Part I: The Canon of Great Books – Diener, Horner, & Schlect

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Workshop Talk | | Literature

Summary

“Of making many books there is no end,” Solomon warns in Ecc. 12:12. As educators we interact with books all the time, and much of our interaction with students centers around leading them through various books. Several questions immediately arise: Which books? To what end? Is there a “canon” of “great books”? What makes a book “great”? What criteria should we use to select the books we assign? What measure of respect is properly due to these books? To address these important questions, ACCS has invited three scholars to offer a panel discussion on the “canon of great books.” Each panelist will present a paper followed by responses (and perhaps challenges) from the other two panelists. Following their papers and responses, there will be time for audience questions and conversation.

Speaker

Dr. David Diener works at Hillsdale College where he is an Assistant Professor of Education. Previously he spent fifteen years in K-12 private education, eleven of those in administration and eight as headmaster of classical Christian schools. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Classical Learning and the Board of Academic Advisors for the Classic Learning Test. He is the Executive Director of the Alcuin Fellowship, a member of the National Council of Classical Educators, and regularly provides consulting services and teacher training to classical schools. He is the author of Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator and has published articles on Plato, Kierkegaard, and various topics in philosophy of education. He also serves as the series editor for Classical Academic Press’ series Giants in the History of Education and is an associate editor for the journal Principia: a Journal of Classical Education. He holds a BA in philosophy and ancient languages from Wheaton College as well as an MA in philosophy, an MS in history and Philosophy of Education, and a dual PhD in philosophy and philosophy of education from Indiana University.

ddiener@hillsdale.edu

Grant Horner (PhD) is a senior rank Full Professor of Humanities at The Master’s University, just north of Los Angeles, where he specializes in the Renaissance, Reformation Historical Theology, Art History, and Classics. He was educated at Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, the University of Alabama, and Claremont Graduate University. He has been teaching at the university level for 30 years and has published numerous articles and books on Renaissance literature; 16th and 17th century theology; the Puritan John Milton; Classical learning; Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and film and theology. He is a National Council Alcuin Fellow in the Society for Classical Learning, and is Founder and Director of two academic programs at Master’s: The TMU in Italy summer abroad program based in Florence, and the BA program in Classical Liberal Arts. He lives in northern Tuscany every summer with his wife and a group of very eager students, in a villa built in 1409. He and his wife have three children and eight grandchildren.

ghorner@masters.edu

Christopher Schlect, PhD, has worked in classical and Christian education for over thirty years. At his home institution, New Saint Andrews College, Chris is Head of Humanities and Director of the Classical and Christian Studies graduate program. He also teaches courses in history, education, and classical rhetoric. In addition to his work at NSA, Chris teaches for Gordon College’s program in Classical Graduate Leadership, and chairs the Accreditation Commission for the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS). Chris also has many years of classroom experience teaching grades 7 through 12 at Logos School in Moscow, Idaho, where he also coached a high-achieving Mock Trial team. Today he serves classical and Christian schools around the country through his teaching, consulting, and training activities. Chris and his wife, Brenda, have five grown children, all products of a classical and Christian education, as are all their spouses. The number of their grandchildren continues to grow—a testimony to God’s goodness.

cschlect@nsa.edu

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