Christianity and
Literature: Vocation and Imagination
IDS 402-01, Spring 2007
Convener: Curtis Gruenler,
Associate Professor of English
Office:
Lubbers 306 E-mail:
gruenler@hope.edu
Office
phone: 395-7996 Home
phone: 399-3731 (Please
Office
hours: MWF 11-12, 4-5, TR 2-3:30, and by
appointment don’t call after 9 p.m.)
The mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
–Psalm 50:1
The universe is made of
stories, not of atoms. –Muriel Rukeyser
Words are only themselves by
being more than themselves. Perhaps the same is true of human beings. –Owen
Barfield
Now the word of the Lord
came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you
were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I
said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”
–Jeremiah 1:4-6
In
very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the spirit of God, is
the best guide that man or woman can have; for it is not the things we see the
most clearly that influence us the most powerfully; undefined, yet vivid
visions of something beyond, something which eye has not seen nor ear heard,
have far more influence than any logical sequences whereby the same things may
be demonstrated to the intellect.
–George MacDonald, “The Imagination: its Function and its Culture”
What if all the events of
our history are molding us as a sculptor molds his clay, and if it is only in a
careful obedience to these molding hands that we can discover our real vocation
and become mature people? What if all the unexpected interruptions are in fact
invitations to give up old-fashioned and out-moded
styles of living and are opening up new unexplored areas of experience? And
finally: What if our history does not prove to be a blind impersonal sequence
of events over which we have no control, but rather reveals to us a guiding
hand pointing to a personal encounter in which all our hopes and aspirations
will reach their fulfillment? Then our life would indeed be different, because
then fate becomes opportunity, wounds a warning, and paralysis an invitation to
search for deeper sources of vitality. –Henri Nouwen,
Reaching Out
Small
acts of humanity amid the chaos of inhumanity provide hope. But small acts are
insufficient. –Paul Rusesabagina
Humanity does indeed possess
a true form, a proper nature, but it is one that is also essentially a communal
coinherence, as well as a real act, a motion, the
entire dramatic fullness of a life. Each person is “narrated” by and “narrates”
that nature, an each individual inevitably repeats the pattern of sin that
disfigures it; but Christ, in the entire shape of his life, renarrates
it according to its original pattern. –David Bentley Hart, The
Beauty of the Infinite
We shall not cease from
exploration
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
--T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”
Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day
to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of
work.
Harvest will fill the barn;
for that,
The hand must ache, the face
must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is
filled
By work of ours; the field
is tilled.
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while
we’re asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath
mood
Rests on our day and finds
it good.
--Wendell Berry, A Timbered Choir
What
is the story of your life? What larger story is it part of? What larger story
do you want your life to be part of? These questions may not be at the
forefront of your mind—or maybe they are, especially as you look toward
graduation—but some ideas about your story and how it fits into a larger story
inevitably shape how you see the world. Your sense of your story is especially
powerful in shaping your direction for the future, the part of your story that
remains to be written. One powerful way of thinking about the future of your
story is vocation, the idea that you are being called to something. This course
will focus on stories and vocation, all with the goal of helping you think
about yourself, where you stand, and how you’d like to move forward in your
life (which is one way of restating the general goal of Hope’s senior seminar
requirement).
These
two ideas—your life as a story and as a response to a call—can have a strong
theological dimension if you think of God as the author of your life and the
one who is calling you. But at the same time, you are also the one writing your
life, and you can see your vocation as a call or direction that comes from
inside of you. Within each of these views, there’s lots of room for different
approaches to the idea of vocation and what it means to imagine your life as a
story. Historically, vocation is a particularly Christian idea in Western and
American culture, and, since a specific purpose of Hope’s senior seminar
requirement is to “consider how the Christian faith can inform a philosophy for
living,” Christian approaches to vocation will help us do this.
This
seminar, like any course, is about seeking truth together. The truth we are
seeking, however, is not impersonal and abstract, as in many classes, but
personal and concrete. So we will proceed differently from most classes. First,
let me say a bit more about what I mean by truth. The members of the class will
have different ideas about truth, and I want to make space for each person to
speak truthfully. Expressing what you see will contribute to all of our
learning, and above all to your own. I believe that truth, what is really real,
is knowable and infinite, that we each have a deep desire to know truth, and
that we are each guided to truth by a divine, inner teacher. But, for the
purposes of this course, it does just as well to think of each person being
guided to truth by his or her own soul. It is the soul’s truth we are after.
For
the soul to be willing to speak its truth, we need to treat each other with the
utmost kindness and gentleness. We need to be patient and attentive in
listening to each other, and courageous in speaking when we feel moved. Since
this is a discussion-oriented class, my role, besides giving us places to
start, is to lead in courage and patience, kindness and gentleness.
Our sense of goals for the course will develop as we get to know each others’ needs and hopes, but here are the goals I have in mind for us as we begin the semester:
Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow
Wendell Berry, That Distant Land
Wendell Berry, A World Lost
Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace
Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson,
Marilynne Robinson, The Death of Adam
Mark R. Schwehn
and Dorothy C. Bass, eds., Leading Lives
That Matter
Attendance and Participation
(100 points): Because
this class is a seminar, your attendance and engaged, active participation are
crucial for its success, both for you and for everyone else. This does not mean
you need to say something every day, or that I give points based simply on how
much people talk. I respect the value of silent participation, but there is a
difference between engaged listening and inattention. Those who are
consistently part of the conversation in class get an A, and there’s no reason
that can’t be everyone. If you drop out of the conversation some of the time,
that’s a B; a lot of the time, a C; most of the time, a D; nearly all of the
time, an F.
I will ask you each to help start
our discussion twice during the semester, either by yourself or with one other
person. A discussion-starter could be just a few good, discussable questions
related to the readings, or you could share something for us to think about
together in connection with the readings, such as a poem, a song, a brief
story, or a film clip. Please do not take more than five minutes to present
something, though of course the discussion that you start may go longer.
I’ll allow one unexcused absence
automatically. Each unexcused absence beyond one will reduce your grade for
participation by 10 points. Being late twice (more than 10 minutes without a
good excuse) counts as one absence.
Response
journals (100 points): On each day we meet, unless there is a particular writing assignment
due that day (such as a portion of your lifeview
paper or a particular kind of response to a reading assignment), I expect you
to bring what I am calling a response journal. For full credit, a response
journal must include two of the following three parts (in order to give
you some options):
1) A response to the previous class of at least one half page. A thoughtful, personal response to the discussions and activities of each class will help make the class into a more coherent story within your own life and, I hope, give you places to start in exploring and telling your own story. Questions you might address: What was your experience of the class? What things did you resonate or disagree with? How do the matters discussed connect to your own experiences or convictions?
2) Two good, discussable questions about the reading
assigned for the day on which you are turning in your journal. These will often
give us a place to start discussion.
3) A page of preliminary reflections on the reading
assigned for the day. These could be answers to the questions you asked in
option 2 or other notes on what you found interesting in the reading and how it
connects with you. They may be disjointed but should be in complete sentences,
with specific references to the texts (including page numbers) when
appropriate. The point is not to produce a finished mini-essay but some fuel
for discussion and further thought (which is why page numbers are helpful, so
that you can find things in the text again).
Response journals will be graded on
a credit/no-credit basis. You may skip three journals over the course of the
semester. Beyond that, I will deduct 5 points for each missing journal.
Midrash on the
Lifeview Paper (160 points): One of the objectives of the
senior seminar is to help each student “articulate his or her philosophy for
living in a coherent, disciplined, yet personal way.” The life-view paper is
your main opportunity to do this, and the rest of the course, if it works, will
help you do it well.
You will write your paper in three
stages over the course of the semester, and I will give you a separate
assignment sheet with further instructions at each stage. Each part will be
7-10 pages long, for a total of 20-30 pages. I will give you feedback on the
first two portions with a preliminary indication of what kind of grade that
portion would receive. I expect you to revise these first two parts join them
together into a harmonious whole with the third part before turning the whole
thing in at the end of the course.
I will evaluate your paper not on positions taken or
values expressed but on the clarity, detail, coherence, eloquence, and
thoughtfulness of content; the organization, development, and style of the
writing (including correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation); and the degree
to which it gets beyond just autobiographical narrative or a statement of
beliefs to the goal of integrating your intellectual and social growth into a
mature self-understanding that is a fitting culmination of your experience at
Hope.
Advice from previous students
“Listen to each other. I
learned more from others than I ever thought I would.”
“Do all the reading! Not for
the class, but for yourself!”
“Feel free to speak about
what you see. The class format is very open for discussion and exchange of
ideas. Take advantage of it while you have the opportunity, especially if you
don’t get the chance to discuss things in your other classes.”
“Do the reading. It is
easier to complete the assignments if you do, and they are so good that you
will want to read them. You get so much more out of the discussions and the
course in general if you read the books.”
“Keep up with the reading
and try to take part in the discussion as much as possible.”
“Definitely read; the books
are great!”
“Really do the reading so
you have something intelligent to say when we talk in class.”
“Do the readings and take
part in class discussions. Really think about how some of the books apply to yourself.”
“Try really hard to keep up
with the readings, because the texts are really good and will challenge you.”
“Do all of the reading
because it is fun and better than the other homework you have to do! Also, be
prepared to participate in class because it’s really boring if no one talks and
really engaging and useful if you do.”
“Just do the reading, be
open, and honest with yourself.”
LLTM = Mark R. Schwehn and Dorothy C. Bass, eds., Leading Lives That Matter
TDL = Wendell Berry, That Distant Land
AC =
W 1/10: Introduction
F 1/12: Read excerpts from Improvisation by Samuel Wells and Real Sex by Lauren Winner (handouts).
Considering Your Story Thus Far
M 1/15:
W 1/17:
F 1/19:
M 1/22: Robinson, Housekeeping, 1-75.
[T 1/23: Visiting Writers
Series presents Michael Martone, Knickerbocker
Theater, 7 p.m.]
W 1/24: Robinson, Housekeeping, 76-142.
F 1/26: Robinson, Housekeeping, 143-end.
Stories that Shape Our Culture
M 1/29: Robinson,
“Darwinism,” “Facing Reality”
W 1/31: Robinson, “Marguerite
de Navarre” and “Marguerite de Navarre, part II” (174-226)
F 2/2:
M 2/5:
W 2/7: Share lifeview excerpts.
F 2/9: Share lifeview excerpts. First section of lifeview paper due.
M 2/12: Winter Recess
W 2/14: stories by Percival
Everett, to be decided (handout)
[R 2/15: Visiting Writers
Series presents Percival Everett, Knickerbocker
Theater, 7 p.m.]
F 2/16:
Imagining a Good Life
M 2/19: Introduction and
Prologue to LLTM, pp. 1-36. Midrash due.
W 2/21: LLTM pp. 117-28,
153-80 on whether some lives are more significant than others; Robinson,
“Dietrich Bonhoeffer” (The Death of Adam, 108-125)
F 2/23: Selections on
vocation, LLTM pp. 89-113; Vincent Harding, “I Hear Them Calling” (LLTM
395-403)
M 2/26: Dorothy Sayers, “Why
Work?” (LLTM 191-5);
W 2/28: Gilbert Meilander, “Friendship and Vocation” (LLTM 229-43);
F 3/2: Robinson, “Family” (The Death of Adam, 87-107);
M 3/5:
W 3/7: Robinson, “Psalm
Eight,” “Wilderness” (The Death of Adam, 227-54);
F 3/9:
M 3/12: Share lifeview excerpts.
[T 3/13: Visiting Writers
Series presents Anele Rubin and Mary Ann Samyn, Knickerbocker Theater, 7
p.m.]
W 3/14: Share lifeview excerpts. Second section of lifeview paper due.
F 3/16-F 3/23: Spring Recess
How Shall I Tell the Story of My Life?
M 3/26:
W 3/28:
F 3/30:
M 4/2:
W 4/4:
F 4/6: LLTM section 7, “How
Shall I Tell the Story of My Life?” (pp. 451-485)
M 4/9: stories from Joan Silber, Ideas of
Heaven, to be decided
W 4/11: stories from Joan Silber, Ideas of
Heaven, to be decided
[W 4/11: Visiting Writers Series presents Joan
Silber, Knickerbocker Theater,
7 p.m.]
F 4/13: Tolstoy, “The Death
of Ivan Ilych” (LLTM pp. 492-539)
M 4/16: Robinson,
W 4/18: Robinson,
F 4/20: Robinson,
M 4/23:
W 4/25: Share lifeview excerpts.
F 4/27: Share lifeview excerpts.
T 5/1: Complete Lifeview
Paper due in the English Dept. office by 5:00. Be sure my name is on it so that
it gets into my mailbox. If you would like me to mail it to you after I read
it, please give me a self-addressed envelope large enough to put it in; the
college can pay the postage.