About Andrew Seeley

Dr. Seeley is Director of Advanced Formation for Educators and Visiting Professor of Philosophy for the Augustine Institute. He was Executive Director of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education for 12 years. He served as a tutor at Thomas Aquinas College for three decades.

Turning the Whole Soul: The Moral Journey of the Philosophic Nature in Plato’s “Republic”

By |2024-03-17T16:52:56-05:00March 17th, 2024|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Culture, Education, Philosophy, Plato, Socrates, Timeless Essays|

According to Socrates, to save Philosophy, to save young souls destined for greatness, to save human society itself, the true, philosophic nature must be freed from the corruptive influences that have formed him and receive the best education. The soul must be turned around. I forgot that we were playing and spoke rather intensely. For, [...]

From Wonder to Wisdom: Strengthening Catholic Education

By |2020-07-25T08:36:52-05:00July 25th, 2020|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Catholicism, Christianity, Education, Liberal Learning|

More than 700 Catholic educators from across the country and overseas will gather online next week to explore, celebrate, and strengthen the growing movement to save Catholic schools through the recovery of the Church’s proven tradition of education. The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education’s 8th National Conference was forced to shift to an online format [...]

The Gravity of Gravity: Astronomy and Its Relevance

By |2022-08-10T15:57:14-05:00January 27th, 2020|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Culture, Education, Great Books, History, Liberal Learning|

When a fascinating chaos has been observed enough to reveal patterns that allow prediction, the human mind is ready to ask, “Why?” So it is with the cosmos. Tracing the answers to this question throughout history allows us to understand the development of cosmology and its effects on moral imagination. Like most of the Quadrivium, [...]

Classical Education: Renewing Christian Civilization

By |2021-12-17T14:34:31-06:00June 10th, 2017|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Christianity, Classical Education, Featured, John Senior, Liberal Learning|

The number of those attracted by the renewal of classical education is growing, as parents confronting the spiritual wasteland of contemporary education flock to schools producing faithful, intelligent, joyful students devoted to the true, the good, and the beautiful, and energized to proclaim them to Church and world… At a dinner celebrating Catholic classical education [...]

Teaching Virtue: The Dot and the Line

By |2022-02-23T09:14:29-06:00November 16th, 2015|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Education, Featured, Liberal Learning, Timeless Essays, Virtue|

(Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Andrew Seeley as he examines how The Dot and the Line can help teach us virtue as a concept key in  Christian education. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher) In the cultural wasteland of the ’70s, where peace and love had degenerated into [...]

The Education of the Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings

By |2018-12-12T16:24:30-06:00August 29th, 2014|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Books, Christianity, J.R.R. Tolkien|

As they approach the end of their long journey, Frodo and his companions are disturbed by rumors that the their beloved Shire is not well. They are even more disturbed when Gandalf tells them: “I am not coming to the Shire. You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for. [...]

Rethinking the Foundations of Education: Stratford Caldecott

By |2019-10-30T10:47:11-05:00June 18th, 2013|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Books, Classical Education, Communio, Education, Liberal Learning, Stratford Caldecott|Tags: |

Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education by Stratford Caldecott. Stratford Caldecott’s Beauty in the Word is like no book in the genre of classical education that I have read to date. It is personal, reflective, profound, spiritual, psychological, learned, practical. I have hopes that it will fill a great need in my work with [...]

Reflections on Religious Liberty: Healthcare Mandates just the Beginning?

By |2018-12-12T16:24:33-06:00May 2nd, 2013|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Catholicism, Christianity, Politics, Religion|Tags: |

As I looked around the standing-room only board room filled with serious, somewhat anxious fellow faculty members, I could not help the surreal feeling that we were actors at the beginning of a movie about a persecution. Those who know the end will see all the little signs of the inevitable disaster as they watch [...]

Natalie Wood and Purity at Midnight Mass

By |2018-12-12T16:24:33-06:00December 24th, 2012|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Christmas, Culture, Film|

Last Christmas Eve, my family, like many American families, watched Miracle on 34th Street. I don’t think I had ever seen the original; most of our kids had not seen any version. We thoroughly enjoyed it. I was impressed with Natalie Wood’s performance—a 7 year old actress playing a 7 year old very well.  I [...]

Literary Imagination

By |2018-12-12T16:24:34-06:00December 17th, 2012|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Books, Conservatism, Film, Gifts for Imaginative Conservatives|Tags: |

William Lee Miller’s complementary books, Lincoln’s Virtues and The President: The Duty of a Statesman, are a rare combination of historical investigation and moral reflection presented in comfortable prose filled with real world insight. The Publisher’s Review excerpt from the Amazon site is right on: Margaret Whalen Turner’s Attolia series makes a great gift for those who know nothing can [...]

Cave Dwellers?

By |2018-12-12T16:24:34-06:00October 5th, 2012|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Catholicism, Christianity, Culture|

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph. 4:1-3) The Cave! [...]

Classical Education: Entrusting The Future of the West to Our Children

By |2018-12-12T16:24:35-06:00July 18th, 2012|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Catholicism, Christianity, Classical Education, Classical Learning, Film, J.R.R. Tolkien|Tags: |

I am grateful to the founding parents and benefactors of the Lyceum that you have not had to grow up in a cultural wilderness as I did. Why anyone would be nostalgic for the 70’s I do not know. To give you an idea of how bad it was: In 1973, Admiral Jeremiah Denton returned [...]

‘Tis the Season for Commencements

By |2018-12-12T16:24:36-06:00June 1st, 2011|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Books, Education, Liberal Learning|

‘Tis the season for commencements: collegiate, high school, elementary school, even kindergarten. Some are silly, some cute, some respectful, some tedious, some beautiful. On Saturday, I was blessed to attend one which, more than anything, was deeply joyful. The school was St. Augustine’s Academy in Ventura, California, which combined high school graduation with eighth grade [...]

Presenting the Beautiful: The Joyful Duty of Catholic Education

By |2018-12-12T16:24:36-06:00May 27th, 2011|Categories: Andrew Seeley, Beauty, Film, Liberal Learning|

“Too late have I loved Thee, O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new!” St. Augustine was in his forties by the time he penned this personal lament. As readers of the Confessions know (and the Confessions has been a universal must-read for 1600 years), Augustine wasted himself for 30 years before he finally embraced the Lord in the greatest conversion [...]

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