The Classical Mind Newsletter for December 2024

Top Reads of 2024; Et Incarnatus est; 2024: My Boethian Year; Du Bois, Defender of the Tradition; "The Stoning of St. Stephen" and "The Vision of St. Stephen"; "Goodbye Evergreen"

Housekeeping

• Our episode on The Communist Manifesto is out now!

• The January book is The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

• Junius is teaching a new class called “Forgotten Epics” that meets on Mondays, 7p-9p starting January 6. You can sign up here if you’re interested!

• Normally, the newsletter is partitioned by a paywall but since it’s Christmas, this one will be accessible to all who want to read it. Merry Christmas!

Top Reads of 2024

As always, we like to present you with our top reads from the calendar year.

Junius:

1. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

2. A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge

Junius: “Both authors were revelations to me and I have plans to dive deeper into their work.”

3. City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (“First in a series that I am currently reading with great enjoyment)

4. Pawn by Timothy Zahn

5. Knight by Timothy Zahn

6. Queen by Timothy Zahn (“[Zahn’s triology] while not as epic as I had hoped, was still very enjoyable.”)

7. Jack Zulu and the Girl with the Golden Wings by SD and JC Smith

8. Parmenides by Plato

9. Sophist by Plato (“[Both of Plato’s works] are really hard hitters.”)

10. Itinerarium by Bonventure (“Though not new, I had not read for a long time in Latin, and struck me again with just how good it is.”)

Wesley:

1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride - Special shoutout to his other book Good Lord Bird which is about John Brown. There’s an excellent miniseries of Good Lord Bird starring Ethan Hawk as John Brown.

2. True Humanism by Jacques Maritain

3. Images of Pilgrimage: Paradise and Wilderness in Christian Spirituality by Robert Crouse

4. After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher by Thomas M. Ward - We interviewed Dr. Ward on the other podcast I co-host, the Sacramentalists:

5. Pauline Theology as a Way of Life: A Vision of Human Flourishing by Joshua Jjipp - We also interviewed Dr. Jipp:

6. The Civil War as a Theological Crisis by Mark A. Noll

7. The Works of Sarah Vowell (Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, The Wordy Shipmates, Assassination Vacation, Unfamiliar Fishes, and The Partly Cloudy Patriot)

8. The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta

9. How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason F. Stanley

10. Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction by Ferguson M. Bordewich

Et Incarnatus est

It is Christmas time! Christmas is a twelve-day festival so it’s good to reflect on the mysteries of Christmas throughout the season. One springboard into reflection is Mozart’s aria “Et incarnatus est.” Mateusz Stróżyński writes a helpful reflection about it over at The Antigone Journal.

2024: Our Boethian Year

CW: I talk about our miscarriage and anxiety in this section. If these might be triggers for you, please feel free to skip to the next section.

On The Classical Mind, we firmly believe that reading the classics is not only an academic exercise, but an activity with enduring relevance to our lives. We read the great books not only for our intellectual formation, but also for our moral formation.

If you’ve been following the show for a while, you may know that it has been a tough year for my wife and I. We experienced a miscarriage in February. In the wake of that, I began experiencing intense anxiety that manifested itself in many ways, but primarily in fear of driving. For months, I could barely make the 15 minute drive to my parish to do my pastoral duties. I have heard people discuss mental health and always thought it was primarily mental, and was unprepared for the very physical manifestation of the symptoms of severe anxiety. I suppose I should have paid more attention to the classical authors like St. Thomas Aquinas who remind us that we are composites of physical and spiritual and so it shouldn’t be surprising how a mental health issue may manifest physically. I did a lot of therapy and took some anxiety medication for a time and have generally been improving though the anxiety still comes and goes. On top of all this, we also experienced the loss of a couple beloved parishioners at my church and a few members of my wife’s family and are currently in the process of being evicted from our home because our landlord has decided to sell the property. Fortunately, we have a place lined up and will be making the move sometime in January. Still, 2024 has not been our year! I will not miss it.

But this is where the classics come in. I have found myself revisiting The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius quite a bit this year. In particular, the ideas proffered by Lady Philosophy have been necessary for me to learn not so much intellectually, but experientially. It’s one thing to intellectually acknowledge that there’s much in the world that we cannot control, but it’s another to be faced with just how little we actually do control. The miscarriage, the anxiety, eviction are all things outside our power to control. What Lady Philosophy had to remind Boethius, the same lesson she was teaching me this year, is that life will always have its ups and downs and these are outside of influence, but our internal life is something we can control. What ultimately matters most are those things no one can take away from us, namely the virtues. As we enter 2025, I’m hopeful that, come what may, I’m going to be more intentionally cultivating those virtues and purging those vices towards which I am prone.

I want to hear from you: What are some lessons you feel like you’ve learned this year? How have the classics helped you this year?

Du Bois as Defender of the Tradition

Over at

De Rebus Litterarum

is a great post about W.E.B. Du Bois as a defender of the tradition. If you have enjoyed either of our conversations with Dr. Anika Prather on Frederick Douglass and James Baldwin, you will certainly enjoy this post:

“Education and work are the levers to uplift people. Work alone will not do it unless inspired by the right ideals and guided by intelligence. Education must not simply teach work – it must teach Life. The Talented Tenth of the Negro race must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people. No others can do this work and Negro colleges must train men for it. The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men.” -W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B Du Bois: A Defender of the Tradition

“The Stoning of St. Stephen” by Giovanni Battista Lucini (1680)

The Church Calendar is a highly interesting way of conceptualizing time. Much could be said about it, but what I think to highlight right now is that the three days after Christmas are typically dedicated to different kinds martyrs: St. Stephen, the Protomartyr, St. John the Evangelist, and the Holy Innocents.

St. Stephen was the first real Christian martyr. The early chapters of Acts memorialize his death by stoning for preaching the Gospel. Stephen is the first and, in many ways, the model martyr, a martyr in both will and deed.

St. John the Evangelist was not killed for the faith, so why is he a martyr? He is considered a martyr in will and not deed because his life was characterized by many of the qualities attributed to martyrs, including a willingness to sacrifice oneself.

The Holy Innocents were the children murdered by King Herod as he sought to eliminate the Christ child. We call these martyrs in deed but not will because they unable to consent to their fate.

I believe the reason we celebrate these three days dedicated to martyrs right after Christmas is because Christmas itself is a celebration of our Lord’s humility, that he didn’t consider equality with God something to grasp but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:5-11). Immediately following the Feast of the Incarnation, we commemorate these examples of humility so that our imagination might be stoked: what does it look like for me, in my stations of life, to foster humility?

“The Vision of St. Stephen”

“Amen, I say to you, some standing here
Will not taste death until they see
The Son of man who comes in majesty.”
When Stephen heard these words
From the Apostles, fear
Enrobed him, and he pondered, mystified,
And sought beside
The Spirit’s insight, since his own grew dim.
They seemed (he knew not how) ordained for him.

He had not Peter’s loyal, foolish sword,
Nor saw the Lord
Nailed to the tree, the sport of carrion birds
Giving the Bread of Life, His flesh, for food
In banquet royal for all to partake,
Presiding from on high:
His throne, a rugged Cross on which to die;
His crown, of thorns of human make;
His power pouring forth from every wound
On the ungrateful ground. —

No, Stephen witnessed not the holy rood,
Nor in the garden stood
Where Joseph and brave Nicodemus bound
A king’s ransom of spices in the shroud,
And where, on the third day,
Young John and Peter dashed in haste
Until they faced
The stone,
The first defeat of death,
Themselves astonished, out of breath
And wandered wondering away
As Magdalene remained and cried aloud
Blinded by tears till she had nearly swooned
Until the Lord she found.

Nor did he hear the promises of power
In that blest hour
In which the Lord ascended to his throne,
Commanding his disciples still to wait
Until the Holy Spirit should come down
In tongues of flame to crown
Those gathered, hiding danger’s reach,
While he in heavenly state
Prepared their persevering prayer to preach.

Yet Stephen heard their words
As they erupted out that upper room
So boldly, men might think them mad or drunk
As they spoke of the cross,
The empty tomb,
The risen Lord ascended to the height,
The prophecies fulfilled,
That God had made him Christ and Lord,
This Jesus whom his people crucified.
His heart burned, but, now clearer-eyed,
He set his faith in God whom men had killed
And all things earthly seemed but loss
Now that his soul was filled to brim
With one desire, one only, to see Him
Coming in power and light
Before his eyes closed on this world.

O blessed Stephen! One
Of Pentecost‘s miracle catch of fish;
Not long until, when unbelievers hurled
Their hate at you, you would receive your wish
To see the risen Son.

The Spirit set your soul apart
As one of seven, one in mind and heart
To serve the treasures of the church in need
Their earthly wants, and more, indeed,
To feed their souls with gospel seed.

So wondrous was your love
That the divine life-giving Dove
Worked wonders through your hands among the poor:
You went from door to door
From heart to heart
Your heart sharing
For their hearts caring
Sparing no expense of time or toil
Nor giving only part
And saving for yourself the rest
(As Ananias tested, to his cost
And Sapphira, who life and husband lost.)
No stingy heart beat in your breast,
But one pleasantly dripping with the oil
Of brother-love and unity professed.
With more than human wisdom you were wise
And as you preached the word
The Spirit burned the hearts of those who heard.

None could withstand
With wit or art or whim
your knowledge of the Scriptures, taught by Him
Who authored it through many a human hand
And gathered in your land
The monuments of patriarchs, the sighs
Of slaves in Egypt suddenly relieved
And led through water to a promised land,
By the Lord’s mighty arm and outstretched hand.

And gathered, too, were writings of the seers
And sages who, for near uncounted years
Warned Israel the covenants to keep
And not despise
The providence of his all seeing eyes.
These you believed
And the apostles’ witness taught to you
With faith surpassing deep,
And as this faith you labored to dispense
To net up followers like fish
The faltering words failed fully from your foes.

And with nothing to say in their defense,
They ground their teeth
While you,
With eyes upraised, perceived the wreath
That spells your name, the crown of heavenly joy,
Amid your woes—
At last! At last! Your answered wish!
The sight unstained and pure without alloy
Of Him Who sits in heaven true.
You voiced, half-whisp’ring, then out loud,
The heavens opened through the cloud
Of mortal sight, and standing there,
By Him Who sits on heaven’s throne,
The Son of Man and God, Who will declare
Judgment on those
Who mercy would refuse.
But hearts harder than stone
And teeth harder than bone
Could not endure
A truth of faith so sure.

Their cloaks falling
And their neighbors calling
From all sides to accuse
And strike you from afar, hurling hard rocks,
But you, half sunk
On soil, raised up your voice
Amid the pounding and the shocks.
Even in your death throes,
Though they had made their choice,
You cried for Mercy – not relief from pain,
But that those who would strain
Now to destroy you might not bear
The penalty of sin:
That they might one day win
A wedding garment without stain,
In freedom and repentance soon to gain
Heaven’s reward which you do merit now
As underneath the cross of stones you bow.

“Goodbye Evergreen” by Sufjan Stevens

One of my favorite songs of the year (well I guess technically it came out last year) is Sufjan Stevens’s “Goodbye Evergreen” from his record Javelin. The whole album is amazing but this song in particular is so beautiful and heart-wrenching. It was written after the love of Stevens’s life passed away from cancer. In light of what I wrote above about Boethius and the fact that another year is ending, I think it’s great fodder for meditation: