Russell Kirk Was Right About Ray Bradbury and Bradbury About Kirk

     When two great men of letters exchange letters, and form a friendship, it is of importance and we should take note.  Currently Kirk and Bradbury scholars are at work exchanging some of this material and it will be available in the years to come.  In this blog I'll share some of Bradbury's and Kirk's written thoughts about each other.  
     I actually started reading Ray Bradbury several years ago as the result of reading some positive remarks that Bradbury made about Russell Kirk.  On the back of the dust jacket of Ancestral Shadows (2004 Eerdmans), Ray Bradbury is quoted as saying, "For too many years Russell Kirk, almost like the title of this book, remained half seen in the American Literary scene. It is time his critics and readers brought him out into full light.  He deserves to be considered a fine writer and an amazing thinker in literature and politics." Bradbury was certainly right about Russell Kirk.
     If you would like to read longer and extremely insightful comments Russell Kirk made about Ray Bradbury, then track down a copy of Enemies of the Permanent Things, 1988, where Kirk has much good to say of Bradbury among an otherwise bleak analysis of the literary landscape of that moment.  
     With the passing of Bradbury, many fans and admirers speak of his immortal place among the writings of science-fiction.  However, Kirk more accurately gets at the truth of things when he moves beyond genre and says, "Bradbury is not writing about the gadgets of conquest; his real concerns are the soul and the moral imagination."  
     Characterizing both the writings and the life of Ray Bradbury, Kirk poetically affirms that 
"The love of life burns brighter in Ray Bradbury than in any other man of letters I have known--except, possibly Roy Campbell."  It is also worth observing that this same love of life burns bright in the ghost stories of Russell Kirk. Indeed, it is this love of life that I have found in the fiction of Kirk and Bradbury that moves me personally to love life and to live it more fully.  Fiction that celebrates the good, the true, and the beautiful is a most worthy guide in assisting us in living.  Fiction that celebrates life (even ghostly Gothic stories) is a way of seeing and understanding the world that we live within and can help shape the moral imagination to live well and fully.
      

The Great Didactic of Comenius: Philosophy, Morality, and Faith

Battista Guarino on A Program of Teaching and Learning

     Issuing a call for true nobility, which comes from, and is found in virtue, Battista Guarino calls for a proper devotion to the humanities. The program put forth in this writing is a method that is tested by a long practice, which is contrary to the often cutting-edge, immediate, new trend, spirit of the age all too common in our moment.
     One thread that recurs throughout this work is an emphasis on a genuine zeal for learning, as well as zeal for teaching. There is an illustration given as to the potential for the far reaching effects of teaching when Guarino retells the famous anecdote how Alexander the Great said that he owed more to Aristotle, his tutor, than he owed to his own father Philip. 
     Possibly the most delightful aspect of this essay is the many insights into the way teaching used to be conducted as it also related to discipline. He urges the teachers that they ought not to beat students as this may inadvertently encourage cheating. Guarino does encourage the use of charm, flattery, and even fear to motivate the student and even sometimes includes shame.
     As with many other treaties of the Renaissance and Medieval world expounding upon Liberal learning, there is significant attention given to the seven Liberal arts, in particular how Grammar is foundational to all learning.  Again, there is much in this essay contrary to the spirit of our age. For example, "once they have mastered these rules, they must add knowledge of quantity and prosody, a knowledge so useful that I daresay no one can rightly be called an educated man who does not possess it."  Today if someone spoke about the category of "being truly educated," the charge of elitism would be issued and the proponent of such an elitist position would be dismissed by the non-truly educated masses.
     If one is looking for a stereotype of Medieval or Renaissance Liberal Arts dry erudite nomenclature, do not read this essay. There is much in this essay that rings of delight and even elicits laughter. It is common that Battista Guarino calls the reader, teacher, student, to take delight in the learning process.
     There is much about education in this piece related to the actual Renaissance, that great and glorious Renaissance of education. Guarino exhorts the teacher that he ought to correct the false astrology of that day and correct it with the truth of astronomy of that day. Within this work is even practical advice while reading.  Long before Great Books and Liberal Arts polymath, Mortimer Adler encouraged readers to mark up books, Guarino says, "writing glosses in books is also extremely profitable."
     Here meets  love of great past authors and their writings.  The past is not enemy to be feared, or outdated to be ignored, but the past is foundational.  There are numerous references to Virgil, Ovid, Quintilian, Cicero, Homer, Horace , Lucan, Terence, Statius, Augustine, Juvenal, Plautus, Aristotle, Pliny, Cato, Xenophon, and Hesiod.
     Additionally, there is a stress, as found in many writings of liberal arts of the Medieval and Renaissance, between the relationship or link of learning and virtue.  For modern students reading such documents of the past, there must be this cognitive disconnect that learning, while seen as a good "in and of itself" was also valued as being a means by which humanity is developed.  As rational creatures created in the imagine of God, the intellect or reasoning capabilities were called to assist humans in placing into subjugation our baser or animal nature.
     What is most unusual in this writing, and would stun into silence most students, professors, and certainly university administrators today, is the exhortation given to, "devote waking hours, even sleep, to studies." These people were indeed serious about learning!  Guarino continues, "Let students develop the same amount of time to reviewing studies that others devote to gambling, sports, or spectacles."     The greatest treasure found within this essay appears toward the end. "To mankind has been given the desire to know, which is also where the humanities get their name. What the Greeks call paideia, we call learning and instruction in the liberal arts. The ancients also called this humanitas, since devotion to knowledge has been given to the human being alone out of all living creatures."

To Be Like Apollos

                                                     
    If consideration is being given for a Biblical patron Saint of the Liberal Arts, I would suggest Apollos. Of course, some might protest, questioning why not Moses, Joseph, Solomon or even Paul? A case could be made for each of these, but let's consider the case for Apollos.

     Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. (Acts 18: 24-28, ESV)

     An Alexandrian Jew-  By the time Apollos was a child, Alexandria had become a rich center of the “Hellenistic world." The Hellenistic era was a time of tremendous Greek influence--influencing the cultures they encountered to adopt the Greek way coupled with wealth and power.  Alexandrians would spend their leisure time analyzing and conversing about all that is. One can only imagine the extraordinary education this man had obtained.  As a Jew he had the richness of his Jewish faith and likely would have been raised according to Deuteronomy 6 with an everydayness of faith and the ways of God.  From morning until bedtime he would have been shaped by the best of his Jewish faith and the best of Greek culture.

     Eloquent man, spoke boldly, powerfully refuted, spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, competent in scripture, showed from Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus, instructed in the way of the Lord-  Within the history of the Liberal Arts, there has been a stressed placed on speaking and writing the right words in the right manner for the desired effect.  From this account in Acts, Apollos was eloquent (logoi) and was bold and powerfully refuted.  It may very well be his power of persuasion that garnered the attention of the sophisticated Corinthians and why some in Corinth were drawn to him.  With Apollos, we do not meet an intellectual egghead or an Ivory tower theologian, rather we see one who has the wonderful blend of skill and knowledge put to Kingdom service. Described here in a manner that might move the average Christian to envy, Apollos is described in terms that express what happens when the life of the mind is given over to honoring God with all that one has and all that one is.
     Fervent in the Spirit - Beyond being a comment about his commitment to the Lord, this  passion in the Spirit addresses his piety.  During the Renaissance, Erasmus called for humanitas and pietas.  No false distinction between loving God with your mind or your heart.  No plastic spirituality, but a piety and humanity that honored God.  Before Erasmus issued that challenge, Apollos lived this way.
     Only knew baptism of John - The most learned, well-read, credentialed intellectual will always be limited in knowledge.  While the human mind has potential to know almost everything, even the smartest of us will always be ignorant of something.  Apollos demonstrates that here.  Certainly in his extensive learning about rituals within Judaism and the Greek world, he did know of baptism but was ignorant of baptism in the name of Jesus and all the associated blessings. 
     Open to instruction from Priscilla and Aquila-  It is this quality here that may be the highest of all praise, and it is this disposition of Apollos that is most commendable.  For years I have told students that the best Liberal Arts students are those who have a strong sense of how little they know and how they may be wrong on some of their deepest held convictions.  It is this sense of intellectual humility and openness to truth that is a grand virtue for liberal learning.  While the liberal arts liberate, one must be free enough to be seeking for what is true.  If Apollos had rested confidently in his eloquence, competence in scripture, accuracy of what he was already saying, then he would not have learned more from Priscilla and Aquila. 
     Encouraged by brothers-  Another endearing characteristic about Apollos was that he was clearly supported by other Christians.  Sometimes skill and education causes arrogance.  The reality is that if you are educated, and if you are eloquent, there will be those who are suspicious of you within the church and world. The sin of envy is pervasive.  However, the practitioner of the liberal arts ought not to be of such a nature to alienate people, especially people of good will.  No where in the New Testament, including Corinthians, does anyone have a harsh word about Apollos.
     Helped believers of Achaia- We also know he worked with Paul, Titus and Zenas.  The historical discussion of gown and town is settled in this brilliant, Godly man.  In addition to his intellect and abilities, he is a servant.  I wonder if Apollos had the conviction that all learning was ultimately for the glory of God and sometimes that manifested itself in the form of cooperative service.
     After looking at this unique minor person of early Christianity, one can see how it could be argued that Apollos could be the patron Saint of Liberal Studies.  Right there in Acts, the student of Humane letters is given an example to admire and emulate.  Apollos is a model of faith and learning, of wisdom, and eloquence, of knowledge and service.  Oh, to be like Apollos, to have his passion for Christ, his amazing knowledge of Scripture, his encouragement of the saints, but also his openness to learn more than he already knew.