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Honors College Curriculum

The honors college difference

The Honors College at the Abbey is unlike any other honors program. First, we emphasize the fundamental questions of human and divine realities through the works of Ancient, Christian, and Modern thought. The answers to these questions are then placed in the context of the students’ lives, creating a solid basis for spiritual, professional and personal happiness. The Abbey Honors College provides flexibility with three options to fit your goals.

3 Options for the Honors College

Great Books Intensive Major:

120-Credit Curriculum

You devour literature and enjoy seeing the world through the eyes of authors past and present. The Great Books Intensive option was designed for someone like you. This 120-credit curriculum will not only shape your understanding of history, philosophy, religion, and much more, it will also give you a unique perspective on how to thrive personally and professionally.

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Great Books Flexible Major:

90-Credit Curriculum

Want to pair the understanding of Ancient, Christian and Modern thought with other areas of study? Consider the Great Books Plus option. This 90-credit curriculum gives you room to explore 30 elective credits for a more customized academic program.

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Great Books Core with Choice of Major:

75-Credit Curriculum

Whether you’ve already read some of the Great Books or you’re eager to begin, the Great Books Minor is an excellent option. You’ll explore Ancient, Christian, and Modern thought with the 75-credit curriculum while devoting 45 credits to your major. (For majors requiring more credits, students will consult with the Director of the Honors College.)

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SOME OF THE Authors you will read

SHAKESPEARE

DouglasS

Aristotle

Nietzche

St. John Paul II

Kant

O’Connor

St. Augustine

Joyce

St. Thomas Aquinas

A Look At

THE HONORS COLLEGE VALUE

Go Beyond the Classroom

Sure, you’ll have access to the Great Books, great classes and great instructors. But you’ll also build friendships with like-minded Honors College students as you enjoy field trips and retreats and study abroad.

EXPLORE IT ALL

The Four Year Curriculum

120-Credit Curriculum

1. FRESHMAN YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

Homer: The Iliad; The Odyssey
Vergil: The Aeneid

Greek Tragedy
Aeschylus: Oresteia; Prometheus Bound
Sophocles: The Three Theban Plays
Euripides: TBD

Aristophanes: Clouds
Plato: Ion; Meno; Apology of Socrates; Crito;
The Republic

LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Trivium I: Logic & Rhetoric
Plato: Gorgias
Aristotle: Prior Analytics; Posterior Analytics;
Categories; On Interpretation; Topics

Lab Science I (4 hours)

SPRING SEMESTER

Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War
Herodotus: Histories
Xenophon: Memorabilia

Aristotle: Physics; On the Soul; Nicomachean
Ethics; Politics

Plutarch: Parallel Lives (selections)
Lucretius: On the Nature of Things
Cicero: On Ends; On Duties
Livy: Selections
Al Farabi: The Attainment of Happiness

LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Euclid, Elements

Lab Science II (4 hours)

2. SOPHMORE YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

Biblical Texts
Book of Genesis
Exodus
Book of Job; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes (selections)
Isaiah
Gospel of Luke
Acts of the Apostles
I Corinthians

St. Augustine & St. Thomas Aquinas I
Confessions
On the Free Choice of the Will
On Nature and Grace
Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles (selections)

St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony; On the Incarnation
St. Basil: Letter to Young Men
St. Jerome (selections)
Tertullian; St. Gregory of Nazianzen
St. Anselm: On Why God Became Man; Proslogion
Venerable Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the English People
St. Teresa of Avila: Autobiography

ARTS — LANGUAGES — POETIC WISDOM — TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Trivium II: Poetics & Rhetoric
Plato: Phaedrus
Aristotle: Rhetoric; Poetics
Quintilian: Institutes of Oratory

One of the following electives:
Greek I (3 hours)
Latin I (3 hours)
Poetic Wisdom I: Milton, Swift, Melville, Faulkner

SPRING SEMESTER

MODERN THOUGHT

Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince; Mandragola;
Discourses (selections)
John Locke: Second Treatise of Government;
Letter on Toleration
David Hume: Treatise on Human Nature

Galileo: Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
or Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems
Francis Bacon: The Great Instauration; New
Atlantis, Essays;
Rene Descartes: Discourse on Method;
Meditation on First Philosophy

The American Founding
Articles of Confederation; The Declaration of
Independence; The American Constitution;
The Federalist Papers; Anti-Federalist Writings;
Frederick Douglass & Abraham Lincoln: Writings
and Speeches

ARTS — LANGUAGES — POETIC WISDOM — TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Poetic Wisdom II: Cervantes, Goethe, Stenhal

One of the following electives:
Greek II (3 hours)
Latin II (3 hours)
Textual Analysis I: Shakespeare — King Lear, Hamlet

3. JUNIOR YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

MODERN THOUGHT

Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality;
The Social Contract
Kant: On Perpetual Peace; Idea for a Universal
History
Hegel: Introduction to the Philosophy of History
Marx: The Communist Manifesto; The 18th Brumaire
Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France

Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws
Mill: Utilitarianism
August Comte: Introduction to Positive Philosophy
Freud: Civilization and Its Discontents
Max Weber: Science as Vocation; Politics as Vocation

Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil
Heidegger: Introduction to Metaphysics;
The Self-Assertion of the German University;
On Plato’s Parable of the Cave
Derrida: Plato’s Pharmacy
Lyotard: The Post-Modern Condition
Rorty: TBD or Foucault: Discipline and Punish
Rosen: Hermeneutics as Politics

THE QUEST FOR ECONOMIC WISDOM — ART & THE BEAUTIFUL — TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Seminar: The Quest for Economic Wisdom
Smith: The Wealth of Nations (selections)
Tawney: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Keynes: TBD
Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the
Rise of Capitalism
Hayek: TBD
Pope Pius XI: Quadragesimo Anno
Marx: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
Pope Leo XIII: Rerum Novarum

Poetic Wisdom III
Shakespeare: Coriolanus; Julius Caesar; Anthony and Cleopatra

SPRING SEMESTER

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

St. Augustine & St. Thomas Aquinas II
On Christian Doctrine
The City of God (Selections)
Summa Theologica & Summa Contra Gentiles
(Selections)

Pascal: Pensees
Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling
Newman: Grammar of Assent; Development of
Christian Doctrine
Edith Stein: Finite and Eternal Being or The
Science of the Cross
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: Without Roots;
“Regensburg Address”; Introduction to
Christianity; Spirit of the Liturgy (selections)

Biblical Texts II
Deuteronomy
First and Second Samuel & Kings (selections)
Daniel
Jonah
Jeremiah
Gospel of John
St. Paul: Epistle to the Romans
Book of Revelation

THE QUEST FOR ECONOMIC WISDOM — ART & THE BEAUTIFUL — TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Seminar: Art and the Beautiful
Longinus: On The Sublime
Kant: The Beautiful and the Sublime
Hume: Of the Standard of Taste
Schiller: Aesthetical and Philosophical Essays
(selections)
Benjamin: “The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction”
Maritain: Art and Scholasticism
Adorno & Horkheimer: “The Culture Industry”
Pieper: Only the Lover Sings

Textual Analysis II
Dante: The Divine Comedy

4. SENIOR YEAR:
Crises In The West

FALL SEMESTER

History & the Idea of Progress
J. Bury: The Idea of Progress
John Baillie: The Belief in Progress
Karl Lowith: The Meaning of History
R.G. Collingwood: The Idea of History
George Grant: Time as History
Nietzsche, The Advantages and Disadvantages of History

Science & Technology
Arthur Eddington: The Expanding Universe
Werner Heisenberg: Physics & Philosophy:
The Revolution in Modern Science; Philosophical
Problems of Quantum Physics; The Physicist’s
Conception of Nature (selections)
George Grant: Technology & Justice; Technology
& Empire
Jacques Ellul: Politics, Technology, and Christianity
Romano Guardini: Letters from Lake Como:
Explorations on Technology & the Human Race;
The End of the Modern World
Pope Francis I: Laudato Si

The Drama of Modern Atheism
Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity
Nietzsche: The Gay Science (selections);
Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov
Sartre, The Flies
De Lubac: The Drama of Atheistic Humanism

Textual Analysis III
Tocqueville: Democracy in America

Senior Thesis

SPRING SEMESTER

Modernity: the Poets’ Vision
Flaubert: Madame Bovary
Dostoevsky: Notes from Underground
Nietzsche: Thus Spake Zarathustra
Joyce: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
T.S. Eliot: The Wasteland; Four Quartets
Flannery O’Connor: selected short stories

Freedom, Rights, and Virtue
Hegel: The Philosophy of Right
Alasdair Macintyre: After Virtue
Mary Ann Glendon: Rights Talk: Impoverishment
of Political Discourse
Charles DeKoninck: The Primacy of the Common
Good
Ernest Fortin: Human Rights, Justice, and the
Common Good
Mill: On Liberty

Globalism, Nationalism, and the Limits of Commerce
Ulrich Beck: What Is Globalization?
Samuel Huntington: The Clash of Civilizations
Pierre Manent: A World Beyond Politics?; Democracy
Without Nations
Aristotle: Politics (II, VII)

Seminar: Love, Friendship, and Marriage
Plato, The Symposium
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; Sonnets
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Willa Cather: Two Friends
St. John Paul II: Love and Responsibility;
Theology of the Body

Education and the Fate of Nations
Plato: The Republic (II, III, VII)
Confucius: Analects
John Henry Newman: The Idea of a University
W.E.B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind
St. John Paul II: Faith and Reason

90-Credit Curriculum

1. FRESHMAN YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

Homer: The Iliad; The Odyssey
Vergil: The Aeneid

Aristophanes: Clouds
Plato: Ion; Meno; Apology of Socrates;
Crito; The Republic

LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Trivium I: Logic & Rhetoric
Plato: Gorgias
Aristotle: Prior Analytics; Posterior Analytics;
Categories; On Interpretation; Topics

Lab Science I (4 hours)

Elective

SPRING SEMESTER

Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War
Herodotus: Histories
Xenophon: Memorabilia

Aristotle: Physics; On the Soul; Nicomachean
Ethics; Politics

LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Euclid, Elements

Lab Science II (4 hours)

Elective

2. SOPHMORE YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

Biblical Texts
Book of Genesis
Exodus
Book of Job; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes (selections)
Isaiah
Gospel of Luke
Acts of the Apostles
I Corinthians

St. Augustine & St. Thomas Aquinas I
(selections from each)

Trivium II: Poetics & Rhetoric
Plato: Phaedrus
Aristotle: Rhetoric; Poetics
Quintilian: Institutes of Oratory (selections)

Elective

SPRING SEMESTER

MODERN THOUGHT

Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince; Mandragola;
Discourses (selections)
Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (selection)
John Locke: Second Treatise of Government;
Letter on Toleration
David Hume: Treatise on Human Nature

Galileo: Dialogues Concerning Two New
Sciences or Dialogue
Concerning The Two Chief World Systems
Francis Bacon: The Great Instauration; New
Atlantis; Essays;
Rene Descartes: Discourse on Method;
Meditations on First Philosophy

The American Founding
Articles of Confederation; Declaration of
Independence; The American Constitution;
The Federalist Papers; Anti-Federalist
Writings
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln: Writings and Speeches

Textual Analysis I:
Shakespeare: King Lear, Hamlet

Elective

3. JUNIOR YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

MODERN THOUGHT

Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin
of Inequality; The Social Contract
Kant: On Perpetual Peace;
Idea for a Universal History
Hegel: Introduction to the Philosophy of History
Marx: The Communist Manifesto; The 18th
Brumaire
Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France

Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil
Heidegger: Introduction to Metaphysics;
The Self-Assertion of the German University;
On Plato’s Parable of the Cave
Derrida: Plato’s Pharmacy
Lyotard: The Post-Modern Condition
Rorty: TBD / or Foucault: Discipline and Punish
Rosen: Hermeneutics as Politics

Seminar: The Quest for Economic Wisdom
Smith: The Wealth of Nations (selections)
Tawney: Religion & the Rise of Capitalism
Keynes: TBD
Hayek: TBD
Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism
Pope Pius XI: Quadragesimo Anno
Marx: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
Pope Leo XIII: Rerum Novarum

Poetic Wisdom III Shakespeare: Coriolanus; Julius Caesar; Antony and Cleopatra

Elective

SPRING SEMESTER

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

Pascal: Pensees
Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling
Newman: Grammar of Assent & Development of
Christian Doctrine
Edith Stein: Finite and Eternal Being or
The Science of the Cross
Benedict XVI: Without Roots; Introduction to
(excerpts)“Regensburg Address”

Elective

Seminar: Art and the Beautiful
Longinus: On the Sublime
Kant: The Beautiful and the Sublime
Schiller: Aesthetical and Philosophical Essays (selections)
Hume: Of the Standard of Taste
Benjamin: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
Maritain: Art and Scholasticism
Adorno & Hokheimer: “The Culture Industry”
Pieper: Only the Lover Sings

Textual Analysis II
Dante: The Divine Comedy

Elective

4. SENIOR YEAR:
Crises In The West

FALL SEMESTER

History & the Idea of Progress
Nietzsche: The Advantages and Disadvantages
of History
J. Bury: The Idea of Progress
J. Baillie: The Belief in Progress
K. Lowith, The Meaning of History
R.G. Collingwood: The Idea of History
George Grant: Time as History

Science & Technology
Arthur Eddington: The Expanding Universe
Werner Heisenberg: Philosophical Problems in
Physics; The Physicist’s Conception of Nature (selections)
George Grant: Technology & Justice; Technology & Empire
Jacques Ellul: Politics, Technology, and Christianity
Romano Guardini, Letters from Lake Como: Explorations on Technology and the Human Race
Pope Francis I: Laudato Si

Textual Analysis III
Tocqueville: Democracy in America

Senior Thesis

Elective

SPRING SEMESTER

Modernity: the Poets’ Vision
Flaubert: Madame Bovary
Dostoevsky: Notes from Underground
Nietzsche: Thus Spake Zarathustra
T.S. Eliot: The Wasteland; Four Quartets
Joyce: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Flannery O’Connor: selected short stories

Freedom, Rights, and Virtue
Hegel: The Philosophy of Right
Macintyre: After Virtue
Mary Ann Glendon: Rights Talk: Impoverishment
of Political Discourse
Charles de Koninck, The Primacy of the Common
Good
Ernest Fortin: Rights, Social Justice, and the
Common Good
Mill: On Liberty

Seminar: Love, Friendship, and Marriage
Plato, Symposium
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; Sonnets
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Willa Cather: Two Friends
St. John Paul II: Love and Responsibility;
Theology of the Body

Education and the Fate of Nations
Plato: The Republic (II, III, VII)
Confucius: Analects
Xenophon: Education of Cyrus
W.E.B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk
Newman: The Idea of a University
Bloom: The Closing of the American Mind
Pope John Paul II: Faith and Reason

Elective

75-Credit Curriculum

1. FRESHMAN YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

Homer: The Iliad; The Odyssey
Vergil: The Aeneid

Aristophanes: Clouds
Plato: Ion, Meno; Apology of Socrates; Crito; The Republic

LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Trivium I: Logic & Rhetoric
Plato: Gorgias
Aristotle: Prior Analytics; Posterior Analytics;
Categories; On Interpretation; Topics

Lab Science I (4 hours)

Major Course

SPRING SEMESTER

Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War
Herodotus: Histories
Xenophon: Memorabilia

Aristotle: Physics; On the Soul; Nicomachean
Ethics; Politics

LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Euclid, Elements

Lab Science II (4 hours)

Major Course

2. SOPHMORE YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

Biblical Texts
Book of Genesis
Exodus
Book of Job; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes (selections)
Isaiah
Gospel of Luke
Acts of the Apostles
I Corinthians

St. Augustine & St. Thomas Aquinas I
(selections from each)

Trivium II: Poetics & Rhetoric
Plato: Phaedrus
Aristotle: Rhetoric; Poetics
Quintilian: Institutes of Oratory (selections)

Major Course

SPRING SEMESTER

MODERN THOUGHT

Major Course

3. JUNIOR YEAR:
Foundations Of Western Civilization

FALL SEMESTER

MODERN THOUGHT

Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin
of Inequality; The Social Contract
Kant: On Perpetual Peace;
Idea for a Universal History
Hegel: Introduction to the Philosophy of History
Marx: The Communist Manifesto; The 18th
Brumaire
Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France

Poetic Wisdom III Shakespeare: Coriolanus; Julius Caesar; Antony and Cleopatra

Major Course

SPRING SEMESTER

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

Textual Analysis II
Dante: The Divine Comedy

Major Course

4. SENIOR YEAR:
Crises In The West

FALL SEMESTER

Textual Analysis III
Tocqueville: Democracy in America

Major Course

SPRING SEMESTER

Major Course

The Application Process

Upon acceptance to Belmont Abbey College, you will be able to apply for both the Honors College curriculum and the Honors College scholarship. You will have the opportunity to choose your preferred option of study within the Honors College. You will be notified directly by the Honors College when a decision has been reached.

Apply to the honors college