From: Joseph M. Knippenberg
Date: 4/22/99
Time: 2:12:01 PM
Remote Name: 165.117.55.23
No one said it was easy, nor would it be accurate to deny that there is student resistance. But the books we have chosen here at Oglethorpe (e.g., Aristotle's _Politics_ and _Ethics_, Locke's _Second Treatise_, Tocqueville's _Democracy in America_, and Augustine's _City of God_) can be taught in such a way as to make it difficult for students to remain comfortable with their old opinions. You _do_ have to proceed slowly and you have to be an effective advocate for the text you are currently teaching. And, needless to say, you have to figure out ways of making that text "come alive" for the students. (Thus I have often used Lockean natural law to inform student casuistry about the issue of abortion. I also constantly raise versions of the "theological-political problem" in an effort to appeal to whatever residual piety remains--usually quite a substantial reservoir here in the Southeast. Another approach that has elicited some interesting responses begins from a comparison of various accounts of property--those of Locke, Aristotle, and Aquinas come to mind--and raises questions about the relationship between appropriation and stewardship.)