HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

What is beauty? Is it definable? What is it for, how are we drawn to it—and why do we sometimes resist it?

This week we welcome Dr. George Harne, president of Christendom College and an accomplished medieval and music history scholar. Drawing on his perspective as head of a vibrant Catholic liberal arts college, he speaks to us about the liberal arts as a path of study driven by beauty and contemplation, in pursuit of a true vision of reality.

2:02 Liberal arts: what free people study

5:51 Versus "humanities" or "classical education"

7:46 Why study them

9:43 Music as a liberal art, fine art, liturgical art

13:16 Teaching art and contemplation

18:24 Defining contemplation

21:21 Contemplating music

24:45 Music with our family

28:19 Receiving beauty objectively, subjectively

29:42 Beauty under suspicion today

34:24 A Catholic liberal arts education

Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper

The Arts of the Beautiful by Etienne Gilson

Fathers Conference at The Heights School (November 2, 2024)

The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

Episode 1: The Homework Problem, newly launched Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox featuring round-table discussions with veteran teachers

Defining the Liberal Arts featuring Dr. Matthew Mehan

Order and Surprise: On Beauty and the Western Tradition featuring Dr. Lionel Yaceczko

Why a Liberal Arts Education Today featuring Michael Moynihan

The Idea of the Liberal Arts University featuring Dr. Thomas Hibbs

Dr. Jeremy Beer's study of American society over the last 200 years, overlaid with psychology research and statistics about American charitable giving, has brought about his recent book: The Quest for Belonging.

The book directly advises nonprofit and fundraising leaders, though it just as much informs the everyday giver. This week on HeightsCast, Beer helps us see that charitable giving at its best is not a distant act of beneficence but an intimate act of community. It allows those who participate to become more rooted in the reality of social belonging, making for a healthier society in more ways than one.

• 3:56 American cultural tradition of "association"
• 7:39 Four pillars of civil society
• 9:04 American society, in particular
• 16:53 Gradual decline of American association, of belonging
• 21:33 Giving and religious affiliation
• 25:04 Giving and localism
• 28:02 Giving as a democratic exercise
• 31:31 Nonprofits have a role in belonging
• 33:50 The goods of associating ourselves
• 34:36 To whom do you owe?
• 41:07 Giving and the Catholic tradition

• The Quest for Belonging: How the Most Effective Nonprofit Leaders Understand the Psychology of Giving by Jeremy Beer
• Givers, Doers, and Thinkers, Jeremy Beer's podcast
• A Spirituality of Fundraising by Henri J. M. Nouwen

• Fathers Conference at The Heights School (November 2, 2024)
• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

It turns out that modern psychology, neuroscience research, "habit hacks," and popular self-help literature can all be summed up in one very classical idea: the virtues.

So asserts Dr. Andrew Abela, founding dean of the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America. This week on HeightsCast, he helps us unpack his new book, Superhabits, in which he rebrands the virtues as "superhabits" to suit the contemporary discourse. Then, with the help of Thomas Aquinas and about a dozen gripping stories, Dr. Abela shows us how these superhabits of virtue are described, developed, and supported by modern research as the way to live a good life.

• 2:20 Virtues: the essential human operating system
• 5:19 Humans pre-wired for virtue
• 9:14 Psychology research, self-help books all point back to virtues
• 17:57 "Anatomy of Virtue" diagram
• 25:57 The role emotions play
• 29:12 Virtue gets easier!
• 33:21 Translating virtue into "superhabits"
• 37:19 Redirecting anger with gentlefirmness
• 43:22 Finding restful leisure with eutrapelia
• 48:41 Where to begin

• Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life by Andrew Abela
• Dr. Abela's Substack featuring blog posts and articles
• "The Anatomy of Virtue" by Andrew Abela, including his diagram of Aquinas's categories of virtue
• Treatise on the Virtues by Thomas Aquinas

• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Tiny Habits by B. J. Fogg
• The Virtues by John Garvey
• Learning the Virtues that Lead You to God by Romano Guardini
• The Heart of Virtue: Lessons from Life and Literature Illustrating the Beauty and Value of Moral Character by Donald DeMarco

• Fathers Conference at The Heights School (November 2, 2024)
• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

• Free Hearts and Magnanimity featuring Alexandre Havard
• From Anxiety to Adventure: On Reframing Challenges featuring Kevin Majeres
• Emotions Fully Alive: Forming Boys' Affectivity Pt. I featuring Joe Cardenas
• Emotions Fully Alive: Forming Boys' Affectivity Pt. II featuring Joe Cardenas

The sentimentalism of our greater culture is a formidable—yet surmountable—challenge to young men. Our sons are relentlessly encouraged to follow their affections and feelings wherever they might lead, whatever their commitments. How can we, as parents and teachers, help our boys to become men who love the world without being pulled off course by the sentiments and affections that are a natural aspect of our God-given humanity?

As part of our parent lecture series at The Heights School, Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente offers his insights to navigating the cultural challenge of sentimentalism by using the virtue of loyalty as a ballast. For when the feelings fail, loyalty helps us to stay the virtuous course—where our yes is yes and our no is no.

• [00:02:11] The erosion of loyalty, rise of sentimentalism
• [00:05:14] Loyalty: a virtue that trains other virtues
• [00:12:36] Sentimentalism: when feelings dominate
• [00:17:47] How sentimentalism undermines the good
• [00:30:01] Modern boys and sentimental morals
• [00:30:48] Training the sentiments
• [00:32:39] Naming them
• [00:35:22] Practicing self-discipline exercises
• [00:38:02] Setting limits on pleasurable activities
• [00:39:13] Confronting "emotional attacks"
• [00:42:16] Harnessing the sentiments to promote virtue
• [00:47:54] Stories of loyalty
• [00:55:21] Don't commit lightly: let your yes be yes
• [00:59:20] The grace to succeed as parents

• The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

• Fathers Conference at The Heights School (November 2, 2024)
• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

• Emotions Fully Alive: Forming Boys' Affectivity Pt. I featuring Joe Cardenas
• Emotions Fully Alive: Forming Boys' Affectivity Pt. II featuring Joe Cardenas

Last weekend, The Wall Street Journal published a front-page story on American young men and the crisis of masculinity. It featured hard stories of the "aimless and isolated"—but could ultimately offer no solutions.

This week on HeightsCast, we're pleased to welcome Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway. Bishop Varden has authored several books exploring human personhood, including topics of masculinity and femininity. He helps us get the lay of the land both culturally and spiritually in this so-called moment of crisis. His Excellency then shares the vision of masculinity that he finds in scripture and tradition, so that we may bring these ideas into our homes and to our sons.

• 2:59 Man fully alive: is my life fruitful?
• 5:09 A crisis of masculinity
• 11:06 Language for a constructive conversation
• 14:11 'Man,' 'woman,' 'human person' called into question
• 17:39 Vision of the human person in Genesis
• 26:38 Complementarity of the sexes
• 30:19 Masculinity and femininity as dual poles
• 38:29 Manliness: to pour oneself out in protection of another
• 42:08 Accepting our fragility
• 48:49 Communicating masculinity to modern boys

• Coram Fratribus, Bishop Erik Varden's blog featuring homilies, articles, and "marginalia"
• Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses by Erik Varden
• Entering the Twofold Mystery: On Christian Conversion by Erik Varden
• The Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian Remembrance by Erik Varden
• "America's Young Men Are Falling Even Further Behind" by Rachel Wolfe, WSJ 28 September 2024

• Headmaster's Lecture at The Heights School (October 5, 2024)
• Fathers Conference at The Heights School (November 2, 2024)
• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

• Stewards of the Universe: Men Fully Alive featuring Alvaro de Vicente
• The Man Fully Alive: On Our Vision featuring Alvaro de Vicente

It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.

So writes the fictional devil Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood in C. S. Lewis's epistolary novel The Screwtape Letters.

But where devils may wish to keep the good out, Heights headmaster Alvaro de Vicente highlights the ways we as parents can keep the good in. By aligning our family culture with the good voices we hope our sons will hear—and leaving space to allow the Divine voice and the voice of one's own conscience to be heard—we help our sons form a good vision of themselves and the world.

• 4:55 Why The Screwtape Letters
• 8:18 A devil's job is keeping the good out
• 11:09 Three voices: people, the Divine, and the conscience
• 14:58 Unpacking the term 'voice'

• 18:05 Slow down the noise
• 23:45 Promote contemplative times
• 26:20 Reserve time to read
• 29:41 Cultivate the art of conversation
• 32:12 Conspire for the good with their teachers
• 36:40 A slow roll-out for new family initiatives

• The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

• Headmaster's Lecture at The Heights School (October 5, 2024)
• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

• Who am I?: The Question of Persona featuring Alvaro de Vicente
• Ways to Foster a Family Culture by Alvaro de Vicente
• Raising Contemplative Sons featuring Colin Gleason

Part of the Teaching Sovereign Knowers Collection

In recent years, a number of HeightsCast guests have touched on the same resounding theme: the modern creep of curiositas and acedia, both considered classical vices. But where there are two vices, Aristotle encourages us to look for a virtue at the Golden Mean.

Mr. Michael Moynihan, head of The Heights upper school, finds it in studiousness. Adding to his collection of work on Teaching Sovereign Knowers, this episode unpacks Michael's essay "Intellectual Virtue and Personal Sovereignty," available on the Heights Forum. In it, he speaks to the why and how of pursuing studiousness as an intellectual virtue. For this, as with all virtues, allows us to stand before reality in an intentional way.

• 3:43 Curiosity as an intellectual vice?
• 7:55 Acedia at the other end of the spectrum
• 10:15 Golden mean: studiousness
• 14:36 When is it curiositas, when is it engagement?
• 16:37 Studiousness as a virtue—of sorts
• 23:09 Standing before reality in an intentional way
• 26:23 Seeking the golden mean: sticking to a plan
• 29:21 Using "Great Books" well
• 34:46 Orienting students to the golden mean

• Intellectual Virtue and Personal Sovereignty by Michael Moynihan
• The Idea of a University by John Henry Cardinal Newman

• Headmaster's Lecture at The Heights School (October 5, 2024)
• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

• Teaching Sovereign Knowers Collection by Michael Moynihan
• On Hope and Despair featuring R. J. Snell
• Forming Deep Workers featuring Cal Newport

The vision of "man fully alive" involves a man motivated by faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these, St. Paul tells us, is love.

Our guest today, Mr. Tom Steenson, is a long-time teacher of the Heights fifth grade and also the upper school class History of Western Thought. He brings his experience and broad readings to bear on the question: How can we impart lessons of authentic love to rambunctious twenty-first century boys in a way they'll actually internalize? Tom's practical ideas span younger and older students, framing the endeavor as forming the boys for love by love.

• 2:47 Teaching love to younger students
• 6:11 Teaching love to upper school students
• 11:26 Turning self-focus into self-knowledge
• 16:20 Images of love in the curriculum
• 19:36 Love and masculinity
• 23:47 Love in imitation of God
• 26:06 Passionately loving the world
• 31:00 Faith, hope, love: the greatest is love
• 34:46 Affirmation of their goodness

• Augustine's Confessions translated by F. J. Sheed
• Phaedo by Plato

• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

• The Man Fully Alive: On Our Vision featuring Alvaro de Vicente

In classrooms where the students can read for themselves, reading aloud often falls off the daily schedule. But it's a ritual well worth keeping—for the sake of literacy, the moral imagination, classroom bonds, and so much more. Long-time Heights teacher Tom Steenson encourages the teachers tending that flame, or wanting to rekindle it, in their own classrooms.

• 2:08 Goals of reading aloud in the classroom
• 4:44 The artist sees, then helps others to see
• 11:47 Books that aren't landing
• 15:10 The read-aloud routine, scene-setting
• 18:35 Reading in a high school classroom
• 22:27 Separating instruction from narrative
• 24:59 The effect on teachers

• Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Augustine's Confessions translated by F. J. Sheed
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm by Robert C. O'Brien
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

• Classroom Ambience by Joseph Bissex
• The Read-Aloud Family featuring Sarah Mackenzie
• Stop Telling Your Son to Read: How to Inspire a Love of Reading featuring Tom Longao
• How to Master the Art of Reading Outside by Tom Longano

As we embark on a new school year, we are full of resolutions for the family routine. How will we order our week to support the highest goods? How will we fit it all in?

Not to be overlooked while charting the course: our keeping of the Sabbath. Last April, author and teacher Daniel Fitzpatrick released his book Restoring the Lord's Day: How Reclaiming Sunday Can Revive Our Human Nature. Daniel sits down with us at HeightsCast to discuss the book, which examines the cultural drift away from a sense of Sabbath, why we should restore this God-given rhythm to our lives, and the scriptural support for how to do it.

Chapters:

• 4:09 Inattention to the Sabbath: modern or ageless?
• 7:54 Acedia, primary vice against the Sabbath
• 12:32 Challenges of the five-day work week
• 17:24 Festivity and sacrifice
• 21:56 The draw of sports as they relate to beauty
• 24:30 The good, UNrestful activities of Sunday
• 31:09 Practical advice for young families
• 35:38 Preparing on Saturday
• 40:44 Concluding the Sabbath
• 43:22 Reckoning with the necessity of labor

Links:

• Restoring the Lord's Day: How Reclaiming Sunday Can Revive Our Human Nature by Daniel Fitzpatrick
• Joie de Vivre: A Journal of Art, Culture, and Letters for South Louisiana edited by Daniel Fitzpatrick
• Grace Fitzpatrick Art, Byzantine iconography by Grace Fitzpatrick

Featured Opportunities:

• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

Also on the Forum:

• Work and Acedia: On Our Original Vocation featuring R. J. Snell
• Leisure and Acedia: On Contemplative Homes in a Frenetic Age featuring R. J. Snell