Essay / Education

Growth into Great Things (Augustine)

by Fred Sanders on

Augustine (see below) There's an Augustine quote, widely available on all of the "Swell Quotations" websites, that just seems too good to be true. Here it is: "Really great things, when discussed by little men, can usually make such men…

"Invest Me With a Graduate's Gown" (Kit Smart)

by Fred Sanders on

This summer a group of Torrey Honors College students will be travelling to Cambridge, England for a three-week course in Great Books by local authors. One such local author on our list is Christopher Smart (1722-1771; Pembroke College BA 1744).…

Essay / Education

A Few Questions for You (Commencement 2023)

by Fred Sanders on

This was the commencement address I gave to Torrey Honors College's class of 2023. Torrey is a Socratic Great Books program, where the pedagogical coin of the realm is questions. So I put together an appropriate commencement talk. It's for…

The Best Half of Augustine's City of God

by Fred Sanders on

Everybody should read Augustine's City of God. (Go ahead; I'll wait. All done? Great.) To do our part toward that end, we assign it as mandatory first-year reading in the Torrey Honors College. But "vast is the work, and arduous,"…

Essay / Theology

Shame in Philippians

by Isaac Blois on

This is post 4 of 4 in a series on the emotions in Philippians. It looks forward to the publication of Isaac Blois’ new book in the LNTS series with Bloomsbury T&T Clark: The Role of Emotions in Philippians: Discerning…

Essay / Theology

“Tell Pale-Hearted Fear it Lies” (Fear in Philippians)

by Isaac Blois on

This is post 3 of 4 in a series on the emotions in Philippians. It looks forward to the publication of Isaac Blois’ new book in the LNTS series with Bloomsbury T&T Clark: The Role of Emotions in Philippians: Discerning…

Essay / Theology

Joy in Philippians

by Isaac Blois on

This is post 2 of 4 in a series on the emotions in Philippians. It looks forward to the publication of Isaac Blois’ new book in the LNTS series with Bloomsbury T&T Clark: The Role of Emotions in Philippians: Discerning…

Essay / Theology

Discerning Affections in Philippians

by Isaac Blois on

This is post 1 of 4 in a series on the emotions in Philippians. It looks forward to the publication of Isaac Blois’ new book in the LNTS series with Bloomsbury T&T Clark: The Role of Emotions in Philippians: Discerning…

Five Tips for Reading Homer's Iliad

by Fred Sanders on

The first book we read in Torrey Honors College is Homer's Iliad. Incoming students have to read it before the first day of class, before they've met their professors or their cohort. Here are five strategies for reading the book…

Essay / Theology

The Rise of the Scholastic Theological Method

by Greg Peters on

This is post 2 of 4 in a series on the monastic theological method. It looks forward to the publication of Greg Peters' new book: Monastic Theology as Theological Method: The Superiority of the Monastery to the University. Join us…

Essay / Theology

The Christ-Life

by Isaac Blois on

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” With these words, Gabriel García Márquez begins his famous novel One Hundred Years of…

Essay / Theology

The Superiority of a Monastic Theological Method

by Greg Peters on

This is post 1 of 4 in a series on the monastic theological method. It looks forward to the publication of Greg Peters' new book: Monastic Theology as Theological Method: The Superiority of the Monastery to the University. Join us…