THE CATALYST: As vice provost for the arts at Duke, Scott Lindroth has an interest in finding points of intersection among engineering, natural sciences and social sciences, and the arts. A few years ago, he was invited to a Bass Connections group meeting for the Brain and Society, which set the stage for developing a new course around these disciplines.

THE CATALYST: Mark Goodacre, a professor in the religious studies department, has been teaching the course for ten years. “I inherited it. The first thing I did when I got to Duke was look to see what was on the books already. I saw ‘Historical Jesus’ and thought, ‘I would love to teach this course.’ ” He believes the course focuses students’ minds with a detached, critical perspective rather than one rooted in Christian tradition.