Endnotes:

Heidi: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Junius: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Wesley: “Ash Wednesday” by T.S. Eliot

I

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessèd face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still.

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.


II

Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
In the cool of the day, having fed to sateity
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained
In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
Shall these bones live? shall these
Bones live? And that which had been contained
In the bones (which were already dry) said chirping:
Because of the goodness of this Lady
And because of her loveliness, and because
She honours the Virgin in meditation,
We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
It is this which recovers
My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
There is no life in them. As I am forgotten
And would be forgotten, so I would forget
Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose. And God said
Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
With the burden of the grasshopper, saying

Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
Rose of forgetfulness
Exhausted and life-giving
Worried reposeful
The single Rose
Is now the Garden
Where all loves end
Terminate torment
Of love unsatisfied
The greater torment
Of love satisfied
End of the endless
Journey to no end
Conclusion of all that
Is inconclusible
Speech without word and
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.

Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
Under a tree in the cool of day, with the blessing of sand,
Forgetting themselves and each other, united
In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.


III

At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitul face of hope and of despair.

At the second turning of the second stair
I left them twisting, turning below;
There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
Damp, jaggèd, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
Or the toothed gullet of an agèd shark.

At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;
Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind
over the third stair,
Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
Climbing the third stair.


Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy

but speak the word only.


IV

Who walked between the violet and the violet
Whe walked between
The various ranks of varied green
Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour,
Talking of trivial things
In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour
Who moved among the others as they walked,
Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs

Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour,
Sovegna vos

Here are the years that walk between, bearing
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing

White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.

The silent sister veiled in white and blue
Between the yews, behind the garden god,
Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word

But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down
Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspoken

Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew

And after this our exile


V

If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice

Will the veiled sister pray for
Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between
Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait
In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray
For children at the gate
Who will not go away and cannot pray:
Pray for those who chose and oppose

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Will the veiled sister between the slender
Yew trees pray for those who offend her
And are terrified and cannot surrender
And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks
In the last desert before the last blue rocks
The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.


O my people.


VI

Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn

Wavering between the profit and the loss
In this brief transit where the dreams cross
The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying
(Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things
From the wide window towards the granite shore
The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
Unbroken wings

And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth

This is the time of tension between dying and birth
The place of solitude where three dreams cross
Between blue rocks
But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.

Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.

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For posterity’s sake, here is the bracket in its totality. It’s interesting to note that The Aeneid won more convincingly in the finals than it did in the semi-finals against Taming of the Shrew.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the tournament! Be sure to tune in next March for a whole new tournament!

It’s been an exciting few weeks here at the Classical Mind as we’ve watched our books from the last year battle it out for grant champion in the inaugural Battle of the Books. Sadly there can only be one winner and that’s what we’re here to decide.

Frankenstein comes into the final round off the biggest victory in the whole tournament, garnering 79% of your votes. Perhaps this shouldn’t have been surprising given the Lilith had the lowest percentage win in round two. No love for George MacDonald here, apparently!

But now it’s time for us to make an important decision. The most important decision of this tournament: Virgil’s Aeneid or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. You decide!

The Championship: The Aeneid by Virgil vs. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Round 2 of the Battle of the Books has concluded. No surprises or upsets were had in the second round as all of the heavily-favorited top seeds entered the tournaments rested up from a round one bye. The only outlier was The Journey of the Mind to God by Bonaventure giving George MacDonald’s Lilith a run for its money at 52-48. For a while, it looked as if Bonaventure might make a Cinderella-run, but, as Lilith teaches us, ultimately everything works out.

The semi-finals consist of seriously fascinating matchups: Virgil’s Aeneid vs. Taming of the Shrew and Frankenstein vs. Lilith. Do listeners prefer epic poetry or Shakespearean comedy? Do they prefer gothic novels about the hubris of scientism or a fantasy world in which all things truly do work together for good?

Please vote for your favorite reads below. If you’re having trouble deciding who to vote for, each of our episodes about the various books are linked in the title.

Let us know who you voted for in the comments and why!

Match Up #1: The Aeneid by Virgil vs. The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare

Match Up #2: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley vs. Lilith by George MacDonald

Read more

The first round of the Classical Mind Battle of the Books has concluded! The biggest winner (and perhaps the most surprising result) is Love in the Ruins beating The Castle of Otranto 72%-28%. The closest matchup was Peter Pan vs. The Communist Manifesto.

As we look towards round 2, we have some exciting matchups as our heavy-hitters have entered the competition.

Please vote for your favorite reads below. If you’re having trouble deciding who to vote for, each of our episodes about the various books are linked in the title.

Let us know who you voted for in the comments and why!

Match Up #1: The Aeneid by Virgil vs. Proslogion by Anselm

Match Up #2: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare vs. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Match Up #3: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley vs. Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy

Match Up #4: Lilith by George MacDonald vs. The Journey of the Mind to God by Bonaventure

Read more

Welcome to the first round of the Battle of the Books! We’re asking for you to vote for each match up. The polls will be open from Monday (3/16) until Saturday (3/21).

If you’re having trouble deciding who to vote for, each of our episodes about that work are hyperlinked in the title.

Let us know in the comments who you voted for and why!

Match Up #1: Proslogion by Anselm vs. The Federalist Papers

Match Up #2: The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels vs. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Match Up #3: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole vs. Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy

Match Up #4: The Journey of the Mind to God by Bonaventure vs. Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville

Round 2: Voting will be open from Monday (3/23) until Saturday (3/30)

Round 3: The first semi-final round will be Monday (3/30) until Wednesday (4/1); the second semi-final round will be Thursday (4/2) until Saturday (4/4)

Round 4 (the final): Voting will be open from Monday (4/6) until Monday (4/13)

In this special bonus episode, Fr. Wesley Walker and Dr. Junius Johnson pivot from their usual textual analysis to the “Battle of the Books.” Harnessing the competitive energy of March Madness, they set out to seed the last twelve books discussed on the podcast into a tournament bracket, where the ultimate winner will be decided by listener votes. The seeding process is guided by two primary criteria: the quasi-objective historical influence of the text and the quasi-subjective literary or theological quality of the work.

The books included in the tournament are:

• Lilith by George MacDonald

• Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville

• Proslogion by Anselm

• The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• The Aeneid by Virgil

• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

• The Federalist Papers

• The Journey of the Mind to God by Bonaventure

• Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy

• The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

• The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

The discussion dives deeply into the mechanics of divine justice, specifically the concept of contrapasso, where the physical punishment seamlessly mirrors the internal reality of the sin. Through vivid examples like Capaneus, whose unyielding pride becomes his own internal and eternal torment , and Odysseus, whose final voyage represents the ultimate theological fraud of attempting to achieve salvation through human merit alone, the episode illustrates how sin deforms the human soul. The group also grapples with the modern reader’s severe discomfort with eternal damnation, contrasting contemporary universalist tendencies with Dante’s vision of a highly physical, meticulously structured afterlife where characters literally become the landscape of their own making.

Junius has a video on courtly love that may be helpful to understand some of the conversation.

Catherine Illingworth studied religion and literature at the Yale Divinity School before pursuing a PhD at UCLA in medieval literature with a specialized focus on Dante. She recently stepped away from the academic world after her young son, George, was diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative genetic disease. In response to the immense financial barriers preventing children from accessing existing, life-saving gene therapies, she founded the Bradstreet Foundation to help families lacking a commercial pathway for treatment. You can learn more about her vital advocacy work at geneforgeorge.org, and follow her updates on TikTok and Instagram by searching for Catherine Illingworth.

Endnotes:

• Catherine: “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot

• Junius: No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

• Wesley: Unreal, Unearth by Hozier

The episode also provides the vital historical and cosmological context required to navigate Dante’s world, from the “funnel” of Hell beneath Jerusalem to the mountain of Purgatory on the opposite side of the globe. The hosts explain how the Earth was viewed as the “cosmic dump” at the absolute bottom of a sphere-shaped universe, putting Satan as far from God as possible. Additionally, they break down the 13th-century political strife between the Ghibellines and Guelphs, noting that Dante’s own exile as a White Guelph deeply colors the text. By synthesizing the theology of Aquinas and Bonaventure with the classical poetry of Virgil, Dante created an “encyclopedia of medieval thought” that remains a high point of the Western canon.

Endnotes:

• Junius: Phantastes by George MacDonald

• Wesley:

Our Next Work: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Moving beyond single book analysis, this discussion traces the history of Christian exegesis from the Patristic era (Paul, Origen) to the evolution of the foundational Four Senses of Scripture (literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical).

Discover the critical, often-misunderstood meaning of the Literal Sense and learn how this ancient, nuanced method of biblical interpretation offers powerful intellectual tools for solving modern-day false dichotomies.

Endnotes

• Junius: The Mystical Ark by Richard of Saint Victor

• Wesley: The Selected Spiritual Writings of Hugh of Saint Victor

Junius

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Phantastes by George MacDonald

The Liberation of Jerusalem by Torquato Tasso

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty

Wesley

The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain by Ronald C. White

Attack Upon Christendom by Soren Kierkegaard

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

Nietzsche is My Brother by Bridget Edman, O.C.D.

Melville’s final, posthumously published work blends gripping maritime drama with profound moral and theological questions. We unpack what Makes Billy Budd a Great (and Strange) Work, Historical and Naval Context, Biblical Themes, and how memory and myth are related.

Endnotes:

• Junius: Bartleby, the Scrivener

• Wesley: Billy Budd (1962)

Be sure to check out the stage adaptation by A.S. Peterson that Junius speaks about a few times in the episode.

The hosts explore Anselm’s background as monk, abbot, and Archbishop of Canterbury, highlighting his tumultuous life amid royal and papal conflict, his intellectual lineage from Augustine and Boethius, and his place at the dawn of scholasticism. They also reflect on how his prayerful approach to theology—fides quaerens intellectum (“faith seeking understanding”)—blurs the line between philosophical proof and devotional meditation.

Endnotes

• Junius: The Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm

• Wesley:

  • “A Gift Exceeding Every Debt” by David Bentley Hart

  • “Anselmian Apocatastasis: The Fitting Necessity of Universal Salvation in St Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo” by Roberto J. De La Noval

Along the way, we explore the tension between romantic idealism and pragmatic marriage, trace the medieval roots of love as both commerce and devotion, and consider how Shakespeare’s comedy holds the contradictions of his culture up to the mirror. We talk about mimesis, medieval “speculum” thinking, and why comedy works best when it exposes absurdity rather than preaches morality.

The result is part literary diagnosis, part philosophical reflection: a conversation about performance, freedom, and what it means to find truth in the masks we wear.

Endnotes

Let’s go back to the 19th century and talk about one of the scariest novels we’ve ever read on the Classical Mind (but maybe not for the reasons you might think) with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. On this episode, Junius and Wesley discuss the different editions of this book before getting into some of its underlying philosophy like the responsibilities a creator has to their creatures and vice-versa, romanticism’s critique of scientism, and the moral deterioration that results from sin. Join us as we dive deeply into the text and make some fun connections with other books we’ve read or will read in the Classical Mind program (we’re looking at you J.R.R. Tolkien).

Endnotes:

• Junius: The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov

• Wesley

  • “Show Me How to Live” by Audioslave

  • Grendel by John Gardner