THANK YOU. It's what I've been trying to do with what means I have at my disposal. Whether the colleges that are being run now by barbarians can be saved is a big question; in most cases, the answer is no, the barbarism has progressed too far, progressed right through decadence into stupidity and on to stark madness. But we must do what we can do.
"A high culture requires the formation and perpetuation of an elite that understands itself to exist not for its own interests alone, but for the larger moral community of which it is a part, and of a broader society that, if not always understanding or imitating this elite, at least grudgingly follows the lead they set and imbibes some of their cultural productions secondhand."
From where I'm sitting, our elites certainly speak and act as if they know what's best for us, and we ape them pretty well. Yet, I still feel the barbarism which you feel.
Thanks for this history, Brad. It sent me back to rereading some of Schaff, who wondered whether Boethius was a Christian or not. But that may reflect the life circumstances in which he lived, and Schaff looking for some language that was missing in Boethius' time.
I like the sentiment, but what precisely does "translation" equate to in our age? Many of these texts already exist in English, so I don't think you mean translation simpliciter. Surely you're not suggesting we turn Aristotle into a series of Tik-tok videos? Or are you just saying that the "elite" who are actually learned must break down and disseminate these great ideas in ways the average Joe can understand?
Right, very much the latter--in ways that the average Joe can understand *and use*.
I used to write on this idea a lot for The Davenant Institute, which always framed our mission as one of "translation," and emphasized that translating works from Latin to English was only the very first stage of that process (and one that is now largely being done by AI). The more time I spend as a scholar and writer, the more I realize just how many steps of translation there are in the intellectual task--a brilliant research discovery or theological argument has to be mediated down many rungs of the ladder before it is intelligible to most pastors and Christian leaders, much less ordinary Christian laypeople. And that is all the more so in an age when, as with Boethius, the basic philosophical categories that made up the shared intellectual "language" of high culture have been largely forgotten.
Beautiful essay. Thank you.
Excellent essay!
THANK YOU. It's what I've been trying to do with what means I have at my disposal. Whether the colleges that are being run now by barbarians can be saved is a big question; in most cases, the answer is no, the barbarism has progressed too far, progressed right through decadence into stupidity and on to stark madness. But we must do what we can do.
"A high culture requires the formation and perpetuation of an elite that understands itself to exist not for its own interests alone, but for the larger moral community of which it is a part, and of a broader society that, if not always understanding or imitating this elite, at least grudgingly follows the lead they set and imbibes some of their cultural productions secondhand."
From where I'm sitting, our elites certainly speak and act as if they know what's best for us, and we ape them pretty well. Yet, I still feel the barbarism which you feel.
Thanks for this history, Brad. It sent me back to rereading some of Schaff, who wondered whether Boethius was a Christian or not. But that may reflect the life circumstances in which he lived, and Schaff looking for some language that was missing in Boethius' time.
I like the sentiment, but what precisely does "translation" equate to in our age? Many of these texts already exist in English, so I don't think you mean translation simpliciter. Surely you're not suggesting we turn Aristotle into a series of Tik-tok videos? Or are you just saying that the "elite" who are actually learned must break down and disseminate these great ideas in ways the average Joe can understand?
Right, very much the latter--in ways that the average Joe can understand *and use*.
I used to write on this idea a lot for The Davenant Institute, which always framed our mission as one of "translation," and emphasized that translating works from Latin to English was only the very first stage of that process (and one that is now largely being done by AI). The more time I spend as a scholar and writer, the more I realize just how many steps of translation there are in the intellectual task--a brilliant research discovery or theological argument has to be mediated down many rungs of the ladder before it is intelligible to most pastors and Christian leaders, much less ordinary Christian laypeople. And that is all the more so in an age when, as with Boethius, the basic philosophical categories that made up the shared intellectual "language" of high culture have been largely forgotten.