why take RLP?

The Seminar in Religion, Literature, and Philosophy, though a year-long, six-credit-per-semester course, is a hasty survey of works that have been among the most influential in forming Western culture. It was first put together by several of us who had become frustrated by the degree to which our students on Plan were unacquainted with the cultural background of work they were attempting to understand in depth: one can read "The Four Quartets" without having read the Bible, or read Aquinas without having read Aristotle, or read Kant with no idea of the religious precedents for the categorial imperative; but doing so substantially diminishes one's understanding of the mind behind the work; it's as though you imagine you are thinking alone in a room when someone else is there.

This is a very exciting course. You will learn quite a lot about why we think many of the things we think, or do many of the things we do without thinking. You will be stretched intellectually, challenged to manage your time, frustrated that you have issues and questions we never get to, enlarged by considering issues and questions you hadn't thought of. You will find that you refer to ideas and works that you encounter here for the rest of your life, or at least the rest of your time at Marlboro.

why these books?

The reading list is long but neither exhaustive nor comprehensive in any category. Some of the works would be on anyone's list; others stand in for whole classes of works, any one of which would be as valuable to read; a few represent less-acknowledged influences. Though the rough outlines of the list were easy to establish, it took a full year of discussion to agree on the whole list and the structure of the course. These days, there is a fair amount of posturing about lists such as this: you may read a claim that no one who hasn't read a list of such works is an educated person or conversely that any such list is a political strait jacket. None of us who have taught RLP had read all the works on the list before teaching it. Nor did we wish to suggest that any culture, certainly not "ours," is a homogeneous thing that might be defined by an single thread of ideas or works. We did wish to provide a rough map of the territory, not claiming it is the only possible map, or even the best possible map, just that it's a very useful map, well-adapted to our purposes.

papers and daily assignments:

Over the course of the semester you will write two five-page papers and one ten-page paper. (See course calendar for due dates.) These are not research papers, and they should not be summaries. They are thoughtful, organized responses to the work under discussion. They should delineate issues, propose interpretations, raise questions, provoke thought.

In order to fully prepare yourself for the class discussion, you should bring 3 or 4 questions to the discussion. These questions should attempt to get at the heart of the text as well as raise points that are of particular interest to you. Along with these prepared questions, we ask you to bring in 3 or 4 quotations that illuminate important aspects of the work. Both the questions and the quotations should be handed in at the end of each class. Since the class depends heavily on your preparation and participation, these daily assignments may not be made up.

grading criteria:

All of the works we will read are worth much more time than we will give them. Many will be quite difficult to read and respond to as quickly as you must do. Nonetheless, it is essential that you keep up with the reading and come to class prepared to engage in the discussion. Most of your grade in this class depends on your active participation, on your ability to read and think and speak and rethink. Much of the quality of the class depends on that.

Besides looking at attendance, participation, and your success with the daily assignments, a substantial portion of the grade will be based on the quality of your papers. Regardless of the length assigned, each paper should engage with some of the texts in a thoughtful and focused way: by setting forth a clear argument and by demonstrating a real interest in some aspect of the text.