Kate Deddens has led classical seminars for students K-12 in almost all areas of academic study, and trained adults to teach with classical vision and pedagogy. She is a classical consultant who served as the National Program Advisor for Classical Conversations’ upper high school levels and currently works with Lutheran schools wishing to adopt or hone the classical Lutheran vision of education. She is a curriculum designer, author, and speaker published by Classical Conversations, the CiRCE Institute, The Imaginative Conservative, The Federalist, and The Lutheran Witness, among others. She is co-author of Classical Conversations’ Classical Acts and Facts History and Artists and Composers Cards and served as advising editor or contributing author for selections of their signature publications such as Classical Education Made Approachable, The Question, and The Conversation. Kate has been a speaker, trainer, and workshop facilitator at Classical Conversations; at state homeschool conferences; and at the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education conferences. Kate earned her bachelor’s degree in the Liberal Arts with classical trivium and quadrivium instruction through the Great Books Program at St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD, and holds a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling from Western Kentucky University.
The word philosophy stems from the Greek: the love (philo) of wisdom (sophos). In his Confessions, Augustine echoes the Socratic dictum that wisdom begins by acknowledging ignorance when he writes “I am in a sorry state, for I do not even know what I do not know! (XI.25).” Augustine yearns to understand himself with respect to his relationship to the Divine, to the world, and to others. A right understanding of these relationships, one leading to rightly ordered loves and actions, is one of the primary goals of studying philosophy grounded in faith.
Students will read seminal works of philosophy by Plato (Meno, Gorgias, Republic); Aristotle (Ethics, Metaphysics, Poetics, Rhetoric – selections); Boethius (Consolation of Philosophy); and More (Utopia). With a logocentric focus and liturgical classroom rhythms, students will keep a journal; craft and memorize a course catechesis of important material from each reading; make integrations and applications with other areas of academic study and with life; formulate opening questions and lead discussions; compare and contrast the readings; engage in Socratic dialogue; and intentionally draw out the significance of Lutheran doctrinal distinctives (such as Original Sin, Law and Gospel, Revealed and Natural Law, the Two Kingdoms, the Theology of the Cross, the Ministerial Use of Reason, Vocation, Stewardship, and more).
An optional component will include written theses with instructor evaluation.
Students will gain greater insight into the nature of man created imago Dei; their relationships with God, the world, and others; and develop comprehension of some of the most fundamental and formative philosophies of Western thought and how they are harmonious with, and/or antithetical to, the distinctive doctrines of Lutheranism.
Course Resources: See above-referenced texts; translations and editions TBD.
Thursdays, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Eastern
Contact: k.deddens.rr@gmail.com
Restful Rigor Preceptorials 