Advanced Courses

stability, unemployment, inflation, recessions, and the role of government. This course will additionally relate macroeconomic analysis to Catholic Social Traditions.

PSAE 336 Microeconomics Introduces microeconomics in the context of current problems. Explores how market mechanisms allocate scarce resources among competing uses; uses supply, demand, production, and distribution theory to analyze problems. Studies free market concepts in contrast to other economic systems, as well as profit, production and distribution. The course will also explore specific problems concerning labor unions, agriculture, foreign trade, urban economic problems, and anti-trust regulations while also situating microeconomic analysis in the tradition of Catholic Social Thought.

PSAE 362 Rhetoric and Public Speaking The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the fundamental principles of rhetoric and rhetorical analysis and to apply those principles by means of oral presentations. The course will focus on the application of rhetorical principles and strategies in both written and spoken form. We will also examine the application of rhetorical principles in political speech and persuasion as well as in visual and auditory media. Students can expect to gain insight into the understanding, recognition, and application of the principles of rhetoric as well as learn how to apply these principles to their own writing and speaking. Required of all majors.

PSAE 379 On Justice What is justice? This is one of the central questions of moral and political philosophy, if not the central question. In this course we will examine how various classical, medieval, and modern thinkers have defined and answered this question. Their answers pertain not just to matters of positive law but the way we conceive of natural, divine, and eternal law. Their understanding of justice is also bound up with their understanding of practical reason. Contemporary political problems stem in some way from rival conceptions of justice, so the resolution of those problems at the philosophical and practical level requires the correct conception of justice, both human and divine.

PSAE 382 Politics Practica The purpose of this course is to provide students with the opportunity to learn from people involved in all aspects of politics, including people who work in government, private consultants, shapers of public opinion, and entrepreneurs. These practical exercises will give students an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of the public policy process and the range of careers open to them, preparing them to obtain employment in their career of their choice. Students who take Politics Practica are eligible for three (3) credit hours for an internship subsequent to the course. (See PSAE 521 below) Pre-requisite: Permission of the Director of the Politics Practica and permission of the department chairman. Politics Practica may not be repeated for credit.

PSAE 401 Natural Law Theory This course examines the principles of natural law and how they can be applied to contemporary public policy issues. The survey of principles of the natural law will be Thomistic in its approach but also review alternative accounts of natural law. Students will consider the relationship between human nature and natural law, positive law and natural law, and whether the natural law can change. Students will then examine how the

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principles of natural law apply to contemporary controversies such as abortion, marriage, and religious liberty. Required of all majors.

PSAE/CECS 421 Classical Political Theory The purpose of this course is to more deeply study the fundamental principles of political theory through a historical survey of classical political thought. We will examine how each of the thinkers studied addressed enduring problems of political theory and contributed to the Western tradition. It is also hoped that this course will help students understand the maladies of contemporary politics, in order that they may apply themselves to remedying those maladies and contribute to the restoration of all things in Christ.

PSAE 422 Medieval Political Theory The purpose of this course is to more deeply study the fundamental principles of political theory through a historical survey of medieval political thought. We will examine how each of the thinkers studied addressed enduring problems of political theory in his given historical context. In particular, we will explore the relationship between revelation and political philosophy. It is also hoped that this course will help students understand the maladies of modern politics, in order that they may apply themselves to remedying those maladies and contribute to the restoration of all things in Christ.

PSAE 427 Modern Political Theory The purpose of this course is to more deeply study the fundamental principles of political theory through a historical survey of modern political thought. We will examine how each of the thinkers studied addressed enduring problems of political theory in his given historical context. While the study of political theory is good in and of itself, it is also hoped that this course will help students understand the maladies of modern politics, in order that they may apply themselves to remedying those maladies and contribute to the restoration of all things in Christ.

PSAE 428 Contemporary Political Theory The purpose of this course is to more deeply study the fundamental principles of political theory through an historical survey of contemporary political thought. We will examine how each of the thinkers studied addressed enduring problems of political theory in his given historical context. In particular, we will focus on the themes of liberty, democracy, totalitarianism, and the sexual revolution. While the study of political theory is good in and of itself, it is also hoped that this course will help students understand the maladies of modern politics, in order that they may apply themselves to remedying those maladies and contribute to the restoration of all things in Christ.

PSAE 431 International Relations The major issues concerning international relations are presented in the context of realist, liberal, and constructivist theory. Special attention is devoted to state power, sovereignty, non-state actors, transnational issues, human rights, international organizations, regime theory, international trade, development, the global commons, and collective goods in the WWII, Cold War, and post-Cold War environments. We will discuss institutionalism and the obligations of America, the Church, and the individual.

PSAE 433 Revolutionary Conflict The reasons for revolution are presented in the context of Western history. The greater part of the course is devoted to the study of the breakdown of the

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political order and the rise of radical ideologies which led to wholesale bloodshed in society. Particular attention will be focused on the English Civil War, American War for Independence, the French Revolution, the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the Russian Revolution, and the Leninist model for revolution in the Third World.

PSAE 479 Jurisprudence and the Catholic Lawyer Such key areas as the meaning and source of law, basic themes in legal philosophy, individual rights, and interpretation of laws are examined through lecture and discussion of key contemporary legal issues. The course outlines the utilitarian character of modern jurisprudence and equips students with the understanding they need to inform an authentically Catholic legal perspective.

PSAE/THEO 482 Theology and the Public Order The issues of Church and State, secularization, and the temporal common good are analyzed in light of the Kingship of Christ, the divine prerogatives of the Catholic Church, and a sound theological anthropology. Special attention will be given to the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae of Vatican II.

PSAE 489 Honors Seminar A seminar on a special topic in political science to be determined by the department chairman in consultation with interested and qualified students.

Pre-requisites: Minimum 3.25 GPA and permission of the Department Chairman. (4 credit hours)

PSAE 490-99 Special Topics or Directed Studies in Political Science & Economics

Specially designed courses of readings in areas not sufficiently covered by another course already in the curriculum.

PSAE 491 Political Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas St. Thomas Aquinas was primarily a theologian, but he was also one of the most important political thinkers of the Middle Ages. His political thought influenced early modern scholastics like Vitoria but fell into neglect in the eighteenth century. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the thought of St. Thomas has influenced Catholic social doctrine, natural law theory, and, increasingly, contemporary political philosophy. This course seeks to examine the theological and philosophical sources of Aquinas’s political thought and suggest ways in which it is relevant today. It is hoped that students will gain a deeper knowledge of St. Thomas’s influence on the tradition of Catholic social and political thought and its relevance for the modern world.

PSAE 512 Senior Seminar and Thesis Direction of the student’s senior thesis, a major paper on a topic of interest. The student receives instruction and individual assistance in the development of a topic, research methods, outlining, organizing, and writing a paper. Students are required to defend their theses in an oral presentation. Required of all majors.

PSAE 521 Practica Internship Students enrolled will participate in an internship (minimum of eight weeks at 30 – 40 hours per week). (See PSAE 382 above) Pre-requisites: PSAE 382 and permission of the Director of the Politics Practica . Internship may not be repeated for credit.

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Theology

Theology plays a particularly important role in the search for a synthesis of knowledge as well as in the dialogue between faith and reason. It serves all other disciplines in their search for meaning, not only by helping them to investigate how their discoveries will affect individuals and society but also by bringing a perspective and an orientation not contained within their own methodologies . . . Every Catholic university should have a faculty, or at least a chair, of theology. Catholic theology, taught in a manner faithful to Scripture, Tradition, and the Church’s Magisterium, provides an awareness of the Gospel principles which will enrich the meaning of human life and give it a new dignity.

John Paul II, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, 19-20

This department seeks to restore and advance the scholastic discipline of Theology, the “Queen of the Sciences”. The Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian reminds us that “the object of theology is the Truth which is the living God and His plan for our salvation revealed in Jesus Christ”. (8). Every course is designed both to cover the perennial truth taught by the Church and developed by the Catholic theological tradition, and to expose the false steps which have led to widespread loss of orthodoxy in recent years. As the late Pope John Paul II stressed in his address to the Pontifical Academy of Theology, the vitality of theological study “does not lie in a relativism or historicism”. Rather, the theological vocation requires

“. . . a supreme concentration on the truth, an understanding that is a journey with and, above all, a following of Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Theology thus becomes a journey in communion with the Person-Truth who is Jesus Christ, in a relationship of fidelity, love and self-giving, under the guidance of the Spirit of truth (cf. Jn 16,13), who has the mission of recalling Jesus’ words and of helping Christians understand and live them in an interior lucidity throughout the changing history of humanity.” (Address to the Pontifical Academy of Theology, February 16, 2002)

From the Aeterni Patris of Leo XIII, through the Doctoris Angelici of Pius X and the Studiorum ducem of Pius XI, down to the Second Vatican Council, the Church has taught that the spirit, methods, and principles of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, yield the optimal results in speculative theology. Therefore THEO 301, 305, and all the upper division courses in speculative theology include the reading of St. Thomas and are all taught according to his approach. Thus the Theology Department at Christendom College takes special care to insure

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