High School Literature: The Screwtape Letters

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Literature: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (Modern Catholic Classics Series)

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Class dates: Tuesdays, September 13 to October 18, 2011
Total classes: 6
Suggested grade level: 10th to 12th or college
Starting time: 10:00 am Eastern (9:00 am Central)
Duration: One hour
Fee: $80 if you register on or before August 1, 2011. $100 after August 1 for all 6 classes.
Instructor: Henry Russell, PhD
Prerequisite: Ability to enjoy reading and discussing the works.
High school credit: ½ semester credit; for full credit you may follow with Dr. Russell’s course on The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K.Chesterton.
Course description: Clive Staples Lewis quietly sought to be the Dante of the modern world. His imaginative explications of the conditions of Hell and demonic “thought” are the best of their kind in the last 700 years. In The Screwtape Letters the experienced tempter Uncle Screwtape seeks to educate his nephew Wormwood in the proper way to undermine a human soul.
The muddled semi-thinking promoted by an educational system that ignores not only theology but basic logic proves one of the Infernal world’s greatest allies. It is further aided by a selfish notion of rights with no accompanying duties and modern man’s sentimental view of his virtues based only on kind emotions that require no sacrifice. But in many ways the heights of the book are achieved as Uncle Screwtape rails against the unfairness of the God he has rejected, giving the kind of truly Christian vision of the power, beauty, wisdom, and boundless energy and love of God that the atheists want no one to remember has always been the Catholic concept of the divine.
To know yourself much better, and to know God well indeed, read this book.
Course outline:
Class One—C.S. Lewis and Letters 1-3
Class Two—Letters 4-10
Class Three—Letters 11-17
Class Four—Letters 18-24
Class Five—Letters 25-31
Class Six—“Screwtape Proposes a Toast”
Course materials: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Homework: Dr. Russell will provide quizzes, essay topics, and a midterm and final exam to be graded by the parent. Answer keys provided.

Equipment requirements:
Classes are online, live and interactive. Students are required to have high-speed internet and a headset with microphone.

Misc:
Dr. Russell will be available via email in between classes for questions and comments.
Recordings of classes are provided to students within 24 hours and available for 6 months.
Homeschool Connections does not provide record keeping services.

Literature: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (Modern Catholic Classics Series)

click on course title to register