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released 1/8/2025
In this lecture from November 2024, James Matthew Wilson gives a compelling argument for understanding the role of a literary or poetic education as an immersion of the whole being in truth and beauty. Drawing on Plato, Socrates, Pindar, and Augustine, Wilson describes aspects of this immersion, including its nature as a journey of exodus and return, its requirement of submission on the part of the learner, and its rewards for those who begin to see “from the inside” as they make, craft, or compose. He concludes with a call to stand before the whole of life and revelation as we stand before a work of art or a poem — to enter into the life of things through dynamic and receptive contemplation. The full title of the lecture is “Of Cicadas and Mayflies: Sacramental Beauty as the Beginning and End of Education.”
This lecture is provided courtesy of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute.
43 minutes
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