
St. John tells us, “You have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”
Total Classes: 12
Duration: 55 minutes per class
Prerequisite: None
Suggested grade level: 9th to 12th grade
Suggested credit: One full semester English or Literature
Description
St. John tells us, “You have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.” But what is the nature of this “antichrist” or this anti-Christian spirit, so prevalent in the world today? How does it fight against God? What sort of world does it create? What are its goals and assumptions? We will look at this spirit of defiance that puts man in place of God and identify its nature, its philosophy, its goals, where it most contradicts the Catholic Faith, and how ordinary people can combat it. We will do this by studying the art and literature that shows us what happens when men try to build this “world without God”, including reading all or parts of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, 1984 by George Orwell, The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis and more.
Outline
Christ vs. Antichrist
Man as God – Macbeth – Part I
Man as God – Macbeth – Part II
The Spirit of Friedrich Nietzsche
Nihilism and the Christian Critique
Heaven or Hell on Earth? – 1984 – Part I
Heaven or Hell on Earth? – 1984 – Part II
Hilaire Belloc on the Modern Heresy of the World without God
Eric Voegelin on the Closed System and Unreality
Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw as the Haunted World without God
Visions of the Apocalypse – Selections from Father Elijah by Michael O’Brien
Antidotes to the Antichrist
Review
Materials and Homework
Course materials: Public domain material will be provided free as PDF files by the instructor. Students must purchase 1984 by George Orwell, and The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. Students may listen for free to Mr. O’Brien’s audiobook recording of Macbeth, the audio files of which he will make available in Moodle.
Homework: Reading, quizzes, final essay. For students who read at an average pace, plan on about three hours of homework per week.
