2021-22 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2021-22 Undergraduate Catalog [Archived Catalog]

ENG 450SR - Aesthetic Experience and the Christian Faith

(4 credits)
Students in this Senior Seminar will consider the role of the arts in their lives, both as they have studied the arts at Northwestern, and as the arts will find a place in their lives going forward. As works of art develop in the artist’s concentrated attention, the state we call “inspiration,” so the experience of the work of art is an experience of concentrated attention to the thing itself, losing oneself in the work. While interpretation of the work in the broadest sense (both recognizing its structure and identifying its essential themes) can help to enrich the experience, the experience itself is the point. For aesthetic experience responds to the call of beauty, and in it we enter the presence of God.

Prerequisite: Literature major or permission of instructor.