When you’re in the mood for a movie, how do you choose what you’ll watch? Given that the average American now spends more than a hundred hours every year just scrolling through Netflix menus, it is safe to assume that most Americans don’t know how to pick a movie. The way in which Christians choose what to watch is quite complicated. They want to be entertained, they want to be enlightened, but they also want to keep their finger on the cultural pulse of the country. What considerations ought to have top priority?

In this lecture, Joshua Gibbs reads the first chapter of Love What Lasts, his sprawling new book about how we choose what to watch, read, eat, wear, worship, and listen to. The first chapter of Love What Lasts is all about film—how film has changed since the 60s, how Christian viewing strategies have changed in the last generation, and what sort of questions confront the man who now has unlimited viewing options. If you often find yourself debating what to watch, are regularly disappointed with your choices, or simply want to have better taste in film—or better taste in general—this reading from Love What Lasts will help get you thinking in a new direction.

Math and Science for the Formation of the Soul: Placing the Quadrivium at the Center of Education with Founder of Hildegard College, Matthew Smith

The renewal of the liberal arts that we know as “classical education” is often narrowly associated with a renewal of the humanities — philosophy, literature, politics, history, and the arts. But the majority of the seven traditional liberal arts (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, grammar, logic, rhetoric) are sciences. Classical educators sometimes find it difficult to integrate the study of geometry, physics, mathematics, and biology into a curriculum that inspires our students. Yet it is important to recognize that these “quadrivial arts” are essential not merely for technical knowledge but for the moral, intellectual, and spiritual formation of young people, which is why music and even theology are best taught as sciences. Great thinkers like Plato, Boethius, Aquinas, and Milton give us a roadmap and vocabulary for reinforcing the power of the quadrivial arts to lead students to a clearer vision of what is true, beautiful, and worthy of our love.

Come join us for a reading of Rudyard Kipling’s poem If, followed by a discussion to continue the journey of exploring this year’s virtue, temperance. Pre-reading of the poem is not necessary. Registration is required.

Come and discuss the essential meaning of temperare. September 22 at 1:30pm ET. Registration Required. Join principals, Joanne Schinstock Director and Principal of Schole Academy, and Presbytera Maria Koulianos, Principal of St. Raphael School, for a brief reflection on temperance from Josef Pieper’s Four Cardinal Virtues followed by a discussion on how restful learning can require the student to discern which good things are worth giving up to attain what is better. “Without rational self-restraint even the natural hunger for sense perception or for knowledge can degenerate into a destructive and pathological compulsive greed; this degradation Aquinas calls curiositas, the disciplined mode studiositas” (151). Parents are not required to read the text prior to discussion, but a PDF copy of the text is available HERE, pp. 145-206.

The Fr. Porphyrios (James) Taylor Memorial Lecture is hosted by St. Raphael School in memory of our founder.  Fr. Porphyrios was an author, teacher, and leader in Orthodox education, and his work Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education continues to inspire teachers and educational leaders, particularly those laboring to renew Christian classical education in the United States. The annual lecture will focus on themes exploring the intersection of Orthodox spirituality and education, keeping in mind the words of St. Porphyrios:  “Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet.”

The Fr. Porphyrios (James) Taylor Memorial Lecture is hosted by St. Raphael School in memory of our founder.  Fr. Porphyrios was an author, teacher, and leader in Orthodox education, and his work Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education continues to inspire teachers and educational leaders, particularly those laboring to renew Christian classical education in the United States. The annual lecture will focus on themes exploring the intersection of Orthodox spirituality and education, keeping in mind the words of St. Porphyrios:  “Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet.”