St. George’s Farm and a Poetic Education

I am thrilled that the Orthodox Agrarian is blogging again at St. George’s Farm. He has a recent post on poetic education and the wonderful humanities program that once existed at the University of Kansas. The following is a taste of St. George’s Farm Blog.

“James Taylor in Poetic Education devotes one his chapters to a description of the infamous Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas. Taylor elucidates very nicely the details of the program and gives the reader some insight into the personalities behind the program, particularly John Senior, the man directly responsible for the conversion of many, many students to Roman Catholicism and indirectly responsible for the foundation of Clear Creek Monastery in Tulsa, OK. I have written elsewhere about the virtues of IHP: but in this post, I want to sketch out the profound influence Europe, Europe as Christendom, has had on my own imagination. The IHP provides an excellent starting point; Taylor writes:

It was never the plan of the IHP to simply teach the books of Western culture, but rather to discover the roots of that culture and give, to the extent possible, the actual experience of that civilization. Therefore, in the first years of the program, the IHP traveled to Europe for a complete semester, once in 1976 to Ireland in following years for between-semester tours to Greece, Spain, and Italy, where the professors and their one hundred or more students continued to read and talk about the books of the West. Now they could walk together on the roads and bridges built by Caesar, sail on the waters that Brought Odysseus back from Troy, see medieval castles and monasteries, sit in humble Irish taverns and listen to the stories of sheep herders, sailors, and a town drunk of two.

With the direct experience of a still-visible traditional Western culture, so clearly connected with the details in the classic literature being read, the teachers of the IHP achieved one of the main goals of the program, to integrate experience for the students and to allow them to see that experience, remote or direct, had meaning, and that there was a thing called “the Western experience” that was really a part of a larger experience of the world to which they rightfully belonged. There, near the monasteries and cathedrals, the villages and colorful vibrant cities, the castles, the cottages, the winding roads, the vineyards, the large pastoral landscapes of rural life, was evidence that there had been and still was to an extent, a civilization that had kept and valued as its foundation the poetic sense of life.”-On the Importance of Sight-Seeing in Europe

Plato, Athens And The Life We Are Experiencing

I have been reading Plato’s “Seventh Letter” and I have been amazed at how the life and politics of his day are similar to our own.

As I observed these incidents and the men engaged in public affairs, the laws too and the customs, the more closely I examined them and the farther I advanced in life, the more difficult it seemed to me to handle public affairs aright. For it was not possible to be active in politics without friends and trustworthy supporters; and to find these ready to my hand was not an easy matter, since public affairs at Athens were not carried on in accordance with the manners and practices of our fathers; nor was there any ready method by which I could make new friends. The laws too, written and unwritten, were being altered for the worse, and the evil was growing with startling rapidity. The result was that, though at first I had been full of a strong impulse towards political life, as I looked at the course of affairs and saw them being swept in all directions by contending currents, my head finally began to swim; and, though I did not stop looking to see if there was any likelihood of improvement in these symptoms and in the general course of public life, I postponed action till a suitable opportunity should arise. Finally, it became clear to me, with regard to all existing communities, that they were one and all misgoverned. For their laws have got into a state that is almost incurable, except by some extraordinary reform with good luck to support it. And I was forced to say, when praising true philosophy that it is by this that men are enabled to see what justice in public and private life really is. Therefore, I said, there will be no cessation of evils for the sons of men, till either those who are pursuing a right and true philosophy receive sovereign power in the States, or those in power in the States by some dispensation of providence become true philosophers.

With these thoughts in my mind I came to Italy and Sicily on my first visit. My first impressions on arrival were those of strong disapproval-disapproval of the kind of life which was there called the life of happiness, stuffed full as it was with the banquets of the Italian Greeks and Syracusans, who ate to repletion twice every day, and were never without a partner for the night; and disapproval of the habits which this manner of life produces. For with these habits formed early in life, no man under heaven could possibly attain to wisdom-human nature is not capable of such an extraordinary combination. Temperance also is out of the question for such a man; and the same applies to virtue generally. No city could remain in a state of tranquility under any laws whatsoever, when men think it right to squander all their property in extravagant, and consider it a duty to be idle in everything else except eating and drinking and the laborious prosecution of debauchery. It follows necessarily that the constitutions of such cities must be constantly changing, tyrannies, oligarchies and democracies succeeding one another, while those who hold the power cannot so much as endure the name of any form of government which maintains justice and equality of rights.”

Classical Teachers Need Not Apply

“A withering boredom” – that is Europe

Fr. Jonathan of the blog Second Terrace has written some very insightful thoughts inspired by David Hart’s book “Atheist Delusions“.

“In another place (The New Criterion, March 2004), Hart describes vestiges of Christendom, especially in Europe, in this way: “… the very desuetude of these remnants imbues them with a special charm. Just as the exuviae of cicadas acquire their milky translucence and poignant fragility only in being evacuated of anything living, so the misty, haunting glamour of the churches of France might be invisible but for the desolation in their pews.

In that particular article, Hart takes pains to draw a difference between America and the shriveling (and sterile) Christendom in Europe (which is cursed with “that misbegotten abomination, the European Union – that grand project for forging an identity for post-Christian civilization out of the meager provisions of heroic humanism or liberal utopianism or ethical sincerity” – sometimes, one just sighs in near envy at such ripping eloquence). To this end, here is a particularly trenchant bon mot:

… it seems certain that Europe will continue to sink into its demographic twilight, and increasingly to look like the land of the “last men” that Nietzsche prophesied would follow the “death of God”: a realm of sanctimony, petty sensualisms, pettier rationalisms, and a vaguely euthanasiac addiction to comfort. For, stated simply, against the withering boredom that descends upon a culture no longer invaded by visions of eternal order, no civilization can endure. (“Religion in America,” In the Aftermath, pp45-6).

“A withering boredom” – that is Europe, for sure, and it will be seconded and ratified by the de-christianization of the European Union. No civilization can endure such boredom (the cognoscenti call it ennui to sound au courant). And it is a boredom that sounds disturbingly like the Matthew 12.45 demon (singing “Hell, hell, the gang’s all here”): it was invoked by the secularist exorcism of “visions of eternal order.”

America is different, Hart said in 2004. And I have oft said in these pages, America is a beautiful God-haunted land, though besotted with hillrod Gnosticism. He closes his 2004 article with some sanguine (or maybe, just less than bilious) hopes that America’s penchant for God and Bible might pull her out of the biologically sterile, jaded and bored cultural swirly that the rest of the north-of-the-forties West is tubing in.

I don’t think so. That penchant for God and Bible was and is a most Protestant thing. The trajectory started in the sixteenth century (or perhaps in the thirteenth) must always lead away from the sacred order. Perhaps Hart thinks so, too, because in 2009, there is no special mention of America as having a different eschatology.” Read the entire post here.

No Scientific Evidence for “Gay Gene”

The attempt to prove that homosexuality is determined biologically has been dealt a knockout punch. An American Psychological Association publication includes an admission that there’s no homosexual “gene” — meaning it’s not likely that homosexuals are born that way.

For decades, the APA has not considered homosexuality a psychological disorder, while other professionals in the field consider it to be a “gender-identity” problem. But the new statement, which appears in a brochure called “Answers to Your Questions for a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality,” states the following: “There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian orientation.  Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles….”

That contrasts with the APA’s statement in 1998: “There is considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person’s sexuality.” Peter LaBarberaPeter LaBarbera, who heads Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, believes the more recent statement is an important admission because it undermines a popular theory.

People need to understand that the ‘gay gene’ theory has been one of the biggest propaganda boons of the homosexual movement over the last 10 [or] 15 years,” he points out. “Studies show that if people think that people are born homosexual they’re much less likely to resist the gay agenda.”

Matt Barber with Liberty Counsel feels the pronouncement may have something to do with saving face. “Well, I think here the American Psychological Association is finally trying to restore some credibility that they’ve lost over the years by having become a clearly political organization as opposed to an objective, scientific organization,” he states.

From onenewsnow.com

The Hungry Soul

The last book I read last semester was The Hungry Soul:Eating and the Perfecting of our Nature by Leon Kass. The book is a meditation on the human act of eating and what eating reveals about being human. Kass has a background in science and the humanities and has written another interesting book on science titled Toward a More Natural Science: Bilology and Human Affairs. I highly recommend both of these books.

“The Hungry Soul is a fascinating exploration of the natural and cultural act of eating. Kass brilliantly relates how the various aspects of the phenomenon, and the customs, rituals and taboos surrounding it, reveal universal and profound truths about the human animal and its deeper yearnings.”- From the back cover.

Humanities magazine has a recent interview with Leon Kass here.

The Will, Natural Science and Theology

Normally we agree with one another very easily about questions that do not affect our lives, that do not concern the direction of our wills. That is why in questions of natural science, and particularly in mathematics, there are so many universally accepted and unquestioned truths. Why, in fact, should I not accept that the sum of the angles of a triangle is always equal to that of two right angles? Or that the sum of the areas of the squares on the cathedi is equal to the area of the square on the hypotenuse, as the Pythagorean theorem affirms? Why should I not accept these mathematical truths? Their recognition binds me to absolutely nothing. I think one can, and even should, agree with the brilliant philosopher Leibniz, who said: “If geometry conflicted with our passions and our present concerns as much as morality does, we would dispute it and transgress it almost as much – in spite of all Euclid’s and Archimedes’ demonstrations, which would be treated as fantasies and deemed to be full of fallacies – and Joseph Scaliger, Hobbes and others who have written against Euclid and Archimedes would not find so few supporters as they do in fact” [New Essays on Human Understanding, 1.2.96]. Yes, when the matter concerns life itself, then immediately fierce, often passionate debates flare up, debates without end. That is why there are so many debates about philosophical truths, and even more about religious truths. Theological sciences are the most vitally important sciences, and therefore their tenets attract such a mass of debates. -New Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop of Verey (+1929)

From Ora Et Labora

Theology at the Top

“At the top of all knowledge is theology, the knowledge that holds all other knowledge together. Below that is philosophical knowledge, knowledge of metaphysical things like being, mode, and change. One more step down we find moral or humane knowledge, the knowledge of how we fulfill our natures as human beings in community (politics) or by ourselves (ethics). Then comes natural science, or the knowledge that we can gain of the physical world around us through modes like observation and measurement. Each kind of knowledge is gained when you ask questions that require that kind of knowledge for an answer, such as what is being (philosophy), how can I be happy (ethics), what makes a tree grow (science), or what is truth (theology). Asking the right kind of question causes a person to develop the sorts of tools that sort of question requires. Using those tools then arouses a given faculty in the human soul – a faculty of perception that fits the knowledge sought….Thus the Hebrew intuition is verified once again: “The fear of God is the beginning of Knowledge.” Andrew Kern at Quiddity

The Economy and The Gold Standard

The Daily Eudemon has been reading several different economists the last few months and here are some of his conclusions. Also take a look at his B is for Beer post.