New Humanists

Send us a textThomas Aquinas is also known as the "Angelic Doctor," but he was quite capable of coming down from the heavens and getting practical. In two selections from his work included in Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition, we find some of Thomas' advice and outlook for students and teachers, including a discussion of whether teaching is an inherently contemplative or active pursuit.Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnONew Humanists episode Education that Makes Aquinas Look Modern, feat. John Peterson: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/12698279-education-that-makes-aquinas-look-modern-feat-john-peterson-episode-xlviPope Leo XIII's Aeterni Patris: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_04081879_aeterni-patris.htmlAugustine's De Magistro (The Teacher): https://amzn.to/4cUbVZ4A.G. Sertillanges's The Intellectual Life: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780813206462Homer Camp: https://ancientlanguage.com/homer-camp/Bible Camp: https://ancientlanguage.com/bible-camp/New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textThe things of God belong to a heavenly kingdom. But politics is taken up with what is earthly. Surely, therefore, Christians should keep politics at a distance as much as possible. Right? Even while defending the life of contemplation and retreat from the earthly, Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Bocaccio laud Christian involvement in public life. Petrarch goes so far as to dream of a Julius Caesar reborn in medieval Europe and baptized a Christian, who goes on to conquer Egypt from the Muslims and present her as a gift - this time not to Cleopatra - but to Christ.James Hankins's Virtue Politics: https://amzn.to/3UiQpp3Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199535699C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780062565396Calvert Watkins's How to Kill a Dragon: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780195144130New Humanists episode on Leonardo Bruni: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/14460440-mediocrity-versus-glory-in-the-renaissance-episode-lxiiSallust's Catilinarian Conspiracy: https://amzn.to/4chKY1CHenry David Thoreau's Walden: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780460876353Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780385486804New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textImagine that you are the leading figure in a movement to renew the study and appreciation of classical literature, but you have come to the end of your life and not only has the educational and political situation not improved - it has gotten worse. Such was the vista spread out before Petrarch in his twilight. Jonathan and Ryan read and discuss some of Petrarch's correspondence, recording the meditations of the great humanist as he wrestled with civilizational decline, the possibility of rebirth, and the awareness of how little time he had left.Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnOCicero's Pro Archia Poeta: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674991743Tim Griffith's The Case for Classical Languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UquUv7wzAgQRyan Hammill's Saints Versus Statesmen: https://americanreformer.org/2024/04/saints-versus-statesmen/New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textAre the liberal arts for everyone? We tend to think that the liberal arts can be helpful and edifying for anyone. But even amidst the humanist enthusiasm for the study of letters, the Renaissance writer Pier Paolo Vergerio denied that the liberal arts could improve a corrupt soul. In his mind, the liberal arts are proper only for those born free from the demands of moneymaking and furthermore, possessing a liberal temper. What is a liberal temper? And what are the liberal arts anyways? Jonathan and Ryan discuss Vergerio's treatise "The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth" which, even before the printing press, was a sensation in Europe, and was copied and re-copied many times.Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnOI Tatti Renaissance Library's Humanist Educational Treatises (containing Pier Paolo Vergerio's entire treatise, The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth, in Latin and English): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674007598Sallust's Catilinarian Conspiracy: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674996847Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674991743New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textWe think we know what a "republic" is, but what did the Romans mean with their phrase "res publica"? What about the Italian humanists? And how did they distinguish a republic from a tyranny? We take a look at two more chapters from James Hankins's book, Virtue Politics, a groundbreaking examination of Renaissance political theory. These chapters focus on the question of legitimacy: What makes a government legitimate? What makes it illegitimate?James Hankins's Virtue Politics: https://amzn.to/3UiQpp3Francesco Petrarch's Invectives: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674011540New Humanists episode on Nietzsche and slavery: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/14044549-compassion-versus-classical-antiquity-episode-lviiCicero's De Officiis: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199540716Robert Harris's Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780743498661Adrian Goldsworthy's Caesar: Life of a Colossus: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780300126891New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textA pandemic. A changing climate. A hopelessly divided country. Christianity threatened by Islam. Universities completely out of touch with normal people. Late medieval Italy was a basket case. All the while, a small group of men was dreaming of the Roman Empire - maybe emulating Rome was the way to save Italy? In his book Virtue Politics, James Hankins elucidates the neglected political thought of the humanists of the Italian Renaissance, which he names "virtue politics." Jonathan and Ryan outline Hankins's arguments.James Hankins's Virtue Politics: https://amzn.to/3UiQpp3N.T. Wright's The New Testament and the People of God: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780800626815Augustine's City of God: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780140448948Thomas Aquinas' De Regno: https://isidore.co/aquinas/DeRegno.htmDante's De Monarchia: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781502885555Desiderius Erasmus' The Praise of Folly: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780691165646New Humanists episode on T.S. Eliot's Praise for Privilege: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/9884564-t-s-eliot-s-praise-for-privilege-episode-xviNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textThe poet of Joan of Arc, and a notable example of a female writer in the premodern period, Christine de Pizan took a turn at the popular humanist genre of the mirror to princes in her book "The Book of the Body Politics." Jonathan and Ryan take a look at her characterization of virtue, corporal punishment, and what it takes to educate a Caesar.Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnOChristine de Pizan's The Book of the Body Politic: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780521422598C.S. Lewis's The Weight of Glory: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060653200Christopher Schlecht's "Did Dorothy Sayers Get Education Wrong?": https://youtu.be/--gjw3gaG-U?si=7OLZ-SlExk8_QMp2Joris-Karl Huysmans's Against the Grain: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199555116New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textIn his essay "On Educating Children," a follow-up to his denunciation of pedantry, Michel de Montaigne warns that "natural affection makes parents too soft" and incapable of properly disciplining their children, or even of letting their children take the risks and encounter the dangers they ought to. Book-learning, in Montaigne's essay, takes a backseat to the development of real virtue; erudition is ornament, not foundation.Michel de Montaigne's Complete Essays: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780140446043Herodotus' Histories: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781400031146Rhetorica Ad Herennium: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674994447New Humanists episode "The First English Conversation, feat. Dr. Colin Gorrie": https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/11362004-the-first-english-conversation-feat-dr-colin-gorrie-episode-xxxiiNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Send us a textWhen Tim Griffith was coaching soccer and reading ancient Roman rhetorical theory, he realized he had stumbled across a pedagogical goldmine. In this episode, Jonathan and Ryan talk with Tim about raising kids as native Latin speakers, the roles that comprehensible input vs. grammar instruction play in the language classroom, prescriptive versus descriptive grammar, and Roman rhetoric. The product of years of experience and study, Tim’s approach to teaching Latin has borne fruit in his students at New Saint Andrews College, in his curriculum projects at Picta Dicta, and in no small way in the influence he has had on the Ancient Language Institute.Rhetorica Ad Herennium: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674994447Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory (Volume I): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674995918Picta Dicta: https://pictadicta.com/Shop Picta Dicta at Roman Roads Press: https://romanroadspress.com/latinHans Ørberg’s Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: Familia Romana: https://amzn.to/3hoLz7VW.H.D. Rouse’s Latin on the Direct Method: https://books.google.com/books/about/Latin_on_the_Direct_Method_By_W_H_D_Rous.html?id=oMXxMgEACAAJNew Saint Andrews College: https://nsa.edu/ALI Latin classes for adults: https://ancientlanguage.com/register-latin/ALI Ancient Greek classes for adults: https://ancientlanguage.com/register-greek/ALI Latin for Kids Program: https://ancientlanguage.com/latin-for-kids/ALI Latin for Kids Self-Study Course: https://ancientlanguage.com/latin-curriculum/Erasmus' De Copia: https://amzn.to/3Phf9MHPaul Distler's Teach the Latin, I Pray You: https://amzn.to/4cflhPC

Send us a textWe threw off the monarchy... now what? Having established a republic on American soil, the Founding Fathers were faced with the question of how to educate a new generation of people who would protect American liberty. The most underrated of the Founding Fathers, Dr. Benjamin Rush, devoted considerable time and attention to this question. In this episode, Jonathan and Ryan are joined by Clifford Humphrey to discuss Rush's "Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic."Clifford Humphrey's Are "Merely Christian" Colleges Enough?: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/02/are-merely-christian-colleges-enoughCarl Trueman's Mere Christianity on Campus: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/02/mere-christianity-on-campusClifford Humphrey's The Ends of "Mere Classical" Schools: https://americanreformer.org/2023/04/the-ends-of-mere-classical-schools/Our American Stories' episode on Benjamin Rush: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/podcast/history/founding-father-benjamin-rushBenjamin Rush's Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic: https://explorepahistory.com/odocument.php?docId=1-4-218#Ian Dagg's Regime and Education: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9783031373824Plutarch's Greek Lives (includes Lycurgus): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199540051Joseph Addison's Cato: A Tragedy: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780865974432Eric Nelson's The Hebrew Republic: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674062139New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com