Spring 2013: T and Th 1:10–2:25pm ("We serve Caesar best by serving God first.")
"The Listening Heart: Reflections on the Foundations of Law" — Pope Benedict XVI
Pierre Manent, "What is a Nation?" (Jan 10) |
Themistocles (Jan 22), Cimon (Jan 29) |
Pericles (Jan 31), The Athenian Empire |
Nicias (Feb 5), The Peloponnesian War |
Alcibiades (Feb 12), The Sicilian Expedition |
| Agesilaus (Feb 26), Alexander (Feb 28) [the despot] |
Cato (Mar 5), Aemilius Paullus (Mar 7) |
Tiberius Gracchus (Mar 12), Gaius Gracchus (Mar 14) [the first distributists?] |
Pompey (Mar 28), Republican Rome |
Caesar (Apr 2), The Roman Empire |
Antony (Apr 9), The Birth of Europe |
| Example of Plutarch comparing a Greek life and a Roman life |
| Jacques Maritain, "The Pagan Empire and the Power of God", Virginia Quarterly Review 15.2 (Spring 1939) 161–175. |
250 words due in your journal on each date above wherever a leader's name is highlighted in bold. (18 in total.)
On-line editions of the Classics (including Plutarch): English, Greek, Latin
Explain what the making of Europe owes to Greece and Rome. Argue for your position and be sure to include telling concrete examples to illustrate your argument. Evaluate the overall argument given in answer to this question by Christopher Dawson. Assess your own argument in light of his argument. You may wish to bring the contributions of other scholars (e.g., Philippe Némo in What is the West?) into your assessment, depending on your chosen examples.
(There are many interesting concrete examples to illustrate a general thesis. For example: Did you know that brewing beer is a European invention?)
Christopher Dawson, The Making of Europe (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2003), pp. 3–95.
Christopher Dawson, "The Six Ages of the Church" in Christianity and European Culture (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1998).
Christopher Dawson, "Europe and the Seven Stages of Western Culture" in Understanding Europe (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2009), pp. 20–37.
Christopher Dawson, "The Origins of the Western Tradition of Education" in The Crisis of Western Education (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1961).
Rémi Brague on Roman "secondarity" and Western civilization is highly recommended.
Frank Jacobs, "Where Is Europe?", New York Times: Opinionator (Jan 9, 2012).
Roger Scruton, "The Limits of Liberty", The American Spectator (Dec 2008 / Jan 2009): 46–54.
Jacques Maritain, On the Philosophy of History (New York: Scribner, 1957).
Follow the progress of our historical simulation of The Fall of Rome
St. Jerome on the fall of Rome
St. Augustine on the Sack of Rome in A.D. 410
