Matthew T. Herbst

Matthew T. Herbst Faculty Director of the Making of the Modern World Program at the University of California San Diego-Eleanor Roosevelt College and teaches courses on pre-modern world history and religion. Prof. Herbst received his Ph.D. and M.A. in History from the University of Michigan, specializing in Byzantium, and his B.A. in History, Greek, and Latin from Binghamton University.  Dr. Herbst is passionate about teaching and earned an Outstanding Faculty Award in 2009.  Dedicated to internationalizing the undergraduate experience, Prof. Herbst developed MMW Global Seminars abroad and leads the UCSD program in Istanbul each summer.   

“Desire, Temptation, and Spiritual Struggle:  Historical Christian Perspectives on Being Human”

What is the relationship between human identity and desire?  Does desire simply reveal who we are or must we deny our desire to uncover a “true” and “more authentic” humanity beneath?  What is our “real” (human) self? This lecture will explore historic Christian perspectives on this problem from Jesus’ desert temptation and early Christian martyrdom to medieval mystics and early modern reformers.   Through the historic Christian lens, what did it mean to be human?