The Restoration of Christian Culture
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About This Book [ what the critics are saying | table of contents | about the author(s) ]
The Restoration of Christian Culture is a sequel of sorts to its companion, the Death. When it was first published in 1983, it was even more eagerly awaited and sold even more quickly, owing to the rapidly spreading fame of its predecessor. Restoration has been compared to a series of sermons -- like spiritual reading that one comes back to again and again -- but on topics social, cultural, and political. Picking up where Death leaves off, the Restoration continues to sound the alarm regarding the continuing extinction of the cultural patrimony of ancient Greece, Rome, medieval Europe, and the early modern period of Western Civilization, owing to the pervasive bureaucratization, mechanization, and standardization of the increasingly materialistic lives of those living in the "first world." Moving beyond mere criticism, however, the "sermons" in Restoration offer challenging and provocative ideas for recapturing and again living, truly and deeply, the cultural traditions bequeathed to the West and to the world by its giants of classical and Christian history. Bringing the wisdom of Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, to note just a few, into touch with the social, political, and personal life of modern citizens of Western Civilization -- to make us not just heirs, but fellow citizens of a common culture -- is the aim of Restoration. Along with its companion, it has changed, comforted, inspired, and converted countless souls. Most impressive among John Senior's numerous credentials as a cultural historian, literary critic, and scholar and practitioner of education is his experience as founder and leader of the University of Kansas Integrated Humanities Program, which he developed and ran with two colleagues at the University. The program was a four-semester course for freshmen and sophomores that combined the best of the Socratic method with the "great books" approach to education, while it was neither of those things alone. Its controversial aim was to convince students that there is a truth, and that the truth is worth knowing; its controversial method was the cultivation of "poetic knowledge," through real-life immersion in reading, memorization, and discussion of the classics of Western thought, art, and literature. Its controversial outcome was hundreds of conversions to Catholicism. This experience, more than any other, provided fruit for the keen insight and sometimes shocking observations presented in Senior's books.
What the Critics are Saying
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Men of good will owe Senior's work their attention and respect.
President, Great Books Academy and Angelicum Academy Homeschool ProgramJohn Senior's penetrating analysis of what ails our culture is a must read for every thinking Christian. His appendix alone is worth many times the price of this book.
Professor, Department of Business and Economics, The Catholic University of AmericaIf culture is the art of Christian living, then Senior's writings represent an important contribution to the restoration of all things in Christ.
Society of St. Pius X, LondonThe Death of Christian Culture and The Restoration of Christian Culture, are works of profound poetic insight, practical realism, and, finally, they are a testimony of hope.
Bishop of SalinaIt is vital that these books are read. We need to live them, wherever we are, and do so without dallying.
Editor-in-Chief, L'homme nouveau, Paris, FranceSenior's life, work, and contribution to the Catholic Church are just about singular in my experience.
President Emeritus, Thomas Aquinas CollegeJohn Senior has left us a spiritual testament of incomparable beauty and a practical plan for restoration of those things we need the most.
Prior, Monastery of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear CreekIn death as he was in life, Senior is ever the teacher of souls . . . . Readers must gird up their loins and prepare for the hard truth.
Academic Dean, Wyoming Catholic CollegeRestoration is a thought-provoking proposal for a way out of today's cultural crisis.
Professor, Department of Business and Economics, The Catholic University of AmericaDr. Senior provides an intellectually satisfying portrait of the faith which we need to combat the hedonism and purposeless experientialism infecting modern American culture.
Table of Contents
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Foreword —Andrew Senior |
About the Author(s)
John Senior, Ph.D.
Dr. John Senior was born in 1923 in Stamford, Conn. and grew up on rural Long Island, New York. He obtained his B.A. , M.A. , and Ph.D. at Columbia University. He was a professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Classics whose career spanned the latter half of the twentieth century, teaching at Bard College, Hofstra College, Cornell University, the University of Wyoming, and the University of Kansas. He converted to Catholicism in the late 1950s. While at the University of Kansas he founded the controversial Integrated Humanities Program with his colleagues Dennis Quinn and Frank Nelick. Towards the end of his life he became widely known and respected among the pioneers of the movement seeking to preserve Catholic orthodoxy in opposition to the trend of dilution that he believed characterized much of the development of Catholicism after the Second Vatican Council. He knew and counted as friends men such as Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Walter Matt, Michael Davies, Fr. Harry Marchosky, Fr. Vincent Miceli, Fr. Urban Snyder, Dr. William Marra, and Hamish Fraser. He died on April 8, 1999. His well-known and widely praised works include The Death of Christian Culture, The Restoration of Christian Culture, and The Restoration of Innocence: The Idea of a School.
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Andrew Senior studied under his father and his colleagues Frank Nelick and Dennis Quinn in the 1970s in the controversial Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas, from where he holds degrees (B.A. and M.A.) in Classics. He also did post-graduate study in Rome at the Angelicum, the Gregorianum, and the Salesianum. He has worked as a diocesan director of religious education under the late Bishop David Maloney in the Diocese of Wichita, as a producer, director, and editor in television, and as a professor of Latin, English, history, and philosophy. He currently teaches at St. Mary’s College in St. Mary’s, Kansas.
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Dr. White graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota in 1971. He earned his M.A. from the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. from Indiana University. He has taught at Temple University and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire; he is currently a Professor of English at the United States Naval Academy, where he has taught for 26 years. He edited Shakespeare A to Z, a Shakespeare encyclopedia, and is the author of The Mouth of the Lion and The Horn of the Unicorn. He does a monthly Shakespeare commentary with Hugh Hewitt (KRLA, Los Angeles; nationally syndicated on the Salem Radio Network).
