Natural History is the observation and accounting for plant and animal life, with a clear understanding of how plants and animals flourish or decline within specific contexts (bioregions, climates, and habitats). This course will assist the student in cultivating the ability to observe and account for (through journals, drawings, auditory recognition, and taxonomy) the flora, fauna, and ecosystems of central New England.

In addition to taking the same course as first year students, advanced tutorial participants will meet every other week to discuss selections from the great works of those western writers who have sought to understand the origin and purpose of life. Possible authors include: Plato, The Timaeus; Aristotle, Physics, History of Animals, and the Parts of Animals; St. Basil the Great, The Hexameron; St. Augustine, On the Literal Meaning of Genesis; William Paley, Natural Theology; and Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species.

This course will be dedicated to a deeper exploration of the art of storytelling in Western literature. From Scripture to ancient philosophy, from beast fables to medieval saints’ lives, narrative has played a central role in man’s comprehension of himself, his Creator, and his place in creation. Shorter narratives are a central feature of pre-Christian and Christian consciousness throughout Western history, and these roots are evident in the great modern Russian, Celtic, and American short story traditions.

In this course, we will examine the narrative pattern set out by the first literary critic of the Western world, Aristotle, in his Poetics. We will also consider the formal elements which go into the crafting of a short story—elements like setting, plot, foreshadowing and characterization—and discuss the way in which these contribute to the rich artistry and meaning of the best short narratives. Finally, we will discuss the way in which modern short story writers explore the complexities of faith, culture, and history in their narratives.

Readings for the course will include excerpts from ancient and medieval writings—Aesop’s Fables, the Golden Legend of Jacobus, the Gesta Romanorum, The Canterbury Tales—and fuller explorations of modern masters of the short story like Gogol, Pushkin, Turgenev, Chekhov, Joyce, Hawthorne, Melville, Faulkner, Hemingway, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor.

In his Church of the Fathers, Blessed John Henry Newman states that it is “…about the fourth century I am proposing to write.  An eventful century, a drama in three acts…  The first is the history of the Roman Empire becoming Christian; the second, that of the indefectible Church of God seeming to succumb to Arianism; the third, that of countless barbarians pouring in upon both Empire and Christendom together.”

This tutorial on the Greek Church Fathers will follow the lines of Newman’s theological and ecclesiastical account of the fourth century by concentrating on the shorter writings of the four “Great” Greek Church Fathers—St. Athanasius, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. John Chrysostom—as well as St. Gregory of Nyssa.  The major topics to be considered include: the Nicene Creed, Eastern monasticism, the vocations of marriage and priesthood, as well as theological reflection and argument in the philosophical and poetic modes.

St Thomas Aquinas’s discussion of the passions, or emotions, is one of the longest ‘treatises’ within the Summa Theologiae. If the angelic doctor gave so much space to this subject, it is no doubt because he considered it very helpful for understanding, and living, the virtues and the spiritual life.

In this course we shall read through the treatise, and learn what he has to say about the nature and number of the passions, their inter-relation, and their power for good or evil within the human soul. We shall finish by considering briefly his discussion of how the passions were present in Christ.

Students of Advanced Readings in Greek will read approximately fourteen hundred (1400) lines from Homer’s Odyssey in the original language. This course is for students who wish to exercise their reading knowledge of Ancient Greek beyond the intermediate level. It is also an opportunity for both students and teacher to explore how Homer communicates his insights into the human condition via the form of epic poetry. Regular class meetings with the teacher in addition to a final translation project are the means for evaluating the course grade.

Students of Advanced Readings in Latin will read Cicero’s In Verrem in the orator’s original language. This course is intended for students who wish to exercise their reading knowledge of Latin beyond the intermediate level. It is also an opportunity for both students and teacher to access Cicero’s insights into the human condition via the form of forensic oratory. The completion of course assignments, including a philological paper, and participation in the course are the basis for determining the course grade.

There will be no required text for this tutorial. Handouts will be provided, to give students examples of different sorts of journalistic presentation. Students may be asked to bring to the class some of their own favorite newspaper or magazine articles.

This course develops the art of dialectic or probable reasoning, not covered by the logic course required at Thomas More College. Practical problems and exercises will give students extensive experience with the 12 major tools of probable reasoning, such as how to divide; how to define; how to argue from authorities, signs, and likenesses; and how to answer objections. Class debates will be organized to put these habits into practice. The skills perfected in this course will be useful not only for philosophy but for essays, discussions, and analyses in any discipline, including literature, history, and politics. Beyond the Reading Packet, no textbook is required.

This tutorial examines the emergence of modern scientific thought, beginning with its complex relationship to the Aristotelian tradition and moving through both iconic and lesser known figures from the 13th to the 20th century. Readings will draw upon the works of St. Albert the Great through Newton to Lemaitre and Hubble, as well as Papal documents on the sciences. Students will be expected to read and discuss challenging works in the natural sciences; give presentations; and become familiar with the different types of primary and secondary sources available for study. There will be opportunities to recreate several famous experiments, at least in a rudimentary form.

Catholic teaching on Creation, from the simplicity of St. Francis to the profundity of St. Thomas Aquinas, is marked by the dual insight that it is truly a gift: the created world is both separate from God, with its own nature and integrity, and also hides God present within it. While cautioning us against the presumption that we can fully decipher and control every aspect of the natural world, the Catholic tradition also instructs us on our covenantal responsibility towards all of Creation. The appreciation of the ontological dimension gives Catholic thought profound insights into every dimension of Creation—humankind’s role within it, as well as the challenges its rightful stewardship presents—from the technical, to the economic, the political and social, through to the ethical dimension of our everyday actions and our most intimate relations of marriage and family.

This course will consider three interwoven themes: 1) deepening an appreciation for the natural ecology of New England, from its fisheries to its mammals and birds; 2) comprehending the meaning of Creation from a Catholic philosophical and theological perspective, over and above modern science’s technocratic paradigm and the post-modern holism promoted by many environmentalists; 3) formulating a unified vision of man’s ethical, political, and liturgical life from the perspective of his role as the pinnacle and steward of Creation. We will draw our readings from Benedict XVI, Thomas Aquinas, Wendell Berry, Stratford Caldecott, among others. Classes will be based on the discussion of assigned readings that will span topics from the sense of wonder, to natural ecology, modern science, technology, philosophy, and ethics. 

This tutorial on philosophical theology in the age of so-called Medieval Scholasticism continues our reading and reflection in Humanities III of works by St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Bonaventure, along with works by St. Albert the Great.

The long journey of Medieval thought is marked by a two-fold fidelity to the primacy of faith or belief coupled with a desire to illuminate, though not necessarily to prove, that faith by the powers of human reasoning. To be sure, the earlier Church Fathers, both Greek and Latin, had, in the words of St. Basil, appropriated or “stolen” the philosophical treasures of the pagan philosophers. Still, once the full riches of the Aristotelian corpus became available to medieval thinkers, four preeminent thinkers—St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Albert the Great, and St. Bonaventure—charted new paths in the quest to the understand the God of their faith. 

The tutorial will commence with two introductions. First, there will be a brief review of the expositions by St. Augustine and Boethius about God as a spiritual substance and the Good in Book 7 of the Confessions and Book III of the Consolation of Philosophy, respectively. This will be followed by a review of St. Anselm’s claim in chapter I of the Proslogion that “I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand.”

The core of the tutorial will focus on a careful reading of St. Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles Book I, St. Albert the Great’s Commentary on Dionysus’ Mystical Theology, and St. Bonaventure’s The Mind’s Journey to God (supplemented by sections from his Collations on the Hexameron, Commentary on the Sentences and Avicenna’s Book on the First Philosophy).

This course will cover the major political events of the 20th century: the two world wars, the rise and fall of the Soviet empire, the collapse of empires and emergence of new nations. We will look beyond these events to examine their causes, and the development of the “isms”— Communism, Naziism, racism, atheism—that cost so many lives in this bloodiest of centuries. 

But the tutorial will also explore the dramatic changes of the 20th century that changed the way we live: the impact of scientific discoveries, the spectacular economic growth, the technological advances, the new trends in the arts.

Through their study, students should gain a better understanding of how different their lives are from those of their parents and grandparents (to say nothing of previous generations), and an ability to recognize how ideas that were introduced in the 20th century still govern our lives today—for good or for ill.  

The main text for the course will be Paul Johnson’s sweeping history, Modern Times. A long list of supplementary readings will be offered, from which students may make their own selections. Each student will be required to research a particular 20th-century development (from a list supplied by the instructor) and make a presentation on that topic to the class.

“Quid enim Hinieldus cum Christo?” Alcuin asks this famous question of the bishop of Lindisfarne after receiving news of the monks’ interest in hearing pagan stories, accompanied by the harp, during mealtimes. “Let the words of God be read at dinner.  It is proper for a reader to be heard there, not a harpist, the discourse of the fathers, not the song of the heathens. What has Ingeld to do with Christ? Your house is narrow and cannot contain both.”

This course will engage Alcuin’s question by examining the heathen literature of the pre-Christian north and its formative influence on subsequent Christian writers like J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Sigrid Undset, and George Mackay Brown. We will read both the prose Edda and poetic Edda (the repositories of Norse mythology, cosmogony, and heroic legend); Tolkien’s translation of Sigurd and Gudrun; representative works from the Icelandic and Norwegian saga tradition, including the masterful and moving Njal’s Saga; the Divine Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden (the saint whom Marin Luther called die tolle Brigit—“the crazy Bridget”—and whom John Paul II in 1999 declared “Co-patroness of Europe”); George Mackay Brown’s novel of the twelfth-century Earl of Orkney, Magnus, and Sigrid Undset’s epic trilogy, Kristin Lavransdatter. 

Balder the Beautiful is dead, is dead. 

And through the misty air 

Passed the mournful cry 

Of sunward sailing cranes.  

In Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis recounts his childhood introduction to northern literature through his reading of Longfellow’s Tenger’s Drapa, which tells of the death of the Norse god Balder, the fair-haired beloved son of Odin and Frigg. He famously describes his reaction to the lines above as one of “Northernness”: “I knew nothing about Balder; but instantly I was uplifted into huge regions of northern sky. I desired with almost sickening intensity something never to be described (except that it is cold, spacious, severe, pale and remote) and then . . . found myself at the very same moment already falling out of that desire and wishing I were back in it.” Sigrid Undset experienced something similar after reading Njal’s Saga at the age of thirteen; Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown’s conversion to Catholicism came about primarily not only through his reading of Newman and T.S. Eliot, but through his introduction to the Orkneyinga Saga. And the debt Tolkien paid to Germanic Literature can hardly be overstated. 

For Tolkien, the literature of “Northernness” conveys both “unyielding heroism” and a “sense of impending doom.” What is it about these qualities of northern literature which resonate in the hearts and minds of modern Christian writers? In attempting to answer such questions, this course will introduce students to a rich, influential, and varied body of literature all-too-frequently neglected in the Catholic literary tradition. 

Readings will include the prose and poetic Eddas; Sigurd and Gudrun (trans. Tolkien); Egil’s Saga; The Saga of Hrafnkel, Frey’s Godi; Njal’s Saga; Medieval Scandinavian ballads; St. Bridget of Sweden, Divine Revelations; George Mackay Brown, Magnus; Knut Hamsun, Growth of the Soil (excerpts); Sigrid Undset, Saga of Saints (selections), Kristin Lavransdatter.

“A republic, if you can keep it,” Benjamin Franklin replied, when he was asked what form of government the Constitutional Convention had devised. To keep the American republic strong requires a citizenry that understands the nature of limited constitutional government. Sadly, that understanding is rare in the United States today. This tutorial will prepare students to recognize—and educate others about—the meaning and purpose of republican government, and the institutions that make it possible.

Our course will begin with the Declaration of Independence: the “birth announcement” of the United States as an independent nation. We will then trace the lineage of this new republic: the historical and philosophical influences that produced it. Students will follow the debates of the Constitutional Convention, and read the US Constitution itself with care.

In the last weeks of the term, we shall discuss what makes the American experiment unique, and the claims of “American exceptionalism.”

Shakespeare introduces us to “the Bard” as a paradigmatic poet-philosopher of our civilization who educates as he entertains. The aim of this tutorial is to learn to appreciate Shakespeare’s dramas as discourses about the conditions, causes, principles and effects of men’s actions, reflections and prayers on their journey of aspiring to the heights and succumbing to the depths of human longings and capacities.

First and foremost, Shakespeare’s poetic greatness rests on his exceptional capacity as a master story-teller—be the tale a tragedy, comedy, history or romance—about man’s fears and hopes, sufferings and consolations. The Bard’s dramatic staging of the lives, longings and loves of exceptional and typical men and women persuades students that they are encountering kinds of persons who are obviously foreign to their own time and place, yet equally familiar to their own lives and souls in the here and now.

Just as important, students discover Shakespeare to be an exceptionally gifted thinker—a kind of philosopher—whose characters give voice to important questions and rich responses concerning the nature and purpose of man and the cosmos within which we dwell from birth to death. As students read and reread Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, or Henry IV, they come to realize that William S. is among the truly wise ones of our civilization whose mission is to educate the souls of those who see, hear and read his plays about the God-given beauty of man’s nature, by entertaining their hearts and enlightening their minds with finely wrought and enduring dramas about human souls.

“Encountering Shakespeare’s dramas is akin to falling in love. Suddenly, we realize that we have been inspired by a beauty that dissolves all interest in ourselves or any sense of time passing, all the while intensifying our awareness of ourselves as enchanted lovers who hope for nothing more than to linger in the presence of our beloved who delights us endlessly. And when we finish experiencing one of William’s dramas, we are grateful to learn that there are 30+ more…” (Anonymous minor 20th century bard).

Pending final consideration, the plays to be read are the following: A Dark Comedy: Measure for Measure; The Roman Trilogy: Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra; The Final Dramas (2 of 3): Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest.

What makes the person a person? What do we mean, what do we “see,” when we call human beings “persons”? What reality does the word “person” signify? What distinguishes the human person from other beings? This course pursues these questions and turns principally to the Christian personalism of Karol Wojtyla (Pope St. John Paul II), the personalist thought of the German Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, and the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain.

We will approach the reality of the human person and these thinkers’ teachings from within the Catholic intellectual tradition, that is, through an awareness of the classical definitions of the human person as recognized and passed down in that tradition, especially that of Boethius, “persona est naturae rationalis individua substantia”; that of Aristotle, πολιτικὸν ζῷον, the human being is a political animal or an animal meant to live in a city; and that of St Thomas Aquinas of man as imago Dei, that is, as a being who is the principle of his own actions, having free will and control (“potestas”) over his actions.

In thus considering the reality of the human person, we will engage in the act of reflection on ourselves, as well as on others, on community and the different kinds of communities. We will reflect on the kinds of acts and experiences and modalities of human beings. In short, we will engage in an exercise and pursuit of self-knowledge.

Unsurprisingly, we will discuss the consequences of a given account of the human person, for example, the consequences for the person’s relation to our ultimate end, i.e., to God, as well as to the Church and to the political community, and we will equally consider the effects on our notions of morality, freedom, natural law, culture, the body, etc. To this end we will particularly examine French-Canadian philosopher and theologian Charles de Koninck’s critique of the possible (or endemic?) dangers of personalist propositions.