Great Books

Great Books
The Christendom Curriculum is steeped in wonder. At the heart of this curriculum are the Great Books, the original works of the greatest minds in our tradition. Introducing students to the Great Books allows students to explore the workings of the natural world, to consider the most profound realities about the human person, and to contemplate the greatest mysteries of God Himself.  

Dr. Mortimer Adler spoke of three key criteria for including a book on the “great books” list: the book has contemporary significance; that is, it has relevance to the problems and issues of our times; the book is inexhaustible — it can be read again and again with benefit; the book is relevant to a large number of great ideas and great issues that have occupied the minds of thinking individuals for the last 25 centuries. In his book The Six Great Ideas, Dr. Adler identified truth, goodness, beauty, justice, liberty, and equality as key among the ideas that have characterized the great works of the Western tradition. We propose a school that will encourage students, throughout their course of study, to return to those great ideas and works that have shaped the culture in which we live and have the power to shape our understanding of ourselves and the human condition.

Good Books
John Senior, an unusually well-read and a sagacious judge of literature, compiled a list of books, broken into four age groups (2-7, 7-12, 12-16, 16-20) that he called the “good books,” which he said, “everyone should have read.” His son, Andrew, said that his father regarded the compilation of the list as one of the most important works of his life. Our Western tradition has given us these good books as a preparation for the great ones – and for all studies in the arts and sciences. As one of John Senior's students, Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska states, "reading good books can spur in us a sense of justice, charity, and generosity.  They can expand our souls and inspire our hearts to strive for greatness." We propose a school that will form students in precisely in such a way. 

For further reading on our philosophy of education, see two of Bishop Conley's articles below: