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Torrey Berkeley is a summer program which takes Torrey Honors Institute students to Berkeley, California for the three weeks of Biola's first summer session. It was launched in 1999 by John Mark Reynolds and has run every summer since then under the leadership of Fred Sanders and Paul Spears.

Students and faculty live together in Westminster House North, a historic building designed in 1923 by California architect Julia Hunt Morgan. The curriculum of Torrey Berkeley is a departure from the usual great books core of the Torrey Honors Institute, allowing for lighter works which could not compete with the traditional great books canon, or more recent works which have not yet proven themselves with multiple generations.

Torrey Berkeley 1999: Faith and Fantasy

This course was designed and led by John Mark Reynolds, and featured extensive interaction with Philip E. Johnson. It also included a field trip to Sacramento. The curriculum consisted of:

  • C. S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles
  • C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
  • J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy
  • George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind

Torrey Berkeley 2000: Ladies and Gentlemen

Led by John Mark Reynolds. Fred Sanders led one session, on Perelandra from Lewis' Space Trilogy.

  • Anthony Trollope, selections from the Barsetshire Chronicles: The Warden, Barchester Towers, and Dr. Thorne.
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Hound of the Baskervilles
  • C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
  • Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy

Torrey Berkeley 2001: Bonhoeffer and Chesterton

Designed and led by Fred Sanders, this course focused on the writings of two modern Christians who responded in very different ways to their cultures. Philip E. Johnson led the session on Orthodoxy, Dan Yim led the session on Thomas Aquinas, and Robert Garcia led a session.
The curriculum was:

  • Bonhoeffer: Psalms: Prayerbook of the Bible
  • Bonhoeffer: Life Together
  • Bonhoeffer: Christ the Center
  • Bonhoeffer: Cost of Discipleship
  • Bonhoeffer: Letters & Papers from Prison
  • Chesterton: Orthodoxy
  • Chesterton: St. Francis of Assisi
  • Chesterton: St. Thomas Aquinas
  • Chesterton: Everlasting Man
  • Chesterton: Man Who Was Thursday
  • Chesterton: Manalive
  • Shakespeare: Cymbeline (performance at Calshakes)
    Paramount for Bride of Frankenstein?

Torrey Berkeley 2002: The Christian Imagination

Gremillions sang opera on Friday of first week. Paramount for Vertigo.

  • Austin Farrer, excerpt from The Glass of Vision
  • William Shakespeare, Midsummer Nights Dream
  • G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
  • Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night
  • George McDonald, Thomas Wingfold, Curate
  • Charles Williams, Many Dimensions
  • C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
  • J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

Torrey Berkeley 2003: Colossians: Creation and Redemption

New this year: Bible boot camp. This is the first year that Terry Taylor did a show for us. Philip E. Johnson refused to lead the discussion on The Silmarillion, Keri Weirich led the session on Buechner's Alphabet of Grace.

  • Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
  • G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
  • George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind
  • Jane Austen, Emma
  • J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarilion
  • Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace
  • William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
  • Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
  • C. S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
  • C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

Torrey Berkeley 2004: Ephesians: Lives in Christ

  • Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of Antony
  • G.K. Chesterton, Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox
  • G.K. Chesterton, Saint Francis of Assisi
  • Philip E. Johnson, The Right Questions
  • C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
  • John Foxe, Book of Martyrs
  • Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy
  • Elisabeth Eliot, Through Gates of Splendor
  • William Shakespeare, A Comedy of Errors
  • John Sargent, Life & Letters of Henry Martyn

Torrey Berkeley 2005: Revelation: The End of the World as we Know It

Pre-trip lectures on Revelation by Alan Hultberg. This was the first year for the special feast shared by current students and bay area alumni (later christened the Torrey Berkeley Convivium).

  • Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder
  • G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
  • C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
  • C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
  • C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  • C.S. Lewis, The Space Trilogy
  • William Shakespeare, Othello
  • George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind

Torrey Berkeley 2006: Philippians: The Mind of Christ and the Soul of California

Pre-trip lectures on Philippians by Joe Hellerman.
julia morgan in person

  • Robinson Jeffers, Selected Poems
  • John Muir, Essays
  • Jack London, Martin Eden
  • Lawrence Ferlinghetti, These are my Rivers
  • William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • John Steinbeck, East of Eden
  • Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
  • Czeslaw Milosz, Visions from San Francisco Bay

Torrey Berkeley 2007: Colossians: Creation and Creativity

Pre-trip lectures on Colossians by Clint Arnold.
Special lectures by Michelle Stearns on particularity, Ted Peters on proleptic creation, Jacquie Fulmer on Tolkien.
Two-layer curriculum, with major work and minor essay to read each day.

  • P. T. O'Brien, "Colossians" from Dictionary of Paul and His Letters
  • Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians," from Incarnation: Contemporary Writers on the New Testament
  • C.S. Lewis, Magician's Nephew
  • C.S. Lewis, "On Stories," from Essays Presented to Charles Williams
  • Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
  • Annie Dillard, excerpt from The Writing Life
  • Philip E. Johnson, "Genius and Plod" and works in progress
  • Ted Peters, “God and the Continuing Creation” and “Proleptic Ethics”, from GOD --The World’s Future: Systematic Theology for a New Era
  • William Shakespeare, Richard III
  • George MacDonald, Phantastes
  • George MacDonald, "The Imagination: Its Functions and Its Culture" and "The Fantastic Imagination," from A Dish of Orts
  • Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
  • Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
  • Flannery O'Connor, "The Nature and Aims of Fiction," from Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
  • J.R.R. Tolkien, Leaf by Niggle
  • J.R.R. Tolkien, "On Fairy Stories," from Essays Presented to Charles Williams
  • G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
  • G.K. Chesterton, “George MacDonald”

Torrey Berkeley 2008: Ephesians: Alive Together With Christ

Pre-trip lectures by Clint Arnold
Guest tutor, alum Kevin White on Athanasius, Jacquie Fulmer on Lewis.
Phil Johnson on Vanauken

  • Athanasius, Life of Anthony
  • Elisabeth Eliot, Shadow of the Almighty
  • Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy
  • G.K. Chesterton, Francis of Assissi
  • Jonathan Edwards, Life of David Brainerd
  • C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
  • H.C.G. Moule, Life of Charles Simeon
  • Everyman
  • Shakespeare, Pericles
  • John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Torrey Berkeley 2009: James the Just and California the Golden

pre-trip lectures by Darian Lockett

  • Czeslaw Milosz, Visions from San Francisco Bay
  • John Muir, Esays
  • Robinson Jeffers, Poems
  • Philip E. Johnson, The Right Questions for the New Atheism
  • Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
  • John Steinbeck, East of Eden
  • Dana Gioia et.al., eds, California Poetry Anthology
  • Jack London, Martin Eden
  • Ambrose Bierce, Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
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