Three Reasons Every High School Student Should Study Dante
Listen to the article. I want to make the case that every high school student should read and study Dante’s Comedy. More specifically, I want to argue that every protestant, reformed, and evangelical high school student should read and study Dante. Everyone should read Dante, so why do I get so specific? Because Dante was upstream of the Protestant Reformation. He was born before Luther and Calvin, and predates the Protestant Reformation. Because of this, he is often unjustly condemned to the wrinkled brows of skepticism and wariness. Dante published the Comedy almost 200 years before Luther posted his 95 … Continue Reading “Three Reasons Every High School Student Should Study Dante “
The Centrality of Christ
BLOGTHE CENTRALITY OF CHRISTBy Joe Carlson The Divine Comedy Audio version of this blog post It is easy to read the Comedy, and Paradiso especially, and lose sight of the pilgrim’s primary trajectory, a trajectory that governs the whole poem. There are over five hundred characters that find their way into the narrative, hundreds of ancient Greek and Roman myths explicitly and implicitly alluded to, dozens of political events particular to thirteenth and fourteenth-century Italy referenced, and many points of theology discussed as foreign to us as the Medieval world itself. It is no great surprise we feel lost reading … Continue Reading “The Centrality of Christ”
Nostra Vita – Joe Carlson
BLOGNOSTRA VITABy Joe Carlson The Divine Comedy The following was my portion of a Dante panel, focusing on the Inferno, presented at the University of Dallas, March 27, 2023. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita. The 13th century Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri begins the greatest poem in the history of mankind with these words: Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita — In the middle of the course of our life. This opening line is rich with meaning and implications that govern the rest of the 14,232 lines that follow. It situates the poem in the striking particularity of … Continue Reading ” Nostra Vita – Joe Carlson”
A Short History of Valentine
BLOGA Short History ofValentineBy Rev. Uri Brito It is common to celebrate days with little knowledge of their origin. The traditional Valentine’s Day or The Feast of Saint Valentine is such a day. “Valentine” derives from “valens,” which means strong, worthy, or powerful. These are apt descriptions for this little-appreciated martyr. Tradition and legends abound. The truth is we have yet to learn much about the life of St. Valentine. We know that around 278 AD, Valentine, a holy priest in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed. The precise day is well acknowledged as February 14th. Claudius was known … Continue Reading “A Short History of Valentine”
Redeeming the Six Arts: A Review by Jeremy Tate
Classical education is a great gift of the Western world; but what about the world beyond the West? Traditional Chinese education is currently seeing a revival in China, not entirely unlike the classical renewal movement here in the United States. However, where ours is a grassroots movement and tends to have strong ties to Christianity, the revival of classical Chinese education is favored by the officially atheistic state, leaving many Chinese Christians ambivalent at best. Moreover, the materials brought to China by Western educators (both Christian and secular) tend, naturally enough, to be European classics rather than Chinese ones, and … Continue Reading “Redeeming the Six Arts: A Review by Jeremy Tate”
Four Reasons to Read Dante in 2023
POETRY • BEAUTY • PERSPECTIVE • WISDOMFour Reasons to Read Dante in 2023By Joe Carlson Dante’s Divine Comedy + Reader’s Guide Audio version of this article It’s a new year. You are looking back at the number of books you read during the past twelve months and perhaps sighing. You therefore look ahead and resolve to read more. But where do you begin? Allow me to give you four reasons why you should place Dante’s Comedy at the top of your 2023 to-read pile. POETRY Poetry teaches, shapes, edifies, and enriches us not by giving us a lecture, but by inviting us … Continue Reading “Four Reasons to Read Dante in 2023”
Don’t throw out your turkey carcass!
THANKSGIVINGDon’t throw away your turkey carcass!A Recipe from Food for Thought Food for Thought by Francis Foucachon “Here, ladies and gentlemen, is an eminently practical book. And an eminently wise book.I highly recommend his book; even if you buy it for yourself and never lend it out, if taken to heart it will be a gift to others.I recommend it because it is full of joy and gratitude. It is difficult to find a book that talks about what food is for, and what people are for, that doesn’t become either pedantic or shrill. Joy and gratitude are the solution … Continue Reading “Don’t throw out your turkey carcass!”
Dante and the Nature of Sanctification
A central question in the Christian life is this: what does it mean to grow in holiness, and that particular holiness without which we will not see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14)? You should not be surprised to hear me say there are seriously helpful answers to this question to be found in Dante’s Comedy. If you are a thorough-going protestant like myself, you might be surprised to hear that many of those answers are found in Purgatorio. There will be a time and place for unpacking the full nature of what our relationship to the notion of Purgatory should be … Continue Reading “Dante and the Nature of Sanctification”
Q/A: Old Western Culture Credits without Reading
There was a question from a parent asked in the comment section of a YouTube video (embedded below) that I think might benefit other families that use Old Western Culture. Q: Thanks for the video! How would you recommend assigning credits if the student only watched the videos? A: That’s a great question! It opens up the somewhat complicated question of credits altogether. I will answer in two ways. First: While how this is enforced may vary by state, we would strongly affirm the fundamental rights of parents to be primary educators and decision makers for k-12 education. Often homeschoolers are held to a … Continue Reading “Q/A: Old Western Culture Credits without Reading”
Dante, Protestant
Ok, so of course I’m being provocative. Dante was not a son of the Protestant Reformation. His Comedy was published in 1320, a full 200 years before Luther said, “Here I stand…” at Worms. And yes, his epic poem is full of doctrines that make actual protestants squirm. He prays to Mary; he prays for the dead; he holds to a purgatorial state where, even if man is reconciled to God by the blood of the cross, sinful habits that remain at the end of one’s life still must be purged after death before one ascends to Heaven. So how … Continue Reading “Dante, Protestant”