JAF291: Course Description

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Simone Weil claims that it is attention which brings us virtue, not willpower, and also that attention is ‘the highest form of prayer.’ The 2023-2024 JAF seminar will be devoted to exploring these two ideas—that attention might be key to the formation of character, and that attention can become prayer. Our readings—before, during, and after the seminar—will help us explore attention, virtue, and prayer from a theoretical and theological perspective, while we will practice ‘paying attention’ both before we leave and while in Italy. As we explore Orvieto, Florence, Rome, and Siena, we will practice attending to visual art, to church architecture, to urban spaces, to a new culture, to one another and, ultimately, to God. The lessons of attention and prayer will come with us as we return home—hopefully forming the basis of practices of presence that can come with us into our humdrum lives, whatever they may be.

Prerequisite(s): Successful application into program and submission of all international program forms through the Global Education Office. 
Fulfills Fine Arts core.
History major distribution: One of History of the Ancient and Classical World or History of Medieval Europe

This international seminar combines the Great Books, Socratic approach of Gordon College’s Jerusalem and Athens Forum (JAF) honors program with the emphasis of the Gordon in Orvieto semester program of experiencing art, architecture, and literature in situ-in their original settings. Readings and topics vary year to year, but are generally drawn from the late medieval, Renaissance and Reformation periods. Excursions to Rome, Florence, Siena, among other places, are typically part of the program.