The arts...again

Many years ago, I taught a course on the history of the liberal arts. Martianus Felix Capella was one of the mainstays of the course, which traced the history and the Cathoicization of the trivium and quadrivium. I also used St. Augustine, Boethius, and Anselm in the first part of the course, which was, for university students. The significance of the liberal arts for me to enter into a deep study of the history involved the ideas already put on this blog of the need to teach thinking skills and the teaching of aethestics, and beauty as well as the trivium and quadrivium. that is, the appreciation of both the liberal arts and fine arts. Sadly, the need for the liberal and fine arts is fast fading, as I have noted here before, from all western countries. The false idea of eqalitarinism is part of the problem, as well as the big, bloated governments which desire to control their populace by denying the skills necessary for thinking. Capella writes an allegory, a classical mode of teaching and remembering. The drama of the story is based on a wedding, which is a theme of harmony, peace and renaissance in the West. That the Judeo-Christian tradition is full of wedding poetry, similes and metaphors is no accident. To be continued...