UCCP 101 Cultural Perspectives

I. Greek Origins of Western Thought
For an extensive library of classic resources, including text, art, and secondary resources, visit the Perseus Project at Tufts University. There you will gain entrée to the wisdom of the ages like this advice on diet and exercise.

For Jowett's Introduction to Plato's Republic click here.

Read Lincoln's Lyceum Address for an argument supporting the rule of law.

Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau, presents a different perspective. 

"The Letter from the Birmingham Jail" and other works at Stanford's Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project.
Their edition of "The Letter from the Birmingham Jail" is mirrored here for non-commercial use only.

Visit Dr. Jonathan Bass's website for links to Civil Rights Institute and further research.

Modern Poetry: Read Dudley Randall's poem about the Sixteenth Street Church bombing, "The Ballad of Birmingham."

II. Christianity and Medieval Culture
General Information for Period
For a well-maintained and carefully indexed collection of medieval sources visit NetSERF: The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources.

Find a variety of medieval texts, bibliographies, and commentaries at Georgetown's Labyrinth: A World Wide Server for Medieval Studies.

For another well-indexed site with links to conferences, databases, general medieval resources, graphics, history (by region), newsletters, language resources, libraries and museums, literature and manuscripts, AND MORE, go to Kansas's On-Line Reference Books for Medieval Studies. 

The Internet Medieval Source Book is extensive, indexed, has links to on-line manuscripts, full-text resources, newly translated texts, and for Saints fans a special section, Saints' Lives.

Selections by Augustine of Hippo: Augustine's complete works as well as those of his contemporaries and predecessors are available at the New Advent. A modern translation of the Confessions is available as part of Fordham University's Medieval Source Book.

Chaucer's MetaPage at University of North Carolina.

Ancillary Materials

See what a first edition Dante manuscript looked like at a site produced by the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago and the Newberry Library.

Visit a handy Quran resource page here for insight into the Middle Eastern experience of the Medieval period.

For a taste of French love poems from the Late Middle Ages, sample these excerpts from Ronsard.

III. The Renaissance
Learn about Leonardo da Vinci's life and times, view images of his oil paintings, drawings and sketches, or examine an index of Da Vinci resources at this virtual museum.

Click on Michelangelo's signature (at left) to see his sculpture, paintings and links to other Michelangelo Buonarroti page.

See the details of Renaissance and Baroque architecture at the University of Virginia's Digital Image Center.

The Library of Congress's Vatican Exhibit traces the impact of the Renaissance on Rome.

IV. Exploration and Encounter

Visit the Internet Public Library's Shakespeare Bookshelf.