Year two of the four-year Thomas Aquinas College curriculum. All courses are year-long.

Note Concerning “Equivalent Credit Hours”: Equivalent Credit Hours are based on an analysis of the Thomas Aquinas College curriculum in terms of equivalent semes­ter hours of conventional college subjects. It should be noted, however, that these are approximate. The integrated nature of the curriculum would make a precise calculation somewhat artificial, so the estimates can be regarded as fairly conservative.

 

 

Theology 2 (Patristic Theology)

 

The course begins with St. Augustine’s presentation of how to treat scripture in On Christian Doctrine, then turns to a study of grace, predestination, and freedom of choice, as presented in several of his writings against Pelagius. This is followed by the reading of St. Athanasius’ treatise On the Incarnation. Much time is then devoted to the bulk of St. Augustine’s City of God and thus to the questions of God’s providence, the origins and progress of the earthly and the heavenly cities, and the character of the Christian as pilgrim.  The course then considers St. Anselm’s proof for the existence of God and concludes with an initial study the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, as presented by St. John of Damascus.

Readings

  • St. Augustine: On Christian Doctrine, Anti-Pelagian Writings, The City of God
  • St. Athanasius: On the Incarnation
  • St. Anselm: Proslogion
  • St. John of Damascus: On the Orthodox Faith

Credit Hours: 6.0

 

 

Philosophy 2 (Natural Philosophy)

 

This course is an introduction, using Aristotle’s Physics and On the Soul, to the philosophy of nature. Beginning with a dia­lectical search for the principles of change students then turn to the way in which these principles clarify the phenomena of natural motion. In particular students consider matter, form, and privation as principles; work through the differentiation of causality into formal, material, moving, and final cause; contrast what occurs by necessity with what happens by accident; and think about the meaning of motion. The course then focuses on the animating principle of living things, asking what the soul is and how it relates to nutrition, sensation, imagination, and intellect.

Readings

  • Aristotle: Physics (Books I-III) and On the Soul

Credit Hours: 6.0

 

 

Natural Science 2 (Atomic Theory and Measurement)

 

Although beginning with a continuation of the study of measurement initiated in Natural Science 1, this tutorial is principally an introduction to the atomic theory in chemistry. It begins with the investigation of the physical properties of gases, including the ideal gas law and its use in establishing an absolute scale of temperature. It then moves into a study of the principles of chemical change, beginning with ancient arguments for and against the atom, next turning to the laws of definite and multiple proportions and the law of equivalents, then to valence, molecular structure, and structural formulas, and culminating in the argument for the periodicity of chemical elements. Frequent laboratory work provides a basic empirical foundation.

Readings

  • Pascal: On the Equilibrium of Liquids and On the Weight of the Mass of the Air
  • Aristotle: On Coming to Be and Passing Away
  • Lavoisier: Elements of Chemistry
  • Papers by Dalton, Gay-Lussac, Proust, Richter, Avogadro, Men­deleev, Cannizzaro, et al

Credit Hours: 6.0

Equivalent Credit Hours

  • 4.5 (Chemistry)
  • 1.5 (Physics and Measurement)

 

 

Mathematics 2 (Ancient and Modern Astronomy; Geometry of Conics)

 

Beginning with Ptolemy’s Almagest, students deepen their grasp of geometry and use it to understand the observable motions of celestial bodies. After readings in the Copernican critique of ancient astronomy, students work through Kepler’s discoveries concerning the elliptical orbit of Mars and consider his introduction of physical causes into the science of astronomy, as presented in his New Astronomy, and use trigonometry to solve problems of mathematical astronomy. In order to shed more light on the work of Kepler, as well as to prepare students for the study of Descartes and Newton in the junior year, the course ends with the study of the first three books of the Conics of Apollonius, in which students extend their geometrical understanding to the parabola, hyperbola, and ellipse, and also begin to consider the methods and purposes of mathematical analysis.

Readings

  • Ptolemy: Almagest
  • Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
  • Kepler: The New Astronomy
  • Apollo­nius: Conics

Credit Hours: 8.0

Equivalent Credit Hours

  • 6.0 (Mathematical Astronomy)
  • 2.0 (Geometry)

 

 

Language 2 (Latin and English Grammar)

 

The first semester of the course continues the study of Latin syntax through reading original texts in Latin, which was begun in Language I. A unit on the nature of poetry and rhythm is also studied. Semantics is also considered. The second semester focuses on Martin of Denmark’s De modi significandi, which attempts to root grammatical prin­ciples in more general considerations of human knowing and art. In the second semester considerable time is spent reading texts in Latin by St. Thomas Aquinas and others.

Readings

  • Syntax and Readings According to the “Stem Method” (Vols. 2 and 3)
  • Martin of Denmark, De modi significandi (On the Modes of Signifying)
  • C.S. Lewis: Studies in Words
  • Essays on grammar and poetry
  • Selections of Latin and English poetry
  • Various Latin texts by St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and others

Credit Hours: 6.0

Equivalent Credit Hours

  • 4.0 (Latin)
  • 2.0 (English)

 

 

Seminar 2 (Roman and Medieval Philosophy, Poetry, and History)

 

In this course students read and discuss the epic poetry, philosophy, and history of ancient Rome, as well as several works of philosophy and literature of the middle ages. Using these books, students consider the following: the political and po­etic founding of a nation; the philosophy of atomist materialism; the institution and corruption of Roman liberty and the ethics of a Roman tyranny; the desire for the divine knowledge of self and knowledge of God; the providence of God and the problem of evil; poetry, rhetoric, and argument; the use of allegory; the meaning of “teaching” and “learning”.

Readings

  • Virgil: The Aeneid
  • Lucretius: On the Nature of Things
  • Cicero: On Duties
  • Epictetus: Manual
  • Livy: From the Founding of the City
  • Tacitus: Annals following the Death of the Divine Augustus
  • Plutarch: Lives (The Gracchi, Caius Marius, Cato the Younger, Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus)
  • St. Augustine: Confessions and On the Teacher
  • Boethius: The Conso­lation of Philosophy
  • Dante: The Comedy
  • Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
  • Spenser: The Faerie Queen
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: On the Teacher

Credit Hours: 4.0

Equivalent Credit Hours 

  • 2.0 (Literature)
  • 1.0 (History)
  • 1.0 (Philosophy)