2023-2024 Humanities for Everyone

2023-2024 Humanities for Everyone Forum: Community, Friendship, and Identity

Humanities for Everyone is a set of three, non-credit, 8-week forums for Bethel alumni and friends that provides guided, small group discussion of selected “Great Books,” under the direction of Bethel Professor Emeritus Daniel Ritchie. It is informally linked to Bethel’s Humanities Program—a program of history, literature, theology, philosophy, politics, and the arts in the western tradition. Each 8-week forum will consist of four, bi-weekly Zoom meetings, in which we will discuss about 50 pages of text. Ample guides will be provided for each reading. 

Humanities for Everyone seeks to nurture Bethel community members and friends in their lifelong learning and Christian discipleship. It aspires to cultivate meaningful relationships among Bethel community members and connections to the ongoing life of Bethel University. Participants (Bethel University alumni, parents/family members, friends, and employees) can register for one forum, two forums, or all three forums. 

Fall 2023 Forum: Making and breaking human community in Aristotle and Arthurian England
Aristotle, Politics, and (Anon.) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
All Zoom Meetings are from 7-8:15 p.m. Central Time.

• Tuesday, September 12 – (No Zoom Meeting) Online lectures available. Online discussion begins.
• Meeting #1: Tuesday, September 19 – First Zoom Meeting on Aristotle, Politics
• Meeting #2: Tuesday, October 3 – Second Zoom Meeting on Aristotle, Politics
• Meeting #3: Tuesday, October 17 – First Zoom Meeting on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Meeting #4: Tuesday, November 7 – Second Zoom Meeting on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Thursday, November 9: Optional Dinner Event

Winter 2024 Forum: Manipulation, leadership, and friendship in Shakespeare and Jane Austen
William Shakespeare, I Henry IV, and Jane Austen, Emma
All Zoom Meetings are from 7-8:15 p.m. Central Time.

• Tuesday, January 16 – (No Zoom Meeting) Online lectures available. Online discussion begins.
• Meeting #1: Tuesday, January 23 – First Zoom Meeting on Shakespeare, I Henry IV
• Meeting #2: Tuesday, February 6 – Second Zoom Meeting on Shakespeare, I Henry IV
• Meeting #3: Tuesday, February 20 – First Zoom Meeting on Austen, Emma
• Meeting #4: Tuesday, March 5 – Second Zoom Meeting on Austen, Emma
• Thursday, March 7 – Optional Dinner Event
• The Guthrie Theatre is presenting I Henry IV in its spring offerings, March 23-May 25.

Spring 2024 Forum: What happens when we create our identities: Friedrich Nietzsche and C.S. Lewis
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, and C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
All Zoom Meetings are from 7-8:15 p.m. Central Time.

• Tuesday, April 2 – (No Zoom Meeting) Online lectures available. Online discussion begins.
• Meeting #1: Tuesday, April 9 – First Zoom Meeting on Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
• Meeting #2: Tuesday, April 23 – Second Zoom Meeting on Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
• Meeting #3: Tuesday May 7 – First Zoom Meeting on Lewis, Abolition of Man
• Meeting #4: Tuesday, May 21 – Second Zoom Meeting on Lewis, Abolition of Man
• Optional Dinner Event to be scheduled later.