Two Evenings with Dr Jeffrey Lehman
A man sits in a prison cell awaiting execution on a charge he did not earn. His fortune is gone, his name is ruined, and he has months to live. What he writes there becomes one of the most widely read books in Europe for the next thousand years.
That is Boethius, and The Consolation of Philosophy is the book. The question underneath it is one worth putting to any parent or teacher right now: what is an education actually good for when the ground moves under you?
In September, Dr Jeffrey Lehman is coming to Christchurch to answer it. He has spent more than twenty-five years teaching the great books, he is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the Augustine Institute and Director of its MA in Catholic Education, he is Co-Founder and Dean of Fellows at the Boethius Institute, and he does not visit New Zealand often. The Trust has him for two evenings.
Tuesday 22 September
Virtue, Vocation, and the Examined Life
An evening for young adults on knowing yourself, discovering your calling, and building a life of virtue.
Most young adults are offered one of two answers to the question of what to do with their lives: pick a degree that pays, or follow your passion. Both are thin, and both leave you roughly where you started.
Dr Lehman is joined for this evening by Ali Ghaffari, Executive Director of the St John Henry Newman Institute. Mr Ghaffari came to the faith as a convert. He spent his career as a Naval officer, flying F/A-18s from the deck of an aircraft carrier, and completed master's degrees in philosophy and theology. He taught leadership and ethics for the military before moving into Catholic education focused on the liberal arts. Few people can speak to vocation from as many directions: the discipline of a demanding profession, the weight of real leadership, and the long work of thinking clearly about what a life is finally for.
Together the speakers will take three questions. Who am I, and why is self-knowledge the beginning of wisdom. What am I for, at all three levels: the professional career, the personal talent, and the deep calling of capital-V Vocation. And how do I get there, by way of virtue formed through habit rather than merely admired as an idea.
The night includes a presentation, small group discussion with both speakers moving between tables, and open questions.
Tuesday 22 September, 7:00pm to 8:45pm Bishop Joyce Centre, Our Lady of Victories Church, 106 Main South Road, Sockburn Free, koha welcome
Hosted by the Holy Family Parish Young Adults group in partnership with the St Thomas More Trust.
Thursday 24 September
The Consolations of Philosophy: Boethius and the Recovery of the Examined Life
Our signature annual Inspirational Event, open to all.
Writing from prison under sentence of death, Boethius held fast to what is solid when everything around him had gone dark. In the Consolation we recover the original meaning of the liberal arts: not training for a career, but an education in how to think freely, which is the basis of the free citizen and a preparation for how to live and how to die.
Dr Lehman will explore why a sixth-century text still speaks with such force to families navigating uncertain times. Along the way we trace a deeper story: what education looked like when it was understood as the formation of the whole person rather than the training of a worker, why that vision was largely abandoned, and what its recovery would ask of schools, parents, and teachers now.
The format is a seminar rather than a lecture. There is a talk, then a light supper, then discussion in small groups with Dr Lehman moving between tables. That is where these evenings earn their keep, and it is why the room is deliberately kept to a size where discussion actually works. Registrants will receive a short pre-read beforehand: Book I of the Consolation, in the Ignatius Critical Edition, the volume for which Dr Lehman wrote the interpretive essay.
Thursday 24 September, 7:00pm to 9:00pm Performing Arts Centre, St Bede's College, 210 Main North Road, Papanui $20, including supper and small group discussion
About Dr Jeffrey Lehman
Dr Jeffrey S. Lehman is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology in Missouri, where he directs the Master of Arts in Catholic Education. He is Co-Founder and Dean of Fellows of the Boethius Institute for the Advancement of Liberal Education, and Founder and President of Arts of Liberty, an online interdisciplinary resource used by students, teachers, and lifelong learners of the liberal arts worldwide.
He is a Founding Fellow of the Center for Thomas More Studies and has published widely on More, on Boethius, on Augustine, and on the practice of Socratic teaching. He is himself a convert to the Catholic faith.
He is currently completing an essay on Boethius for publication with Baylor University Press, and is under contract for a full-length study of Boethius as an advocate of the liberal arts.
Selected publications
On Boethius
Boethius: Advocate of the Liberal Arts, Giants in the History of Education Series. Classical Academic Press, forthcoming 2029.
"Boethius and the Quadrivium: Hidden Framework of the Consolation." In Reading Boethius, ed. K. Sarah-Jane Murray and Melinda Nielsen. Baylor University Press, forthcoming 2027.
"Lady Philosophy as Physician." Interpretive essay in the Ignatius Critical Edition of Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy. Ignatius Press, 2012.
On Thomas More
"Passing Strange, Yet Wholly True: On the Political Tales of Plato's Critias and More's Hythlodaeus." In Thomas More: Why Patron of Statesmen?, ed. Travis Curtright. Lexington Books, 2015.
"Seeing Tyranny in More's History of King Richard III." Moreana 50: 191-192, June 2013.
Editor, Thomas More, Life of John Pico, Earl of Mirandola, 500th Anniversary Edition, with introduction and annotations. 2010.
"Judgment in Thomas More's Dialogue Concerning Heresies." Thomas More Studies 3, 2008.
"Philosophic Designs: Dialogical Details of More's Utopia, Book I." Thomas More Studies 1, 2006.
Other books
Aristotelian Logic: An Introduction through Primary Sources. Classical Academic Press, forthcoming 2028.
Thomas Aquinas: Master Teacher, Giants in the History of Education Series. Classical Academic Press, forthcoming 2027.
Socratic Conversation: Bringing the Dialogues of Plato and the Socratic Tradition into Today's Classroom. Classical Academic Press, 2021.
Augustine: Rejoicing in the Truth, Giants in the History of Education Series. Classical Academic Press, 2018.
Come, and bring someone
If you have been meaning to draw someone into the Trust's orbit, this is the pair of evenings for it. Forward this to the teacher, the parent, or the young person who should be in the room!
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