Christian Epics (World Literature)

  • Duration: 15 Weekly 60-min. Discussions
  • Schedule: Spring 2027
  • Price: $400
Overview

This preceptorial offers support for Lutheran students reading through the Christian epics of Dante and Milton. Focused on faith-based dialogue, students will be immersed in the literary concepts relevant to these great works of literature which have stood the test of time. We will examine how these works have influenced Western culture, as well as apply lessons learned from the readings to our own lives. This preceptorial will have once-a-week live sessions online for one hour.

Objectives

This curriculum features many objectives, including those that follow. The student will ...

  1. ... read Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
  2. … analyze these epics from a Christian worldview.
  3. … compare and contrast various authors and works
  4. … grow in an understanding of Greek, Italian, and English culture and its influence on greater Western culture.
  5. … choose, practice, and recite selections from these works.
  6. … memorize and recite pertinent Scripture verses.
  7. … hone in on themes in these epics.
  8. … practice leadership skills with class discussion and prayer.
  9. … make life applications from lessons learned from the readings.
  10. … be immersed in a classically Lutheran learning dialogue.
  11. … participate and collaborate in a liturgical model of learning.
  12. … learn through leisure and contemplation.
Outline
  • Weeks 1–9: Divine Comedy
  • Weeks 10–15: Paradise Lost
Related Course(s)

Instructor

Mrs. Marie MacPherson is completing (summer 2026) an MA in the great books at Memoria College. She has a BA in elementary education with a certification as a Lutheran teacher in the Evangelical Lutheran Synod as well as a classical Lutheran education certificate from the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education. As a homeschool mother with nearly two decades of experience, she has coordinated music camps, art enrichment courses, and speech teams. She is author of several books, including Teaching Your Children Chastity and a two-volume devotional entitled Meditations on the Vocation of Motherhood. Homeschool moms across America have come to Marie for advice, which finally led her to suggest to her husband that they expand their service to their neighbors by establishing Lifelong Lyceum.

Scheduling

This course will be offered in the spring of 2027. The specific times for weekly videoconference sessions will be announced in the near future. To express your intention to enroll and indicate a preferred meeting time, contact us.

Our Unique Approach

  • Supporting families in lifelong learning
  • Offering interactive live sessions through small-audience videoconferencing
  • Teaching according to the classical pursuit of goodness, truth, and beauty
  • Cultivating the values of Western civilization: natural law, cardinal and theological virtues, Socratic questioning, syllogistic reasoning
  • Promoting the ideals of America’s founding: representative government and the rule of law for protecting people’s God-given rights to life, liberty, and property
  • Standing on the foundation of the historic Christian faith as taught in Holy Scripture and confessed in the ecumenical creeds and Augsburg Confession
 

Pre-Register for Fall 2026 Today

For our Natural Childbirth Class, registration is available now by clicking here.

For all other courses, please browse our catalog of offerings and click here to pre-register. (Lifelong Lyceum will contact you about scheduling live sessions and send you an invoice in mid summer, at which time you may complete your registration with a payment or else modify or cancel.)

Testimonials

One would be hard pressed to find someone who understands classical Christian education better than Dr. Ryan MacPherson and his wife Marie. He is a highly respected scholar and they are both firmly grounded in a biblical worldview. I highly recommend their Lifelong Lyceum courses.

—Rev. David Thompson, director of the Center for Apologetics and Worldviews

My high school student was well equipped and deeply edified by Marie MacPherson’s seminars on the Greek tragedies. She guided students with rigorous and thoughtful discernment into meaningful life application and strong scriptural integration. Her teaching cultivated intellectual inquiry, historical perspective, and spiritual reflection. My son benefited tremendously from the fruitful contemplation she fostered throughout the course.

—Kate, Ohio