Our Lady of the Annunciation |
FORWARD:
From August 11th to 14th, 2011, Our Lady of Clear
Creek Abbey, in Hulbert, Oklahoma, hosted the John Senior Colloquium. More
than two hundred attended the Colloquium during which a number of conferences
and other addresses were presented. We have collected in this book the written
texts of the principal interventions.
The entire Colloquium was recorded (audio) and can be purchased in MPG3
format from Clear Creek Abbey (www.clearcreekmonks.org).
In Plato’s famous—and no doubt
greatest—dialogue, the Republic, there
is a telling moment, when Glaucon, who is discussing with Socrates the ideal
form of government as an image of the just man’s soul, makes a rather shrewd
comment, saying:
You mean the
city whose establishment we have described, the city whose home is in the
ideal, for I think that it can be found nowhere on earth (IX, 592).
This could have been the critique that demolished in an instant
the whole thrust of Socrates’ line of reasoning, since a perfect city existing
merely in the ideal, but not in reality, would have little importance in the
end. But Socrates, far from being disconcerted
by Glaucon’s observation, --on the contrary--makes use of it as a platform from
which to raise the dialogue to heights hitherto unattained. His reply seems almost to anticipate the
Christian view of things held by a Saint Augustine, not to mention Saint John
in the Apocalypse:
Well…perhaps
there is a pattern of it laid up in heaven for him who wishes to contemplate it
and so beholding to constitute himself its citizen (ibid.).
In
many ways the Catholic cultural ideal expounded so brilliantly by John Senior
after his conversion to the Church, especially during the years of the Pearson Integrated Humanities Program
(later simply the Integrated Humanities
Program, or “IHP”), was like the Republic described by Socrates: to be
found “nowhere on earth”. How many of
his students, having become teachers at some level once they graduated from the
University of Kansas, set themselves courageously to implementing the
principles of education they had learned from him, without ever quite
succeeding in re-creating the enchantment of the IHP? How many heroic but tragic (or, perhaps,
comic) failures occurred as others strove to establish the true Catholic
village, in the wilds of Canada or in rural America? Nor have we monks attained the ideal once set
down by John Senior, when he declared with all the seriousness in the world
that “real monks should only ride donkeys”.
However,
the very fact of your presence here tonight bears witness to the many fruits
that the teaching of John Senior has borne, even if the earthly realization
never equaled the “pattern of it laid up in heaven”. As we look back now, forty years ago exactly,
to the official opening of the Pearson Integrated Humanities Program at the
University of Kansas, we can, perhaps, make a certain assessment of all that
has been accomplished through the work of “Dr. Senior” (as we respectfully and
affectionately used to call him), the teacher and the man of profound faith. The ever-quotable G. K. Chesterton reminds us
that “something worth doing is worth doing even badly”. Thus our poor efforts may have had some
purpose after all.
Of
course, to speak of John Senior is to evoke at the same time the other two
figures that made up the ineffable triumvirate
of the Pearson lectures. When Mr. Tim
McGuire first spoke to me of the possibility of organizing a symposium of some
sort centered on John Senior—an idea that corresponded to something I had
carried in my heart for some time—Dr. Dennis Quinn was still of this
world. It did not seem appropriate to
include in this symposium, or “colloquium” as we finally called it, a man whose
waning moments demanded our respectful discretion. Likewise, the “shade” of Dr. Franklin Nelick
might have taken offence somehow (Heaven help us!) should we have dared to
include him without his inseparable Dennis.
So we are gathered here for several days to appreciate the legacy of
John Senior, but the other two, both united with him now—as we firmly hope—in that
“upper pub” we call Heaven, will in no way be left out of the conversation.
If you do not
know me, I am Father Abbot Philip Anderson.
On behalf of all the monks of Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, I welcome
you to this John Senior Colloquium, on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary
of the official beginning of the Pearson
Integrated Humanities Program, that great educational “adventure in
tradition” as it has been called, whose first regular class began in September
of 1971 at the University of Kansas. As
you know from the program you received, these days are organized around seven
principal lectures, two colloquia (discussion
groups: from the Latin cum, loqui, “speak
together”) and several other presentations and events that you will discover
with joy as we proceed. It is my hope
that many other discussions—outside those planned—will occur as we go forward.
Although I am
not here to present anything quite so learned as a lecture, I would like, in all simplicity, to touch
upon some of the aspects of John Senior’s legacy that would seem to have a
particular importance. In so doing it is
my hope to “open the door” as it were for all that will follow, like the monk
who greets the pilgrims and guests at the monastery gate, according to the Rule
of Saint Benedict.
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