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POL 350-02
Special Topics in Politics:
Contemporary Christian Political Thought

Dr. Knippenberg

Phone: 364-8341

Email: jknippenberg@facstaff.oglethorpe.edu

In this course, we will examine some leading contemporary (and modern-I don't want to exclude folks like Reinhold Niebuhr and Karl Barth, who don't qualify as our contemporaries)-Christian reflections on political and social issues. Among the questions I wish to consider are the following. How easy or difficult is it to reconcile Christian teaching with the principles of liberalism? How ought Christians to conduct themselves in a pluralistic-some might say "post-Christian"-society? I am committed to covering a range of major orientations and confessional traditions (including Roman Catholic, Lutheran, "evangelical," African-American, and Reformed, among others). Authors may include Jean Bethke Elshtain, Reinhold Niebuhr, Glenn Tinder, Martin Luther King, Jr., Stanley Hauerwas, Robert P. George, John Courtney Murray, Michael Novak, Walker Percy, Abraham Kuyper, Karl Barth, James Skillen, Robert Booth Fowler, John Milbank, and Nicholas Wolterstorff.

Course requirements: Two papers/presentations, one on a tradition with which the student feels comfortable, the other on one with which the student feels uncomfortable, along with a comprehensive and synoptic final examination.

Prerequisite: I would prefer that students have completed at least one semester of the Human Nature and the Social Order sequence, but am willing to admit others who can persuade me of their interest and preparation.