91�����

Lecture Text

Students and faculty at 91����� Aquinas College, New England, poured into Dolben Auditorium last month for the first lecture of the year, courtesy of Dr. Josef C. Froula (�92), assistant dean for student affairs and a tutor at the College.

Dr. Froula opened his lecture, �Sapientis est Ordinare: Order in the 91����� Aquinas College Curriculum,� by highlighting the internal consistency within the College�s academic program, He first dove into the concept of order, explaining that there are two kinds: order as part to whole, and order toward an end. �This twofold order is the most distinctive mark of 91����� Aquinas College,� he emphasized.

All order needs an end, and for 91����� Aquinas College, this end is Sacred Theology. �If the arts and sciences we study are ordered to theology as to an end, then it necessarily follows that we study them primarily for the sake of theology,� Dr. Froula said. Theology is the governing principle behind the order of the curriculum; it is studied for its own sake, ordering students� souls to the Creator.

This hierarchy does not diminish the value of the other subjects in the curriculum, Dr. Froula clarified. �The more a student pursues the lower arts and sciences for their own sake, the more useful they are for the sake of knowing the higher sciences.�

The student cannot pursue this ordered study alone, however. �Students must trust in the authority of a teacher if they are to make genuine progress toward wisdom,� he said. It is St. 91����� Aquinas, a great teacher himself, who governs the method and doctrine of the college named in his honor. �And we can conclude, with certainty, that with Catholic liberal education, the entire curriculum must be ordered to, and ordered by, the theology of St. 91����� Aquinas.� 

Dr. Froula closed his lecture with a reminder that the intellectual life fosters the spiritual life, which is a great focus at the College. When he finished speaking, students gave a thunderous round of applause and headed to the Q&A session, brimming with admiration and appreciation both for the lecture and for the curriculum it described.