One of the new series of videos I started this year provide viewers with my expert advice about how to engage in self-directed study in the field of Philosophy. Once I have produced a video in this series, I premiere it on YouTube. That allows anyone who is interested in the topic and the particular thinker to join in via live chat, while everyone watches it for the first time. I answer questions and address comments over the hour that the video airs.
This month, the plan is to produce, release, and premiere a video focused on how to productively study the range of writers that fall under the rubric of "early Christian philosophy". This includes a host of thinkers from the very early generations of that new religion, way of life, and indeed in some cases, philosophy all the way though what we might call the "era of Augustine" (though some are his contemporaries).
There were quite a few early Christian writers who explicitly framed Christianity as a "philosophy" and sometimes even called themselves "philosophers". These were almost invariably Christian writers who had a substantial background in a wide range of the philosophical schools, ideas, and controversies of ancient Mediterranean culture, and who engaged some of those movements and thinkers as interlocutors. Sometimes they willingly borrowed from pagan thinkers, when there was something of value to incorporate into the new synthesis and the new philosophy as a way of life, centered around the figure and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and the developing community of the Church.
In the case of some of the authors I'll be discussing - Justin Martyr, Lactantius, Clement of Alexandria, John Cassian, as examples - I've been reading and thinking about their works (and occasionally teaching them as well) for about two decades. So I've got a lot of advice to assemble and organize for the video. Given my extraordinarily heavy teaching load this semester (seven classes), I'm a bit behind on video production.
I was hoping to have this next video on self-directed study in philosophy ready to premiere this Saturday, but now think that unlikely. Accordingly, I'm moving the date for this release - and the Q&A session - out to Saturday, November 30. In the meantime, here's the other videos in the series:
No comments:
Post a Comment