Making Your Own Confession to God and Men

Bernardo Bellotto. Ruins of a Temple. Oil on canvas.
Kiev Museum of Western Art, Kiev, Ukraine.

Today we are working on our own "confessions," though it be not in the modern style of confession, for the purpose of looking cool or simply for the shock and lurid details. Rather, it ought to follow the example of Augustine in purpose, that is, to glorify God.

Agenda:

1. Pater noster
2. Begin drafting Confessions Essay:
1. Invention
2. Arrangement 
3. Review HW:
1. Confessions Essay
2. Read Books X - XI by Friday (9/15)

Augustine and the Problem of Evil

GOSSART, Jan. View of the Colosseum Seen from the West.
1509. Pen and brown ink over black chalk. Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Today we are concluding our discussion of Augustine's solution to the problem of evil. The problem centers on our understanding of what evil actually is. Is it a thing? If it is, what is its substance? "Whence comes evil?" as Augustine asks.

Agenda:

1. Pater noster
2. Read Confessions silently
3. Finish RJ on Augustine's and the Problem of Evil: A Logical Analysis
1. Re-read Book VII: 12
4. Confessions Quiz: Books 5-9
5. Begin drafting Confessions Essay:
1. Invention
2. Arrangement 
6. Review HW:
1. Confessions Essay
2. Read Books X - XI by Friday (9/15)

Omnium rerum principia parva sunt.

BELLOTTO, Bernardo. Capriccio with the Colosseum.
1743-44. Oil on canvas. Galleria Nazionale, Parma.

Cicero here, telling us, "The beginnings of all things are small." This is true, of course, of Rome, who was not built in a day. This aphorism expresses perhaps that most Roman of virtues, the idea beauty takes time. In other words, the people of Rome understood the patience and perseverance involved in building great things, things that last for more than the generation that has created it. Keep this in mind as you consider your own education, your life, and God's world in which your life participates.

Agenda:

1. Pater noster
2. Latin Proverb: Omnium rerum principia parva sunt. 
3. Review and discuss Poetry Project: "The Ladder of St. Augustine" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
4. Read Confessions silently
5. Discuss Key sections of Confessions:
1. RJ on Augustine's and the Problem of Evil: A Logical Analysis 
6. Confessions Quiz: Books 5-7
7. Review HW:
1. Study for Confessions Quiz on Books 5-9
2. Confessions Essay
3. Read Books X - XI by Friday (9/15)

The Ladder of St. Augustine

BELLOTTO, Bernardo. Capriccio with the Colosseum. 1743-44.
Oil on canvas. Galleria Nazionale, Parma.

Today we continue our study of Augustine's life, plumbing the depths of what it means to be human, what it means to sin and to repent, to reflect and to praise. Here we consider Longfellow's thoughts on the man: "Saint Augustine! well hast thou said / That of our vices we can frame / A ladder, if we will but tread / Beneath our feet each deed of shame!" This is a good summary of how Augustine's life transitioned from sinner to saint, for "The heights by great men reached and kept / Were not attained by sudden flight, / But they, while their companions slept, / Were toiling upward in the night." Let us also follow suit.


Agenda:

1. Pater noster
2. Discuss Confessions Essay
3. Key sections of Confessions:
1. Augustine's and the Problem of Evil: A Logical Analysis 
4. Poetry Project: "The Ladder of St. Augustine" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
5. Review HW:
1. Confessions Essay
2. Read Books VIII - IX by Monday (9/10)

Here is a good reading of "The Ladder of St. Augustine":

The Age of Alypius, and the Lust of the Eyes.

Gerome, Jean-Leon. Pollice Verso. 1872. Oil on canvas. Phoenix.

Today we will consider more deeply Augustine's story, his struggles, his sins, and his virtues. One of distinctive features of  Dominion is that it chooses to be a "Classical" school. The reason for this is simple: every big question we might ask today has already been dealt with by some profound thinker of the Classical world; every experience or struggle has already been addressed by our ancient fathers and mothers; every vice struggled against, every virtue sought and praised. Simply put: there's wisdom there, and if we are going ask the same big questions about life, struggle with the same sins, pursue the same virtues, then we might do well to learn what and how are fathers responded and dealt with such things. An examples of this is the story of Alypius that Augustine relates in his Confessions. When he was dragged against his will to the gladiatorial games, Alypius "opened his eyes," writes Augustine, "and was struck with a deeper wound in his soul than the victim whom he desired to see had been in his body."      

Agenda:

1. Pater noster
2. Read Confessions for a bit. 
3. Review Confessions 1-4 Quiz
4. Review key sections in Confessions:
1. Alypius, the "gateway of the eyes," and the Age of Stripping and Looking
5. Review HW: 
1. Confessions Essay
2. Read Books VIII - IX by Monday (9/10)

Certa bonum certamen.

MASOLINO da Panicale
Pope Gregory the Great 
and St Matthias.
1428-29.Tempera and oil,
on poplar & fibreboard.
National Gallery, London

Salavete. We are now well into the first quarter of the school year, which means essentially that you now have some marks to consider. As you consider your performance, let us respond rightly. This could be an opportunity to discipline your time more. This could be the moment when you recognize that ancient relationship between academics and virtue, grades and morals. It's always been there. Let us respond well. Consider our models again. Fight the good fight. Certa bonum certamen. Remember St. Gregory the Great. Remember Matthew.

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Read Confessions silently 
3. Collect RJ for Books V & VI 
1. Review RJ for Books V & VI  
4. Discuss corrected work
5. Review HW:
1. Read Confessions Book VII  
2. Este perfecti!

Feast Day of St. Gregory the Great

SARACENI, Carlo. 1610.
St Gregory the Great. Oil on canvas.
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

Today is the feast day of St. Gregory the Great, without whom we might not have England. This might sound excessive in praise, but I mean not to flatter; it is a fact. Without the "non Angli, sed Angeli" there would have been no evangelization of the British Isles, which would have produced no Alfred the Great, which would have in turn remained in the pagan darkness of the North. Here is Gregory now, working diligently. Let us also follow suit.

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Latin Proverb: Non Angli, sed Angeli. 
3. Lecture and discussion: What is the calendar? And why do we mark our days? What has the Church seen fit to do this? Chronos vs Kairos and other things.
4. Reading Check Quiz
1. Who was the bishop who helped Augustine see the wisdom and truth of the catholic Church? 
5. Reading Journal (9/3): Books V & VI
1. What were the teachings of the Manicheans concerning fruit?
2. What did the Manicheans claim concerning their leader Manes?
3. How does Faustus, the Manichean leader, answer Augustine's questions?
4. What objections did Augustine have that kept him from trusting in Christ? 
5. Whose teaching helps Augustine leave the Manicheans for good?
6. What "addiction" does Augustine recount that Monica struggled with?
7. In this stage of his life (of Book 6.6), what does Austine pursue to fill the void of his soul? To what does he liken this pursuit?
8. In what sin is Augustine's friend Alypius trapped? How did this happen?
9. To what sin is Austine in bondage? How? 
6. Review HW:
1. Read Confessions Book VII
2. Este perfecti!