Portraits of Courage: The Cost of Conscience
Portraits of Courage: The Cost of Conscience
(38) Portraits of Courage: The Cost of Conscience - Thomas Wood, Department of Music
The price of living by one’s conscience can be very high. What is conscience? Who says? Why bother? Is there a cost too high? This seminar will consider the examples of Thomas More, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Dmitri Shostakovich, the challenges they faced, and the sacrifices they embraced to lead lives faithful to conscience.
Possible primary texts include:
- Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
- More, A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation
- Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
- Solzhenitsyn, The Cancer Ward
- Shostakovich, Fifth Symphony
Films may include:
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A Man for All Seasons (1966, Paul Scofield)
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Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Pacifist, Nazi Resister (2004)
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Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn (1999)
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Testimony: The Story of Shostakovich
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Keeping Score: Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5