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ACADEMICS

JPI 971

The Meaning of Courtship

In light of cultural shifts (owing to liberalism, feminism, the sexual revolution, and technology) which have called the system of courtship (leading to marriage) into question, this course will consider the basic assumptions of that approach to marriage, namely: (i) that the chief undertaking of youth (adolescence) is to find someone with whom to bind oneself irrevocably in the hope of fruitful life, (ii) that the undertaking follows some determined (given) pattern, (iii) that it is guided from within a community, (iv) that the goal itself has far-reaching social/economic implications (not being a private affair).

Above all the course will consider these (challenged) assumptions in light of their anthropological (philosophical and theological) roots, beginning with the most basic one—the orientation of human life towards a "state of life" and of human love (eros) toward a transcendent horizon. It will furthermore consider the conception of "youth" ("adolescence") and "adulthood" (and therefore of education) that courtship implies, as well as the public dimension of love, marriage, and sex that courtship assumes.

Readings for the course will include texts from Denis de Rougement, Bailey, Coontz, Carlson (historical), from Kass and Bloom, Whitehead, Hymowitz, and Marquardt (cultural), Austen, Tolstoy, Berry, Wojtyla (literary), finally from Plato, Bacon, Smith, Tocqueville, Balthasar, Giussani (anthropological).