Welcome to HUMN 400-001/HONR 385-007: Spiritual Struggle in Literature and Popular FilmImportant Course Documents
- Course Syllabus An electronic copy of the syllabus handed out in class.
- Term Paper Course term paper details
Readings and Other Links
Introduction: The Spiritual Question
- More Award-winning (including Academy-Award nominated) short film by Mark Osborne
- Chapter XX from Varieties of Religious Experience by William James. The definition of religion from a scientist's perspective.
- Religion from The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran The definition of religion from a poet's perspective.
- The Inconsolable Longing from the sermon The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis. A western Christian perspective.
- On God from The First and Last Freedom, by Jiddu Krishnamurti. An Eastern Buddhist-like perspective.
The Struggle for Faith
Field of Dreams
- Abraham and Isaac from Genesis
- Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
- Confessions by Augustine
Contact
- The Will to Believe by William James
Signs
- Book of Job from the Old Testament
- The Dark Night of the Soul from Part II, Chapter 9 of Mysticism, by Evelyn Underhill
- Mother Theresa's Journal A brief excerpt.
- Synchronicity explanations from Jung, Peck, and The Police
The Struggle for Enlightenment
The Matrix
- Plato's Cave From The Republic, by Plato
- Maya and Enlightenment The concepts of Maya and Enlightenment
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Being There
- Dhammapada by the Buddha
- Freedom from the Known (selected chapters) by Jiddu Krishnamurti
The Struggle for Relationship with God
Star Trek the Motion Picture
- Adam and Eve's Marriage from Genesis
- Symposium by Plato (speeches of Aristophanes and Socrates)
- When a Man and a Woman Become One by Rumi
Bladerunner
- Parable of the Lost Son from Luke
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Struggle to Become God
Pi
- Prometheus and Fire from Theogony, and Works and Days, by Hesiod
- Daedelus and Icarus from Metamorphoses, by Ovid
- The Fall of Man from Genesis
- Tower of Babel from Genesis
Forbidden Planet
- Daedalus; or Science and the Future by J.B.S. Haldane
- Darwin Among the Machines by Samuel Butler
The Struggle for Meaning
I Heart Huckabees
- The Transcendentalist by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- The Myth of Sysiphus By Albert Camus
- The Library of Babel by Jorge Borges
Groundhog Day
- The Eternal Recurrence from The Gay Science, by Friedrich Nietzsche
- The Buddhist and Hindu Cycle of Rebirth With excerpts from the Upanishads
- Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
- The Cost of Being a Disciple from Luke