Fit Bodies Flabby Minds: A New Year's Resolution to Get Our Minds in Shape!

     The distinguished British Sociologist declared to the American audience, "Your bodies may be in good shape but your minds are fat." He went on to describe how for decades Americans have stressed getting in better shape and losing weight while almost totally disregarding the growth of our intellect. The simple fact is that for many Americans January 1st will consist of various resolutions for the New Year of 2014 that will include eating better, getting in shape, stopping smoking, drinking less, traveling more, and saving more money.
     Go ahead and make your resolutions for a better you, but let's get that mind in shape also. Make plans for a brighter, smarter, and happier you, by strengthening that mental muscle. By reading the right books your mental abilities can improve by the day. Your brainpower can improve and your reasoning faculties can get sharper and sharper with each brain powered work out. As with any physical regime, your mental workouts do not have to be all pain. Let's find some books that refresh, delight, and encourage. Let's also read those books that challenge, push, stretch, and move you to the next level. When I was a child, I only read comic books. When we are babies we only eat baby food. As we mature we eat adult food. We should all read things we enjoy; those lighter less demanding books.  These should be thought of as our reading carbs (essential, but not exclusive). We should also read those books that are above us and beyond us--those books that cause us to grow. We can think of these as the high-protein books for the brain.
     I'm calling for a lifestyle change. A few years ago a friend asked me how I read so much and I told him that since I don't watch more than a few hours of TV a week and I spend only a few hours in front of the computer or on my tablet, I have a lot of free time to read. In addition to spending about forty-five minutes a day on my physical exercise, I try to spend double that time on my mind. There are plenty of great books to read and we all need some help and encouragement to build up those mental muscles. Reach out to a reading group or a "book coach" who can help you resolve to be the reader in 2014 that you were not in 2013. You can do it! Feel the burn! Melt off the flab! Stretch! Reach! Go, go, go!

A Reading Bucket List

    It seems that the phrase "bucket list" is hanging around. I will hear folks of all ages mention adding something to the bucket list. Reading Stringfellow Barr's Voices That Endured: The Great Books and the Active Life, it dawned on me that people should have a "Reading Bucket List." Everyone should make a list of those very important books that they really want to read before they die. The wonderful thing about a list like that is that people do not have to make elaborate plans or dip deep into the savings account to see this list unfold.
     Barr insightfully divides his reading list book into three categories: (1) Books that picture humans working, choosing, and acting, such as poems and novels. (2) Books that seek to know the nature of things such as mathematical and scientific works, (3) Books that deal with what humans ought to do, such as works of ethics, politics, and economics. These three categories show how very practical and relevant are these great books.
     Stringfellow Barr is the genius behind St. John's College where everyone studies primarily the great books for four years. The reality is that only a handful of people will ever have the opportunity to study the great books in a college or university setting. That is just fine. Mortimer Adler has spoken about "the poor man's Harvard education." It is a fact that if you set out to read ten, twenty, or one hundred of the most important books ever written, you would learn more than many college graduates learn. If you are a college student, do not let college get in the way of an excellent education. Make your bucket list now and start reading, learning, growing and get the best sort of education.
     Why would anyone ever set out to read the Great Books? Stringfellow Barr says, that when it gets right down to it that the things that really pass through our sleepless minds and haunt our dreams are the thoughts about how we have wronged friends. We also are seeking courage to face the next hurdle in life. We humans constantly grapple with loss, fears, frustration, guilt, shame, happiness, joy, resentment, despair, and hope. These are the themes of the great books and partly what makes them great. An active life is a reading life. A life that looks to the works that have shaped many who have come before us and will come after us.
     I love reading and I really love reading with others. Talking about books, ideas, and the sheer delights of reading is one of the finest of human pleasures. Whether I am conversing with students in a class, my wife at breakfast, or people online with Google Helpouts, it is a joy to talk about books and the ways they enrich our lives.
     In these blogs, I will explore the great books of literature, philosophy, history, science, mathematics, and social science. I am not alone. I have guides like Stringfellow Barr, Mortimer Adler, Robert Hutchins, Alan Jacobs, Os Guinness, Virginia Woolf, Matthew Arnold, Sainte-Beuve, Percy Shelley, Samuel Johnson, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, and many others. In addition to reading and offering thoughts and questions, I will also give lots and lots of tips on wisely reading all sorts of things. I invite you to join me in this making of a bucket reading list and participate in the active life of reading the great books.

NEXT BLOG: Virginia Woolf's How Should One Read a Book?
   

Humanities As A Way of Knowing

     For years, I would begin my Introduction to Humanities course by trying to clear up some muddled ideas about the term Humanities. Of course, most of my students did not get the weightiness of the lecture. For them, Introduction to Humanities was merely a course in the core that was an academic requirement. In a most impassioned manner, the goal was to get the students to apprehend that the humanities was not really a discipline or set of disciplines, but a way of knowing. When fully embraced, the humanities could be a way of living and being. To provide a reference point of historical import, they would hear me implore, that "the humanities" more so than anything else they would experience at the university, would assist them in the plight to "know thyself," and if embraced as a way of knowing and understanding, would assist in the great good of seeking and obtaining wisdom.

    Mortimer Adler, in A Guidebook to Learning powerfully stated, "The word 'humanities' should not be used, as it is now generally used in our universities and colleges, and even our high schools, to stand for particular set of subject matters. Rather it should be used as José Ortega y Gasset used it in his Revolt of the Masses, published in 1930.  This is the book which so eloquently denigrates the barbarism of specialization in the twentieth century, the cultural malady that only the humanities, properly understood can alleviate." (87)

    The modern academy, seems to have few, if any once esteemed professors of humane letters serving as the amiable generalist guide toward the good, the true, and the beautiful. So, the privileged medieval college faculty, in contract to the impoverished modern college faculty, "might, therefore, have been more appropriately called the philosophical faculty or even, perhaps the faculty of the humanities or of humane letters. But once again we must guard against the current use of these terms by remembering that the Latin word "humanitas," translating the Greek word "paideia," signifies general as opposed to specialized learning. Thus understood, it includes all branches of learning, not just those that remain after we have named the various sciences, natural and social." (20, Adler)

    Of course the university catalog, campus chatter, academic advisers and common misuse identifies the humanities as a cluster of disciplines. It has always been difficult when answering the question, "so what is a PhD in Humanities" or the most troubling, "what does one do with a Humanities degree?" Of recent years, I simply answer, "be more human" when asked about the utilitarian role of a humanities degree and "the most misunderstood and least lived education" to the question of what a PhD in Humanities actually is. Adler, assists again on these matters, but the question of being able to hear what is said seems more pressing today. "The word "humanities" or the phrase "humanistic learning" should stand for a generalist approach to all departments of knowledge as against a specialist competence in this or that particular branch of knowledge. It is accordingly incorrect and misleading to identify the humanities with the branches or departments of knowledge that remain after the various natural and social sciences have been enumerated." (86)

   Much has happened since Adler published these ideas twenty-seven years ago. My own students, having specialists in other departments who neither understand, nor care about such learning, and some who openly berate the impracticalities of the humanities, sway these students toward the mundane, imminently useful, and servile. Adler and other historians of education have observed, "The faculty of arts represented general as opposed to specialized learning, and learning for its own sake rather than for its useful application to some field of practice or action. This faculty consisted of teachers who bore the title Master of Arts. The students they succeeded in initiating into the world of learning or certified as Bachelors of Arts." (20)

  The modern university characterized by the narcissistic consumerist smorgasbord approach to life and our general contemporary ethos fully shaped by the triumph of the therapeutic, offers less and less in terms of the permanent things and more and more in terms of the momentarily relevant. It really is difficult to imagine that, "when universities came into being in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in Padua and Paris, in Oxford and Cambridge, the main divisions of learning were manifest in the four faculties that constituted them. One of these was the faculty of arts. The other three were the professional faculties of medicine, law, and theology." (19) Adler elaborates in a manner that shows another stark difference between the original university and its very different decedent.  Even with the value attached to the older faculties of medicine, law, and theology, "the latter, in the order named, corresponded to practical concerns of less and greater importance: the care of the body, the conduct of life and society, and the salvation of the soul. In referring to these three areas of concern as practical, I am calling attention to the fact that men who became doctors of medicine, of law, and theology were not only men of learning, but also the practitioners of learned professions." (19, Adler) This loss has no doubt contributed to diminished loss of the presence of the fully educated and truly humane in medicine, law, and even theology.

    In that opening lecture I aspired to provide a touch of history of select terms and give the philosophical roots to the liberal arts that could free, even today's students from a life of slavery spent spelunking in the cave of ignorance, trivialities, and the merely menial. Employing the best of ancient rhetoric  the students would hear that the humanities, when truly encountered, "signifies the general learning that should be in the possession of every human being – learning that embraces or includes all the ways of knowing...." (86)

   As the semester moved along, some came to understand that their poor humanities professor was a wayfarer without a sense of place, including even in the very academy that used to foster such persons. More than once I confessed, and sometimes apologized (due to the moment) for being a generalist. In modern parlance, being a "jack of all trades, and ace of none" is an academic professional hazard. For these young people who had as their "reason for being" to become an expert or specialist in some trade that would get them a paycheck, the gap grew greater with every passing lecture. Even when informed of the value of the humanities and that, "in the meaning of the word "humanities" or "humanistic" ...that preserves its original significance as it comes down to us from antiquity and the Middle Ages, any subject that is approached in the manner of the generalist belongs to the humanities or is humanistically approached. The subject that is studied in the manner of the specialist does not belong there," (87) they seemed unimpressed.

    Adler, toward the end of his guidebook, observes, "At the beginning of the century William James anticipated Ortega's insight. He pointed out that any subject can be seen in a humanistic light by being approached historically or philosophically." (87) Neil Postman says nearly the exact same thing in his book Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology and offers a prescription to remedy some of the ills facing modern education by suggesting that all disciplines should be approached historically and philosophically.  It is most certainly true that this approach of history and philosophy of all disciplines would go toward correcting many of the perversions and distortions found whether it be in the field of astronomy, biology, through physics and zoology.
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All quotations taken from Mortimer Adler's, A Guidebook to Learning.

Wisely Reading The Adages of Erasmus in Foolish Times

     Reading wisdom literature in any age is wise. Reading wise sayings in a foolish age will mark one quickly as a contrarian, but being wise where folly is as pervasive as oxygen is essential for survival. Of all the gifts that Desiderius Erasmus passed on to western civilization, his collection of adages, useful sayings, ranks among his least known, but most esteemed in his day. While not all adages are wise sayings, there is much wisdom in his labor. Even in Erasmus's day, Niccolo Sagundino, wrote about them, "I can hardly say what a sweet nectar as honey I sip from your delightful Adages, rich source of nectar as they are. What lovely flowers of every mind I gather thence like a honey-bee.... to their perusal I have devoted two hours a day."
     The Adages can be enjoyed along with Erasmus's Praise of Folly and Colloquies. The work demonstrates the unique genius of this prince of the humanists. It demonstrates his scholarship and imaginative wit as he reflects on a range of Greek and Roman sources. An additional value of the adages is that Erasmus often provides philosophical insight with social and political commentary. It is stunning how relevant many of the adages are to our own time. Maybe it should not surprise us that this is true because human nature, being what it is, will produce scenarios where leaders and citizens are acting out the same comedy of errors as our human ancestors. Here are just a handful of the more than 4,000. 

• To drive out one nail with another (on how solving problems may occur when placed next to similar problems)
• So many men, so many opinions (think "know it all pundits" and this one has modern application)
• You write in water (before there was a Tweet, which gave new meaning to wasting time, this adage conveyed that very notion) 
• You are building on the sand (the call to seriously consider where we place our hope and confidence)
• The blind leading the blind (take virtually any political issue and this proverb comes alive)
• One swallow does not a summer make (a rousing call for character formation)
• To exact tribute from the dead (before the "death tax," an indictment against usury and taxation)
• Time reveals all things (offering hope that even the follies of our moment will one day be revealed)

     Erasmus says that there are a number of things knowledge of proverbs provides but he highlights four things that knowledge of the adages may contribute to those who read and meditate on these maxims: "philosophy, persuasion, grace and charm in speaking, and understanding the best authors." To make the case that anyone seeking wisdom would indeed benefit from reading this work, here are just a few things that Erasmus says about two of the wisest words ever uttered, "Know Thyself" and "Nothing in Excess." In the various contexts of the phrase "know thyself," Erasmus infers this saying as a recommendation for "moderation and the middle state, and bids us not to pursue objects either too great for us or beneath us...to recognize our own blessings."

*All quotes taken from, The Adages of Erasmus Selected by William Barker. University of Toronto Press, 2001.

A Few Modest Observations for One Against the Great Books

     A colleague in our Great Books program shared an article with me me over the recent Christmas break, and as I was buried in reading some of the Great Books and a few seasonal works, I was hard pressed to read this article. The article was published in First Things and entitled, Against Great Books Questioning Our Approach to the Western Canon. When I finally did get a chance to read it, I found several points of merit, a few points that I simply disagreed with and one common error with such arguments, but it is a major and recurring error when some address the Great Books.
    The Great Books may be a source of their own undoing (inherent contradictions across the canon). On the first point of agreement (which is also ultimately the main problem in the argument), I do agree that when read together there becomes a babel-like clamoring calling for assent to a particular truth and sometimes simultaneously calling for a denial of another claiming to offer truth. This has led James Schall (of whom I have the deepest admiration) and others to warn of the danger of relativism, which is a warning that needs to be sounded especially in this foundationaless age. However, the problem of contradictions and opposing worldviews ought not to trouble us for at least three reasons. Next to my bed I usually have five to seven books I'm reading at any given time. This does not count the other three to five on my desk, and the others scattered throughout my house, university office and home office. A setting any Hobbit would relish. If I paused and attempted to bring together, in some harmonious manner, the diverse genres, ideas, worldviews, and images the sheer mental cacophony would induce an aneurysm.
    Related to this is what many of us experience in our everyday lives. Unless you are blessed to live in a way that Wendell Berry lives (an author Professor Deneen seems to respect and maybe on his "humility encouraging" list) then it is likely that any given day between our internet and interstate traveling we are going to encounter this same fragmentation and conflict. Finally, Adler stated that not only would this tension happen when studying the Great Books, it is a good thing in the battle of truth claims. His assertion is found in"The Great Conversation Revisited" essay found within the skinny Great Conversation book. "It is mistakenly thought by many that the great books are recommended for reading and study because they are a repository of truth.  On all the fundamental subjects and ideas with which the great books deal, some truths will be found in them, but on these very same subjects and ideas, many more errors or falsities will be found there.  The authors not only contradict each other; they often are guilty of contradicting themselves.  No human work rises to the perfection of being devoid of logical flaws. On any subject being considered, the relation between truth and error is that of one to many.  The truth is always singular, while the errors it corrects are manifold....No truth is well understood until and unless all the errors it corrects are also understood and all the contradictions found are resolved.  It is in the context of a plurality of errors to be corrected and of contradictions to be resolved that the brilliance of the truth shines out and illuminates the scene." (p. 26, 27)
     Professor Deneen helpfully asserts that we should read "humble books" or "books that encourage humility." While I certainly agree that books that are humble or encourage humility should be on our reading lists, I have experienced that reading the Great Books has imposed a kind of humility on me. It is because these ideas, images, and words have changed human hearts and institutions that I am humbled by them. It is because when reading many of them my feeble mind is greatly taxed that I am humbled. It is when discussing them for the past fourteen years with children and geniuses that I am humbled by the insights of others as I grope for understanding. I completely agree with Professor Deneen that we do need to read humble books and the kinds of books that encouraged humility  and I would genuinely appreciate a list from the Professor. In the meantime, I'll get back to the task of reading, and leading others through the humbling project of understanding the Great Books.

Reading The Great Books in the Midst of the Media Ruins

     My habit was this--wake up, make breakfast with my wife, and as she was going to work, I would read the day's headlines from the "news," and we would talk about it over the phone. Over recent months, especially the last several days, I felt like I was reading more news, and watching more news, and getting dumber as I slipped into a greater ennui.
    So taking a partial cue from Walker Percy's Dr. Thomas More in Love in the Ruins who gathered "cases of Early Times and Swiss Colony sherry . . . [and] the Great Books" for what More felt might be the end of the world, I plan on a modified version of this activity. Minus the Early Times, Swiss Colony, and staying at a Howard Johnson's, but certainly with a mega dose of the Great Books, a resolution has occurred.
    Some additional motivation comes from remembering a Neil Postman book I had read some years ago. Going back and looking at that marked up book, I was ashamed how much I had failed to live the wisdom of that work. Neil Postman, once advised in his book How to Watch The TV News, written twenty years ago, that "The 'news' is only a commodity, which is used to gather an audience that will be sold to advertisers."
     Think of events that bombard us for days and then not a sound. I had thought that it took Michael Jackson a month to die with all the coverage that "news event" received. Postman states, "No one is expected to take the news too seriously... tomorrow's news will have nothing to do with today's news. It is best if the audience has completely forgotten yesterday's news. TV shows work best by treating viewers as if they were amnesiacs."
     Regarding the bias (and they are ALL biased), Postman argues, "TV is not what happened. It is what some man or woman who has been labeled a journalist or correspondent thinks is worth reporting." The silly notion that media is objective was swallowed up with Fox news and MSNBC propaganda, and all media are on their heels.
     Again, Postman contends, "The more information, the less significant information is. The less information, the more significant it is." I decided to start my days not with information, but with truth and wisdom so as to enable me to be fully prepared when the information encountered tends toward the true and good, or tends toward the delusional propaganda. "The preparation for watching television news begins with the preparation of one's mind through extensive reading." So what little news I do watch or read or listen to in the years to come, will be tempered by significantly more reading of the greatest works ever written so my mind is better prepared.
     So starting a few days ago, my new morning ritual is breakfast with my wife, time with the daily lectionary, and reading from the Great Books of which I'll be blogging more. News will get a few minutes a month, if that much.

Fully Accredited Great Books Based PhD is Here!

     Finally, after years of planning and a great deal of hard (mental) work, the PhD that is profoundly grounded in the Great Books is here. It was a dream I had about five years ago to offer a fully accredited Great Books based PhD. Originally the degree was to be a DLitt, but with some possible confusion out there, the degree was slightly altered to conform to the requirements of a PhD. 
    We received word late afternoon on Oct. 29th. We have everything in place and will be taking applications immediately. With already more than 100 people having seriously inquired about the program for the past year, we anticipate admitting the top forty-five. A candidate can opt to concentrate in History, Literature, Philosophy, or aspire to be a generalist in the Liberal Arts. The tutorials are ideal for in-depth research in an era, person, idea, or select writings. 
     This PhD is literally one-of-a-kind in that it is fully accredited (SACS), offered fully distance with the dissertation being defended via conference call with a designated Research Fellow, and the student's full committee having guided the research. This PhD is uniquely interdisciplinary in structure and practice. A number of the highly qualified faculty are generalists and encourage the kind of readings, research, and writing that reflects an interdisciplinary drive.
     Building on our very successful MLitt degree, we use the Great Books and select, highly interactive online tools to provide the best distance education available. If you have any questions or need any assistance, please feel free to contact us through our website.

A Guide to Reading Ghost Stories

     "His was no Enlightenment mind, Kirk now became aware; it was a Gothic mind, medieval in its temper and structure. 
                      Russell Kirk, The Sword of Imagination, 68

     As J.R.R. Tolkien assisted many with his most informative essay, On Fairy Stories, Russell Kirk provides a short, but helpful primer into the genre of "ghost stories." Now, of course, reading the essay, "A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale," the reader realizes that "ghost stories" are not merely about "ghosts" just as "fairy-tales" are not merely about "fairies."
     As with G.K. Chesterton's assertion in his "Ethics of Elfland," fairytales are inherently moral as they reflect a universe of moral order and consequences when good is dismissed and evil embraced. Russell Kirk writing of his own ghost stories says, "What I have attempted, rather, are experiments in the moral imagination. Readers will encounter elements of parable and fable...literary naturalism is not the only path to apprehension of reality. All-important literature has some ethical end; and the tale of the preternatural...can be an instrument for the recovery of moral order." The key here is the ethical end toward which great literature often aims, but has been rejected in our own moment.
     Just as in the natural order there are laws that must be yielded to, in "ghost stories" there is a parallel principal within the supernatural order.  These accompanying laws have equally real results when adhered to or when dismissed. Again Kirk, "The better uncanny stories are underlain by healthy concept of the character of evil. Defying nature, the necromancer conjures up what ought not to rise again this side of Judgment Day. But these dark powers do not rule the universe: by bell, book, and candle, symbolically at least, we can push them down under."
     For Kirk, the "ghost tale" may better communicate certain truths when compared to science fiction. "For symbol and allegory, the shadow–world is a better realm than the mechanized empire of science fiction." It is so important to stress here, for the reader of this blog that the realities these stories speak of are not merely symbol or allegory, as it is the case that a symbol (by he nature of being a symbol) points to or hints at a reality beyond itself. In other words, an allegory is parallel to something that is really real beyond itself. If this is not the case, then allegories and symbols merely refer to other symbols and allegories and the mirror maze becomes a prison.
     Additionally, Russell Kirk gives further insight into another value of the "ghost tale" which is also true of liberal arts grounded in fine letters. "The story of the supernatural or mystical can disclose aspects of human conduct and human longing to which the positivistic psychologist has blinded himself." The human heart longs for "transcendent perception" and "arcane truths about good and evil" that answers questions we have about the meaning and truth of things. Kirk adds, "as a literary form, then, the uncanny tale can be a means for expressing truths enchantingly." Many are drawn to this literary genre as it affirms what most of us know, and that is the truth that our senses are not capable of apprehending all that was, is, or will be. While the 'scientists' or 'materialists' will not acknowledge it, 'nature' is something more than mere fleshly sensation, and that something may lie above human nature, and something below it–-why, the divine and the diabolical rise up again in serious literature."
     So the scientists, mechanists, or fundamentalist who resists these tales of transcendence, should more resist the ignorant order that loses touch of the ultimate reality to which these parables are set next to and offer a glimpse into. It is our narrow, shallow, and hollow view of reality that should be resisted by those of us drawn to the dark, scary, and mysterious stories that point us to what is.

Jacques Barzun Passes at 104

     Among the many words penned or spoken by the late and truly great Jacques Barzun, my favorite came in an interview where he gave his defense and definition of a Liberal Arts education. In truth, Barzun's words stand as a refutation to all who would pervert the Liberal Arts and all who would strive to extinguish the Liberal Arts.

Cultural historian Jacques Barzun, in an interview with Charlie Rose (May 29, 2000), addressed the question of the value of a liberal arts education that is specifically grounded in the Great Books and the Great Tradition of the West. Barzun responded as follows:
    Properly taught, and learned—acquired—a liberal education awakens and keeps alive the imagination. By the imagination, I don’t mean fanciful things, but I mean the capacity to see beyond the end of your nose and beyond the object in front you. That is to see its implications, its origins, its potential, its danger, its charm. All the things that enable one to navigate in this difficult and complex world with a modicum of wisdom, with calm, not be alarmed with every little thing that happens and with resources that in moments of stress, and after retirement, in illness, and loneliness keep one’s soul and body alive.

May people continue to learn from Jacques Barzun and may he Requiescat in pace.

Clement of Alexandria: The Virtue of Liberal Learning

      Clement calls for his readers to meet Jesus as the “Word” and “Educator” that “forcibly” compels people from the “worldly way of life and educates them to the only true salvation: faith in God.”  The Educator is the one “who leads the way” to “improve the soul” not just in knowledge but to guide in virtue.  The Educator does not focus solely on knowledge, but leads his “children” toward a life of virtue.  The “Word” perfects his disciples “in a way that leads progressively to salvation” through persuasion, education, and lastly, through teaching.  The teaching of the Educator “educates” people in the “fear of God,” instructs in “the service of God” and provides “knowledge of truth” toward living the virtuous life which ensures salvation. 

     For Clement, “The education that God gives is the imparting of the truth that will guide us correctly to the contemplation of God, and a description of holy deeds that endure forever.”  God and Jesus, the Word, have been guiding his children as revealed in scripture, as God’s guidance to Jacob, Moses, and the Israelites reveals.  The Educator from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant teaches with love, but those under the old were “guided by fear,” while under the New the “Word has become flesh, [thus] fear has been turned into love” in Jesus. “Such, then, is the authority wielded by the Educator of children, awe-inspiring, consoling, leading to salvation.”

     Given the role of the Educator, what role does philosophy have to play in the people’s education?  Addressing the role of philosophy, Clement argues that it was “an essential guide to righteousness for the Greeks” and “at the present time, it is a useful guide towards reverence for God.”  He asserts, “For philosophy was to the Greek world what the Law was to the Hebrews, a tutor escorting them to Christ.  Philosophy is a preparatory process; it opens the road to the person who Christ brings to his final goal.”  For Clement, philosophy, though imperfect, leads people toward virtue if one is willing. 

     “God has created us sociable and righteous by nature,” Clement announces.   Therefore, when one pursues philosophy, “it makes it quicker and easier to track down virtue.”  For Clement, a level of righteousness can be found outside of divine dispensation.  “It follows that we may not say that righteousness appears simply by a divine dispensation.  We are to understand that the good of creation is rekindled by the commandment, when the soul learns by instruction to be willing to choose the highest.”

     Faith is best accompanied by reason as it will keep one from being led astray, so Clement argues, as opposed to those who would argue “it is not right to have anything to do with philosophy or dialectic,” even refusing to “engage in the consideration of the natural world at all.” In Clement’s perception, “The person who yearns to touch the fringes of God’s power must of necessity become a philosopher to have a proper conception about intellectual objects.”  As with other Christian thinkers through the ages, Scripture itself is perceived as rational and supporting the dialectic action.

     Clement sees the possible role that philosophy had in bringing the Greeks “to righteousness, though not to perfect righteousness.”  The “perfect righteousness” comes through the education of the Son.  He contends that philosophy “does not add more power to the truth; it reduces the power of the sophistic attack on it.”  Philosophy is a defense for the “treacherous assaults on truth,” and thus is a “savory accompaniment or dessert” to the gospel. 

     Clement uses the apostle Paul in Act 17 quoting from Aratus’ Phaenomena as a Christian affirmation of even pagan philosophy having some element of truth.  The degree to which philosophy has the capability of moving one toward apprehending truth depends on how well philosophy is practiced.  For Clement, there are indeed true philosophers and “caricatures of philosophers.”  True philosophers are those “whose joy is in the contemplation of truth.”  For Clement, “Philosophy operates through knowledge of the good in its own being, and through the truth, which are not identical with the Good, but more like paths to it.”  Drawing from none other than Socrates's thoughts, philosophy “contributes to the soul’s awakening.”  Philosophy can aide as it, “makes a contribution to grasping the truth – it is a search for the truth.”  However, the ultimate discovery of the one truth “depends on the Son.”  Clement emphasizes that “it is only this unreachable sovereign truth in which we are educated by God’s Son.” 

     Clement gives numerous insights into the way God may work in the world to draw people toward Himself as in the case of Greek philosophy.  Clement argues that philosophy is a search for truth and is a path ultimately leading toward the one truth from God.  Clement and the grand consensus of Christian thinkers affirm that Philosophy, in and of itself, is not complete without Jesus at the center as the “Educator” par excellence in leading to the truth and salvation.  For Clement, the academy has a mission if rightly directed, not by “caricatures of philosophers” but by those who take authentic joy “in the contemplation of truth.” 

The Liberal Arts and the Christian Life: Why There Is Still Hope

     To speak of the decline of both the quality and presence of the Liberal Arts in the American academy is so clearly obvious that only the ignorant, apathetic, or contrarian would disagree. It seems about every year there are numerous books adding to the already mountain of works decrying the end of the Liberal Arts.

     While it may be true that the once esteemed place that the Liberal Arts held in the academy k-12 through graduate school has not seen darker days since the fall of the Roman empire, there are signs that some are still fighting the fight. Evidence for resistance fighters within Christian circles is found in the book Liberal Arts For the Christian Life edited by Jeffry C. Davis and Philip G. Ryken. This volume, while not entirely balanced in quality, is a fine example of Christians thinking Christianly about the Liberal Arts. More importantly, this book was assembled to honor Leland Ryken. 

    I have never concealed my indebtedness to Leland Ryken. His books on the Bible as Literature, the Arts, and Literature are all on my shelves and are throughly marked up as I have lifted quotes, and insights for lectures and sermons. While Dr. Ryken has written a few "scholarly" books, he has most often written or edited books that are accessible for any who might be interested in thinking about the Liberal Arts from a distinctly Christian worldview. Additionally, I was blessed several years ago when we invited Dr. Ryken to our campus as the annual Great Books Honors speaker and it was marvelous. 

     To finally put an embodied presence to his audio lectures I had heard, and all of his books I had read, I was able to meet Dr. Ryken several years ago. Dr. Ryken was gracious, kind, humble, encouraging, and professional. He is what is best understood in the terms of a "Christian gentleman." He is rare and as a leader in the battle for the Liberal Arts, he has served in an exemplary manner for decades and continues to equip others to join the ranks.

Thomas Aquinas on Wisdom

     On occasion, but it should be with great frequency, within the context of a class discussion or even a lesson at Church, the topic of wisdom is discussed.  Frequently, but it should be on occasion, the definition is put forth as practical or applied learning.  It is at times like these I desired that Thomas Aquinas's definition of wisdom had won the day in Western civilization.  In truth, the Liberal Arts would have done much better through the ages if his definition had been the one people lived by and taught.  
     For Thomas, and most Philosophers until the modern world, Philosophy was essentially the "love of wisdom."  To engage in the the practice of philosophy was the faithful pursuit of wisdom wherever it might be found. The primary understanding of truth was saying of a thing what was and not saying of a thing what was not.  In a larger sense, wisdom was an understanding of the truth of things. Philosophy was not navel gazing and not ideological manipulation, but it was a diligent quest to understanding the good, the true, and the beautiful.  
     Thomas asserts (and I paraphrase) in the Summa Contra Gentiles I, 2: While humans are finite, among all the human pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom is the ultimate end, and it is the most noble, and the most useful, and that pursuit that can provide the greatest joy. Through Philosophy, we humans are more like God and can apprehend the truth of things which calls us to a better life.  
     It is also worth noting that among some of the greatest Philosophers in the Western intellectual tradition, there was no one more committed to prayer.  Thomas, as a grand example of this, not only sought wisdom as part of his brilliant, intellectual, and knowledgeable endeavors, also, daily, prayed for wisdom.
    This may surprise post-Enlightenment people that prior to the Enlightenment, wisdom was closely connected to reason.  For them to reason, reflect, imagine, conjecture, was part of what it meant to act faithfully in accordance with being in the image of God.  As it related to the four causes expounded by Aristotle and adhered to by Thomas, wisdom is an understanding of the final cause.  Sadly, this has all but been lost in science and philosophy today.  
     Is it possible that one reason Philosophy is ridiculed by so many today as irrelevant and outdated is because it lost its way a few hundred years ago and has never fully found the way back to the path.  If philosophy was still about the blending of the theoretical and the practical, the reflection and the proper moral action, one can imagine that there would be many who would come to love and live wisdom.
     

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.

More Tools to Assist in a Journey Through Dante's Divine Comedy

     Aside for Robert Hollander's three volumes on Dante's Divine Comedy, 

You Paid How Much for That Education?

     It is common when expressing what a person paid for a car or house, when they clearly paid more for something that was not worth the price, "You paid how much?!?!"  One is surprised that this expression is not daily heard of higher education.  Considering the ridiculous price many university students pay for the non or anti education they lay down hundreds of thousands of dollars to receive, you would think "buyer beware" should become the unofficial motto of the modern academy.
     When and how it all went wrong has been well documented, and there is certainly no shortage of "solutions," but the reality is that Titanic University struck the ice-berg some time ago and the band plays on while the student body meanders about getting crumbs from what used to be the feast of learning.  What is true of the California Universities, is likely as true for the rest of the nation with a few notable exceptions.

So Three Umpires Are In a Bar: Or Why Etienne Gilson Would Call It Right

     Among the many conversations I have had with Great Books students over the years, none is more lively than when we discuss various theories of truth.  It seems to always come up when we are reading and talking about Thomas Aquinas's Summa.  In order to make immediate connection with them, I tell the story about three umpires in a bar after a game.  These officials are discussing what really happens when they call balls and strikes.  What they are really doing is discussing the relationship between reality and human apprehension of said reality.
     The umpires are discussing the relationship between the pitching of the ball and the calling of said pitch by the umpire.  It goes like this:
1) When it comes to making calls behind the home plate, I call it the way it is....
2) When it comes to making calls behind home plate, I call it the way I see it....
3) When it comes to making calls behind home plate, it ain't nothing until I call it....
     Those of us who have played or enjoyed the game of baseball get the import of this conversation.  The truth is that it is easy to hear what each is saying and recognize the legitimacy of their respective claim.  Additionally, it is also realitvely easy to extrapolate from their statements and expand them to the point of seeing how wrong they are in their claim.  
1) Is it possible that this umpire would ever admit to being wrong?
2) Is the reality of the ball and strike rooted in the perception of the umpire?
3) What if the pitcher threw the ball twenty feet over the catcher's head and it struck the press box and the umpire called it a strike, it would be, but he would be fired--why?
     In steps Etienne Gilson and the "umpire" I would want calling the game.  The recent re-publication of his short masterpiece, Methodical Realism is must reading for all baseball and softball officials, and it should be for all thinking people.  If you have ever wondered about the chasm that separates most old school Humanists and most modern Social Scientists, here is the debate between the coherentists theory of truth and the correspondence theory of truth.  Gilson does a spectacular job of showing that we are all correspondence theorists, but we do not all know it.  

How Reading Josef Pieper Can Help You Stay Sane

     It is not common that a person would recommend a Philosopher to help you stay sane, but with the writings of Josef Pieper, if you have ever read even one of his books, you are likely to agree with me.  He is certainly different from other philosophers.  I have a friend, Philosophy professor who wrote his dissertation on a Philosopher who penned books that usually topped several hundred pages.  Pieper's books are often less than 150 pages.  The truth is that he says more in less space than most say in more space.  Most Philosophers I know have to throw around words like ontological, noetic, hermeneutical epistemology, and occasional neologism, fourteensyllablewordhereandthere.  Pieper was not that way and for the non-technical reader, this is a joy.
     Also, the range of his wisdom is most impressive.  Some of the titles I have read and re-read and actually use in classes include: 


In Defense of Philosophy - It is difficult to explain to people who have ever met a "professional Philosopher" that this lot has seriously perverted what real Philosophy is, and that despite their enormous vocabulary, most of them are not really Philosophers.  Philosophy is the "love of wisdom."  Pieper makes the case that, " ...to engage in philosophy means to reflect on the totality of things we encounter, in view of their ultimate reasons; and philosophy, thus understood, is a meaningful, even necessary endeavor, with which man, the spiritual being, cannot dispense."


The Human Wisdom Of St. Thomas - This little book is collection of select quotes from the writings of Thomas Aquinas.  If you have never read St. Thomas because he can be a bit intimidating, this is a fine place to start.  I have used this little book in a number of ways, including a source for deep ideas to meditate upon.


Leisure: The Basis of Culture - Despite the chaos our current economy is experiencing, this is a perfect book to better understand the problems and the solutions.


In Tune With The World: A Theory of Festivity - After you read Leisure, this is a wonderful companion book.  You will never experience worship or festivals the same way.


The Concept of Sin - Not merely a reflection on sin, but an analysis of how we speak and do not speak about sin.


Death and Immortality - Among the most important books on a subject we all experience, but few think about until the very end.


Tradition - Pieper shows what Tradition is and what happens when we do not have rich traditions.


The Platonic Myths - A great book to read before or after you read the Platonic dialogues.


The Christian Idea of Man - The best example of Christian thinking about the exploration of "know Thyself."


     I have never shared a Pieper book in which the person does not return it with words of gratitude.  He is that author that truly can help us not lose our minds in a moment when minds seem to matter so little to so few.