SATA Athens (Greece) 2004

Program Description | Courses

During the Fall semester of 2004, the SATA (Athens) Greece 2004 was directed by Garrett Green, professor of religious studies, accompanied by his wife, Priscilla Green, a high school English and Latin teacher, a veteran of SATA Mexico 2000.

Extensive information about the host institution, College Year in Athens, its organization, academic programs, faculty, and facilities can be found on their Web site (http://cyathens.org/cya/home.htm). They provided meals, dormitory and classroom facilities, medical and safety needs, educational trips to other parts of Greece.

Beyond the classroom, provided by CYA, were three field trips and a variety of extracurricular activities. In addition, Professor Green and his wife hosted regular weekly meetings in their home to provide orientation, help with problems of adjustment, and foster social and intellectual interaction among the Connecticut College students.

SATA Greece 2004 Courses at CYA
Professor Green's Courses

In addition to instruction in Greek language (optional for CC students), CYA offered courses organized in two tracks. CC students were able to choose courses from either or both tracks as well as the Connecticut College courses to be taught by Professor Green (see below).The other students in the classes were mostly from American or British colleges and universities. The tracks are:

CYA: Track One: Ancient Greek Civilization “invited students to amplify and give flesh to their knowledge of ancient Greece, and to deepen their understanding of Greece’s fundamental contribution to the development of Western civilization.” Courses announced for fall 2004 included Aegean and Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology; History of Ancient Greece; Aegean and Ancient Greek Painting; Ancient Greek Athletics; Emergence and Development of Athenian Democracy from the Ancient Sources. This part of the curriculum was ideal for students majoring in history or any of the humanities, especially philosophy, religious studies, art history, theater, and classics.

CYA: Track Two: East Mediterranean Area Studies was directed “to South East Europe, Western Asia, and the Middle East in the time period from the founding of Constantinople (330 AD) to the present.” The courses for the fall of 2004 included Politics of the Middle East: Domestic Challenges & External Threats; Power, State and Religion: A History of Byzantium (324–1453 AD); The Ethnography of Greece; and a seminar in Religions of Southeastern Europe and the Middle East. This side of the curriculum was ideal for students of history, government, sociology, and anthropology, as well as the fields mentioned above.

See the complete CYA curriculum online.

Professor Green's Courses

Professor Green offered the following two courses as part of the SATA Athens 2004 program:

REL 227 Christ and Christ Figures Interpretations of Christ in the ancient and modern worlds, including Jewish messianic beliefs, the quest of the historical Jesus, and fictional transfigurations of Christ in the modern imagination. Answers to the question Who is Jesus Christ? from his disciples to modern historians, novelists, film makers, theologians, and philosophers—including Nietzsche, Kazantzakis, Graham Greene, Luis Buñuel, and the Jesus Seminar. Particular attention to the portrayal of Jesus in the New Testament gospels and modern fiction, and in films based on both.

This course began with the reading of a modern Greek novel, The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis, after which students compare Martin Scorsese’s film version. One of the other main documents studied is, of course, another Greek text, the New Testament.

PHI 260 / REL 260 Philosophy of Religion Philosophical issues raised by religious belief and practice. Topics included the existence of God, religious experience, faith and reason, the problem of evil, miracles and revelation, religious pluralism, and postmodernism. Reading and discussion of classical and contemporary thinkers in Western tradition. This course, which is cross-listed in two departments, included study of both the Anglo-American and the Continental European traditions of philosophy, both of which have their roots in ancient Greek culture.

Students were expected to enroll in at least one of these courses, which were designed for general liberal arts education but could also be counted towards a major in religious studies and/or philosophy.