The Core Texts Program is a two semester course sequence, Cultural Perspectives 101 and 102,  taken by all Samford University students. In these courses students engage ideas that form a narrative of human learning. 在这里, they are taught to read, 认为, communicate by interacting with classic texts that have stood the test of time.

For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the 原因 why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives. Marcus Tullius Cicero

每一种文化都试图解释人性、自然世界、宗教和政治团体. The Core Texts Program ensures that our graduates understand this quest. 更, 它使他们能够自信地进入他们所选择的职业，他们有能力进行有意义的批判性思考.

While our curriculum emphasizes Western 认为ers, 葡京app下载还认识到，某些常年主题是每一种文化和文明发展的一部分. Disparate voices in time and place often converge in the task of transmitting values. To this end, the curriculum integrates texts from non-western, or global sources, including especially Asia and Latin America.

目标+

核心课文计划强调过去的词汇，因为葡京app下载认为它们对现在很重要. Four words in particular summarize our purpose: 任命的, Disputatio, 信用, 比.

调查(任命的)

We teach our students how to ask questions of texts and ideas.

Discussion (Disputatio)

We emphasize the place of conversation and debate for the life of the mind.

信仰(信用)

We believe the Christian 信仰 in order that we may understand our nature, hope, purpose.

原因(比)

We develop the rational faculty as a principle of the soul, trained through discipline and habit.

Philosophy+

调查, 讨论, 信仰, 原因 reveal what make us human. 从一开始，高等教育就追求将价值观代代相传的问题和答案. Many contemporary college and university curriculums neglect this pursuit. Samford's Core Texts Program gives it primacy of place. 葡京app下载用知识叙述来武装葡京app下载的学生，帮助他们在现代世界复杂的思想市场中导航. 葡京app下载的课程强调西方知识传统和基督教知识传统, but it also includes important voices from non-Western cultures. We cherish the great writers and 认为ers of the past, yet we also recognize that their wisdom must constantly be translated for a new generation.

For centuries reading great works of literature, 历史, 哲学, theology served as an initiation into the life of a mature educated person. The mind and the soul were believed to share a relationship, 课程的设置是为了培养文明人所需的道德推理能力. In recent decades universities have largely abandoned this enterprise. 在葡京app下载, 然而, 葡京app下载仍然重视变革的经历，这种经历来自于参与塑造葡京app下载文明及其价值观的重要思想.

历史+

In the fall of 1997, Samford University introduced an entirely new Core Curriculum for its undergraduate programs. Referred to simply as "the Core,新课程以大学前两年完成的综合课程取代了过时的、迥然不同的普通教育要求. This curriculum has become an essential part of Samford's undergraduate experience. 它是凝聚人文学科的向心力，涉及大学生活的方方面面, the sciences, the professional schools.
 
A general element of the Core Curriculum is Cultural Perspectives, a two-semester introduction to the humanities. Led by Dean Rod Davis, Dr. John Mayfield, Dr. Rosemary Fisk, 霍华德学院的教员们设计了一门课程，向新生介绍他们的知识传统，并挑战他们超越传统的思考. As professors from many disciplines, 他们决定充分利用自己的多样性，创建一门跨学科但又相互关联的课程. To that end, all sections of Cultural Perspectives share a common chronology and certain common texts, 但每位教授都是通过自己所受学科训练的优势来学习材料的.
 
During the first two years of the new curriculum, professors experimented with readings that complemented the common texts. Every section's list was different, yet certain works appeared consistently. 出于方便和成本的考虑，把这些阅读材料放在一个共享的源代码中似乎是明智的. The sourcebook is just that--a book of sources, materials which can be used in class, in research projects, for personal enlightenment. We do not pretend that these readings form a canon of any sort; they represent only a tiny fragment of the thousands of documents that have shaped our culture. 他们是, 然而, a starting point, 介绍葡京app下载与西方知识传统和世界各地知识传统的共同对话.

Opportunities+

核心教材项目提供了许多机会，鼓励学生在大学第一年的智力发展:

  • An entire academic year studying great works of literature, 哲学, 历史, theology;
  • 小对话课堂;
  • Published professors who model the writing and 原因ing skills they are teaching;
  • Study abroad opportunities in Athens, Rome, London;
  • Public events reflecting the themes of the program; and
  • The belief that education is fundamentally relational, as such, involves trust.

Core Texts In London

每年秋季，教师都会从他们的班级中提名最优秀的学生参加每年5月春季学期结束时举行的伦敦核心教材计划. 这两周独特的体验让有才华和雄心的学生有机会在葡京会官方app下载伦敦校区学习重要作家，参观英国历史和文学的著名景点, The Daniel House.

Classics Trips to Athens and Rome

核心教材计划帮助发现并鼓励一年级学生参加古典学系的雅典和罗马之旅. 每年一月，古典学系都会轮流在希腊和意大利进行为期三周的教育体验，在那里，学生们可以体验西方文明的基本文化.

Student Teaching Assistants

核心教材项目正在设计一种学生指导系统，利用人文专业的优秀高年级学生来协助教师和一年级学生作为导师和讨论领袖. These assistants will represent the best of their majors, they will help our freshman adjust to the "great conversation" of Cultural Perspectives.

Core Texts Debates/Discussions

核心文本计划在整个学年中举办三场活动，让学生亲眼见证与本课程主题相关的辩论或讨论:耶路撒冷与雅典之间是每年秋季的一次演讲，主题是古典与基督教世界的神学与哲学交叉. 每年2月举行的“冬季宗教改革辩论”，讨论了围绕着新教改革的神学问题. “现代性的意义”每年四月举行，讨论与现代和后现代时期有关的神学和哲学问题.

Student Paper Award

每一学年，教师都会提名学生论文作为年度最佳文化视角学生论文的考虑因素. 第一个, 第二个, 第三名的获奖者将获得现金奖励，颁奖仪式将在总统家举行的春季招待会上举行.

Fall Curriculum+

Fall semester, students are introduced to great 认为ers from the Greeks, 罗马人, Early Christianity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance.

Greece and the Ancient World

  • 荷马, 《葡京app下载》
  • Greek Tragedy: Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes
  • Herodotus, 历史
  • 柏拉图, 共和国, Death of Socrates
  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics

Rome and Early Christianity

  • 维吉尔, The Aeneid
  • 西塞罗, Defense Speeches
  • 塞内加, Selected Letters
  • 奥古斯汀, Confessions, The City of God
  • The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas

Middle Ages

  • Benedict of Nursia, Rule of Saint Benedict
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
  • Marie de France, 赖的
  • Julian of Norwich, Revelations
  • 但丁, The Divine Comedy

Renaissance and European Exploration

  • Christine de Pizan, City of Ladies
  • Shakespeare, 李尔王
  • Pico de Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man
  • Popul Vu
  • Sonnet Collection
  • Bernardino de Sahagun, Florentine Codex

101 Asian World Core Texts

  • Confucius, The Analects
  • Siddhartha Gautama, The Path to Enlightenment
  • Buddhist Nuns, Therigatha
  • 老子, Tao-te Ching
 

Spring Curriculum+

Spring semester takes them through the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the ideological foment of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Early Modernity

  • Martin Luther, Freedom of A Christian
  • John Calvin, Institutes of The Christian Religion
  • Ignatius Loyola, Autobiography, Spiritual Exercises
  • Margaret Fell, Women Speaking
  • Galileo Galilei, Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina
  • Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method

Enlightenment

  • Thomas Hobbes, 利维坦
  • John Locke, Second Treatise On Government
  • Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
  • Thomas Paine, Common Sense, Age of Reason
  • Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of The Rights of Woman
  • Novel and Poetry (Various Authors)

Nineteenth Century

  • 卡尔·马克思, Communist Manifesto
  • Charles Darwin, Origin of Species
  • Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals  
  • Novel and Poetry (Various Authors)

Twentieth Century

学院通过从广泛的文本选择来结束课程，这些文本反映了当代思想的复杂性. 选择范围从后殖民小说到各种关于极权主义恐怖的论文. Important works from Existentialist, 女权主义, 马克思主义, Post-Modern authors are used, as are texts that offer provocative responses to the Post-Modern condition including works by C. S. Lewis, Alasdair Macintyre, Pope John Paul II.