Dates: June 23rd to July 1st, 2024 
Total Credits: 3
Application Deadline: May 31, 2024
Apply Online Now!

It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that, government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

— Gettysburg Address , November 19, 1863

In this course, professors from the Templeton Honors College will help students grapple with the history of America as the continuing struggle to complete the “unfinished” work of the American Revolution. That work was rooted in the idea that “all men are created equal” and are granted certain unalienable rights by God their Creator that should be acknowledged and honored by the government. Capitalizing on its unique location just outside Philadelphia, the first capital of the United States, the course will examine three “revolutions” in American history: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement. These three revolutions represent the ongoing work of the United States to live up to its founding ideals of freedom, dignity, and equality for all people. 

The course will include readings in primary sources, seminar discussions, and visits to places where these revolutions occurred, including Valley Forge National Park, Independence Hall, Carpenter’s Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Museum of the American Revolution, and the Gettysburg Battlefield and Cemetery. Students will stay on the campus of Eastern University, St. Davids, PA, home of the Templeton Honors College.

Dates: July 7th to 15th, 2024
Total Credits: 3
Application Deadline: May 31, 2024
Apply Online Now!

J. R. R. Tolkien’s stories present us a world seeming unlike our own, but which in many ways calls to us like a faint, almost forgotten memory. In this course we will explore how Tolkien uses fantasy and imagination as vehicles to explore and explain the Christian faith, without ever once mentioning Christianity. This course in literature, theology, and ethics, guided by Tolkien’s Christian vision and imagination, present throughout his works, asks students to reflect on how imagination and its auxiliaries (myth, story, epic, wonder) can enrich their understanding of God’s world and ways, and of their place in this world. The course also includes daily times of devotion and prayer, visits to Eastern’s world-class planetarium and observatory, and a field trip to Philadelphia.

• The Examined Life: Knowledge, Wisdom, Virtue, Calling (Western Civilization)
• Coding with the Ancients (Python Coding/Technology Ethics)
• Citizenship: On Earth as it is in Heaven? (Western Civilization)
• Divorcing the Devil: The Moral Vision of C.S. Lewis (Theology/Literature)

If you wish to be kept up to date regarding Summer Scholars, please email our Director of Recruitment, Austin Ricketts, at austin.ricketts@eastern.edu and indicate your interest in Summer Scholars. We will e-mail you when course fees are available and deadlines are approaching.