Roman Roads Press Blog

The Schoolroom of the Stars We need to begin this next part of the discussion by further clarifying something that was said toward the end of the previous post. In the Convivio, Dante pictures the liberal arts as a hierarchy, where each sphere prepares the student for the subsequent sphere, leading from Grammar to Moral Philosophy and, ultimately, to Theology. In terms of a student’s own capacity to understand, this makes sense. The more complicated spheres are higher up, and are suited to those students who have already worked through the more fundamental and preparatory subjects, such as Grammar and … Continue Reading “Doxological Pedagogy (Part Six)”

The Convivio Dante opens the second treatise of the Convivio with an explanation of what has of old been called the quadriga, or the fourfold method of interpretation. This approach seeks to discover (in this order) the literal, the allegorical, the moral, and the anagogical (or eschatological) meaning of a given text (Convivio II, i, 1-7). This methodology was commonly used to interpret Scripture, and would have certainly been taught at the religious schools Dante attended. But here he applied this method to his own lyric poetry, laying the foundation for its use with any text. In this way, Dante … Continue Reading “Doxological Pedagogy (Part Five)”

The Preeminence of Christ A doxological pedagogy begins with a full-orbed understanding of the preeminence of Christ in all things. Unless we see Jesus sitting at the center, unless we acknowledge Him as the integration point, the one in whom all things hold together, we will not properly understand the world around us. As we confess, all things “in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers,” were made “by Him…through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). That confession necessarily shapes what we remember, how we understand, and who we love. But every educational endeavor … Continue Reading “Doxological Pedagogy (Part Four)”

A Still More Excellent Way It would be an interesting (even if ultimately infuriating) exercise to imagine Dante, coming out of the wood, meeting either Socrates or Jean-Jaques instead of Vergil. What would his journey have looked like under the tutelage of either of these philosophers? Where would Dante have been taken, if the governing assumption was that Dante was basically good, and simply had misaligned knowledge, or misaligned sentiments, and not (as was actually the case) misaligned loves and a broken will? We will have occasion to return to these deficient worldviews at different points later in our discussion, … Continue Reading “Doxological Pedagogy (Part Three)”

Education is a fundamental human experience. Therefore, in order to know what education is we have to know what man is. In order to know what education is for, we have to know what man is for. Anthropology matters, in other words, and is a necessary cornerstone to a cogent philosophy of education. When thinkers and educators disagree about the aims of education, at the heart of their argument are disparate views of humanity. Defining the nature of man differently leads each to define the goal or purpose of education differently as well. It is beyond the scope of this … Continue Reading “Doxological Pedagogy (Part Two)”

What is Education? What is education? What is education for? How is education to be pursued? And how can Dante’s Paradiso help answer these questions? What I will be suggesting as an answer starts with doxological pedagogy. The word pedagogy comes from the Greek words for “boy” and “guide”; thus a pedagogy is the means by which the child is guided toward a specific end. A doxological (literally, the speaking of the glory) pedagogy establishes the worship of God as that particular end toward which a child is led through every sphere of education. Put simply, a doxological education trains, … Continue Reading “Doxological Pedagogy (Part One)”