The Optimistic Curmudgeon

Forming the Moral Imagination - feat. Sean Hadley (7x3)

Dr. Sean Hadley discusses the effects the key texts of literature have on the moral imagination: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, Dante's Divine Comedy, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Milton's Paradise Lose, Sophocles' Oedipus Cycle, The Song of Roland (Anon). Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Lewis's Till We Have Faces. Enjoy this discussion of the formative power great books have on the imagination!

Sean's Substack - A Southern Knickerbocker - https://hadleyonfire.substack.com/

This episode is based on the following two Substack articles:

https://hadleyonfire.substack.com/p/10-books-for-the-classical-imagination

https://hadleyonfire.substack.com/p/10-books-for-the-classical-imagination-b4c

We are grateful for the sponsorship for this episode provided by the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. Check out their website here: https://www.jamesgmartin.center/

The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal educates citizens and decision-makers to improve higher education. The Martin Center is dedicated to promoting knowledge over credentials, restoring genuine liberal learning, and ensuring that public investment in higher education provides value to students, taxpayers, and society.

A recent report from the Martin Center explores Great Books programs across the country. This report is designed for students who desire a deep and broad understanding of the Great Works of Western civilization. It will direct them to almost 50 colleges and universities that offer a substantive education in “the best which has been thought and said.” These programs invite students to become participants in a centuries-long conversation that begins with Plato, Aristotle, and Homer and extends to Dante, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen.

The report can be downloaded from the Martin Center’s website at go.jamesgmartin.center/GREATBOOKS

or here: https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/04/preserving-the-canon-great-books-programs-at-americas-colleges-and-universities/

 

 

Ministry in a Hostile World - Urie Brito of the CREC (7x2)

Ministry in the negative world is often difficult. Pastor Urie Brito explains his story of getting into ministry, why he loves the CREC (Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches), and details the argument of his latest book, The War of the Priesthood: An Exposition of the Armor of God. Towards the end of the episode, Uri explains why he is willing to go into overtly political spaces, and what role he sees pastors playing in shepherding their flocks through political seasons. With shoutouts to Meg Basham's Shepherds for Sale, National Conservatism, and New Saint Andrews College, this is a conversation you don't want to miss! Links:

https://kuyperian.com/

https://drbrito.substack.com/

https://www.amazon.com/War-Priesthood-Exposition-Armor-God/dp/1956611053/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2F1G8L1GG6A9Q&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TWyZnRucm4iTkcGaxE49DeDJe-nzptqCL2b1bhAACeA.tX2QE5DsVTG0FuCVCHs8HC3F-0Rg5jHqHJB9ZZvnMr0&dib_tag=se&keywords=war+of+the+priesthood+uri+brito&qid=1728404845&sprefix=the+war+of+the+priesthood+%2Caps%2C204&sr=8-1

https://crechurches.org/

 

Beauty and Aesthetics: Mike Young (7x1)

Dr. Michael Young discuss beauty, Roger Scruton, and aesthetics as a natural desire of the human soul. Our longing for beauty signifies our desire for something higher, something more meaningful to the human condition, than mere utility. We were made for more! This conversation was inspired by Roger Scruton's book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction. #beauty #aesthetics #philosophy #thegoodlife #moralimagination #rogerscruton #scruton

SECCE - Kristen Rudd: Stop Leaving your Students in Hell, or Read the Whole Comedia!

At this SECCE breakout talk, Kristen Rudd argues that classical schools do their students a disservice when they only teach The Inferno. To really grasp Dante, students need to ascend through Purgatorio into Paradiso. 

SECCE - Marc Fusco: Shakespeare is Still the One

At this SECCE breakout talk, Marc Fusco argues that Shakespeare is the best guide to understanding human nature. Classical schools ought to teach, read, and perform Shakespeare to help students understand the complexity of what it means to be human. 

SECCE - Jim Ranieri: Re-Enchant the World by Reading Tolkien

In this SECCE breakout session, Jim Ranieri argues that the world stands in need of re-enchantment after the ravages of modernity. Tolkien's The Lord the Rings, read as a distinctly Catholic novel by Catholic teachers, has the potential to rightly re-enchant our minds and help us perceive the sacramental nature of reality. 

SE Consortium: Jason Jewell - The Canon as an Antidote to Contemporary Rootlessness

In this plenary address at the inaugural SE Consortium of Classical Educators conference at Thales College, Jason Jewell argues that our modern culture is marked by a rootlessness; the literary canon pushes against that rootlessness, encouraging us to find home through the pursuit of tradition, place, and things divine. 

SE Consortium: Sean Hadley - The Word for Heritage is Canon

In this plenary address at the inaugural SE Consortium of Classical Educators conference at Thales College, Sean Hadley builds a metaphorical view of the canon as a forest. The forest requires tending, and appreciation. Sean draws from Lewis's Experiment in Criticism to distinguish how classical educators bring their students into the forest to foster a certain kind of reading. 

SE Consortium: Robert Woods - Being a Loving Resistance Fighter During our Culture and Canon Wars

In this plenary address at the inaugural SE Consortium of Classical Educators conference at Thales College, Robert Woods draws on Neil Postman's Technopoly to argue for a certain attitude that classical educators ought to adopt as they engage in the fight for what is good, true, and beautiful. 

SE Consortium: Josh Herring - Books which Nourish the Soul

In this opening plenary address at the inaugural SE Consortium of Classical Educators conference at Thales College, Josh Herring draws from C.S Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, David Hicks, Russell Kirk, and Robert Hutchins to describe the kind of book worth requiring in a K-12 educational context. This talk was delivered on 8/3/2024.