LEAP (Life Enriching Adult Programs)
Below is the list of Adult Programs being planned for 2010-2011.
(Or click here for a list of past programs.)
Genealogy 101
Instructor: Catherine Dente
Sessions: Four(4) Wednesdays, 1:00 to 2:30 pm
Dates: Sep 29, Oct 6, Oct 13, Oct 20
Where: Jefferson Room
Limited to 15 participants
Bring your own laptop computer to class each week.
Session 1: Getting Started on Your Family History--a Pedigree Chart, finding home sources, good interview questions for collecting oral history, and how to find out what research has already been done on your families.
Session 2: Basic Research Methods--Learn how to plan a successful search, gather evidence, record and document what you find, accepted approaches to citation, organizing what you collect, standard forms, introduction to computerized databases.
Session 3: Census Records - A Cornerstone Source--Learn how federal population schedules, state census records, as well as auxiliary schedules and census substitutes can all help advance your research. Finding and using Directories, Maps & Gazetteers, immigration and naturalization records.
Session 4: Vital Records - Birth, Marriage & Death--Learn how to use published and online sources for vital records, how to contact record offices, and how newspaper and cemetery records can fill in the gaps of your Family History.
Five Great Religions
Instructor: To be determined
Sessions: To be determined
Dates: Fall 2010
As the modern world has grown smaller, religion, in many ways, seems to have grown larger and more significant. At this moment:
- A new wave of religious fervor is sweeping the Islamic world.
- Christianity is finding new environments in which to blossom, including Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Russia.
- In the United States, our neighbors and coworkers are increasingly likely to be devout followers of religious traditions that are unfamiliar to us.
Unfortunately, these questions - which can yield a genuine understanding of how religions are lived and practiced - are rarely asked in contemporary discussions of religion, especially in the news media.
This course is an authoritative and up-to-date survey of the history and nature of the world's five major faiths: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. This enjoyable, informative course - taught by highly popular Teaching Company professors Luke Timothy Johnson and Malcolm David Eckel, as well as three dynamic specialists new to The Teaching Company - gives you an insider's look at each religion by exploring the issues most meaningful to its adherents.
Race: The Power of an Illusion (DVD from the PBS Series)
Instructor: Margret O'Neall and others
Sessions: 3
Dates: Fall 2010 or Winter 2011
Race is one topic where we all think we're experts. Yet ask 10
people to define race or name "the races," and you're likely to
get 10 different answers. Few issues are characterized by more
contradictory assumptions and myths, each voiced with absolute
certainty. We all know that people look different. Anyone can
tell a Czech from a Chinese. But are these differences racial?
What does race mean?
The producers of this series felt it was important to go back to
first principles and ask, What is this thing called "race?"
It is a question so basic it is rarely raised. What we discovered is that most of our common assumptions about race - for instance, that the world's people can be divided biologically along racial lines - are wrong. Yet the consequences of racism are very real.
How do we make sense of these two seeming contradictions? Our hope is that this series can help us all navigate through our myths and misconceptions, and scrutinize some of the assumptions we take for granted. In that sense, the real subject of the class is not so much race but the viewer, or more precisely, the notions about race we all hold.
Cathedral of the World (Book by Forrest Church)
Instructor: To be determined
Sessions: To be determined
Dates: November 2010 - January 2011
In this collection of sermons, essays and speeches, author and longtime Unitarian minister Forrest Church lays out a framework for a 21st-century universalist faith. Contrary to popular opinion, he says, universalism is the most morally rigorous of theologies because of its call to respect and even embrace otherness, rather than merely to tolerate or, even worse, dismiss it. The son of a senator, Church makes a nuanced argument for the role of spirituality in politics, and argues that the story of America is a narrative of gradual moral progress, in which deed begins to approximate creed.
As with many such collections, this volume at times feels too dated (in chapters focused on Terri Schiavo, the Oklahoma City bombing, and Y2K), too local (in sermons given to his congregation) and too oral (in jokes that were surely funnier when spoken aloud). Yet considering that Church has terminal cancer and thought his previous book, Love and Death, would be his last, such imperfections fade. An acclaimed minister's erudite and perhaps final treatise against theological parochialism, what he calls our era's most dangerous dysfunction, this book is an essential read for anyone interested in liberal religion.
God is Back (Book by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge)
Instructor: Jack Scherer
Sessions: 4
Dates: February 2011
On the street and in the corridors of power, religion is surging worldwide. From Russia to Turkey to India, nations that swore off faith in the last century?or even tried to stamp it out?are now run by avowedly religious leaders. Formerly secular conflicts like the one in Palestine have taken on an overtly religious cast. God Is Back shines a bright light on this hidden world of faith, from exorcisms in S?o Paulo to religious skirmishing in Nigeria, to televangelism in California and house churches in China.
Since the Enlightenment, intellectuals have assumed that modernization would kill religion?and that religious America is an oddity. As God Is Back argues, religion and modernity can thrive together, and America is becoming the norm. Many things helped spark the global revival of religion, including the failure of communism and the rise of globalism. But, above all, twenty-first century religion is being fueled by a very American emphasis on competition and a customer- driven approach to salvation. These qualities have characterized this country?s faith ever since the Founders separated church and state, creating a religious free market defined by entrepreneurship, choice, and personal revelation. As market forces reshape the world, the tools and ideals of American evangelism are now spreading everywhere.
The global rise of faith will have a dramatic and far- reaching impact on our century. Indeed, its destabilizing effects can already be seen far from Iraq or the World Trade Center. Religion plays a role in civil wars from Sri Lanka to Sudan. Along the tenth parallel, from West Africa to the Philippines, religious fervor and political unrest are reinforcing each other. God Is Back concludes by showing how the same American ideas that created our unique religious style can be applied around the globe to channel the rising tide of faith away from volatility and violence.
The Power of Myth (the work of Joseph Campbell)
Instructor: Mark Anderson
Sessions: 4
Dates: To be determined
An exhilarating journey into the mind and spirit of a remarkable man, a legendary teacher, and a masterful storyteller, conducted by TV Journalist Bill Moyers in the acclaimed PBS series. Sessions include: The Hero's Adventure, The Message of the Myth, The First Storytellers, Sacrifice and Bliss, Love and the Goddess, and Masks of Eternity.
Science and Religion
Instructor: To be determined
Sessions: To be determined
Dates: To be determined
Two crucial forces, science and religion, helped shape Western civilization and continue to interact in our daily lives. What is the nature of their relationship? When do they conflict, and how do they influence each other in pursuit of knowledge and truth?