For all those out there wondering, including my first-grade art teacher who never learned how to pronounce it, my surname is actually pronounced with a long rather than short “e.” It’s “DEE-vuhl” and not “Devil.” But the moniker of a demon has been applied to me so often that I have decided to make demon-ade. [...]
Pope Leo’s educational vision aligns directly with the Catholic understanding of God’s creative goodness: He sees education as proceeding from our foundation as made in God’s image, which sees us as more than mere passive recipients of being, but cooperative causes in its creation. “The authentic teacher arouses the desire for truth” is found early [...]
Why should an adult take time out of his busy schedule to learn classical languages? Latin and ancient Greek unlock the cultural heritage of the West. When it comes to ancient languages, many people seem to believe that there is an incredibly small window of opportunity for learning. I encounter this belief frequently, since I [...]
Our search for truth in this earthly life is not a march to the grave, but a journey of progressive illumination, in which each day brings the promise of some new wonder, some fresh joy. “Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead. Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will [...]
Could a fifty-year-old, small book on grammar, speech, and rhetoric by a nearly-forgotten thinker have the power to revolutionize and re-awaken our decadent intellectual life? Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888-1973) might not recognize, in 2018, the America to which he came in 1933, seeking refuge from a Germany that had just elected Hitler. [...]
“Jolly” is a gem of a word, and its decline in usage is a pity. To be jolly is truly a profound thing. It is to recognize the winsomeness and levity present in the world around us, and to appreciate it by responding with an exuberance of joy. Jollity, in its proper time and place, [...]
The liberal arts allow us the freedom to become more fully human by sharing as fully as possible in that which makes us distinct, and the freedom to flourish through the reality of our nature, our humanity, and, yes, perhaps even our divinity. Why My Favorite Nun Was Right: The Recovery and Renewal of the Liberal [...]
Stanford University IT department’s “Elimination of Harmful Words Initiative” document was released recently, with its list of harmful words, suggested alternatives, and explanations for why the forbidden words are so bad. But what is truly harmful is giving fools and knaves the power to tell us how to talk when there is no real moral [...]
A belief that all that is needed for living or even preaching is the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, has so invaded certain segments of modern American Christianity that an educated man might be looked at with suspicion. J.P. Moreland’s Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the [...]
“Beauty will save the world.” That remains to be seen. But beauty has saved me, and continues to do so. My experience is that I need saving; it is not a luxury. Just when I am about to succumb to the sadness and living death of nihilism, some piercing ray of beauty breaks open my [...]
Apologists for Greek and Latin have lately dwindled. Yet in the past several years there have been some notable attempts to save classical education from utter extinction—one of which is Tracy Lee Simmons’ “Climbing Parnassus.” Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin, by Tracy Lee Simmons (290 pages, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2007) As [...]
The letters of the alphabet, strung together in cogent meaning, might be best thought of, not as means to an end, but as an end in and of themselves—a living, incarnated creativity that encourages relationship. And I like to consider speech, in all its forms, as love letters. My youngest child, just nearing his seventh [...]
“Woke” is a doomed word since it expresses a distorted reality. It is based upon Critical Race Theory that frames the debate to favor a class-struggle narrative, dividing humanity into oppressors and oppressed. Like all Marxist lingo, “woke” deepens resentments instead of healing them. If there is any word guaranteed to enhance a conversation or [...]
Once mastered, cursive enables us to write rapidly without lifting the pen from the paper—a skill that has major advantages over printing. Cursive now stumps many college students today. Whether it can ever make a comeback seems to be an issue. At about 10 o’clock the other night, my wife called me out of my [...]