The term “intellect” is often associated with a narrow sector of human life: the academic. It may even be associated with empty erudition in contrast to the solid realism of common sense. Boethius defined a person as an individual substance of a rational nature. Does that strike you as an impoverished way to think of […]
Category Archives: Literature
Lost in the dark forest of his life, standing at the threshold of his cosmos-spanning journey through Hell, Purgatory, and the Paradiso, Dante finds beside him his guide: Virgil. Not an apostle, nor a saint—indeed, not even a Christian—but a pagan poet from ancient Rome, now leading the medieval pilgrim soul toward the vision of […]
07
Apr
Apr
While stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I participated in an online reading challenge. I don’t remember the exact requirements, but I recall one prompt in particular standing out; it instructed me to read an author I knew I ought to read but didn’t think I would enjoy. I wasn’t thrilled. That meant it […]
While stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I participated in an online reading challenge. I don’t remember the exact requirements, but I recall one prompt in particular standing out; it instructed me to read an author I knew I ought to read but didn’t think I would enjoy. I wasn’t thrilled. That meant it […]
Lately, I have found myself increasingly involved in the pioneering adventure of helping to start new schools and colleges in the classical liberal arts tradition. I am on the boards of both Rosary College and another college, the name of which I am not yet at liberty to disclose. The former is a two-year undergraduate […]
I teach philosophy, and my students often come into my classes with the expectation that the texts we read will be difficult, dense, and impossible for them to fully comprehend. They’re right. If you can read a text breezily, in a reclining position, with a drink in one hand, and come away with confident assurance […]
16
Jan
Jan
From Memoria College’s Joseph Pearce, at The Imaginative Conservative: It’s 1952, and John Wayne’s latest film, The Quiet Man, is a huge hit at the box office. It is about a stranger who arrives in an Irish village with a secret he does not want to disclose. A year earlier, a little-known Irish author, Malachy […]