Natural Fellowship

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“Perhaps, though, we should examine more thoroughly what are the natural principles of human fellowship and community.  First is something that is seen in the fellowship of the entire human race.  For its bonding consists of reason and speech, which reconcile men to one another, through teaching, learning, communicating, debating and making judgements, and unite them in a kind of natural fellowship.  It is this that most distances us from the nature of other animals.”  Cicero, On Duties I. 50. eds. and trans. M.T. Griffin and E.M. Atkins (Cambridge 1991), p. 21.

Reason and speech unite all humanity in a natural felllowship.  By means of these, human beings learn, communicate, and resolve differences.  Without reason and speech human beings are close to mere animals.

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Wisdom, knowledge, and information

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.”

T.S. Eliot, “Choruses from the ‘The Rock’ ” in The Complete Poems and Plays (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1971), 96.

T.S. Eliot wrote fascinating poetry in the 20th century.  Although he was born in St Louis, Missouri, he became a British citizen in 1927 and was a devout Anglican.  He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948.  He wrote “Choruses from the Rock” in 1934.

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She Has Talent without a Woman’s Weakness

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“There are now many honorable ladies who surpass the daughters of Thomas More in all kinds of learning; but among them all the most shining star, not so much for the clarity of her mind as for the splendor of her virtue and her letters, is my mistress, Elizabeth, sister of our King.  She so shines forth that, in justly commending her great versatility, my task is not to find something to praise but to find limits to my praising.  But I shall write nothing to which I have not been an eye-witness.  She had me for a tutor in the Latin and Greek languages for two years…The ornaments of nature and of fortune, gathered together in my most illustrious mistress, are difficult to judge; I hardly know which is to be estimated the higher.  Aristotle’s excellence is wholly transfused into her.  For in her are contained all beauty, stature, prudence, and industry.  She has just passed her sixteenth birthday, and is so grave in age and so gentle in her rank to a degree unheard of.  Her study of true faith and of learning is most energetic.  She has talent without a women’s weakness, industry with a man’s perseverance, and memory than which I know none quicker to perceive or longer to retain.  She speaks in French and Italian as well as she speaks in English; in Latin easily, correctly, and thoughtfully; and she has even spoken with me in Greek tolerably well, frequently, and voluntarily.  When she writes in Greek or Latin, nothing is more beautiful than her handwriting.  She is skilled in music as she is delighted by it.”

Roger Ascham, “Roger Ascham to Johann Sturm, April 4, 1550,” in The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be An Educated Human Being, ed. Richard M. Gamble. Wilmington 2007, pp. 434-35.

Roger Ascham (d. 1568) served as Elizabeth’s tutor from 1548 to 1550 and again in 1555 before she became Queen Elizabeth in 1558.  Even if we believe that Roger used hyperbole when he described her, Princess Elizabeth was obviously an exceptional student and a person with great intellect.

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Studies of Free Individuals

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“We call those studies liberal, then, which are worthy of a free [liber] man: they are those through which virtue and wisdom are either practiced or sought, and by which the body or mind is disposed towards all the best things.  From this source people customarily seek honor and glory, which for the wise man are the principal rewards of virtue.  Just as profit and pleasure are laid down as ends for illiberal intellects, so virtue and glory are goals for the noble.” Piero Paolo Vergerio, “Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth,” in The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be An Educated Human Being, ed. Richard M. Gamble. Wilmington 2007, p. 313. [Italics in original]

Vergerio, the great teacher of the early Renaissance, describes the nature of true liberal studies and their purpose.  Liberal derived from the Latin word, liber, meaning free.  Notice how Vergerio connects virtue and wisdom and identifies them as the goals of true learning.   Following classical tradition, Vergerio points out that true virtue and glory are the noble goals to which the liberal person strives through the liberal arts.

 

 

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Christ and Cicero

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“If to admire Cicero means to be a Ciceronian, I am a Ciceronian.  I admire him so much that I wonder at people who do not admire him.  This may appear a new confession of my ignorance, but this is how I feel, such is my amazement.  However, when we come to think or speak of religion, that is, of supreme truth and true happiness, and of eternal salvation, then I am certainly not a Ciceronian, or Platonist, but a Christian.” Francesco Petrarch, “On His Own Ignorance,” in The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, ed. Kenneth R. Bartlett, 2nd edition (Toronto 2011), p. 35.

Petrarch sought to reconcile his devotion to the writings of Cicero and his faith as a Christian in this work.  He argued for a Christian humanism that became the foundation of Renaissance thought.

 

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Bringing Back What Happened

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“It is a noble exercise to recount accurately the deeds of princes.  To do so is to consider generously all that is subject to time, to celebrate the dead, to entertain the living, and to set out a past life as a model for later generations.  It is to bring back what has happened in the past.  When it displays victories, it confers them on the victorious.  It eliminates sloth, conveys honesty, presents virtues and draws a crowd.  We should, therefore, press forward with the greatest effort to read what has been written and to write down what ought to be read.  Thus, in reading old things and writing new things, antiquity may be able to satisfy our needs and we may be able to nourish to the fullest the requirements of our posterity.”   Ralph of Caen. Gesta Tancredi, Preface. Translated by Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005), p. 19. [Emphasis added]

Ralph of Caen wrote one of the chronicles of the First Crusade in the second decade of the twelfth century.  Here he captures the essence of the classical and Christian understanding of the purpose of history.  The writers of history should seek to bring back past events to recount great deeds and give examples of virtuous behavior.

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Transformed Noncorformity

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“When an affluent society would coax us to believe that happiness consists in the size of our automobiles, the impressiveness of our houses, and the expensiveness of our clothes, Jesus reminds us, ‘A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possessth.’

When we would yield to the temptation of a world rife with sexual promiscuity and gone wild with a philosophy of self-expression, Jesus tells us that ‘whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.’

When we refuse to suffer for righteousness and choose to follow the path of comfort rather than conviction, we hear Jesus say, ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for rigtheousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ ”

Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love (Philadelphia 1963), pp. 22-23.

 

 

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Grammar is the Foundation

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“From the first, stress must be laid upon distinct and sustained enunciation, both in speaking and and in reading.  But at the same time utterance must be perfectly natural; if affected or exaggerated the effect is unpleasing.  The foundation of education must be laid in Grammar.  Unless this be thoroughly learnt subsequent progress is uncertain–a house built upon treacherous ground.  Hence let the knowledge of nouns and verbs be secured early, as the starting point for the rest.  The master will employ the devices of repetition, examination, and the correction of erroneous inflexions purposely introduced.” Battista Guarino, “On the Means of Teaching and Learning,” in The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, ed. Kenneth R. Bartlett, 2nd edition (Toronto 2011), 191. [Emphasis Added]

Guarino followed ancient and medieval tradition in this emphasis on the importance of grammar for elementary students.

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Passion for Learning

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Matthew Phillips

“Let me, at the outset, begin with a caution.  No master can endow a careless and indifferent nature with the true passion for learning.  That a young man must acquire for himself.  But once the taste begins to develop, then in Ovid’s words ‘the more we drink, the more we thirst.’  For when the mind has begun to enjoy the pleasures of learning the passion for fuller and deeper knowledge will grow from day to day.  But there can be no proficiency in studies unless there be first the desire to excel.  Wherefore let a young man set forward eagerly in quest of those true, honorable, and enduring treasures of the mind which neither disease nor death has power to destroy.” Battista Guarino, “On the Means of Teaching and Learning,” in The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, ed. Kenneth R. Bartlett, 2nd edition (Toronto 2011), p. 190.

Battista Guarino wrote this short treatise on classical, humanist education about 1459.  His father, Guarino of Verona, had served as a master (i.e. teacher) in the palace school of Ferrara since the 1430s.  In the 1450s Battista Guarino also began teaching in Ferrara and preserved their pedagogical methods for posterity.  For excerpts from the text see  http://history.hanover.edu/texts/guarino.html

 

 

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History is the Foundation of Sacred Learning

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Matthew Phillips

“First you learn history and diligently commit to memory the truth of the deeds that have been performed, reviewing from beginning to end what has been done, when it has been done, where it has been done, and by whom it has been done.  For these are the four things which are especially to be sought for in history–the person, the business done, the time, and the place.”  Hugh of St Victor, Didascalicon, Bk 6, Chap. 3.

As we have seen previously, Hugh taught a trifold method of biblical interpretation. http://wp.cune.edu/matthewphillips/2012/11/20/hughs-hermeneutics/ However, he compared the exegesis of Sacred Scripture to building a house.  In order to establish a firm foundation Hugh exhorted his students to develop a thorough understanding of biblical history.  Then, upon this foundation the student of Scripture builds the metaphorical structure of intepretation through the use of allegory.  Lastly, one turns to moral instruction in Scripture and thereby paints the building with beautiful colors.

“But just as you see that every building lacking a foundation cannot stand firm, so also it is in learning.  The foundation and principle of sacred learning, however, is history, from which, like honey from the honeycomb, the truth of allegory is extracted.”  Ibid.

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