New to the Great Books?
Join the great conversation! The Great Books discuss the perennial truths of the human condition and invite us to join the great conversation between the most impressive minds in history.
New to the great books? Check out "How to Read the Great Books Well" or "Introduction to the Intellectual Life" below.
THE YEAR OF HOMER
Can everyone read Homer?
Yes! You can read Homer! Our "Year with Homer" guides you through both the Iliad and the Odyssey. On the podcast, we covered one book (chapter) of the Iliad and then the Odyssey per week using the Fagles' translation.
53 Videos and podcasts
60+ hours of discussion
100+ pages of written guides
Join Dcn. Harrison Garlick as he discusses Homer with great teachers like Dr. Patrick Deneen, Dr. Jennifer Frey, Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and more!
LINKS:
The Iliad playlist on Youtube.
The Odyssey playlist on Youtube.
Introduction to Homer: Apple, Spotify and Youtube.
The Iliad Book One: Rage of Achilles - Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
Introduction to the Odyssey with Dr. Patrick Deneen: Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
The Odyssey Book One: Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
YOU CAN READ DANTE'S INFERNO WITH ASCEND
Why should we read Dante’s Inferno?
The Inferno is an invitation to save your soul. Dante the Pilgrim journeys through the pit of hell alongside his pagan guide, Virgil. In the narrative, Dante the Poet tears away the veneer of human desire and exposes the ugly reality of sin. We are supposed to find ourselves in Dante the Pilgrim and are invited to learn alongside him in his journey.
The Inferno is the first canticles or volume in the Divine Comedy alongside Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Comedy is righly said to be like St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae is poetic form. In it, Dante the Poet weaves together Holy Scripture, St. Augustine, Aristotle, pagan mythology, astronomy, and more into one brilliant pedagogical narrative. Reality is intelligible and holds lessons for our sanctification and salvation.
We are invited to become students of our own souls by understanding a hell structured by love, the horror of sin, and the ugliness of evil. Dante wants to save your soul.
Reading Schedule:
Introduction & the Dark Woods
1. Intro & Canto 1 with Dr. Jeremy Holmes (Wyoming Catholic)
Vestibule of Hell, Limbo & Lust
2. Cantos 2-5 with Dr. Jennifer Frey (TU) and Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson (Pepperdine).
Gluttony, Spendthrift/Hoarders, Wrathful/Acedia & Heretics
3. Cantos 6-11 with Dr. Jason Baxter of Benedictine College.
Violence: Against Neighbor, Self & God
4. Cantos 12-17 with Fr. Thomas Esposito, O. Cist., of the University of Dallas.
Simple Fraud: Pits 1-7
5. Cantos 18-25 with Noah Tyler, CFO of CLT, and Gabriel Blanchard, Staff Writer for CLT.
Simple Fraud: Pits 8-10
6. Cantos 26-31 with Dr. Donald Prudlo (TU)
Complex Fraud: The Traitors
7. Cantos 32-34 with Evan Amato.
8. Lying as Contraceptive Speech: Lessons from Dante's Inferno with Sean Berube and Shannon of Catholic Frequency
9. How to Read the Bible like St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante with Adam Minihan and Thomas Lackey
READING GUIDE AND LINKS:
Check out our 80+ Question and Answer Guide to Dante's Inferno! A fantastic resource to help you or your small group read Dante's Inferno.
Check out our YouTube playlist on Dante's Inferno!
START HERE on Apple Podcast or Spotify!
2025 Great Books Reading Schedule
HESIOD'S THEOGONY & GREEK PLAYS (2025)
1/1 Intro to the Greek Plays
1/7 Hesiod's Theogony
THE ORESTEIA by Aeschylus
1/14 Into to Aeschylus
1/21 Agamemnon Part I
1/28 Agamemnon Part II
2/4 Libation Bearers Part I
2/11 Libation Bearers Part II
2/18 Eumenides Part I
2/25 Eumenides Part II
READ DANTE'S INFERNO WITH ASCEND
We are reading Dante's Inferno over LENT 2025.
3/4 Introduction & Canto I
3/11 Cantos II-V
3/18 Cantos VI-XI
3/25 Cantos XII-XVII
4/1 Cantos XVIII-XXV
4/8 Cantos XXVI-XXX
4/15 Cantos XXXII-XXXIV
4/22 Lying as Contraceptive Speech: Lessons from Dante's Inferno
4/29 How to Read the Bible like St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante
BACK TO THE GREEK PLAYS
5/6 Prometheus Bound with Dr. Jared Zimmerer
THE THEBAN PLAYS by Sophocles
5/13 Antigone Part I
5/20 Antigone Part II
5/27 Oedipus Rex
6/3 Oedipus at Colonus Part I
6/10 Oedipus at Colonus Part II
6/17 The Bacchae Part I with Dr. Frank Grabowski
6/24 The Bacchae Part II with Dr. Frank Grabowski
7/1 Roundtable on the Tragic Plays
7/8 The Clouds by Aristophanes with Dr. Zena Hitz
7/15 The Frogs by Aristophanes with Tsh Oxenreider
YOU CAN READ PLATO WITH ASCEND
7/22 Introduction to Plato
7/29 Plutarch on Alcibiades with Cost of Glory
8/5 First Alcibiades Pt I with Athenian Stranger and Alec Bianco
8/12 First Alcibiades Pt II with Athenian Stranger and Alec Bianco
8/19 Teaching First Alcibiades with Dr. Shields
8/26 Euthyphro Rountable Part I
9/2 Euthyphro Rountable Part II
9/16 Aquinas & the Euthyphro Dilemma with Dr. Don Prudlo
9/23 The Apology Part I w Fr. Justin Brophy, OP 9/9 The Apology Part II w Fr. Justin Brophy, OP
9/30 The Crito with Dr. Papadopoulos
We are recording on Phaedo, Meno, Gorgias, the Republic, Symposium, and more!