Through the Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts curriculum students engage in the close reading and discussion of the classic great books, both within the curriculum’s core and in its four majors. This reading and discussion are oriented fundamentally to the acquisition of wisdom through the careful consideration of questions fundamental to human life, including those pertaining to the nature of the human person and the nature of human flourishing.
The college offers four majors: literature, philosophy, history, and theology.
These majors provide students with the opportunity to enter deeply into a discipline, engaging many of its primary texts, its key tools, and its animating principles. If the core gives students one of the broadest educations available, the majors give students the opportunity to develop a deep familiarity with a particular domain within the world of knowledge and a unique perspective on human experience.
But even here, in selecting a major, we come to know ourselves more deeply. As one of our tutors has observed, very often the student finds that he or she does not so much choose a discipline as be chosen by that discipline.
Each major consists of thirty credit hours, with each major course organized by historical period (e.g., patristic theology) or theme (ethics). Each student also completes a Junior Project during the third year in which he or she studies carefully the works of a single author in the discipline and seniors have the option of either writing a thesis or completing an independent study portfolio project in their discipline.
Students of any major may also elect to earn a Fine Arts Concentration.
Southern Literature
This course is a study of the poetry and fiction of the literary renaissance of the twentieth century. Emphasis is on the communal character of the poetic vision and includes the writings of Davidson, Ransom, Tate, Warren, Porter, Welty, Gordon, Faulkner, O’Connor.
The Russian Novel
In this course students take up the fiction of Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. A special emphasis is accorded the theme of the abrupt and relatively belated confrontation of Christian society with European modernity.
Literary Criticism
This course concentrates on nineteenth and twentieth century critical theory, with its treatment of the nature of poetic form, mimetic theory, genre, and the imagination. It culminates in a comprehensive critical study by the student. Emphasis is on the development of the student’s own critical ability.
The English Poetic Tradition
This course consists in the study of poetry and prose from the Anglo-Saxon period up to Milton, with emphasis 
on Shakespeare and the major seventeenth-century lyric poets of the metaphysical and Cavalier schools. Students also consider the genius of English poetry and the origin of the man of letters.
Romanticism
This course consists in a study of the romantic movement in European and English literature, with special concentration on the themes of individual authenticity, revolutionary politics, the philosophical and theological importance of the imagination, the encounter with the demonic, the nostalgia for a lost simplicity of being, and the reverence for nature as the source of moral law. Writers studied include Rousseau, Goethe, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, the Shelleys, Keats, and others.
Modernism
In this course students take up the phenomenon of modernism, particularly in England and America, with its emphasis on formal qualities, irony, point of view. Focus is on connections between modernist poetry and neoclassical and Victorian literature as well as the roots of the modern novel in satire.
The theology major courses build on (1) the six semesters of theology taken by all students at the college (equaling eighteen credit hours) and (2) the theological texts read in the Philosophy and Humanities sequence.
Examples of Theology major courses include:
Creation and Incarnation
The Incarnation is the central event of creation. It defines man and cosmos and ties the threads of physical, mathematical, and moral law into a unified whole. In this course students explore the theology of the Incarnation (1) in relation to the religion of temple Judaism, (2) as the “man-as-microcosm” of the Church Fathers, especially Maximus the Confessor, and (3) as the culmination of the development of created forces as explored by theology, science, and moral philosophy. Through this process, students refine their understanding of the Incarnation using the framework provided by St Thomas in his Summa Theologiae. In this course students also read works by St. Athanasius, St. Maximus the Confessor, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, among others.
Patristic Exegesis
Following the general direction of Henri de Lubac and the Ressourcement movement of the twentieth century, this course explores the Biblical exegesis of the patristic era. Students read in depth the key exegetical texts from influential authors of the patristic period. Students also come to understand and evaluate the methods used by the Church fathers in interpreting Scripture and make use of those methods in their own exegetical work.
The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (cross-listed with Philosophy)
This course aims to lead each student into and beyond the Summa Theologiae, providing a carefully selected survey of the Thomistic corpus in its philosophical and theological dimensions. Students begin to grasp not only the depth and breadth of Thomas’ work but also those sources that influence him as well as his influence on later generations. Most importantly, students to begin to grasp the way in which Thomas’ work leads to a coherent, unified understanding of Truth in many different ways. Texts include: The Treatise on the Divine Nature, The Treatise on Human Nature, The Treatise on the Virtues, The Summa Contra Gentiles, Thomas Aquinas: Selected Writings, and Pieper’s Guide to Thomas Aquinas.
Medieval Theology and Philosophy (cross-listed with Philosophy)
This course is a survey of medieval thought from Boethius to William of Ockham. Topics considered include universals and individuation, the human intellect, virtue theory, the idea that theology is an Aristotelian science, divine attributes, Trinitarian theology, Christology, soteriology, and sacramental theology.
Leo XIII and the Social Teaching of the Church
This exploration and close reading of the encyclicals of Leo XIII will enable students to master the sources that have informed the contemporary social doctrine of the Church. Projects will include an original application of the thought of Pope Leo XIII, e.g., the ethical participation in civil government and the practice of truth as a virtue.
Newman and the Twentieth Century Theologians
In this course we begin by carefully identifying the notes of true doctrinal development as identified and described by Blessed John Henry Newman. We then critically examine twentieth-century movements in theology, paying special attention to the argument over the relationship between nature and grace and the relationship of the Church to non-Catholics. In this course students examine works by John Henry Newman, Pius XII, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Marie-Dominique Chenu, Henri De Lubac, Yves Congar, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, and Pope Saint John Paul II among others.
The Medieval Quest for Wisdom
Through this course students undertake and enquiry into the methods and conclusions of medieval theology, with particular consideration of the question: how does one become wise? The texts for this course will include St. Albert the Great’s Commentary on Dionysius’ Mystical Theology, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Disputed Questions on the Virtues, St. Bonaventure’s Collations on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and Peter Lombard’s Sentences.
The History major introduces students to the study of the past as a way of understanding human experience. Students reflect on how we know truths about the past and on the past’s relationship to the present day. They also study topics of fundamental importance to Western culture and the Christian tradition. In addition to the course on the nature of historical thinking, courses in the major are offered on Ancient History, European History, and American History. An example History course follows:
Remember the Past: The Study of History
This is a course about history itself – what can we know and say about the past? what bearing does it have on the present? To answer these questions, we will examine different ways of thinking about, understanding, and writing history. This will involve a consideration of earlier historians – Herodotus, Thucydides, and Eusebius, for instance – and of more recent authors such as Christopher Dawson and John Lukacs. We will also give special consideration to exploring whether there is a distinctively Catholic understanding of history.
Philosophy of History (cross-listed with Philosophy)
This course aims to aid in theorizing about the nature of historical events and the meaning of history with a particular emphasis on Vico, Hegel, Toynbee, and Voegelin.
As a Philosophy major, a student will build on the eight semesters of philosophy they have already studied within the Philosophy and Humanities Seminars. Whereas those courses proceeded more chronologically and across disciplines, the courses for the major focus on particular areas within philosophy, e.g., metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology as well as more concentrated historical periods. Examples of these courses include:
Epistemology
In this course students will engage directly with philosophical texts from throughout the Western intellectual tradition in order to develop their understanding of epistemology. Key questions will animate this study: What is knowledge? How do we come to know? Is knowledge innate or acquired? How is knowledge related to personal identity? Does true knowledge really exist at all? How ought one respond to the challenge of skepticism? Key texts will include the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic philosophers, Augustine, St. Thomas, Locke, and James.
Metaphysics
In this course students take up the central questions of metaphysics: What is being? What is its nature? Is being one, a unity, or is being many, a plurality? Does it have one identity across time or does it undergo change? Are there grades or levels of being? Are there different modes of being? Philosophers studied include Parmenides, Heraclitus, Thales, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Kant.
The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (cross-listed with Theology)
This course aims to lead each student into and beyond the Summa Theologiae, providing a carefully selected survey of the Thomistic corpus in its philosophical and theological dimensions. Students begin to grasp not only the depth and breadth of Thomas’ work but also those sources that influence him as well as his influence on later generations. Most importantly, students to begin to grasp the way in which Thomas’ work leads to a coherent, unified understanding of Truth in many different ways. Texts include: The Treatise on the Divine Nature, The Treatise on Human Nature, The Treatise on the Virtues, The Summa Contra Gentiles, Thomas Aquinas: Selected Writings, and Pieper’s Guide to Thomas Aquinas.
Modern and Contemporary Philosophy
In this course students take up some of the major philosophical problems from the late nineteenth century to the present, focusing on prominent philosophers in various fields.
Medieval Theology and Philosophy (cross-listed with Theology)
This course is a survey of medieval thought from Boethius to William of Ockham. Topics considered include universals and individuation, the human intellect, virtue theory, the idea that theology is an Aristotelian science, divine attributes, Trinitarian theology, Christology, soteriology, and sacramental theology.
Philosophy of History (cross-listed with History)
This course aims to aid in theorizing about the nature of historical events and the meaning of history with a particular emphasis on Vico, Hegel, Toynbee, and Voegelin.
In addition to their major, students may also choose to concentrate in the fine arts. The Fine Arts Concentration offers students the opportunity to adopt a humanistic, philosophical, and theological focus on (a) those arts that seek to create beauty and (b) the experience of those arts. Drawing upon and extending the curricular and co-curricular offerings in music and the visual arts, including the college’s Arts of the Beautiful Program, this concentration is ideal for those students who have studied music or art prior to enrolling at the college and those who intend to cultivate the arts non-professionally in postgraduate life.
The Fine Arts Concentration consists of eight semesters of choir, four semesters of Studio Art, the one-credit reading course in the Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics, a Senior Thesis or Portfolio devoted to a topic in the fine arts, and an optional directed readings course, recital, or exhibition. These courses are further supplemented by the study of art and music in the Philosophy and Humanities sequence and the learning of sung Compline in the theology course devoted to Prayer and the Sacraments.
Students seeking the Fine Arts Concentration will also have the opportunity to participate in either the Polyphony Choir or Chant Schola, and will be encouraged to participate in the spring-semester theatrical production and Arts of the Beautiful Program events.
