I have been enjoying my brand-new Medieval Lit class SO MUCH! Partly because it is a class with my best students, so the discussions are top quality, and partly because said discussions revolve around such profundities as those of Boethius and Augustine, and lead to conclusions such as this one by Boethius:
"We have concluded that both happiness and God are the supreme good; wherefore that which is highest Divinity must also itself necessarily be supreme happiness."
And such definitions of happiness as this one of Augustine's: "the full possession of all that the heart can long for," which is so obviously met in God alone and God in His fulness.
As Augustine put it so profoundly, "Thou has made us for thyself, Oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee."
Teaching this class is like going to church every day!
2 comments:
Man, I wish I could take that class! :) One of the things that stuck with me from my philosophy class last year was something Aquinas said: "Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence" because one is never fully happy when there is more to desire, and beholding God leaves no room for further desire--nothing more for which the heart can long. This article addresses the subject pretty nicely. It's awesome stuff.
Funny how I'm looking back on Philosophy now with warm, rosy feelings. I miss the intellectual stimulation and Dr. Schlueter's genius, but I don't miss reading 90 pages of the Summa Theologica each week. Still, I hope you will subject your students to a small amount--no more than twenty minutes--of such torture each night. They'll probably look back on it with rosy feelings just like me. And Aquinas is awesome.
Yayy! Thanks for the article, Aaron! As it's my first time through for this class, I'm going to be on the lookout for good material.
I'm so glad you look back on that class rosily, and I hope my students will do the same:) I know I've never felt my mind being so consistently stretched as it was in my Medieval Philosophy class. Wow! As you say, awesome stuff.
Post a Comment