St. Augustine: Founding Philosopher of History

by Bradley J. Birzer, TIC co-editor

St. Augustine was the first Christian to offer a comprehensive Philosophy of History, which the Russian Orthodox writer Nicholas Berdyaev called nothing short of “ingenius.”[1] One of his greatest accomplishments was the sanctification of Plato’s understanding of the two realms: the perfect Celestial Kingdom and the corrupt copy. One finds this tension and conflict between this world and the next in all of Christopher Dawson’s ideas and works and in many of Russell Kirk’s. “Christian culture is always in conflict with the world,” Dawson wrote directly.[2] In more complicated form, Dawson wrote, the “conception of the sacred and the secular manifests itself at every stage of culture from the primitive to the most highly civilized and in every form of religion.”[3] 

For Plato, the two realms never met, except on rare and mystical occasions. For St. Augustine and for Dawson, one also cannot readily separate the two cities, the City of God and the City of Man, in any Manichean sense. While the two cities do not meet spiritually, they intermingle physically.[4] “We must remember that behind the natural process of social conflict and tension which runs through history there is a deeper law of spiritual duality and polarization,” Dawson argued in no uncertain terms, “which is expressed in the teaching of the Gospel on the opposition of the World and the Kingdom of God and in St. Augustine’s doctrine of the two cities Babylon and Jerusalem whose conflict run through all history and gives it its ultimate significance.”[5]

Why The Modern Academy Would Kill Socrates

by Robert M. Woods

Despite decades of "critical thinking," the anecdotal and statistical evidence is that Americans in general, and Christians in particular, have an aversion for thinking. In a recent article, the evidence is that many, if not most students, simply do not want to think. In truth, the students are merely mirroring the broader culture and the entire university ethos. The article highlights the essence of the Socratic method and why most fear and disdain it by saying that "It is an interpretive discussion of a piece of text during which the professor says very little...the professor chooses a rich piece of text and plans an interpretive question as he opens the discussion...in general, it is a guided dialogue." 

 
It surprises my Freshmen when I tell them that the modern university is among the most anti-intellectual places on the earth. Think in Socratic terms. The university is that place where lots of people are certain that they know lots of things. This certainty is a formula for disaster. Usually by the half-way point through their Junior year, they believe me. After a few semesters of sneers and jeers from fellow students and not a few faculty, they long for a community of thinkers. 

 
Again, one need not despair. While most schools put the phrase "critical thinking" in the course syllabus and then pride themselves with T/F, fill in blank, and multiple choice tests all the time dodging numerous opportunities of genuine thinking, there are schools, classes, professors, assignments, and exams where questions force the students to think through the issues and ideas. There are a few places where a few students are actually conversing with one another, their professors, Great Books and Great Ideas. Happily, those who yield to the Socratic way are changed. There is no going back once you have experienced true learning.

Dr. Robert M. Woods is Director of the Great Books Honors College at Faulkner University. This essay was originally published on Musings of a Christian Humanist and appears here with Dr. Woods' gracious permission.

The Platonic Kirk. Yes, REALLY Platonic.

Transcribed by Brad Birzer; with a lot of help from Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.0

As that beautiful and intellectual force of nature, Annette Kirk, has mentioned in conversation many times, Russell was an Augustinian, and she was a Thomist.  She was also more Aristotelian and he more Platonic.

In one of his most under-appreciated works (now, perhaps, more necessary to republish than ever), Decadence and Renewal in the Higher Learning (1978), Russell revealed--rather blatantly--his Platonic side.

What more can I write than ENJOY. 

*** 

Every quote below is taken from Russell Kirk, “Identity, Images, and Education: 1977,” in Kirk, Decadence and Renewal in Higher Learning: An Episodic History of American University and College since 1953 (South Bend, Indiana: Gateway Editions, 1978), 220-233. 

“Once we know who we are, and know that there are other real folk about us; once we understand that you and I are part of a community of souls—why, then it is possible to be fairly human, to live and die with dignity.” (pg. 223)

Quote of the Day: Plato

Socrates: "Friend Pan and however many other gods are here, grant me to become beautiful in respect to the things within. And as to whatever things I have outside, grant that they be friendly to the things inside me. May I believe the wise man to be rich. May I have as big a mass of gold as no one other than the moderate man of sound mind could bear or bring along. Do we still need something else, Phaedrus? For I think I’ve prayed in a measured fashion."

To which Phaedrus responds: "And pray also for these things for me. For friends’ things are in common."

(Plato, Phaedrus, Nichols translation, lines 279b-279c)

Quote of the Day: Plato

Gentlemen of the jury, I am grateful and I am your friend, but I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not cease to practice philosophy, to exhort you and in my usual way to point out to anyone of you whom I happen to meet: ‘Good Sir, you are an Athenian, a citizen of the greatest city with the greatest reputation for both wisdom and power; are you not ashamed of your eagerness to possess as much wealth, reputation and honors as possible, while you do not care for nor give thought to wisdom or truth, or the best possible state of your soul? —Plato, The Apology of Socrates (29e)