Presented at the 2024 CiRCE National Conference: A Contemplation of Prudence.

In the classical Christian education world, we who wish to defend the Great Books of the Western Tradition can no longer rely on the old defenses – appeals to history and to the residue in our modern world of classical influence on architecture and literature. It is widely recognized that we live in a dark and barbaric age, a darkness disguised by the temporarily continuing presence of the capital of earlier Chrisian culture. What answer can we give now to even friendly inquirers about our commitment to the great texts of the past when, through no fault of their own, but because of the techtonic shift in fundamental ways of thinking in western culture, they neither know nor care about the past, or in many cases do not even trust logic and rationality and foundations for meaning and significance? We who still love the voices of the past have answers because, knowing the past, we are not in a unique situation