GibbsClassical.com 2021-2022 Classes

Registration opens on Friday, May 21, for the following GibbsClassical.com classes:

Fall 2021 Courses: Foundations of Modern Politics and British Ladies of the Nineteenth Century

Friday afternoons, September 3 through December 10 (no class November 26^th)

Foundations of Modern Politics will start at 1:45pm EST

British Ladies of the 19^th Century will start at 3:05pm EST

Sessions run 65 minutes.

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Spring 2022 Courses: The Divine Comedy for Beginners and Modern Romance: The Cult of Courtly Love in Theory, Literature, and Film

Friday afternoons, January 7 through April 8

The Divine Comedy for Beginners will start at 1:45pm EST

Modern Romance will start at 3:05pm EST

Sessions run 65 minutes.

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Enrollment Levels

All classes are being offered on both the student level and the auditor level. Discounts are available for anyone who enrolls in multiple classes.

The Student Level: Students will have entry into Friday Zoom classes, as well as access to recordings of class videos and the class Canvas page, where students may ask questions and carry on discussions about the class texts. Two essays will be assigned to students. Students are not required to complete the essays but may do so if they choose. Students who complete the essays will receive feedback on their work and may resubmit their work for additional feedback if they choose. 

The Auditor Level: Auditors will receive recordings of the class videos delivered by email every Saturday. The Auditor Level does not come with a Canvas login. It is ideal for anyone whose schedule does not allow attendance on Friday afternoons and who does not plan on doing any written work for the class. Twice during each course, I will hold an hour-long open Zoom session for Auditors who want to talk about the curriculum or ask questions.

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Pricing

Student level: 14-week classes

1 class: $325

2 classes: $625

3 classes: $900

4 classes: $1175

Auditor level: 14-week classes

1 class: $265

2 classes: $510

3 classes: $750

4 classes: $980

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Course Descriptions and Curricula

Foundations of Modern Politics (Fall 2021)

The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke; The Oxford History of Christianity edited by John McManners; The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels

We live in a time where there is a good deal of confusion about what conservatives and progressives actually believe. Conservatives tend to have predictable opinions about marriage, guns, taxes, and morality, but what philosophical convictions underwrite these opinions? What philosophical convictions underwrite progressive opinions on these matters? What does it mean for a man to consistently reason and act according to conservative principles? In order to answer these questions, one must go back to the beginning of the debate between conservatives and progressives. Students in Foundations will be given the tools and perspective they need to see beyond the surface of contemporary news stories to the theological convictions which drive modern men and women.

British Ladies of the Nineteenth Century (Fall 2021)

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, London saw a number of clubs and societies emerge which were sympathetic to the progressive philosophies of the French Revolution. In the several generations which followed, some of the most compelling arguments in favor of traditional virtues (and traditional sexual mores, in particular) came from novels written by British ladies. British Ladies of the Nineteenth Century offers a look at the profound storytelling, dazzling craft, virtuous heroines, and harrowing cautions created by Austen, Shelley, and Brontë.      

The Divine Comedy for Beginners (Spring 2022)

The Divine Comedy translated by Mark Musa; Peter Leithart’s Ascent to Love

In the last thousand years, no author has created a more beautiful and comprehensive vision of Christian virtue than Dante. The Comedy is a sprawling, sublime work of poetry which recounts Dante’s journey from the miserable depths of Hell to the glorious heights of God’s throne room. While there are too many great books to read them all in just one lifetime, no classical education is complete without a reading of the Comedy. This class will cover the whole of Dante’s most celebrated work. The Comedy is an epic which can be reread endlessly and understood on many levels, but The Divine Comedy for Beginners is tailored for readers who are venturing through the poem for the first time.

Modern Romance: The Cult of Courtly Love in Theory, Literature, and Film (Spring 2022)

Tristan and Iseult; Love in the Western World by Denis de Rougemont; Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; About Love by Andreas Capellanus; Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Psycho

Modern beliefs about romantic love are neither new nor ancient, but largely derive from courtly love stories popularized in France during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These courtly love stories idealized romantic love as a vexing “inborn suffering” which centered on lust, pining, secrecy, and taught that the only true love was a forbidden love. In this class, I will take students through the most important courtly love stories, the work of the most important courtly love theorists, and show students how the cult of courtly love persists to this day.