Religions of Rome: The Good Life WT, ET

In this course we will examine “the good life” as Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian philosophers and moralists wrote about it. Commonly treated in terms of set themes (for example, justice, self-control, civic responsibilities, detachment, and pleasure), definitions of the good life had many common themes but still varied greatly with regard to both what the good life comprised and on what it was based. Primary readings will draw on such writers and works as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Epictetus, Musonius Rufus, Plutarch, wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible, Philo of Alexandria, Sirach, Tobit, 4 Maccabees, Paul of Tarsus, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the Didache and Clement of Alexandria. Secondary literature will put these works in context and provide models for comparing and contrasting the views they discuss. 3 hrs. sem.