CONSOLATIONS: REFLECTIONS ON LIBERAL LEARNING AND TEACHING
A Fellow’s Reading List
by Dr. Alex Lessard This reading list originally appeared in the Cornerstone Forum’s newsletter From the world of popular book culture, I periodically receive reading lists compiled under titles like “Curl Up Under a Blanket with These Cozy Fall Reads” – something I’m as likely to do as attend Burning Man. Instead, I’ve been reading...
Education for Persons
Walter Scheirer shows the self-portrait created by MidJourney, an image generating AI app by Dr. Andrew Seeley I returned on Sunday from Notre Dame after this year’s De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture conference. 1100 people participated, including most of the 300+ Sorin Fellows, graduate and undergraduate students at Notre Dame who “are supported...
Independence through Accuracy
by Joseph Tabenkin Grammar has a reputation of being rigid, arbitrary, and limiting. This echoes a more deep-seated idea in education: that there exists a conflict between instruction and independence. I think quite the opposite is true. In fact instruction, far from limiting your agency, unlocks it. In a study of grammar we see one...
Principia Journal
Over the last 40 years, classical education has emerged as its own subfield in education. Original writing and research on classical education doesn’t fit into the categories of existing peer-reviewed journals. That’s why a small group of master teachers from several institutions created Principia: A Journal of Classical Education. Principia is the first peer-reviewed journal...
An Introduction to Christopher Dawson
This article was originally a talk given at the first Adeodatus Conference on Catholic Education and Culture. Over the past 20 years, especially this past decade, the success achieved by several collegiate programs has spilled over into the pre-collegiate world with such force as to initiate a wave of renewal whose crest is still a...
Inaugural Boethius Fellows Colloquium
The renewal of classical education has formed thousands of students, but teachers who have not received a classical liberal education themselves have had no opportunities to be trained in the liberal arts by masters. Various organizations offer brief courses, retreats, or conferences, but there is no integrated apprenticeship program. To fill this need, the Boethius...
Audience and Action in Byzantine Ceremonies
On May 12, Boethius Fellow Dr. Erik Ellis presided over the panel “Audience and Action in Byzantine Ceremonies” at the International Medieval Congress at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. The panel was sponsored by the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture. Over two sessions, the panel brought together an international group of academics, including Dr. Elisa...
St. Justin Martyr
Today Christians celebrate the feast of St. Justin Martyr, who was killed along with 6 of his disciples in Rome in 165 A.D. Justin is a particular patron of the Boethius Institute, for his teaching on Christ as the Logos, and his own personal journey of finding Christ through his humble, authentic pursuit of wisdom,...
Catholic Studies’ Leaders Endorse Boethius Institute
We are honored by this letter of endorsement for our work. The Boethius Institute is exquisitely poised to serve Catholic Liberal Education in a way that is of the utmost importance. The founders of the Institute understand that we must understand and explain Catholic Liberal Education in its most essential dimensions. This is about establishing...
St. Agatha Shakespeare Workshop Report
A dream come true! That is how I feel having just completed a very successful workshop on Shakespeare at St. Agatha Academy, an elementary school in Winchester, Kentucky. Over the course of two days, my colleague and I worked with all of their students and teachers from second through eighth grades, along with an extra...