ETERNAL WISDOM & THE CATHOLIC IMAGINATION [2nd Edition]
“Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt teach him out of Thy Law.“ –Ps. 93:12
“We read because without books our world shrinks, our empathy thins, and our liberty wanes.” ~ Jessica Hooten Wilson, Reading for the Love of God1
ON TODAY’S PODCAST: NOTES ON METAPHOR BY
DR. JESSICA HOOTEN WILSON
BRAZOS PRESS AUTHOR of
Reading for the Love of God (Released today - March 28, 2023)
JHW (JessicaHootenWilson.com)
MEMBER OF THE CLT BOARD OF ADVISORS.2
Seaver College Visiting Scholar of Liberal Arts at PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY, MALIBU, CALIFORNIA.
See last year’s exciting announcement about Jessica’s new post here:
THE ROSARY HOUR PODCAST NEWSLETTER: THE SCHOOL OF OUR LADY
29 March 2023 [Evening Edition, TE’s Updated March 29]
QUICK VIDEO LESSON NOTES: “ON METAPHOR” (by PROFESSOR JHW)
Today’s Live Record conversation segment featuring Dr. Hooten-Wilson was led by Godric Kim & Tina Bailey who together reviewed, prepared and led this talk via the book Learning the Good Life: Wisdom from the Great Hearts and Minds that Came Before.4
The above video represents a warm-up question by our team to Professor Hooten-Wilson:
"How does reading lead us to a place where we can contemplate God? (What’s the leap, there?")
TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS SEGMENT:
In this video Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson explains the link between “metaphor”, “the transcendent”, and books that lead us “toward our God”.
POINT 1:Richard Wilbur (Poet)POINT 2:Words — How do they have meaning beyond the literal?What is a metaphorical / spiritual reality?
POINT 3:“Metaphor points to something beyond the literal, beyond the material.”POINT 4:Books introduce us to things “beyond the material world”.POINT 5:Essential Question: What is the gateway to the transcendent?
ON READING LIKE THE SAINTS:
What books do you read and enjoy ‘because they point you towards your God’?
Free write your answer in your Prayer / Rosary journal
Hooten Wilson notes in this Live Record that C.S. LEWIS LOVED:
“Phantastes” (FAIERIE STORY) by Macdonald George
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.65713/page/n19/mode/2upON
READING AND THE TRANSCENDENT
In her new book, Hooten Wilson explores the “Why” of reading.
Today's post tells us "how to read as a spiritual practice".5
In the upcoming segments, Dr. Hooten Wilson will help us investigate ways to bridge the gap between excellent reading / excellent books / excellent approaches to fiction in the effort to inspire others "to read like the Saints".
HOMEWORK — METAPHOR: WHAT IS IT? HOW DOES IT FUNCTION?
© COPYRIGHT 2023-present, THE ROSARY HOUR PODCAST NEWSLETTER™️ (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED). How reading leads to contemplating God: Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson explores "metaphor" in this conversation segment as she launches her new book, "Reading for the Love of God" today. Expert educator from Pepperdine University, Malibu CA, USA visited the Digital Café to explore approaches to the School of Our Lady. Live Record teaches about "Metaphor" to investigate: "Why we read". PRODUCED BY TRAVESSA DA SENRA HOUSE PRESS [HEADLINE] Published on March 27, 2023 (Sent-By E-mail, EVENING EDITION, 8 PM EST, 5PM PST)
Thanks to Brazos Press for their assistance with gathering materials for this post and to Dr. Hooten Wilson for her sisterhood. We have learned so much from our conversations, formal and informal, and we are excited to present her thoughts in the context of her books on reading, which we’ve chosen to explore alongside her podcast shorts through 2023.
REPOST FROM: https://blog.cltexam.com/clt-welcomes-dr-jessica-hooten-wilson/
Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson is our latest addition to the Board of Academic Advisors here at the CLT. She has special focuses on Catholic literature and the classic Russian novelists, and has published three books to date: Giving the Devil His Due: Flannery O’Connor and the Brothers Karamazov (2016), Walker Percy, Dostoevsky, and the Search for Influence (2017), and Reading Walker Percy’s Novels (2018).
In her address on receiving the Hiett Prize, Dr. Wilson says of figures like O’Connor, Percy, and Dostoevsky, “They’re like friends of mine, they’re the people I spend the most time with.” Her vision of the humanities is not one of abstract familiarity with authors’ dates and themes checked off a list, but one in which the great minds of our tradition are our allies in living. Ideas alone may mean little, as small talk means little; in literature these things are instantiated; a life and a future lived in accordance with a vision of the truth are presented to us there.
Dr. Wilson has a special familiarity with O’Connor. In 2018, she gave a lecture at Biola University titled from O’Connor’s writings, “‘With One Eye Squinted’: Flannery O’Connor and the Call to Suffering,” which explores the role that suffering plays in the Christian life. O’Connor described most people as thinking of religion as if it were an electric blanket—that they have no idea what it costs. Ranging from her short stories to her novels, and particularly her masterpiece The Violent Bear It Away, Wilson brings out O’Connor’s belief in the purifying operation of suffering, in its power to awaken faith, sand away the rust on the soul, and express mystical union between the many members of the body of Christ.
“What we're doing is planting seeds that people can't see—they're underground—in the hope that they're going to bear fruit in the future.”
Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson
Dr. Hooten Wilson has been a great help to our podcast. She was the first to visit the Digital Café to help our team think about how best to approach "The School of Our Lady".
FYI - More segments of talk will be released as Bailey & Kim are able to present related posts. Stay tuned for their contributions from May to August 2023.
Dr. Bailey will also be reflecting on her talks with Dr. Bob Schuchts as well as Dr. Josephine Lombardi & Fr. Nahm in the coming months.
Here is her trailer for her book:
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