The Great Tradition

by Richard Gamble

Over the past 200 years, modern education has been gradually directed away from that which forms the "complete man," and toward that which primarily promotes man's material well-being – a.k.a. "the useful." This is in stark contrast with what has been called the Great Tradition, which, ever since antiquity, has defined education first and foremost as the hard work of rightly ordering the human soul, helping it to love what it ought to love, and helping it to know itself and its maker. In that classical and Christian tradition, the formation of the soul in wisdom, virtue, and eloquence took precedence over all else, including instrumental training aimed at the inculcation of "useful" knowledge. In an unbroken chain of giving and receiving, the Great Tradition embraced the accumulated wisdom of the past and understood education as the initiation of students into a body of truth. The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to be an Educated Human Being is designed to help parents, students, and teachers reconnect with this noble legacy, to articulate a coherent defense of the liberal arts tradition, and to do battle with the modern utilitarians and vocationalists who dominate educational theory and practice.

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In this book, we see that the West's Great Tradition patiently endures, ready to speak on its own behalf, ready to challenge narrow modern prejudices, ready to examine those with the courage to be interrogated by it, ready to teach those who are willing to be made unfit for the modern world. As such, this volume, highly suitable for classroom use, marks a signal contribution to our understanding of the greatness of Western civilization.

Among the works excerpted and anthologized here

PLATO: the Republic, the Laws * XENOPHON: the Memorabilia * ISOCRATES: Against the Sophists, the Panathenaicus, the Antidosis * ARISTOTLE: the Nicomachean Ethics, and the Politics CICERO: Pro Archia Poeta, De Oratore, De Partitione Oratoria and De Officiis * VITRUVIUS: The Ten Books on Architecture * SENECA: "On Anger," "On the Private Life," "On Liberal and Vocational Studies" * QUINTILIAN, the Institutes * TACITUS: A Dialogue on Oratory * PLUTARCH: "On Bringing up a Boy," "On the Student at Lectures," PHILO: On the Special Laws, On Mating with the Preliminary Studies, On the Life of Moses * CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Christ the Educator, the Stromateis * ORIGEN, Letter to Gregory, Bishop of Caesarea; Gregory Thaumaturgus, "Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen" * BASIL THE GREAT: "To Young Men, on How They Might Derive Profit from Pagan Literature" * Gregory Nazianzen, "Funeral Oration on the Great St. Basil" * JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: the "Address on Vainglory and the Right Way for Parents to Bring Up Their Children" * JEROME: Letter to Eustochium, Letter to Magnus, an Orator of Rome, Letter to Laeta * AUGUSTINE: the Confessions, On Christian Doctrine * CASSIODORUS: Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning * GREGORY THE GREAT: Homilies on the Book of Ezekiel * ALCUIN: Charlemagne's "Capitulary of 787"; Alcuin on St. Peter's School, York, 732–86; Letters * RHABANUS MAURUS: "Education of the Clergy" * HUGH OF ST. VICTOR: the Didascalicon * JOHN OF SALISBURY: the Policraticus, the Metalogicon * THOMAS AQUINAS: Letter to Brother John, On the Teacher * BONAVENTURE: The Journey of the Mind to God * PETRARCH: Letters * PIER PAOLO VERGERIO: The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth * CHRISTINE DE PIZAN: The Book of the Body Politic * LEONARDO BRUNI: On the Study of Literature * AENEAS SILVIUS: The Education of Boys * ERASMUS: The Antibarbarians, On Education for Children, The Education of a Christian Prince * MARTIN LUTHER: To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany * ULRICH ZWINGLI: Of the Upbringing and Education of Youth in Good Manners and Christian Discipline * JUAN LUIS VIVES: The Transmission of Knowledge * THOMAS ELYOT: The Book Named the Governor * PHILIP MELANCHTHON: "Preface to Homer" * JOHANN STURM: The Latin Letters of Roger Ascham and Johann Sturm * JOHN CALVIN: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Commentary on Titus 1:12 * ROGER ASCHAM: The Schoolmaster * THE SOCIETY OF JESUS: Ratio Studiorum * JOHN MILTON: Of Education * GIAMBATTISTA VICO: "On the Proper Order of Studies," On the Study Methods of Our Time, The Academies and the Relation between Philosophy and Eloquence * EDMUND BURKE: Letter to a Member of the National Assembly * EDWARD COPLESTON: "Reply to the Calumnies of the Edinburgh Review Against Oxford, Containing an Account of Studies Pursued in That University" * THOMAS ARNOLD:"Rugby School--Use of the Classics" * JOHN HENRY NEWMAN: "Discourse V," The Idea of a University * "Christianity and Letters," The Idea of a University * IRVING BABBITT: Literature and the American College * PAUL ELMER MORE: "Academic Leadership" * A. G. SERTILLANGES: The Intellectual Life * ALBERT JAY NOCK: The Theory of Education in the United States * SIMONE WEIL: "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God" * C. S. LEWIS: "On the Reading of Old Books" * DOROTHY SAYERS: "The Lost Tools of Learning" * T. S. ELIOT: Notes Towards a Definition of Culture * CHRISTOPHER DAWSON: The Crisis of Western Education * MICHAEL OAKESHOTT: "Learning and Teaching" * ERIC VOEGELIN: "On Classical Studies"