Topics

Each month, someone different will be in charge of selecting a topic and suggested reading.

• May: Cosmopolitanism (articles attached below)
  
• Overview of cosmopolitanism:  K.A. Appiah “Global Citizenship” and video interview (http://aje.me/zp5wLq)

• Relevancy of topic: Washington Post article on the increasing rise of anti-immigration sentiment in Europe

• Anti-cosmopolitan thinking: classic article by Samuel Huntington on the clash of civilizations
• April: book: Soul Searching
• http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Searching-Religious-Spiritual-Teenagers/dp/0195384776
  
• Jan 2012: Wendell Berry
• Summary of his ideas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry#Ideas
• Essays
  
• In Distrust of movements: http://thegreenhorns.wordpress.com/essays/essay-in-distrust-of-movements-by-wendell-berry/
• The Pleasures of Eating: http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/pleasures-eating/
• Why I am not going to buy a computer: http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/berrynot.html
• Faustian economics: hell hath no limits: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/0082022
• Compromise, Hell!: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/147/
• November: Occupy Wall Street
• Mike: Occupation and realignment: http://www.salon.com/2011/10/18/occupation_and_realignment/singleton/
• Mike: email: Subject: More on OWS from you-know-who
• Mike: Tea partiers: The self-hating 99%: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/2011101883450141716.html
• Ben M: Theology of OWS: http://www.jeffkeuss.com/blog/?p=1059
• Kevin: Can the middle class be saved: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/can-the-middle-class-be-saved/8600/
• Mike: The New Progressive Movement:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/the-new-progressive-movement.html
• Ben W: email: Occupy Halloween (Ben wins the creativity award this time) :)
• Optional:
• Thane: Materialism and Life Satisfaction (.pdf attachment below)
• Ben M: Wright article (.pdf attachment below)
• June: Kevin: Is technology making us stupid?
• Multitasking ourselves to death, from NetFuture: http://www.netfuture.org/1998/Jul3098_75.html#2d
  
• Original article in The Atlantic by Nicolas Carr: Is Google making us stoopid? http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
• Rebuttal in The Atlantic by James Cascio: Get Smarter: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/07/get-smarter/7548/
  
• Responses with lots of interesting comments:
  
• Response in the Britannica blog by Clay Shirky: http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/07/why-abundance-is-good-a-reply-to-nick-carr/
• http://www.edge.org/discourse/carr_google.html
• Review of Carr's new book at Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/05/09/the_shallows
  
• March 14th: Mike: Labor unions, income inequality
• Attachement below: PDF contains 3 articles
  
• Feb ?: Kevin H: Pelagianism revisited
• Pelagius entry from the Catholic Encyclopedia: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11604a.htm
• Attatchment below: chapter from 'Listening for the Heartbeat of God, by Phillip J. Newell'
  
• Oct 11th: Ben W: Art
• See attachment below: art readings.pdf
  
• Sept 7th: Mike: Politics (continued)
• http://hectocotylus.blogspot.com/2010/04/vanishing-liberal-by-kevin-baker.html
• http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/423__0332-Alesina11.pdf
• http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2010/06/pdf/voter_demographics.pdf
• http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/07/12/palin_cranks_up_2012_campaign.html
• Also, attached is a chart comparing the popular-vote performance of the Whig Party and the Republican Party in the  three election cycles before their respective historic flameouts.
  
• Aug 10th: Mike: Politics
  
• July 13th: Geoff: Immigration
  
• June 8th: Read Genesis 1-3 and continue discussion from last week
• May 11th: Ben M.  John Haught
• April 13th: Keith: Health Care
• Mar 9th: Geoff: selection of Hauerwas essays on war:
• http://web.archive.org/web/20040113123619/http://www.saintnicks.com/education_detail.php?ArticleType=education&ID=305
• http://www.harvardichthus.org/sections/features/2009/11/war-and-the-american-difference/
• http://hopeofalltheworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-do-you-know-war-is-war.html
  
• Feb 9th: Kevin: selection of essays on not voting.