The first book we read in Torrey Honors College is Homer’s Iliad. Incoming students have to read it before the first day of class, before they’ve met their professors or their cohort. Here are five strategies for reading the book well, understanding it deeply, and
Fred Sanders
Fred is a systematic theologian with an emphasis on the doctrine of the Trinity. He and his wife Susan have two adult children and are members of Grace Evangelical Free Church. Read more about Fred here.
Posts
“Faculty Favorites Outside Our Curriculum”
Here’s a fun list from some profs in the Torrey Honors College: Books we love so much we would each include them in our regular curriculum (if we could all agree on them and on what to cut to make room for them). This list
Essay / Literature
Raisin in the Sun: Text and Film
Not long ago, the Torrey Honors College added Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun to our regular curriculum. Any time you drop a twentieth-century text into a Great Books curriculum, you’re taking a gamble: No matter how well the book is regarded, it’s only
Essay / Literature
The Gates of Linden Hills
A pilgrim and his poet-guide, side by side, gaze up at the gates and read the weather-beaten inscription: I am the way out of the city of woeI am the way to a prosperous peopleI am the way from eternal sorrow If you know your
Essay / Literature
Iliad: Why the Lattimore Translation
The curriculum of Torrey Honors College starts out with Homer’s Iliad. This means the book has a special place in the life of our program: students we have admitted into the program but haven’t met in person yet mostly read it in advance over the
Essay / Theology
Seismic Retrofit Apologia
“When the people in the pew ask the pastor to explain the Trinity, they do not want clever analogies or carefully worded creeds. They want to know what Scripture says about the Trinity.” Carl Beckwith says this in his book The Holy Trinity (Luther Academy,
Essay / Theology
The Joy of the Lord
Luke 3:21-22, the baptism of Christ: “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove…” Brothers and sisters, we are reading here about the Holy Spirit, so what is there for me to say? Lift up your
Essay / Theology
Jesus Was Also Baptized
Luke 3:21: “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying…” Picture the scene: There was a big crowd at the river, and people were getting dunked in the water by John, who was so good at
Essay / Theology
Webster’s “Courses Charted but Not Taken”
A Companion to the Theology of John Webster is a great collection of essays on the development of Webster’s theology, and on major doctrines important in his work. The epilogue is unique, though: it’s a very helpful report and analysis of what Webster was working
Essay / Art
Jesse Hamm, Cartoonist’s Cartoonist
Comics artist Jesse Hamm has died. Jesse worked in comic books at all levels: from the self-published days of photocopied zines, up through small presses and indie/alternative publishers, to Marvel & DC. Click through to the obituary at comics.com for a list of his most
Essay / Education
Torrey’s Two Houses (2009)
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Torrey Honors College, we’re looking back at some important moments in our history. One of those is the expansion and division of the College (then known as an Institute) into two distinct houses. To get the fell and
Essay / Theology
Introducing Junius on the Trinity
Franciscus Junius (1545-1602) was an important theologian in the Protestant Orthodox tradition. He is most famous for his influential Treatise on True Theology, with its profound approach to theological method. Junius taught widely across all the major doctrines of Christian theology, but never published a