W. H. Auden is considered by most to be one of the 20th Century’s finest English and American poets. Younger than T.S. Eliot, and greatly influenced by him, Auden fits squarely in the camp of the modernists poets exemplified by Eliot and Ezra Pound. In his poem, We’re Late, he highlights the hurry, scurry, fret, […]
Books & Literature
Washing Giants’ Feet
One good way to learn is to sit at the feet of a good teacher. But a better way to learn is to wash the feet of those teachers with the greatest minds, the intellectual giants of the Western Tradition. When it comes to education, Plato’s Socrates considered dialogue to be the best vehicle for […]
On Film: Plus My Personal 20 Favorites
Almost everyone enjoys film (watching movies) for entertainment, but the wise know how important it is to do so discerningly. In many ways, film is a lot like literature in that it mirrors life, making its soul-shaping, storytelling power surprisingly prodigious. Like books, we don’t have the time to watch every film that is produced. […]
Tolle Lege
“An easily manipulated population that cares mostly for its own amusement may be more ready for tyranny (which can keep the masses happy with “bread and circuses”) than for the arduous responsibilities of self-government” -Gene Veith. Now, more than ever, Christians need to read. We are people of the Word, and therefore need to immerse […]
Book Review: Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest by Crawford Gribben
The structure of this review will begin with a short bio on the author, move to a summary and analysis of the book’s thesis and salient points, and conclude with some personal reflection on both the book and its subject matter. For the quick summary (cliff notes version), scroll all the way down to Conclusions […]
Large Draughts of Love with Vast Delight
Admittedly, this is an unconventional Valentine’s Day post, but in this series of excerpts from Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid, we are privileged to get a delightful and enlightening glimpse of an all too familiar dalliance with “love.” But, far above the rest, the royal dame, (Already doom’d to love’s disastrous flame,) With eyes insatiate, […]
Why Everyone Should Read Plato’s Republic
There are a number of reasons every post-adolescent human being would benefit from reading and studying The Republic of Plato. For starters, I just used the unconventional descriptor, human being, intentionally. I used this nomer to emphasize our distinction from the animals by means of our superior mental faculties, power of speech, and soulfulness instead […]
An Experiment in Reading
Seth Godin claimed in his manifesto on education that “Among Americans, the typical high school graduate reads no more than one book a year for fun, and a huge portion of the population reads zero. No books! For the rest of their lives, for 80 years, bookless.” I’m not sure where he got his data, […]
What are the Great Books?
The short answer could be, the 1952 publication of Encyclopedia Britannica’s The Great Books of the Western World series. But that would be a truncated, and quite possibly, unhelpful answer. Plus, that answer would thwart my penultimate purpose in writing this post, which is to provide some insights into what actually makes up a Great […]
Book Review: Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education
Classical Academic Press has added another jewel to its collection of books, and Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education, written by Dr. Robert Woods, is of that quality one expects to find in this delightful series. The book’s greatest feature besides being an accurate portrayal of Adler and his work is that it […]