“The sparks that kindled the fire in me:” Reading, Love and Conversion in Augustine’s Confessions and Dante’s Commedia
Augustine’s narrative forms a master pattern for the Commedia, mapping the progression in Dante pilgrim from education through a flawed text, which limited and even malformed him as a reader, author, and lover, to reformation through the transformative and holy words of Beatrice. Within this perspective, the Commedia itself becomes a testament to the power of divine, “reformative” speech to convert the soul, reform its loves, and make it an agent of further transformation.
Portia’s Powerful Tongue: The Ethics of Lady Rhetoric in The Merchant of Venice
What Shakespeare finally understands is that in the ethical moment of disposing means to end, the rhetor is only imperfectly in command of a fallen world, and if this limitation can lead a woman of Portia’s moral and intellectual virtue to error in her sacrificing a tragic usurer to secure comic marriages, we ought not be overly confident in either the virtue of our own rhetoric or the exactitude of our own generic terms.
Moral and Civic Liberty in Sallust’s Bella, and History as an Education in Virtue
By developing his readers’ moral and political acumen in his account of the wars with Catiline and Jugurtha, Sallust hopes to educate a new generation of leaders capable of preventing such wars in the future. For Sallust, peace is the primary goal of government, and thus the main goal of his education as well.
A Reading of Augustine’s “Confessions” and Its Implications for Education
In effect, we encounter two Augustines. First, there is the Augustine narrated, the boy and young man whose actions and thoughts and feelings are brought forth out of memory. Second, there is Augustine who is the mature, teaching bishop writing his confessiones and situating the biographical parts within the larger “speech act” of the whole of his work. It is the overarching intent of the text as a whole that carries implications for understanding the meaning and practice of education.
Cicero on Education: The Humanizing Arts
Quite independent of political theory, his thoughts on education, whether reflected in or drawn from his own educational experience, appear to be worth gathering and exploring in the light of our own need for models or for the elements that would allow us to construct principles and directions for models appropriate for our time. Cicero is, in many respects, a model as well as a conveyor of models.
The Cave & the Quadrivium: Mathematics in Classical Education
What place should the study of mathematics have in classical education? Most classical schools rightly emphasize the linguistic arts of the trivium—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—but few have thought through (much less implemented) the mathematical arts of the quadrivium—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—in a meaningful way.
Six Essential Dialogical Virtues
Why engage in Socratic conversation? Certainly, one seeks through Socratic conversation to encounter truth, goodness, and beauty. Beyond this encounter, however, effective Socratic conversation also brings about changes in the souls of those who practice it. Among its other advantages, engaging in Socratic conversation is an excellent way to encourage the cultivation of what may be called “dialogical virtues.”[1]
Liberal Education: A Working Definition
Put in simplest terms, classical education is an education for freedom. That is why for most of the Western tradition from its origins to the present day, the majority of authors have used the term liberal education to denote what is often called classical education in our time. In this brief article, when I use the term liberal education I do not intend to make a distinction between it and classical education. Instead, I employ the term in order to bring to light the essential nature of what commonly goes by the name classical education among K-12 educators in the United States today.
Arts of Liberty: An Introduction
The mission of Arts of Liberty is to educate students, teachers, and lifelong learners in the purpose and power of the liberal arts and liberal education. To accomplish this mission, we offer a variety of online, interdisciplinary resources intended to form and to foster a knowledge and a love of the liberal arts and liberal education.
Today’s Trivium: The Comeback of Classical Education
It is a little known secret—though it should be no secret at all—that classical education has been making a comeback of late. In some circles, classical education needed no revival, for its life was never really in danger; for instance, at the undergraduate level, schools like St. John’s College, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Dallas have quietly continued, to greater or lesser degrees, to carry the torch of classical learning. The revival I speak of began in the 1980s, and it has been taking place chiefly at the primary and secondary levels.
Annotated Bibliography on Liberal Education
Here is a valuable resource for zealous students of the liberal arts: articles annotated by main point, structure, important quotations, and relevance to the liberal arts and liberal education
About our Journal: Editorial Statement
Arts of Liberty is an interdisciplinary, academic journal dedicated to the comprehensive study of liberal education in its speculative, historical, and practical dimensions. Speculatively, the journal aspires to recover, deepen, and cultivate an authentic understanding of the kind of education that liberates and perfects human nature. As such, it seeks contributions that not only deepen […]
On the Liberal Art of Grammar
The following comments propose to clarify the nature of grammar as an art, a speculative and liberal art. First I distinguish grammar from other arts concerned with speech with particular attention to the difference between grammar and logic. Then I show that while grammar is an art, it is a ‘speculative art.’ (Here I show how this art is ‘speculative’ as a whole, and can yet be divided into parts that are ‘speculative’ and ‘practical’ in several ways.) Finally, I discuss the respect in which it is entitled ‘liberal.’
Athena as Founder and Statesman in the “Eumenides” of Aeschylus
The Oresteia develops upon three levels: the theological, the political, and the ethical. The theological development moves from divisiveness among the gods to the consolidation of the rule of Zeus; the political development moves from Troy to Argos to Athens; and the ethical development moves from will without restraint, to will subject to responsibility, to self-rule fully responsible to religious, familial, and political obligations.
Augustine on the Use of Liberal Education for the Theater of Life
Augustine himself vigorously put his own education in the service of his Catholic faith, despoiling as much pagan wisdom as he could and conducting himself on the global stage with an eye to his heavenly audience and destination. One of the greatest examples of a Christian use of the liberal arts in the theater of life before this great globe dissolves at the end of time may therefore be the very life and writings of Augustine.
Philosophy and the Seven Liberal Arts
Illuminated manuscript in the "Hortus Deliciarum" by Herrad of Landsberg (1167), located at the Hohenburg Abbey in Alsace, France. The "Hortus Deliciarum," Latin for "Garden of Delights" is a medieval encyclopedia made for young nuns. The Seven Liberal Arts surround Philosophy in a circle. Greek philosophers believed in a "circle of knowledge" (encyclo-peidea) that is cosmic, comprehensive, and interconnected. This depiction presents Philosophy at the center of this circle of knowledge. At her feet are Socrates and Plato, who were among the first and best philosophers of the ancient world. Philosophy holds a banner that comes from the book of Wisdom: "All wisdom comes from God; only the wise can achieve what they desire." On Philosophy's crown are three heads, representing the three branches of philosophy in the classical and medieval worlds: rational philosophy (rhetoric, logic, grammar), moral philosophy (ethics, economics, and politics), and natural philosophy (physics, mathematics, and metaphysics). From Philosophy's breast flow seven streams of water (four to the left and three to the right), symbolizing how Philosophy nourishes the minds of students with the trivium and quadrivium. Each Liberal Art is personified as a noble women in a long dress with wide sleeves. Grammar, using a quill and paper, says: "Through me, everyone can learn what words, syllables and letters are." Rhetoric, holding a stylus and two tablets, says, "Through me, strong speaker, your speech gains more strength." Dialectic, holding the head of a barking dog, says, "My arguments run quickly, like the barking dog." Music, playing a harp, sings, "I, Music, teach this art with a variety of instruments." Using a counting rope, Arithmetic says, "I use numbers and I show the relationship between them." Holding a measuring stick and compass, Geometry says, "With accuracy I survey the lands." Astronomy with a primitive telescope says, "Named after the stars, I predict the future." Below the circle of knowledge are poetry and magic, two lying arts of the world, and evil, black crows caw in the figures' ears. The inner ring of the circle reads, "I, divine Philosophy, I govern all things with wisdom; I dispose of the arts which are subordinate to me by seven." The outer ring of the circle reads, "Philosophy teaches the arts through seven branches. She scrutinizes the secrets of the elements and of all things. What she discovers she holds in her memory. And she puts everything in writing, in order to transmit it to the students."
Allegory of Good Government
Fresco by Ambriogio Lorenzetti (1338), located in the Town Hall of Siena, Italy. On the left, crowned Justice is looking up to Divine Wisdom while holding the scales of justice which are kept in equilibrium by Reason. To Justice's left one angel metes out distributive justice while to her right another angel metes out commutaive justice. Cords running from the scales come together in the bands of Concord. Enthroned directly below Justice, Concord binds together the forces of society, since she carries a heavy carpenters plane, symbolizing the equality of citizens under law and justice. Of the twenty-four citizens represented, none stand above the others and all carry the cord, received through Concord, in procession to the Common Good, in whose hand the cord ends. The Common Good, robed in Siena's traditional colors of black and white, holds the traditional shield of Siena (the Blessed Virgin with the Child Jesus), and at his feet are nestled the wolf and the twins (Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome), the most ancient of Siena's symbols. The Common Good is surrounded by the four Cardinal Virtues and by Magnanimity and Peace; above him hover the three theological virtues of Faith, Charity, and Hope. Faiths bears a cross; Charity carries a heart and an arrow; Hope turns her eyes upward toward Christ. Charity has the highest position, because it considers the common good of the whole community every individual. Not pictured here is the lower border depicting the seven liberal arts beneath Common Good, representing the natural wisdom needed to rule well. The second figure of Justice, on the far right, is linked to the Common Good by a band of soldiers, two groups of lancers, and another group of twenty-four citizens, which includes a number of prisoners and two kneeling knights who are donating their castles to the city of Siena. Both of the knights are looking up to the Common Good. Directly below this painting is an inscription that explains that Justice creates unity, and the united body of citizens are the Common Good. The rulers of the city wear the "glorious faces of the virtues" and hence "taxes, levies,...and estates are given in triumph" and the city is happy, prosperous, and at peace.
Typus Grammaticae
Woodcut in the "Margarita Philosophica" by Gregor Reisch (1517). Grammar, leading a young man by the alphabet, unlocks with a key the door to ascend the tower of learning. On the first floor are Donatus and Priscian, studying grammar. On the second floor are Cicero the rhetorician, Aristotle the logician, and Boethius the translator of Nichomachus' "Arithmetic." On the third floor are Pythagoras, studying music, Euclid, studying geometry, and Ptolemy, studying astronomy. On the fourth level is Seneca, representing moral philosophy. Lastly, on the fifth level is Peter Abelard, representing theology and metaphysics. This tower is right next to the church and in the middle of town, showing the centrality and connection between a liberal education, civic duties, and the spiritual life.
The School of Athens
Fresco by Raphael (1511), located at the Vatican Museums in Rome, Italy. This Renaissance painting recovers and renews the liberal arts. In the foreground are four groups, each with a major figure of the quadrivium. On the right is Ptolemy, embodying astronomy. To his left is Euclid, instructing four young men in geometry. To his left is Nichomachus, writing on arithmetic. To the far left is Pythagoras, writing on harmonics. Just as liberal education curriculum ascends from the liberal arts to higher philosophical disciplines, your eyes ascend the stairs from these four groups of the quadrivial arts and land on Plato and Aristotle, separating the philosophers into two groups. Plato points up to the realm of the forms and Aristotle both points out to the real world and across the room toward the Eucharist on "The Theological Dispute," also by Raphael.
The Seven Liberal Arts
Wooden panel by Francesco Pesellino (1422—1457), located at Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama. The panel, along with its pair, "The Seven Virtues," was originally made to decorate the wooden chest of a newly wed couple that exhorts the spouses to wisdom and virtue. In this panel, each liberal art holds their emblematic tool. Arithmetic holds a counting board; Geometry uses measuring tools; Music plays an instrument; Astronomy uses an astrolabe; Logic waves a branch with many parts; Rhetoric delivers an oration from a scroll; and Grammar instructs two children. At their feet rest paragons of that liberal art from the Western Tradition, who listen and write their exemplary works, such as Nichomacus, Euclid, Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Aristotle, Cicero, and Varo.
Young Man Before the Seven Liberal Arts
Fresco by Sandro Botticelli (1484), located in Paris, France, at the Musée du Louvre. Grammar leads a young man by the hand to the seven liberal arts, each holding their emblematic tool. Presiding over the seven arts is Prudence. A liberal arts education equips the young with the tools needed to be practically wise in the world.
The Seven Liberal Arts Persecuted by Pluto and Bacchus
Etching by Jost Amman (1554–91), located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The etching begins on the far left with a ruined city in the distance and a lion guarding the gate. Pluto, the god of hell, wields a trident and whips Arithmetic, who has dropped her counting board and falls on her knees. To their right, Bacchus, the god of drink and immorality, holding a rich goblet, rides a boar, a wild and passionate beast, and chases down Music, who drops her instruments to flee. A Satyr, half goat and half man, wields a trumpet. Fleeing to his right into a wild forest are Astronomy, who drops an astrolabe, Geometry with her surveying tools, Dialectic, Rhetoric, holding a scroll, and Grammar holding a key. The etching shows that immorality banishes the seven liberal arts and natural wisdom from a city, leading to its ruin.
The Seven Liberal Arts
Woodcut by Virgilius Solis (16th c.), located in Cleveland Museum of Art. In this woodcut, the seven liberal arts line up in their order of being and learning, each holding their emblematic tool. At the bottom, the inscription reads, "There is no sweeter comfort in life for the unfortunate man than the arts."
Philosophy Presenting the Seven Liberal Arts to Boethius
Fresco by Henri de Vulcop (1460-70), located at the Getty Museum in California. Philosophy, with the inscription the "sovereign comfort" and wearing a fashionable hennin, presents to the imprisoned statesman Boethius the seven liberal arts, personified as women holding their emblematic tools and wearing elegant aristocratic dresses.