A friend pointed me to this article which is Professor Thomas Bertanneau’s depressing analysis of the “scholars” who are presently taking up space in our colleges and universities. I’ve seen this sort of thing firsthand but I’ve been hoping that what I was seeing was not widespread. Unfortunately, it appears that it is.
Here’s the author’s conclusion regarding the future we’ve made for ourselves:
“I see in the resentful incapacity of so many students a not-so-dim “Shape of Things to Come” whose characteristics will be theirs: perceptive obtuseness, expressive coarseness, extreme limitation of language and therefore also of concept, radical unfitness to judge complicated technical or moral problems, complete disconnection from any meaningful past and, to borrow a term from Oswald Spengler, in a condition utterly “historyless.”
The world soon to be dominated by such people (their world is already rapidly consolidating itself around us) will be awkward and ham-fisted; it will respond slowly and in all likelihood badly to the complicated problems that will impose their contingency on it. Petulance will characterize it universally: people who find it hard to think straight or to sort out complexities will balk at doing so and become adept at finding reasons for ignoring urgent social, moral, and political challenges. They will be even more amenable than many people already are to pandering, “magical” solutions to emergencies offered by cynical politicians who are interested solely in re-election.
Secretly aware of their limitations, they will also be susceptible to flattery designed to boost their all-important self-esteem. The level of commercial culture will descend even further than it already has to placate the taste of people who have rejected humane education and who do not really understand adult issues. As a student wrote in response to Iphigenia by Euripides, getting the tragedian’s message exactly backwards, people “must trust their leaders and things will be fine in the end.” Many older, genuinely educated people surviving into this not-too-distant future will find the new world infantile and exasperating.
William James wrote that the role of the intellect is to resolve into a comprehensible image the raw perceptual blur of reality. When the educational system rejects cultivating intellect as its primary goal and dedicates itself instead to fostering feelings, opinions, and baseless pride, it will discharge at the end of twelve years young people for whom the Jamesian “buzz” of phenomena cannot resolve into a comprehensible image. I mean to argue, in citing the student passages given above, much more than that contemporary undergraduates are poorly educated and lazy, even though they are those things in spades. I mean to argue that a deficient but entrenched pedagogy based on “progressive” theories of education has betrayed students by refusing to grant them the dignified status of real mentality, of adult awareness, and of literate sensibility.”
Now, explain to me again why you oppose Christian classical education?
Today is Flannery O’Connor’s birthday and it just wouldn’t be right to allow it to pass without acknowledgment. Flannery is the queen of American writers. 
If you weren’t here for John Barach’s lectures on Philippians, you really missed a treat. John did a great job in covering Paul’s epistle, giving both exegetical and practical insights that were extremely helpful. Here are a few of the tidbits we heard:
One of our sons (Bray) is in the 
If you’re going to be in our area this Saturday (or if you are close enough to drive) you’ll want to come to the Bucer Institute Spring “Special Session” which begins Saturday at 9:00 a.m. 
Larry Lawlace mentioned this movie in a comment and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed it. It’s a collection of 18 short films directed by 18 different directors. The stories are based upon various locations in Paris. It’s been a while since I saw it and I can’t remember exactly which of the films are not so hot (there are some and so I can’t give it an unqualified endorsement) but let me commend one of the shorts in particular: “Bastille.” Written and directed by Isabel Coixet, “Bastille” is the story of a man who meets his wife for lunch prepared to tell her that he is leaving her for another woman. Before he can give her this news, however, she tells him that the doctors have determined that she has a terminal illness and only has a few months to live. What begins as another story about infidelity, ends as a story about love. Beautiful.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We commemorate the life and work of Sucat (aka Patrick of Ireland). The life of Patrick (like so much else in the early centuries of the Church) is surrounded by mystery and legend. He was probably born in Dumbarton in England in the latter part of the 4th century, around 375-390 A.D. His mother was a sister of, or at least was related to, the famous Martin of Tours. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all appear to have been clergymen. When Patrick was 16 years old, he was captured by the Irish raiding king, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and carried away to Ireland where he was sold into slavery. His new master, Milchu, sent him into the fields to keep cattle. It was there, in the Irish fields, that Patrick began to consider the God of his fathers: 
“More than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are. They say, ‘I’m everything. I’m nothing. I believe in myself,’ “
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:16-18)
Today is the birthday of the amazing Michelangelo. His first major work of art was the Pietà, a marble statue of Mary holding the dead Jesus in her arms. Supposedly, after the statue had been put on display, he went to see it and heard a crowd of people praising its beauty. When someone asked who had made it, another replied that the artist was il Gobbo, from Milan. That night, Michelangelo locked himself in with the statue and carved this inscription on Mary’s robe: “Michelangelo Buonarroti the Florentine made this.” It was the only work he ever signed.
Each semester at the Bucer Institute we have a course we call “The Church and Culture” which is basically a catch-all for any topic we’d like to talk about. Our “Church and Culture” class for this semester was held this past Saturday on the topic of “The Christian Imagination” and it was outstanding. (Check out 
Today is the first Sunday during Lent. We make this distinction because Sundays are not included in the season of Lent. They are never to be observed as fast days. Sunday, being the day of the resurrection, is always to be a day of feasting and celebration. Thus, Lent is never to be observed as an unbroken time of fasting. Each Sunday, we rejoice over the reality of the Savior’s victory over sin and death and the joyful certainty of life in Him. So, if you are fasting during Lent, be sure to break your fast today. This is to be a day of light and gladness, rejoice!
