As part of the college's desire to provide an experiential education to each student, Providence Christian College offers a May term each Spring.  These three week intensive courses give students an opportunity to concentrate on one course in the classroom while also providing them unique experiences outside of the classroom. 

Designed and implemented by the Providence faculty, these courses have included trips to the Dominican Republic, Belize, Mexico, and around Southern California while covering topics such as third world missions, Islam, Atheism, Asian American studies, a study of Mark Twain's Roughing It and much more.

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Spring 2010 May Term Information

Inklings, Influenced

Professor: Dr. Aaron Belz
Location: Oxford, England and the PCC campus
Course cost: $4,755

Course description:

Although C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends, and although they were both Christians and medieval scholars, critics and readers alike regard their writings as very different. Lewis wrote in a much more obviously allegorical style, while Tolkien wrote mythic fantasy that may be “Christian” only in its general conceptions of good and evil. In fact, Tolkien and Lewis themselves stubbornly denied that they had any influence on one another. Recently, however, critics have been seeing similarities between the two prolific authors, and one critic in particular, Dr. Diana Glyer, has argued that Tolkien and Lewis heavily influenced each other’s writing. This May Term invites students to conclude for themselves by reading Dr. Glyer’s book, meeting and learning from Dr. Glyer herself, and then traveling to Oxford to explore the world of Tolkien and Lewis – their colleges, their homes, churches, even the pub where they held their weekly meetings. In the end, students will form their own opinions about the factors that most influenced Tolkien and Lewis – including their physical environment and the historical literature that they both loved.