Great Books at Pepperdine

Foundations for a Lifetime

In an era marked by speed, utility, and fragmentation, the Great Books offer something profoundly countercultural: a slow, sustained engagement with the deepest questions of human life: What is justice? What is love? What does it mean to be free, to suffer, to lead, to worship, to hope? These books do not merely inform; they transform. They train the mind and awaken the soul.

At Pepperdine, the Great Books Colloquium is a four-course sequence in which students read and wrestle with many of the most influential texts in the classical tradition. Spanning disciplines — literature, philosophy, theology, politics, history, and psychology — the works students encounter are not studied as relics, but as active partners in a centuries-long conversation. As G.K. Chesterton puts it, “tradition is the democracy of the dead.” Authors in the sequence range from Homer, Plato, and Dante to Austen, Dostoevsky, O’Connor, and Woolf — fitting voices to challenge minds and mold souls.

Through close reading, Socratic dialogue, and interpretive writing, students cultivate habits of attention, imagination, and moral reasoning. They learn to argue thoughtfully, listen deeply, and write with clarity and conviction. The goal is not to produce intellectual replicas of the past, but independent critical thinkers equipped for a complex world — students formed for insight, not just for industry; for wisdom, not just for work. 

In addition to this sequence, we also offer a Great Books minor for students seeking deeper engagement.

Great Books offer a foundation not only for academic and professional success, but for a meaningful life. The goal of a Pepperdine whole-person education is to cultivate fully-formed human beings, and the Great Books program seeks to do just that.

Come take your place in the Great Conversation.