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Syllabus Year I
Year I –
Natural Philosophy (Fall)
Week 1
The Origins of Western Philosophy
Porphyry’s Isagoge and the Art of
Definition. Genus, Species, Property, Difference, and Accident: What they are, and how they function in Definition
Week 2
Aristotle’s Categories
Week 3
Aristotle’s Categories
Week 4
Brief Outline of the History of Western Science
The Division of the Sciences
And the Relation between Physics, Mathematics, and Metaphysics
Week 5
Thales of Miletus, Anaximander and Anaximenes
Week 6
Heraclitus and the Pythagoreans
Week 7
The Eleatics: Parmenides and Zeno, Empedocles of Acragas, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, Diogenes and the Atomists
Week 8
Atoms and Elements
Week 9
The Historical Development of the Periodic Table
Week 10
Etymologies of the Elements on the Periodic Table
What Can We Learn from the Columns
and Rows on the Periodic Table?
Week 11
Molecules and Minerals; Introduction to the Various Classes of Minerals
Week 12
Subatomic Particles: Neutrons, Protons, Electrons, and Quarks
Chemistry in Relation to Geology
Week 13
The Definition of Place
Different Kinds of Place in the Cosmos
The Definition of the Void
Does the Void Really Exist?
Week 14
The Four Causes in Change and
Motion: Matter, Form, Agent, and Purpose
Instrumental and Exemplar Causes
The Definition of Motion
The Six General Kinds of Motion
Week 15
The Meaning of Nature
Purpose and Order in Nature
What is Chance and Fortune?
Do Chance and Fortune Exist as Causes in Nature?
Week 16
What is Infinity?
Can the Infinite Exist in Nature?
Year I –
Natural Philosophy (Spring)
Week 1
Timely Questions: What is Time and
What Time is it?
The Relation Between Place, Motion, and Time
Moment, Point, and Momentum
Week 2
The Definition of Eternity
Time vs. Eternity
Week 3
How God’s Existence is known from the Natural World
Week 4
Mechanics: Archimedes and the Simple Machines
Week 5
Mechanics: Archimedes and the Simple Machines cont’d.
Week 6
The Invention of the Clock and the
First Machines of the Industrial
Revolution
Week 7
Intro to Astronomy: Physics in Relation to Cosmology. Overview of the Ptolemeic Model of the Universe.
Week 8
Intro to Astronomy: Copernicus and Tycho Brahe
Week 9
Intro to Astronomy: Kepler
Week 10
Intro to Astronomy: Galileo
Week 11
The Hubble Telescope and Modern Astronomy
Week 12
The Scientific Revolution and Newtonian Physics
Week 13
Tying Together Many Sciences Through Geology
Week 14
Geology Continued
Week 15
Einstein and the Theory of Relativity
Week 16
Quantum Physics, Quantum
Computers, and the Dawn of AI
Year I –
Classical Greek Literature (Fall)
Week 1
Introduction to Greek Literature
Overview of the Cosmologies
Of Western Civilization
Aristotle’s Poetics
Weeks 2 through 5
Hesiod’s Theogony
Weeks 6 through 14
The Homeric Hymns & Homer’s Iliad
Weeks 15 & 16
Homer’s Odyssey
Year I –
Classical Greek Literature (Spring)
Weeks 1 through 5
Homer’s Odyssey
Week 6
Greek Lyric: Selections
Week 7
Introduction to Greek Tragedy
Week 8
Aeschylus: Agamemnon
Week 9
Aeschylus: The Libation Bearers
Week 10
Aeschylus: The Eumenides
Week 11
Euripides: Electra
Week 12
Euripides: Electra
Week 13
Sophocles: Oedipus the King
Week 14
Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus
Week 15
Sophocles: Antigone
Week 16
Sophocles: Antigone
Year I – Ancient Greece (Fall)
Week 1
Introduction to the Geography of the Mediterranean
Introduction to Greek Historians
Week 2
Early Greek History
The Greek City State
Week 3
Herodotus: Greece and Lydia
Greek Colonization and Lydia
Week 4
Plutarch: On Solon
Herodotus: Croesus and Solon
Week 5
Herodotus: The Rise of Persia and Cyrus
Week 6
Herodotus: Croesus, Persia and the Greeks
Week 7
Plutarch: On Lycurgus
Week 8
Open Week
Week 9
Herodotus: The Rule of Darius and the
Marathon Campaign
Week 10
Herodotus: The Rise of Xerxes
Plutarch: On Spartan Sayings
Week 11
Herodotus: Xerxes’ Persian Invasion
The Battle of Thermopylae
Week 12
Plutarch: On Themistocles
Herodotus: The Battle of Salamis
Week 13
Herodotus: The Battles of Plataea and Mycale
Week 14
The Flowering of Greek Culture and Architecture
Aeschylus: The Persians
Week 15
Xenophon: The Persian Expedition
Week 16
Open Week
Year I – Ancient Greece (Spring)
Week 1
Introduction to Thucydides
Week 2
The Rise and Golden Age of Athens
Plutarch: On Pericles
Week 3
Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War
Week 4
Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War
Plutarch: On Alcibiades
Week 5
Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War
Plutarch: On Lysander
Week 6
Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War
Week 7
The Supremacy of Sparta
Week 8
Open Week
Week 9
The Supremacy of Thebes
The Rise of Macedonia
Week 10
Plutarch: On Demosthenes
Week 11
The Battle of Chaeronea
Plutarch: On Alexander
Week 12
The Reign of Alexander the Great
Alexander Conquers the Persian Empire
Week 13
The Reign of Alexander the Great
Week 14
The Reign of Alexander the Great
The Death of Alexander
Week 15
The Dividing of Alexander’s Empire
The Antigonid Empire
The Seleucid Empire
The Ptolemaic Empire
Week 16
Open Week
Syllabus Year II
Year II –
Philosophy of the Soul
Intro to Ethics, Political Philosophy,
And Metaphysics (Fall)
Week 1
Logic Review: The Ten Categories. Review of Key Concepts of Natural
Philosophy.
Week 2
Logic Review (cont’d).
The Relation Between Physics, Chemistry, and Biology
Biology and the Study of the Soul
Week 3
What is the Soul?
Week 4
Overview of the Powers of the Soul and their Operations.
The Vegetative Powers: Nutrition,
Growth, and Generation.
Week 5
The Five External Senses: Touch, Smell, Taste, Hearing, and Sight.
The Four Internal Senses: Imagination, Sense Memory, The Common Sense, and Instinct
Week 6
Sense Appetite and Its Division into the Concupiscible and Irascible
Appetites.
The 11 Emotions.
Week 7
Overview of the Human Will.
The Voluntary and the Involuntary.
The Circumstances of Human Acts
Week 8
Intention, Choice, Counsel, and Consent of the Will
Week 9
Human Intellect
What is a Person?
Week 10
Science and the Immortality of the Human Soul
Plato’s Phaedo
Week 11
Spiritual Beings: The Human Soul, the
Angels, and God. The Hierarchy of
Being.
Week 12
The Human Soul Before the Fall of Adam
The Human Soul after Death
Week 13
The Study of the Soul in Relation to
Ethics: What is the Goal or Purpose of Human
Life?
Week 14
What is “The Good”?
Different Kinds of Good
Week 15
Plato’s Meno and the Question
“What is Virtue?”
Week 16
The Four Cardinal Virtues:
Temperance and Courage
Year II –
Ethics, Politics, and Intro to
Metaphysics (Spring)
Week 1
The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence
and Justice
Week 2
The Three Theological Virtues
Week 3
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The Beatitudes
Week 4
What is Law?
How is Law Related to Virtue and
Happiness?
Week 5
The Eternal Law of God
The Natural Law and its Relation to
Human Law
Week 6
Divine Law: The Old and New Covenant
Week 7
The Relation Between Ethics and Politics
What is the Purpose of Government?
Week 8
The Citizen and Civic Virtue
The Types of Political Regimes
Week 9
Education, Culture, and the Common Good
Week 10
The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution
Week 11
Intro to Economics: What is Money, and What is Currency. The Gold Standard and Modern Fiat Currency.
Week 12
The Origin of the Modern Banking System and the Federal Reserve
Week 13
Adam Smith and the Schools of Economics. Why Economies Based on Capitalism Work Better than Marxist-Based Economies.
Week 14
Overview of Metaphysics
Week 15
The Cave Allegory and The Divided
Line
Week 16
The Neoplatoniss
Year II –
Classical Roman Literature (Fall)
Week 1
Introduction to Roman Literature
Weeks 2 through 9
Virgil’s Aeneid
Week 10
Virgil’s Eclogues
Week 11
Horace’s Odes
Week 12
Cicero On Friendship
Week 13
Cicero On Duties
Week 14
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Week 15
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Week 16
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Year II
Classical Roman Literature (Spring)
Weeks 1 through 3
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Week 4
Introduction to Medieval Literature
Weeks 5 through 8
Dante’s Inferno
Weeks 9 through 12
Dante’s Purgatorio
Week 13 through 16
Dante’s Paradiso
Year II – Ancient Rome (Fall)
Week 1
Introduction to the Geography of Rome
Introduction to the Roman Historians
Week 2
Early Roman History
Livy: Aeneus, Romulus and Remus
Week 3
Plutarch: On Romulus
Plutarch: On Numa Pompilius
Week 4
Livy: Rome Under the Kings
Week 5
Livy: The Beginning of the Roman Republic
The Government of the Roman Republic
Week 6
Livy: Patricians and Plebeians
Week 7
Livy: Early Rome at War
The Roman Military
Week 8
Open Week
Week 9
The First Punic War
Week 10
The Second Punic War
Livy: On Hannibal
Week 11
The Third Punic War
Week 12
Appian: The Gracchi
The First Triumvirate
Week 13
Plutarch: On Crassus
Plutarch: On Caesar
Week 14
Plutarch: On Pompey
Caesar: The Gallic War
Week 15
Caesar: The Gallic War
The Civil War
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
Week 16
Open Week
Year II – Ancient Rome (Spring)
Week 1
Plutarch: On Cicero
Cicero: Letters and Works
Week 2
The Second Triumvirate
Plutarch: On Antony
Cassius Dio: On Antony and Cleopatra
Week 3
Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra
Week 4
Cassius Dio: Selections on the Reign of
Augustus
Week 5
The Pax Romana
Tacitus: From Augustus to Tiberius
Week 6
Open Week
Week 7
Tacitus: Claudius and Nero
Week 8
Seneca: Letters
The Flavian Emperors: Vespasian, Titus and
Domitian
Week 9
Nerva and Trajan
Aelius Spartianus: Hadrian
Week 10
Julius Capitolinus: Antoninus Pius
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
Week 11
Military Autocracy and the Weakening of the
Empire
Week 12
Edward Gibbon: The Germanic Invasions
Week 13
Edward Gibbon: The End of The Empire in the
West
Week 14 through 15
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy
Week 16
Open Week
Syllabus Year III
Year III –
The Didache Series: Understanding
the Scriptures (Fall)
Week 1
Chapter 1: What is the Bible?
Week 2
Chapter 2: The Old Testament
Week 3
Chapter 3: The Creation of the World
Week 4
Chapter 4: The Early World
Week 5
Chapter 5: Abraham, Our Father
Week 6
Chapter 6: The Patriarchs
Week 7
Chapter 7: The Exodus
Week 8
Chapter 8: The Law
Week 9
Chapter 9: The Rise of the Kingdom
Week 10
Chapter 10: The Kingdom of David
Week 11
Chapter 11: Wise King Solomon
Week 12
Chapter 12: The Divided Kingdom
Week 13
Chapter 13: Conquest and Exile
Week 14
Chapter 14: A Remnant Returns
Week 15
Chapter 15: Revolt of the Maccabees
Week 16
Chapter 16: The World of the New Testament
Year III –
The Didache Series: Understanding
the Scriptures (Spring)
Week 1
Chapter 17: The New Testament
Week 2
Chapter 18: The Incarnation
Week 3
Chapter 19: What Jesus Did
Week 4
Chapter 19: What Jesus Did
Week 5
Chapter 20: What Jesus Taught
Week 6
Chapter 21: The Cup of Consummation
Week 7
Chapter 21: The Cup of Consummation
Week 8
Chapter 22: The Resurrection
Week 9
Chapter 23: Jesus Fulfills the Old
Testament
Week 10
Chapter 24: The Birth of the Church
Week 11
Chapter: 25: Reaching Out to All
Nations
Week 12
Chapter 26: Paul, An Apostle
Week 13
Chapter 27: The New Kingdom
Week 14
Chapter 28: The Catholic Church in Scripture
Week 15
Chapter 29: The End of History
Week 16
Chapter 30: How to Read the Bible
Year III —
Old and Middle English Literature
Celtic Literature (Fall)
Week 1
Introduction to Northern Medieval
Literature.
The Germanic and Celtic Languages
Week 2
Caedmon’s Hymn
The Dream of the Rood
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Week 3
The Battle of Maldon
The Wanderer and The Seafarer
Week 4
The Riddling Poems
Week 5 through 9
Beowulf
Week 10
The Knight’s Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer
Week 11
Introduction to Celtic Literature and
Folk Traditions. British Goblins, Welsh
Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends,
and Traditions, by Wirt Sikes
Week 12
Wirt Sikes Continued
Weeks 13 through 16
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Year III –
Norse Literature
Renaissance English Literature (Spring)
Week 1
Overview of the World of the Vikings
and the Old Norse language
Weeks 2 through 4
The Poetic Edda
Weeks 5 and 6
The Viking Sagas
Weeks 7 and 8
Introduction to English Prosody
Week 9
Early Renaissance Poetry
Week 10
Edmund Spencer
Week 11
The Cavalier Poets
Week 12
John Donne and The Metaphysical
Poets
Week 13
Ben Johnson
Weeks 14 through 16
John Milton
Year III – Medieval (Fall)
Week 1
Gildas the Wise: The Ruin of Britain
Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 1
Week 2
Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 2
Week 3
Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 3
Week 4
Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 4
Week 5
Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 5
Week 6
Introduction to Augustine
St. Augustine: The Confessions 1-3
Week 7
St. Augustine: The Confessions 4-6
Week 8
Open Week
Week 9
St. Augustine: The Confessions 7-10
Week 10
St. Augustine: The Confessions 11-13
Week 11
The Growth of Monasticism
The Rule of St. Benedict
Week 12
The Rule of St. Benedict
Week 13
The Early Medieval Ages
Week 14
Charlemagne and the Franks
Week 15
The Song of Roland
Week 16
Open Week
Year III – Medieval (Spring)
Week 1
Feudalism
Chivalry
Week 2
The Norman Invasion of Britain
Week 3
Medieval Law and
The Magna Carta
Week 4
Froissart: Selections from The Chronicles
Shakespeare: Henry the Fifth
Week 5
Islam and the Crusades
Joinville: The Life of St. Louis
Week 6
Villehardouin: Selections from The Chronicles
of the Crusades
Week 7
Jacobus de Voragine: Selections from The
Golden Legend
Week 8
Open Week
Week 9
The Saints In Art
Week 10
William Durandus: The Symbolism of Churches
and Church Ornaments
Abbot Suger: Selections
Week 11
The Medieval Cathedral and Sacred
Architecture
Week 12
Pope St. Gregory the Great: Dialogues
Week 13
The Weakening of the Middle Ages and
Transition
Week 14
St. Thomas More: Utopia, Book 1
Week 15
St. Thomas More: Utopia, Book 2
Week 16
Open Week
Syllabus Year IV
Year IV –
The Didache Series: The Blessed
Trinity and Our Christian Vocation (Fall)
Week 1
Chapter 1: Faith and Revelation
Man in Search of God
God in Search of Man
Week 2
Revelation and the Encounter with
Jesus Christ
The Deposit of Faith
The Magisterium
Week 3
Chapter 2: Understanding the Trinity
The Attributes of God: Immutability,
Eternity, Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence
God’s Real Presence in the Eucharist
Week 4
Understanding Three in One
The Language of the Trinity
The Blessed Trinity and the Christian Life
Week 5
Early Trinitarian Heresies
Week 6
Chapter 3: God the Father
God as Creator and Father
The Sacrament of Marriage
The Creation of the Angels and Their
Ministry to the Human Realm
Week 7
The Creation of Man in God’s Image
The Nature of the Soul and Body
Mind and Free Will and The Fall of Humanity
Holiness, the Purpose of Humanity
Week 8
Chapter 4: The Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ
The Early Life of Jesus
Jesus’ Baptism, Temptation, and
Beginning of Public Ministry
Week 9
The Life of Prayer
The Sermon on the Mount
The Last Supper
Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and
Resurrection
Week 10
Jesus Christ: True God and True Man
The Two Natures of Christ
The One Person of Christ
Week 11
Christ as the Messiah
Our Redemption and Call to Follow Christ
Week 12
The Holy Spirit – Third Person of the
Blessed Trinity
Pentecost and the Foundation of the Church
The Sacrament of Confirmation
Week 13
The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church
The Charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit in Sacred Scripture and Divine Inspiration
Week 14
The Theological Virtues of the Holy Spirit
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Week 15
Chapter 7: The Blessed Virgin Mary:
Mother of Jesus Christ, God the Son
The Life of Mary
Mary, Mother of God
Mary’s Immaculate Conception and Perpetual Virginity
Week 16
The Assumption of Mary
Mary, Mother of the Church and all Christians
Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Lourdes, and the Conversion of the World
Year IV –
The Didache Series: The Church
Sacrament of Salvation (Spring)
Week 1
Chapter 1: God Prepares the Way for
His Church in the Old Testament
Creation is Made for Man, Man is Made
for Communion with God
Week 2
Abraham, Moses, and David
Solomon and the Collapse of the
Kingdom
Week 3
Chapter 2: Jesus Christ Instituted the
Church
The Proclamation of the Kingdom of
God
Week 4
The Names and Images of the Church
Week 5
Chapter 3: The Story of the Early
Church
Peter, the Vicar of Christ
Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles
Week 6
The Acts of the Apostles
Week 7
Chapter 4: The Church as Sacrament
of Salvation
The Mystery of the Church
The Visible and Invisible Society
The Hierarchy of the Church
Week 8
The Roman Curia
The Office of Bishop
The Cathedral and the Parish and The Sanctifying and Governing Role of
the Church
Week 9
Chapter 5: The Four Marks of the
Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic
Unity in the Mystical Body
Heresy and the Rise of Protestantism
Week 10
Participation in the Holiness of Christ
The Catholicity of the Church and the
Distinction of Rites
The Church is Apostolic
Week 11
Chapter 6: The Church in the Life of
the Faithful
The Universal Call to Holiness
The Liturgical Year and the
Sacraments
Week 12
Seeking Holiness in Daily Life
Holiness within the States of Life
Holiness in Work
The Lay Apostolate and the
Consecrated Life
Week 13
Chapter 7: The Church as a
Communion of Saints
The Meaning of Sanctity
The Intercession of the Saints
The Veneration of Saints
Week 14
The End of History: A New Heaven
and a New Earth
The Holy Mass as Participation in the
Heavenly Liturgy
Week 15
The Last Things: Judgment, Heaven,
Hell, and Purgatory
Prayers for the Dead
St. Michael the Archangel
Week 16
Chapter 8: Mary Mother of the Church
Year IV –
English Literature from
The Age of Shakespeare to
T.S. Eliot (Fall)
Week 1
King Lear
Week 2
Hamlet
Week 3
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Week 4
The Tempest
Week 5
Alexander Pope and the Age of Satire
Week 6
The Age of Satire Continued
Week 7
John Dryden and the Augustan Poets
Week 8
Thomas Grey and the
Precursors to the Romantics:
The Graveyard Poets and the School of
the Sublime
Week 9
Robert Burns
William Blake
Week 10
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Week 11
William Wordsworth
Week 12
Shelley, Keats, and Byron
Week 13
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Week 14
Christina Rossetti
Matthew Arnold
Week 15
John Henry Newman
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Week 16
Other Victorian Poets
Year IV –
Literature Concluded
Introduction to Music Theory and
the Origins of the Music of Western
Civilization (Spring)
Weeks 1 through 3
The 19th Century American Poets
Week 4
William Butler Yeats
Robert Frost
Weeks 5 and 6
T. S. Eliot
Week 7
Chesterton and Belloc
Week 8
Other 20th Century Poets
Week 9
Introduction to Music Theory and the
Origins of the Music of Western Civilization
Week 10 through 16
Music Studies cont’d.
Year IV – Church History –
The Didache Series: The History of the Church (Fall)
Week 1
Background to Church History: The Roman World
Week 2
Chapter 1: Jesus Christ and the Founding of the Church
Week 3
Chapter 2: The Early Christians
Week 4
The Apostolic Fathers
The Didache
Week 5
Chapter 3: Early Persecution
The Edict of Milan
Week 6
Chapter 4: The Church Fathers and Heresies
The Early Ecumenical Councils
Week 7
The Canon of Scripture
Week 8
Open Week
Week 9
Chapter 5: The Church, Light in the Dark Ages
Week 10
Chapter 6: The Conversion of the Barbarian Tribes
France and Spain
Week 11
Conversion of the Celts
Conversion of England
Week 12
Conversion of Germany, Scandinavia
Conversion of the Slavs
Week 13
Chapter 7: Iconoclasm
Week 14
Chapter 7: The Carolingian Renaissance
The Great Schism
Week 15
Chapter 8: Collapse, Corruption and Reform in
Europe and the Church
Week 16
Open Week
Year IV Church History –
The Didache Series: The History of
the Church (Spring)
Week 1
Chapter 9: The Crusades, Military Orders, and
the Inquisition
Week 2
Chapter 10: The High Middle Ages: The
Scholastic Development and the Flowering of
Culture
Week 3
Chapter 11: A Century of Suffering: Plague,
War, and Schism
Week 4
Chapter 12: The Renaissance
Week 5
Chapter 13: The Reformation: Protestant and
Catholic
Week 6
Chapter 14: The Wars of Religion
Week 7
Chapter 15: Exploration and Missionary
Movements
Week 8
Open Week
Week 9
Chapter 16: The Church and the Age of
Enlightenment
Week 10
Chapter 17: The French Revolution and
Napoleon
Week 11
Chapter 18: The Nineteenth Century: The Age
of Revolution and the Emergence of
Nationalism
Week 12
Chapter 19: The Church Gives Witness in
Wars and Revolutions
Week 13
Chapter 20: Vatican II and the Church in the
Modern World
Week 14
Chapter 21: The Church in the United States
Week 15
Writings of St. Pope John Paul II and Pope
Benedict XVI
Week 16
Open Week