Study Groups
Cogito Book Club
Join us for weekly conversations about books we find significant. This semester, we’ll be reading short stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of Russia’s greatest writers. We meet on Tuesdays at 5pm and Fridays at 4pm in the T.I. To learn more, email Jarrett Knight at jwknig@email.wm.edu.
The Revelation of St. John the Divine (and coffee)
This group meets Friday mornings in College Church to study the Revelation of John the Divine, one of the most misunderstood books in the New Testament. It includes free coffee (good coffee). For more information, email Jarrett Knight at jwknig@email.wm.edu.
The Nature of Love in the Western Tradition (Longwood)
What is the nature of love? What is its relationship to possession, union, knowledge, or beauty? What is the proper object of love? What makes love true or perverse? How should we understand love in relation to vulnerability and suffering? The Western tradition offers various answers to these questions. Plato considered love a recognition of transcendence. Later philosophers thought it madness, a disease that must be cured by proper teaching. According to the Christian tradition, love is salvific, for God is Love itself. In this group, we will read some of the most influential texts reflecting on the nature of love, including classical texts written prior to the advent of Christianity and texts in the Christian tradition. We’ll reflect on friendship, on romantic love, and the love of the divine, and continually consider how love in these texts is similar to and different from love as we think of it in our contemporary culture. For more information, contact Amanda Knight at amanda.abernathy.19@gmail.com.