{"id":941,"date":"2014-11-17T22:41:51","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T04:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/?p=941"},"modified":"2015-01-07T16:54:13","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T22:54:13","slug":"cassiodorus-on-returning-to-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2014\/11\/17\/cassiodorus-on-returning-to-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassiodorus on Returning to Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

“For learning taken from the ancients in the midst of praising the Lord is not considered tasteless boasting. Furthermore, you make a serious teacher angry if you question him often; but however often you want to return to these books, you will not be rebuked with severity.” Cassiodorus, Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning<\/em> in\u00a0The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be An Educated Human Being<\/em>, ed. Richard M. Gamble. Wilmington 2007, p. 230<\/p>\n

Cassiodorus (c.490-c.580) was a noble Roman born around the time of the fall of western Roman Empire. \u00a0He sought to preserve both sacred Christian and ancient Roman literature. \u00a0This work, Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning<\/em>, sets forth a curriculum of study for a monastery and its school. \u00a0Books serve as teachers who never cease instructing their readers. Cassiodorus continues:<\/p>\n

“Therefore, beloved brothers, let us ascend without hesitation to Holy Scripture through the excellent commentaries of the Fathers, as if on the ladder of Jacob’s vision so that, lifted by their thoughts, we are worthy to arrive at full contemplation of the Lord. \u00a0For commentary on Scripture is, as it were, Jacob’s ladder, by which the angels ascend and descend [Gen. 28:12]; on which the Lord leans, stretching out his hand to those who are weary, and supports the tired steps of those ascending by granting them contemplation of Him.” Ibid.<\/p>\n

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“For learning taken from the ancients in the midst of praising the Lord is not considered tasteless boasting. Furthermore, you make a serious teacher angry if you question him often; but however often you want to return to these books, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,32,5,65,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cassiodorus","category-education","category-learning","category-liberal-arts","category-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1012,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}