Liberal Learning and Plato’s “Meno”: Interview With Eva Brann

By |2023-05-21T11:28:50-05:00September 3rd, 2022|Categories: Classics, E.B., Eva Brann, Liberal Learning, Meno, Plato, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, W. Winston Elliott III|

“First attend to the adjustment of your own soul, particularly the regulative liberal learning of your intellect, then project your internal economy on the world as social and political justice. The other way around is headless.”  – Eva Brann, The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates’ Conversations and Plato’s Writings Eva Brann is a [...]

Saint Augustine: Founding Philosopher of History

By |2024-02-11T10:37:08-06:00August 27th, 2022|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Classics, History, Plato, St. Augustine, Timeless Essays|

Saint Augustine was the first Christian to offer a comprehensive Philosophy of History, which the Russian Orthodox writer Nicholas Berdyaev called nothing short of “ingenious.”[1] One of his greatest accomplishments was the sanctification of Plato’s understanding of the two realms: the perfect Celestial Kingdom and the corrupt copy. One finds this tension and conflict between [...]

The Trials and Death of Socrates

By |2022-08-22T17:23:36-05:00August 22nd, 2022|Categories: Apology, Christopher B. Nelson, Classics, Crito, Liberal Learning, Phaedo, Socrates, St. John's College, Timeless Essays|

The body of Socrates may be gone but the Real Socrates has stayed with Phaedo, his friends and with all of us who will take up a life devoted to philosophy. I am grateful for the opportunity to have reflected on the life of Socrates as I wrote this evening’s lecture. Of course, it’s not [...]

Homer’s “Odyssey” Is a Gift

By |2022-08-13T10:36:36-05:00August 13th, 2022|Categories: Classics, Essential, Eva Brann, Featured, Great Books, Homer, Odyssey, St. John's College, W. Winston Elliott III|

“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy.” So begins Homer’s Odyssey. Long ago I launched my ship in pursuit of the true, the good, and [...]

The Intrepid Soul: Why We Need the Classics and Humanities

By |2022-07-20T18:19:14-05:00July 20th, 2022|Categories: Classics, Coronavirus, Culture, Education, Humanities, Modernity, Timeless Essays|

To justify the Classics and Humanities, some have tried to argue that they remain a practical option for students, couching their praise in terms readily amenable to the outcome-focused mentalities of today’s high-achieving students. But does reducing the Classics and Humanities to a series of “practical” stepping-stones do the subjects any justice? Colleges and universities [...]

Can We Be Friends? Spirit, Duty, & Our Canine Companions

By |2023-05-21T11:28:57-05:00August 26th, 2021|Categories: Aristotle, Books, Classics, E.B., Eva Brann, Friendship, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, Wisdom|

This book is full of observations about friendship—discerningly borrowed and observantly original; it is a credible descendant of those wonders of human perspicacity, Aristotle’s books on friendship. One of those borrowed observations is that “the point of being friends is to charm each other.” Willing Dogs and Reluctant Masters: On Friendship and Dogs by Gary [...]

Living Well on Earth & Entering Heaven: The Nineteen Types of Judgment

By |2021-08-12T15:12:48-05:00August 10th, 2021|Categories: Christendom, Classics, Liberal Learning, Plato, Reason, Socrates, Timeless Essays|

Making judgments is a privilege of persons only. A privilege that is necessary, both to live well on earth and to enter Heaven. There are at least nineteen different kinds of judgment that we should distinguish. I’m sorry I could not find a twentieth, to match the number of digits on our fingers and toes. But [...]

“The Odyssey”: A New Translation

By |2021-07-16T07:52:23-05:00July 16th, 2021|Categories: Classics, Featured, Homer, Odyssey, St. John's College|

The Odyssey, by Homer. Translated by Joe Sachs, Paul Dry Books, 2014 An excerpt from the Introduction I have never met a translation of the Odyssey I didn’t like. There are verse translations that march in boots (Richmond Lattimore) or amble along in sensible shoes (Albert Cook), or glide (Ennis Rees) or dance (Allen Mandelbaum) or [...]

The Imitation of Heroes

By |2021-05-29T05:45:43-05:00May 28th, 2021|Categories: Christopher B. Nelson, Classical Education, Classics, Featured, Liberal Learning, Phaedo, Plato, Socrates, St. John's College, Timeless Essays|

The demise of imitation has been devastating for personal growth. It used to be a commonplace that successful people need to have extraordinary “heroes” whom they admire and try to emulate. But the historical disciplines in the twentieth century waged something of a war against the very idea of the hero. Imitation, like so many [...]

The Case for the Liberal Arts: Stronger Than Ever?

By |2021-05-05T16:49:37-05:00May 5th, 2021|Categories: Classics, Education, Featured, Liberal Arts, Liberal Learning, Plato, St. John's College, Timeless Essays, Wilfred McClay|

The chief public benefit of liberal education is the formation of a particular kind of person, a particular kind of citizen, who robustly embodies the virtues of both inquiry and membership, and therefore is equipped for the truth-seeking deliberation and responsible action that a republican form of government requires. If we are to make any [...]

Saving the Classics From Cancel Culture

By |2021-04-14T11:06:42-05:00April 23rd, 2021|Categories: Civilization, Classics, Culture, Great Books, Joseph Pearce, Literature, Senior Contributors|

Joseph Pearce, series editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions, is interviewed by Paul Senz. Paul Senz: What prompted you and Ignatius Press to produce the series of Ignatius Critical Editions? Joseph Pearce: As someone who has taught undergraduate students for many years, I am well aware of the hijacking of the study of literature by [...]

Furies: The Myopia of the Present Moment

By |2021-01-15T16:52:37-06:00January 15th, 2021|Categories: Civilization, Classics, Glenn Arbery, Great Books, Senior Contributors, Wyoming Catholic College|

Turning away from the news and attending with imagination to the “Oresteia” takes faith, both in God and in the wisdom of our forebears. This will be a worthier endeavor, both for the present moment and for the time to come, than trying to tear down the very structures that give us the promise of [...]

Geography of Being

By |2021-04-22T09:48:34-05:00October 17th, 2020|Categories: Classics, Glenn Arbery, Great Books, History, Homer, Odyssey, Senior Contributors, Wyoming Catholic College|

When we study the classics, we might have the atlas open beside the book to remind us where we are and when we live. We can feel the overlays of history and empires and languages that sweep over the same disputed places. Relevant and contemporary to us, the great actions of mind and spirit strive [...]

The “Eumenides”: Patriotism & Moderated Modernity

By |2023-07-18T17:14:06-05:00October 4th, 2020|Categories: Books, Classics, E.B., Eva Brann, Featured, Great Books, Literature, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, Timeless Essays|

The “Eumenides” is not a tragedy of the unresolvable impasse, of the unavoidable fatality. It is a “pragma,” an affair practically handled, whose outcome is not all-round cleansing by devastation, but a future of good daily living. Aeschylus invests this drama of sweet reason, of moderation triumphant, with exhilarating solemnity and participatory splendor. Aeschylus’ Eumenides is [...]

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