Saturday

Today turned out to be quite busy. J is playing a recital on Tuesday, and we rehearsed a piece composed for the two of us by a local church musician early this morning. Then followed some confusion about RPO folders for next week, and then lunch (and tea) with Calvus. He read his sermon (about bondage, sin, and the Red Sea crossing) for tomorrow, and we talked about missions and cultural imperialism. I presented some of my thoughts on cheap justice, and he played the opposite wonderfully. We eventually reached agreement on the need to present more comprehensive aid to the genuinely needy, but couldn’t agree on the degree to which Christendom is separable from some specifically Western values. I argued that liberty, chivalry, and scholarship (among other things) ought to presented, and Calvus argued for a more germinal form of the gospel. It was an excellent discussion. J had a dress rehearsal with Joe W. in the evening, and when we returned we found Opifera making pizza with five or six honors students from RWC. We spent the evening playing games and watching a movie (Oscar) with them, which was wonderful. They were all very bright, polite, and pleasant—hopefully I can bring some of the back for Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The real key to the conversation with Calvus is whether or not certain cultural goods are objectively superior to others. I intend to look in Abolition of Man to start, and also to re-read Johnson’s Preface to Shakespeare.
Reading today Aeneid 6, Revelation 12, and Udolpho.