Discussing Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy"

We had a great first conversation today about Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy.

Boethius lived in the 6th century and was falsely imprisoned and executed for treason.  While in prison and without any books, he wrote this brilliant work.  The Consolation is an imaginary dialogue between Boethius and Lady Philosophy - a work which intertwines clever prose with beautiful poetry.

Today's discussion of the Book I focused on a number of interesting aspects, but one in particular caught everyone's attention:

• The reader meets Boethius writing melancholy poetry in jail, wallowing in his misery and pitying himself.  Immediately upon arriving at his side, Lady Philosophy chases away the Muses of poetry who have inspired Boethius sulk in his misery - albeit with beautiful poetry.  We then had an interesting conversation about our culture today and how much of pop culture art wallows in depression, misery and destruction.  This is starkly contrasted with how Lady Philosophy calls the Muses of poetry out and chases them away, for they are not leading Boethius to what is true, good and beautiful. 
• Pictured here is an image of Lady Philosophy who leads men toward virtue, truth and goodness.

Thought provoking article from David Brooks of NYT

David Brooks is an inconsistent writer. He jumps from one school of thought to another. He's a classic liberal, though he's branded as a conservative thinker. (There's a difference between today's political liberalism and "classical liberalism"... we won't get into that right now!)

Anyway, here are some tidbits from a recent Brooks article that I found interesting.

"How to Fight the Man" by David Brooks

A few weeks ago, a 22-year-old man named Jefferson Bethke produced a video called “Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus.” The video shows Bethke standing in a courtyard rhyming about the purity of the teachings of Jesus and the hypocrisy of the church. Jesus preaches healing, surrender and love, he argues, but religion is rigid, phony and stale. “Jesus came to abolish religion,” Bethke insists. “Religion puts you in bondage, but Jesus sets you free.”

[...]

Right away, many older theologians began critiquing Bethke’s statements. A blogger named Kevin DeYoung pointed out, for example, that it is biblically inaccurate to say that Jesus hated religion. In fact, Jesus preached a religious doctrine, prescribed rituals and worshiped in a temple.

Bethke responded in a way that was humble, earnest and gracious, and that generally spoke well of his character. He also basically folded.

[...]

Bethke’s passionate polemic and subsequent retreat are symptomatic of a lot of the protest cries we hear these days. This seems to be a moment when many people — in religion, economics and politics — are disgusted by current institutions, but then they are vague about what sorts of institutions should replace them.

This seems to be a moment of fervent protest movements that are ultimately vague and ineffectual.

[...]

But rebellion without a rigorous alternative vision is just a feeble spasm.

Read the thoughtful conclusion here.

UPDATE: A Solid Rebuttle to the YouTube phenom: "Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus"

This new video was produced by a priest in response to "Why I Love Jesus, and Hate Religion". Not bad!


You may have heard of this YouTube video "Why I hate Religion, but love Jesus" making the rounds, dear students.

The video raises some interesting questions and gets a number of important issues right,

but many of the statements are highly problematic (e.g. the main premise that religion is contrary to Jesus) by way of shallow rhetoric. The theology and Scriptural references are easy enough to parse.

I would suggest that this fellow's view of religion is not simply one we can ignore; this is because there are many, many Christians (even Catholics) who share his view in America and the modern west. We cannot afford simply to mock it - it needs to be engaged and thoroughly rebutted. This is one of the aims of our Capstone Seminar: to give you the tools to articulate truth in the face of skepticism, shallow fads, ideology and hatred in an unbiased manner. Likewise, if you cannot admit that some of the things he (and other people who are 1/2 correct) says are spot-on, we've failed too.

Also, the young man is obviously coming from a shallow, non-denominational protestant perspective, so many of the statements he makes (that are obviously wrong to Catholics) are simply the logical consequence of the failed teachings and pragmatism of main-line protestant religion. We as Catholics can learn from these mistakes.

With that, I offer you a solid rebuttal from "Bad Catholic".

It’s worth beginning with this: I agree with this guy on a lot of points. He reminds us Catholics of a striking truth; that without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, religion is a joke. He speaks the truth that Christ died for our sins, once and for all. I can’t help but think, in the midst of all this, that this hating-religion-loving-Jesus thing is the logical consequence of Protestantism. For a 21st-century Protestant looking at a thousand-something churches, I imagine there is an immense temptation to say “It’s all a wash. I will follow Christ, not a religion,” and be done with it. I empathize with him, knowing that if I were a Protestant I would be in full agreement: There is either one, true religion or there is no religion at all.

But nevertheless, there are two main problems with this video. 1. Jesus Christ would strongly disagree with it. That is to say, the creator of this video is very, very wrong. 2. He’s very, very wrong with some great video editing, good background music, a strong emotional appeal, catchy rhyme, and all in relatively well-timed YouTube moment. He’s wrong in style. When a man gains immense popularity by making blanket statements stylistically, how likely is it that his followers will read a rebuttal making specific statements prosaically? I don’t know, but rebut I must, for it is the duty of the Catholic to resist fashion and fads, no matter how unfashionable he looks doing it.

Read "Bad Catholic's" entire roast here.

Another related post by "Bad Catholic" here. Whoever the author of "Bad Catholic" is, he's pretty dang clever! Enjoy.

Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy (a commentary on our culture)

This video is absolutely hilarious [pardon the brusque expression at the end]!  File it under "Our Dumb Culture"!

Great quote on Natural Law

The following quote is from an address that the students read for Wednesday's class by Dr. Charles E. Rice, Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame Law School. 


THE NATURAL LAW


Albino Luciani - John Paul I



Charles E. Rice
Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame Law School
Address, Canon Law Conference
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
LaCrosse, Wisconsin
August 9, 2011

What is the natural law and why do we need it? The “September Pope,” John Paul I, at his general audience on September 6, 1978, gave us a clue:

Once a man went to buy a motorcar from the agent. The latter talked to him plainly: “Look here, it’s a good car; mind that you treat it well: premium petrol in the tank, and for the joints, oil, the good stuff.” But the other replied: “Oh, no, for your information, I can’t stand even the smell of petrol, nor oil; I’ll put champagne, which I like so much, in the tank and I’ll oil the joints with jam.” “Do what you like: but don’t come and complain if you end up in a ditch, with your car!”

“The Lord,” he continued, “did something similar with us: he gave us this body, animated by an intelligent soul, a good will. He said, ‘this machine is a good one, but treat it well.’” And God did more: “God gave [the Commandments] to us not to satisfy a whim, not in his own interest, but solely in our interest.” The Commandments are specifications of the natural law. Together they constitute a set of manufacturer’s directions, given by our Creator “solely for our interest.”

When the seller warned the buyer to “treat it well,” he meant the buyer should do good by his car. Everything has a nature, built into it by its maker. The good is that which is in accord with the nature of the thing. It is good to put gasoline in the tank. It is not good to put champagne or sand in the tank because that violates the nature of the car. If you do put champagne or sand in the tank, you will be pro-choice, but you will also be a pedestrian. That is so because the natural law is the story of how things work. John Paul I reminds us that our culture is like the guy who puts sand in his gas tank and is surprised when the car doesn’t run.

Read the full piece here at the Wanderer Forum Foundation's website.

Pupils Delighted

This article very much summarizes what we are attempting to do with the seniors in the Capstone Seminar.

"Pupils Delighted"
by Anthony Esolen

Here's an excerpt in medias res: 

"The Pearson Integrated Humanities Program must have violated every educational truism of our time. Two hundred freshmen and sophomores, for six hours a week for two years, sat in the company of three professors, John Senior, Frank Nelick, and Dennis Quinn, who discussed art, poetry, music, history, philosophy, and Scripture with one another, while the students overheard them and eventually learned to participate in the discussions themselves. The students also recited poetry, learned to waltz, and were introduced to such words as truth, faith, honor, love, courtesy, decency, simplicity, and modesty, not words much used in an Age of Iron, but then, Don Quixote was sent into that time precisely to bring back something of the Age of Gold.
The motto of the program was Nascantur in Admiratione, “Let Them Be Born in Wonder.” One of the pages of the brochure explains why:

In our day wonder has been so cheapened by sensationalism and so crippled by skepticism that the college freshman, instead of being as one newly awakened to the excitement of learning, is often, rather, as one who has never been born. To such a young person learning is so much drudgery and routine, alien to his real interests, remote from reality itself. To revive wonder may be said to summarize the aims of the Pearson Program. Hence it should be regarded as an elementary or elemental course, where one discovers the love of wisdom; a course for beginners, who look upon the primary things of the world, as it were, for the first time.
An ancient philosopher said that to look at the stars is to become a lover of wisdom—a philosopher. Since the Pearson Program aims to make all students philosophers in that sense, we say, with a modern poet, “Look at the stars! Look, look up at the skies!” Not only are students in the program required to look, literally, at the stars, but they are also expected to look up through poetry and through all that is great in Western civilization. It is by the light of the stars (or “something like a star”) that we discover the world, ourselves, and our destination."

Read Anthony Esolen's entire piece at Touchstone Magazine.

DeJak's latest: "For University Students..."

Dear students,

After panning the modern academy, Mr. DeJak's musings in his latest article also wisely apply to high school students, and so you are advised to read and pay attention to his recommendations from "How to Survive the Academic Environment: A Practical Guide":

4. Have a Right View of Education.  Reject outright the pragmatic notion that education is job-training. If that is your notion of education, then stay at home and “train for a better career” with Sally Struthers and her correspondence schools. True education is about the apprehension of truth, goodness and beauty—in a word, about seeking the ultimate reality—God. Indeed, reading Cicero or Shakespeare will not bring you money, but it may bring you happiness and provide you a habit of mind that will make you successful in any terrestrial endeavor.

St. Augustine of Hippo

5. Read Augustine and Aquinas.  No modern master can surpass these guys. (Indeed read modern masters, such as Chesterton, as well!) In order to cultivate common sense and a solid grounding in authentically Catholic thinking, no Catholic can afford to be ignorant of these thinkers. To start out, gather your cadre and read together Augustine’s Confessions. Later, read Aquinas on anything—might I suggest selections from the Summa on God’s existence and law.

6. Read Good Poetry and Literature.  C.S. Lewis once said, “If you must read the newspapers, be sure to give yourself a good mouthwash with [J.R.R. Tolkien’s] The Lord of the Rings.” I don’t think that I can improve upon that statement.

7. Shun Technology, Engage the Human Things.  I will be accused here of contradiction by the very fact that I have posted this article online. The point is not to condemn technology or to become a full-fledged Luddite; rather, it is to maintain one’s sanity and freedom in a world that is increasingly made up of robots. No IM-ing will ever take the place of a real face-to-face conversation, nor will email ever have the same savor or feeling as a handwritten letter, nor will a fake fireplace on a screen come close to the real thing. Take walks and converse with your friends—preferably in wooded areas. Look at a tree. As I have written elsewhere: “Today it is easy to be taken with the advanced mechanical things of man’s intelligence: iPads, iPods, and the world wide web. Aren’t lily pads, pea pods and spider webs equally—if not more—fascinating?”

In the Capstone Seminar we've read Augustine.  And we're gonna read Aquinas... after we read Anselm, of course!

Read the rest of Mr. DeJak's post at the Wanderer Forum Foundation blog.