Degree Programs

General Education

Learning Outcomes

Saint Constantine College Student with School Spirit

Communication: Students will clearly and elegantly communicate their ideas through oral and written discourse, responsibly integrating argumentation and academic sources. (IO 1, 2, and 3)
Rational Argumentation: Students will be able to reason both theoretically and practically through the observation, evaluation, and articulation of ideas and questions. (IO 1, 2, and 3)
Quantitative Reasoning: Students will recognize, analyze, and synthesize spatial and numerical patterns in order to draw sound conclusions, solve problems, and reason creatively. (IO 1, 3)
Character for Community: Students will understand themselves as formative members of communities, embodying conviction and compassion. (IO 1, 2, and 3)

For information about program assessment, please click here.

Year One

In the first year of undergraduate study, students read, write, and conduct research on the Great Texts of the Ancient Greek, Roman, Early Christian, Early Islamic, and Medieval worlds.

Each week, they have three discussion classes and one individual tutorial on these Great Texts. The reading load for these discussions and tutorials is both demanding and rewarding, and by the end of Year One, the students will have read and studied over 35 classic texts in their entirety, including Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Plato’s Republic, Virgil’s Aeneid, Augustine’s City of God, John Damascene’s Treatises on the Holy Images, and Dante’s Divine Comedy, as well as the entire Bible and Qur’an.

First Year students also take courses in Classical Geometry and The Classical Cosmos.

Year Two

In the second year of undergraduate study, students at Saint Constantine read, write, and conduct research on the Great Texts of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Modern worlds.

Each week, they attend three discussion classes and one individual tutorial on these Great Texts. By the end of Year Two, the students have read and studied over 50 texts in their entirety, including Machiavelli’s The Prince, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of a Slave, Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, and King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” By the end of Year Two, students have experienced a rigorous overview of the texts and ideas that have shaped both the Eastern and the Western Christian consciousness.

Second Year students also take courses in The Biophysical World, Greek I, and Greek II.

The B.A. in Great Texts of the Christian Tradition

Having completed their chronological overview of Great Texts, students in Years Three and Four begin to study the great authors in tremendous depth, and have their choice of two degree emphases:

Literature and Religion

— or —

Philosophy of Religion

In their upperclassman years, students dig deeper in their study of great writers and are apprenticed in the research, writing, and dialectical skills required at the graduate level.

The Bachelor of Arts in Great Texts of the Christian Tradition (GTCT) is an interdisciplinary course of study that apprentices students in the core texts and authors of the classical, Christian tradition, from Plato and the New Testament to Shakespeare and his modern inheritors. Special focus is placed on the role of the philosophy and literature of classical antiquity and early Christianity in the development of the philosophy and literature of the medieval and modern worlds.

In addition to core Great Texts discussions and tutorials, students may choose, through upper division electives, to specialize in either Literature and Religion or Philosophy of Religion.

Through rigorous discussion and individualized tutorials, the student who majors in Great Texts of the Christian Tradition are prepared to pursue a wide variety of careers in Christian education, leadership, and scholarship.

For information about program assessment, please click here.

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Communication: Students will communicate their ideas through speaking and writing that is characterized by academic rigor, intellectual honesty, and effective rhetoric. (IO 1, 2, and 3)
The Dialectical Life: Students will practice and prioritize mature, thoughtful conversations about that which is beautiful, good, and true. (IO 1, 2, and 3)
Tradition: Students will consider the questions of the past and the concerns of the present from the vantage point of the Christian intellectual tradition. (IO 1, 2, and 3)
Research Literacy: Students will be able to find, evaluate, and appropriately engage with relevant resources to support both responsible scholarship and the examined life. (IO 1, 2)
Rational Argumentation: Students will be able to think critically and graciously, pursuing truth with detailed analysis, careful interpretation, and winsome discussion. (IO 1, 2, and 3)

At a Glance: Great Texts of the Christian Tradition

36 credits of upper division Great Texts discussions and tutorials focusing on the major classics of ancient Greek, Medieval Christian, and English Renaissance literature, philosophy, and theology
12 credits of upper division electives in either Literature and Religion (includes Literary Theory) or Philosophy of Religion (includes Logic)
Capstone Senior Thesis with a special focus on either Literature or Philosophy

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Degree Programs

General Education

Learning Outcomes

Year One

Year Two

The B.A. in Great Texts of the Christian Tradition

Learning Outcomes

At a Glance: Great Texts of the Christian Tradition