Avalon Mentors

Having trouble understanding this tremendous work of Plato? Perhaps this will help. Part of a preparation for a return to Plato as a mythical work. Benjamin Jowett's translation HERE .

Read the Oresteiaor see the play The Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=21129179

A quick analysis of the final speech in Shakespeare’s the Tempest. Visit the Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=21129179

So what exactly was the debate between the Nominalists and the Realists? Who were the Nominalists and the Realists? What exactly happened in 1277? Why should you care? "Scholasticism" by Rickaby - https://www.amazon.com/Scholasticism-Joseph-Rickaby/dp/1477478930/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3NMXKW8058BV2&keywords=scholasticism+rickaby&qid=1674010821&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIs...

What happened in the 13th century philosophical world that radically changed the nature of Western European culture (hint we are still dealing with it today)? What did these people believe about the nature of mathematics (and why should you care)? Who was Joseph Pieper (and for that matter Romano Guardini) (and why should you read both of them)? "Scholasticism" by Pieper: https://www.ama...

Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. Writing to a friend in the mid-1950s, O'Connor noted that we live in an age in which "the moral sense has been bred out of certain sections of the population, like the wings have...

Read the play.  Is it about nominalism vs. realism?  Is it about fathers & sons?  Is it Shakespeare's love letter to his own son, Hamnet? "Hament died when he was eleven years old, in August 1596, due to unknown causes., It’s thought that he possibly died from the bubonic plague that  killed around one-third of all children  below the age of twelve in Elizabethan England." https:...

Much thanks to Neil Oliver for his recent youtube video on witches and the hunt for witches .  This discussion is about the mania that swept through England in the 15th, 16th, and 17th century.  How does collective madness occur?  How does Shakespeare mollify that madness?  Could Shakespeare be suggesting that our own actions and choices, not witchcraft or fate, determine our lives? As Banquo says...

One guy’s insights and opinions about the ongoing debate of whether or not Amazon has done justice to Tolkien’s works. Visit the Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=21129179

A quick reflection on the nature of art and its response to contemporary issues. Visit the Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=21129179

A talk I delivered to the young adults at Holy Family Parish.  We discussed Filia vs. Agape, the role of Koinonia, and why it is important for Christians to befriend the downtrodden and miserable (b/c most of us are downtrodden and miserable). For more on friendship (and Christian Friendship) I highly recommend: Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics Cicero: de Amicitia C.S.Lewis: The Four Loves Visit the...

Quick observation on the translation of “miseo” and possible implications of an alternate interpretation. Visit the Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=21129179

A review of the Movie "Brightburn" and an examination of the nature of power.  The question of whether absolute power necessarily corrupts absolutely was addressed by Plato in his 4th century BC work "The Republic". Brightburn   Mob Psycho 100   One Punch Man   Chronicle Republic Book II   General Zod   Bizarro  Michael Daugherty's "Bizarro"   Visit the Patreon pa...

Maturity in the ancient world was depicted through the metamorphic cycle of the butterfly; pupa to chrysalis to adult butterfly. Each of us goes through such a series of changes. Hopefully we emerge as a sublime creature. Visit the Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=21129179

In his essay "BEOWULF: THE MONSTERS AND THE CRITICS" (1936) , J.R.R. TOLKIEN wrote that  "In the epoch of Beowulf ( produced between 975 and 1025) a Heroic Age more wild and primitive than that of Greece is brought into touch with Christendom, with the Sermon on the Mount, with Catholic theology and ideas of Heaven and Hell." This "fusion-point of imagination", as Tol...

A commentary on the human artistic endeavor.  Helga Thoene proposes in her essay that Johann Sebastian Bach embedded into the ciaccona ( Partita in D minor for solo violin (BWV 1004) numerous mathematical and musical references making the work a memorial, or trombeau, to his deceased wife, Maria Barbara Bach, who died in 1720. Check out a recording of the Partita here The album Morimur by the Hill...

In this episode of Let’s Do Lunch I have a discussion with Mr Raymond Riethmeier. I had the pleasure of meeting Ray when I worked with his incomparably talented wife at a local parochial school in Minnesota. Ray is a man of many talents; he is on the board of the Sherlock Holmes Society “The Norwegian Explorers”, is vice president of the “Friends of Sherlock Holmes” and was recently inducted into...

In this episode of Let’s Do Lunch I have a discussion w/Dr. Cameron Thompson. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Cameron when we taught together at a local classical school here in Minnesota. He is an anthropologist & teacher steeped in literature, philosophy, history & theology. We discuss · the current situation in America from an outside perspective; · The Benedict Option and how it prom...

This episode is a discussion of Tolkien's third book in the Lord of the Rings series, “The Return of the King.” The episode introduces Tolkien’s concept of The EUCATASTROPHE as an embracing of suffering. We also discuss the nature of kingship especially as it involves this embracing of suffering & the confrontation with nothingness. How is The One Ring an escape from suffering? How might m...

This is a recording of the fourth lecture in a five-part series on Tolkien. In this episode we discuss Tolkien's knowledge of Sacred Geometry, the crisis posed by Scholasticism, the treachery of images (with a nod to Magritte), and how our tendency to think in duality has the propensity to lead us into deception - even deceiving ourselves. There exists (even in Tolkien's mind) a bit of con...

This episode is a discussion of Tolkien's first book in the Lord of the Rings series. The episode gives a history of the text and introduces the literary concepts of The FOUR-FOLD METHOD OF EXEGESIS by Dante Alighieri & NATURAL & CONVENTIONAL SYMBOLISM. We also discuss further the nature of dragons & of the confrontation with nothingness. A brief reading period results in observati...

This is a recording of one of the sessions on Tolkien held this summer, 2021.  Of the topics considered, the nature of dragons is paramount.  What is a dragon?  Tolkien said "I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood . . . . But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at...

This episode is a recording of a talk I gave recently on JRR Tolkien's " Silmarillion ".   Begun even before the Great War, this work was considered by Tolkien to be the work the closest to his heart; his magnum opus.  Yet the work wasn't even published until 1977, four years after Tolkien's death.  Why is it a significant work?  Would it be significant without the Hobbit and...

In this episode I discuss with my sister, Dr. Helen Freeh, the nature of the great epic The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Dr. Freeh illustrates how, amidst the numerous depressing works of the 20th century, Tolkien stands as a literary beacon of hope and a prophet of the coming age of struggle in the latter part of the century and the beginning of our own era. Dr. Helen Freeh received her B.A....

In this episode I read the short story "Revelation" by  Flannery O'Connor which tells the tale of a self-satisfied woman who encounters a nasty shock forcing her to take stock of who she really is. "Revelation" was written during the last year of the author's life, a time she knew she was dying from her fourteen-year battle with lupus .  The work was first published in...