Credo Catalog Information
An Interdisciplinary Honors Program Program offered • Honors Program The Credo honors program offers a distinctive, challenging way to fulfill the Core distribution courses required for graduation. Credo students enter the program by taking a Credo Inquiry Seminar their freshman year and then take three more specially designated exploration courses, one each in the humanities and fine arts, natural sciences and mathematics, and social sciences. For students who do not take a Credo Inquiry Seminar, both a humanities and a fine arts Credo designated exploration course are required. The Credo designated exploration courses are typically team-taught by outstanding faculty who bring a distinctive approach and perspective to the subject. These courses are only open to Credo students and are topics not usually covered in other courses at Concordia. During the junior or senior year, Credo students undertake directed independent research projects typically in the area of their major. Students are invited to join the Credo program at admission or during the fall semester of their first year. The requirements for graduating with Credo honors are as follows: 1. An overall Concordia grade point average of 3.5 or higher 2. Successful completion of a Credo Inquiry Seminar or an additional humanities or fine arts Credo exploration course 3. Satisfactory completion of a Credo exploration course in each of the three Core areas 4. Satisfactory completion of a capstone independent study project in the junior or senior year After completing their Credo Inquiry Seminar, the remaining required Credo courses can be taken in any order. Usually, there are several Credo courses offered each semester. The Credo exploration courses count toward the completion of the exploration course requirements of the Concordia College Core Curriculum. The Credo honors program also includes an optional, abroad experience located in either Crete or Italy. The location is alternated yearly. In the program, students spend 10 weeks of the semester in Italy or in Crete and other countries in the Mediterranean. Students spend the first three weeks of the spring semester at Concordia taking classes to prepare for the abroad portion of the program. Accompanied by two Concordia professors, students and faculty will live in a residential, off-season resort hotel in Crete and travel to important archaeological sites in Greece and other Mediterranean countries. In Italy, they live in the Italian mountains south of Rome and travel to Rome, Florence, Ravenna and Venice. Students may also travel independently during a seven-day spring break period.
Credo Courses
CRDO Inquiry Seminars – Credo students are to enroll in Inquiry Seminar sections specifically structured for Credo students. The topics vary from year to year and are paired with oral or written communication courses that connect Credo students into the larger Credo student community.
CRED 131 D – Germany, Third Reich, Holocaust, 4 credits.
CRED 222 N, A – Life in the Universe, 4 credits. E1. This course will begin with an introduction to the nature of science and what distinguishes it from other modes of thinking. Then we will discuss the current state of the knowledge about life on Earth. Using this foundation, we will then begin exploring the possibilities of life existing elsewhere. In this section, we will focus on the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and their composition, the habitable zone, the search for finding earth-sized planets in that one and finally ways we are searching for signatures of life and, in particular, extraterrestrial intelligence among the stars.
CRED 224 B, S – American Exceptionalism, 4 credits. E1. This course addresses the history, the development, and the current status of the idea of American exceptionalism, the idea that there is something unique and even preeminent about the United States. We consider the economic, cultural, political and moral implications of this idea.
CRED 231 E – The Renaissance Lecture, 4 credits. E1. This course explores the art and literature of Renaissance Italy and includes an Exploration Seminar component, a trip to Italy, during midsemester break.
CRED 232 E – Arthurian Legends, 4 credits. E2. This course explores the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, from medieval origins to modern interpretations, including literature, movies, art and music.
CRED 236 H – Existentialism and World Cinema, 4 credits. The meaning of our existence became an especially acute problem in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Science seemed to be undermining the authority of religion. Psychology, especially the discovery of the unconscious, seemed to undermine our self-knowledge. And the industrial revolution seemed to undermine our status as human beings, since it seemed to convert human beings into mere extensions of machines. The great existential questions are: What does it mean to be a human being? Is there a God? Is there free will? How does one live authentically and free oneself from “bad faith”? We will be considering these questions as they are addressed in the great existentialist works of philosophy, literature and film.
CRED 480 – Independent Study, 4 credits.
Course Catalog
