[April 2004 journal entry]
When our youngest daughter mentioned to her Honors World History teacher that I had studied with a Benedictine monk who specialized in the medieval period, her teacher invited me to be a guest speaker re this transition period in western civilization. During the 50-minute class, I worked off the wide-angle photography and micro-photography analogies for studying history. After explaining the analogies (using my camera and lenses as visual aids), I led the students into the ‘scholastic method’ as a ‘wide angle’ perspective on the shift away from the earlier ‘dark’ times toward the emerging sense of increasing ‘light’. We then turned to Bernard of Clairvaux (as seen in his Steps of Humility) versus Peter Abelard (as seen in his Sic et Non) for a ‘micro’ approach, with Anselm’s ‘faith seeking understanding’ angle as an example of an ‘in between’ alternative.
