This course examines the shift from the medieval to the modern, comparing various theories of chronological demarcation and discovering the difficulty of assessing social, political, religious, and literary phenomena. There are three segments in this course, each of which explores a significant marker of what is "modern."

Segment 1: The Reformation

This covers both Protestant and Catholic Reformations in the sixteenth centuries. It begins with a special focus on Martin Luther as a transitional figure who is both medieval and modern, examining his religious insights and the socio-political consequences of his thought. It traces disputes among the Reformers, the spread of Protestant denominations throughout Europe, the political ramifications of that, and the Confessional age. It also examines early modern Catholicism, which encompasses movements of reform and renewal with Catholicism, Catholicism's reaction to the Protestant Reformation, and the Council of Trent. The segment ends with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

Segment 2: William Shakespeare

This segment begins by articulating the problem of categorizing Shakespeare and describing post-Reformation, sixteenth-century England—as "early Modern," or as "Renaissance" (which in England lasted for a relatively short period of time). Focus, of course, will be on Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, considering them in their particular context in England, in the larger context of Renaissance thought, and as addressing perennial human values and tensions.

Segment 3: Modern Science

This segment examines the new empirical and critical methods of modern science and its challenge to older methods and authorities. It begins with an early modern case study of Galileo Galilei and then carries the topic forward, looking at scientific revolutions of the eighteenth and (if possible, given time restraints) nineteenth centuries and reflecting on the notion of "scientific revolution" itself. This segment thus serves also as a transition to the other two courses in the sequence on "modernity."