Historical consciousness is to civilized society what memory is to individual identity. Without memory there are no workable rules of conduct, no standard of justice, no basis for restraining passions, no sense of the connection between an action and its consequences. A culture without memory will necessarily be barbarous. I am delighted to be with [...]
Reading presents thoughts as gifts, and the best books, by preventing us from passively succumbing to other people’s pictures and their self-serving agendas, cooperate in saving our souls. You’ve all probably heard the expression “preaching to the choir,” which means trying to persuade the faithful of what they already believe. The opposite of preaching to [...]
One of the most heinous crimes against humanity that modernity has perpetrated is its war on the humanities. And let’s not forget that the humanities are thus called because they teach us about our own humanity. A failure to appreciate the humanities must inevitably lead to the dehumanizing of culture and a disastrous loss of [...]
For the Progressives, checks and balances were merely a hindrance to efficient government. How could it be wrong to act in accordance with the spirit of history? As “experts” replaced statesman, the whole idea of “the consent of the governed” became less important, even a stumbling block for the plans of Progressive reformers. Recently, Wyoming [...]
Concluding the quest for the ideal classical literature curriculum, we find ourselves entering the senior year and, simultaneously, entering the period of modernity. The freshmen had been immersed in pre-Christian Greece and Rome, the sophomores in the Christian Middle Ages, and the juniors in the early modern period with William Shakespeare. Now, as students enter [...]
Those who fail to share my profound admiration for William Shakespeare will no doubt query my apparent obsession with one author to the exclusion of all others, as I propose an ideal classical curriculum for the freshman and sophomore years of high school. In last week’s essay I presented the texts that I would include [...]
In our journey of liberal learning, we will, both students and teachers, find ourselves in the presence of the goodness of truth and the beauty of being. We will linger there in that presence, contemplating, knowing that this goodness of truth and this beauty of being is a reflection of the One who is Being [...]
When trying to understand Scripture, we need to establish an analysis of concrete terms. But if we aren’t careful, we just might explain away the beauty of descriptive language in the Bible. Saint Augustine of Hippo encountered the same issue, and not just among his youngest students. In humanities coursework, we often train students to [...]
No work of Christian theology has left such an impact on the world and biblical interpretation and understanding as St. Augustine’s “City of God.” We who read the Bible do so, often unknowingly, through the eyes of the bishop of Hippo. In 410 A.D., the city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths. Rome was [...]
The Great Tradition patiently endures, ready to speak on its own behalf, ready to challenge narrow prejudices, ready to examine those with the courage to be interrogated by it, ready to teach those who are willing to be made unfit for the modern world. The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be [...]
Was Albert Jay Nock correct in saying that the educated man is a superfluous man in modern society? One of the greatest intellectual pleasures of my summer has been the discovery of the writings of Albert Jay Nock. Well, really, the re-discovery. I had twice read Nock’s Our Enemy, the State, but I’d never found [...]
Anna Julia Cooper passionately defended classical education during the Reconstruction Era when the dilemma of how to educate former slaves arose. Cooper, a former slave herself, preached the virtue of classics and their necessary vitality to the soul. Anna Julia Cooper Why would a Black American female ex-slave revere the wisdom of dead [...]
Metaphor should not be approached as some “thing,” but as a transformative power, the invisible process by which “things” come into being. Using metaphor, even very simple language and very common-place images can be brought into new, unique constellations. Contrary to the sundry definitions of metaphor proffered by many school teachers and dictionaries, metaphor is [...]
What is the focus of a Catholic vision of renewal for education? Rather than “classical,” our focus should be on the Christian tradition following the Church’s own educational vision. The goal should be to teach from a Catholic worldview, rooted within the great Catholic heritage of thought and culture. Words Made Flesh: The Sacramental Mission [...]