In the late nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson wrote “Much madness is divinest sense.” The Modern era is a time of relentless secularization when things previously thought “mad” became reasonable, and vice versa as the role and existence of God was diminished or rejected in human thoughts and endeavors. Because of this secular influence, the Modern Period is often neglected or misrepresented in Christian studies. However, this misses the crucial background necessary to understand our current age from a biblical worldview. This course begins with Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest, in which the transition to the Modern Age is the central theme. The Lord of the Rings trilogy forms an undergirding framework for the course as Tolkien’s epic allegory of faith and humanity in the wonders and horrors of the late Modern Period. The course explores the relationship between God and man in the classic Christian poetry of Herbert, Milton, and Donne. Students consider the duality of human nature in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Human intellect and individualism are considered in the short stories of Crane, Poe, and Conan Doyle, and in poetry by Shelley, Keats, Dickinson, Auden, and Frost. The course considers the cultural and spiritual impact of the rapid rise of new technologies (radio, film, popular music) on generations of young people already drifting from traditional religious moorings. A primary goal of the reading and writing in this this course is to study the “madness” of the Modern Period from a biblical worldview to gain wisdom from the past that can be applied to the madness of the present.