Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Angelicum Academy

Here is a home schooling organization that I have never heard of before today. Catholic, Great Books, Classical. My only concern is the assumption that the liberal arts are completed by eighth grade! I think both logic and rhetoric don't really get learned until a child is in high school and they should be formall taught in high school. Perhaps their material is more trivium-focused than it seems. One thing the socratic, great books method does not emphasize is formal rhetorical analysis of the works being treated, which not only helps in understanding, but helps a student himself learn how to use language.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Fulfillment of All Desire

I saw an interview this weekend on EWTN with Ralph Martin, cofounder of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He has published a new book called The Fulfillment of All Desire that takes the teachings of the great spiritual masters such as St. John of the Cross and St. Francis de Sales and applies them to the life of contemporary lay Catholics, going from baptism to the Beatific Vision, passing through the purgative, illuminative and unitive ways. I haven't read it yet, but I've ordered it ILL from our library and am looking forward to seeing. I was impressed by the interview.

Another List of Ten Catholic Books to Read

...from the other guy at Thursday Night Gumbo.

Once again, great choices!

Question: what makes the one guy thing Kristen Lavransdatter is so hard to read?

Monday, August 20, 2007

St. Bernard and St. Thomas Aquinas

Considering St. Bernard's aversion to dialectic theology (especially if was done by Abelard), my kids asked this morning whether St. Bernard would have liked St. Thomas Aquinas. My cryptic response was to remind them that as his life drew to an end, after the vision on the Feast of St. Nicholas 1273, St. Thomas compared all his work to straw. He later completed his life in a Cistercian monastery while giving conferences to the monks on the Song of Songs. How Bernardine can you get? I'm wondering if St. Bernard wouldn't have said to St. Thomas when they met something like, "Ha!" or maybe a Steven Douglas inspired "Um, I told you so."