About Us

About Us

The Boethius Institute is a fellowship of Master Teachers of traditional liberal education devoted to continuing and deepening that tradition through teaching, mentoring, speaking, writing, and collaborating with like-minded institutions. Through our Arts of Liberty website,  we offer a variety of interdisciplinary resources intended to form and to foster a knowledge and a love of the liberal arts and liberal education in students, teachers, and lifelong learners.

What We Do

The Boethius Institute for the Advancement of Liberal Education serves the ongoing renewal of liberal arts education by assisting scholars and leaders to grow in their understanding and practice of the traditional liberal arts and sciences, while also growing in practical wisdom about the goals and means of education. Our Fellowship unites those passionate about liberal education in a bond of friendship and common effort on behalf of the advancement of liberal education throughout the world. Through the Arts of Liberty website, we offer an array of curricular and formational material for use by teachers, students, and lifelong learners.

In particular:

  • We develop understanding, friendship and collaboration through annual symposia of our senior and associate fellows.
  • We provide formation and mentorship for present and future leaders of the renewal formally through our Fellows in Formation program, along with offering formal and informal direction to other scholars and education leaders.
  • We develop new curricular resources ourselves, as well as identifying and promoting those developed by others.
  • We provide specialized content formation for classroom educators in the traditional liberal arts and sciences.
  • We contribute scholarly talks, articles and books in the academic forum and related cultural and academic arenas.
  • We offer individualized services to developing programs of liberal education in the United States and abroad.
  • We collaborate with other institutions on conferences, publications, and other offerings, and contribute to common counsel about the education renewal.

Our Patron

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was a philosopher, theologian, statesman, and martyr who devoted his life to preserving the wisdom of the Greco-Roman world for those who were to live under barbarian domination. He gifted to the Medieval West Latin translations of the logical works of Aristotle and Porphyry and  treatises on geometry, arithmetic, and music. More importantly, he modeled for the new Christian world a love of the intellectual achievements of the ancient world, which he exemplified through his theological treatises and especially his renowned dialogue, The Consolation of Philosophy. 

The Boethius Institute was conceived under the inspiration of The Consolation in a particular way, and of the life and work of Boethius generally. Our logo expresses the importance of The Consolation through the Greek letters, pi and theta, which Boethius saw on Lady’s Philosophy’s garment, signifying the interconnection of the practical and theoretical branches of philosophy. The white cross on red field refers to the arms of the city of Pavia, Italy, where Boethius was martyred and his cult developed. The illumination coming from the book being read symbolizes our life of learning and the fruit that comes from it.  Learn more about Boethius here.

The Need

The renewal of liberal arts education has been gaining momentum over the past decade. Networks such as the Barney Charter Schools Initiative, Great Hearts Academies, the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, Chesterton Academies, and the Association of Christian Classical Schools represent over 750 schools, while liberal arts homeschooling efforts may be reaching as many as a million students. Serious concerns about the politicization of mainstream schools are leading many more parents and educators to consider a return to liberal arts education. 

On the university level, organizations such as the Association for Core Texts and Curricula ahd the Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education are promoting a return to classical sources and attitudes toward learning. Several Masters and PhD programs have sprung up to serve the need for advanced formation. Drawn by the success of the resurgence in the United States, leaders of educational institutions around the world are seeking inspiration, guidance, and support for their own efforts.

The growth of the renewal has brought a need to think more deeply about liberal arts education as it was practiced in the past as a guide to how we might practice it today. But few practitioners in the movement have been thoroughly educated in the liberal arts and sciences themselves. At the same time, the past decades of liberal arts education have produced students capable under the right guidance of achieving a level of excellence like that found in past ages.

Our Team

Andrew Seeley - President of the Boethius Institute and Director of Advanced Formation for Educators at the Augustine Institute
Jeffrey Lehman - Dean of Fellows and Professor of Philosophy and Theology and Director of the M.A. in Catholic Education program at the Augustine Institute’
Matthew Walz - Associate Professor, Director, Philosophy & Letters and Pre-Theology Programs, Director of Intellectual Formation at Holy Trinity Seminary
Erica Johnson - Research Assistant
Clairemarie Kalan - Administrative Assistant

Contact Us

 

Testimonials

Conferences

"The conference was outstanding... First rate facility, flawless organization, excellent food, brilliant participants. Dr. Ulrickson's presentation on Continuity was quite possibly the best presentation I've heard on any topic in any context at any point in my life."

- Brad Jolly, Lifelong Learner

 

 

"I wanted to send a quick thank you for the Learnables Conference. I thought it was outstanding -- don't change a thing! I need that intellectually rigorous retreat for the mind at least once a year. I expect some people will say it needs to be "more practical" but I thought it was good blend. I most enjoyed the talks by Peter Ulrickson and Sean Collins: they were stimulating, thoughtful, imaginative, and carefully organized. I also found them very practical: they made points which seemed (to me) to have clear practical ramifications. I found the "Great Hearts" talk less practical. It identifies as a quadrivial model, but I couldn't follow how they got from principles to praxis. But I think others found that talk helpful. In conclusion, the conference achieved a good balance... This was amazingly affordable and the right size for conversation, camaraderie, and hospitality. I thoroughly enjoyed the intensity of thought, wonder, and delight."

- Dr. Gwen Adams, Theology Professor

Fellowship

As I have worked this year to learn about and understand more deeply the liberal arts of grammar, logic, rhetoric, and geometry, I have been changed as a teacher while my vision for a classical education center has become more focused. Delving into Latin and Greek grammar, as well as exploring and contemplating what language is and how it communicates thought, worked with our study of the rhetoric of famous speeches to give me a deeper love and reverence for the beauty of language itself. Logic and geometry, on the other hand, have challenged me with their precision, and this spills over into my teaching; I find my thought becoming more orderly, my questions to students more precise.

– Michelle Ferguson

 

[Thank] you for everything you have done for me and for your generosity in allowing me to participate in the Institute. A large part of the curriculum [I designed for teachers] was born from the Fellowship studies. [The teachers] are enthusiastic about the project. They are also grateful to the Institute, because I try to transmit, even with my limitations, what I learn from you. I want to ensure that the fruits of these studies can spread throughout Brazil.

– Lucas Dos Santos

 

Thank you also for this wonderful fellowship. I never imagined I’d get the opportunity to discover the liberal arts without going back to school! It’s truly been a blessing and it has gotten me on the path to further learning.

– Lindsey Hyland