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Course Description and Method: In this course we shall read through an adapted version of A Greek Boy at Home as well as some texts from Luigi Miraglia’s Athenaze series, and we’ll complete the accompanying exercises and use some of the auxiliary materials. Students will hear and use Greek, but may ask questions in English (the professor will then render those questions into simple Greek and respond in the Greek which the students will have learned already). There will be a brief weekly memorization assignment (to be rendered orally or in writing, at the student’s choice), comparable in difficulty to the texts which we shall read.
Expectations: students will demonstrate: 1) a commitment to attend classes or to watch all classes missed. If a student must miss a class, a recorded version will be sent promptly. 2) a willingness to learn, distinguish, and reproduce three of the commonest forms of pronunciation of Ancient Greek: Erasmian-Restored; Koine-Buth; and Ecclesiastical-Modern. 3) the completion of daily and weekly exercises, which require 10 minutes and 30-60 minutes, respectively, outside the scheduled class times. 4) memorization of material which will then be either recited/sung or written, as the student chooses; also, the student may both recite and and write to receive some extra credit.
Envisioned Learning Outcomes: Students will learn to understand Greek through their ears and eyes (Especially in De Anima, Book 3, Ch. 8 / 432a, as, “Hence (1) no one can learn or understand anything in the absence of sense, and (when the mind is actively aware of anything it is necessarily aware of it along with an image; for images are like sensuous contents except in that they contain no matter.”); they will also acquire the capacity to respond to questions in Classical Greek – both orally and in written form; by the end of the first semester, the student will be able to read some basic texts in Ancient Greek – with no necessity of consulting a dictionary! (including, an account of the Nativity of Our Lord [narrative-homiletic and liturgical Greek]; ancient maxims [juridical and philosophical Greek]; a few well-known phrases from the Iliad [poetic]; and a brief dialogue from Aristophanes[drama-comedic];) have a summary knowledge of essential Greek grammar. The second semester will build on this and complete the edifice.
MEET THE PROFESSOR: Meet the Professor: Jonathan Arrington spent six years in Catholic seminaries in Germany, Italy, France, and America. After he left, he pursued doctoral studies in Patristic Theology at the Augustinianum, in Rome, Italy. He has sung Church Slavonic in the choir at Sant’Antonio l’abate Russian Byzantine Catholic Church in Rome for most of the last seven years. He also worked as a translator for l’Osservatore Romano, and translated documents from various modern languages into Latin for officials at the CDF, Roman Rota, and Apostolic Signatura. Finally and most enjoyably, he taught History, Theology, Latin, and Greek in Rome for Christendom College, Thomas More College, Newman College Ireland, and the Angelicum.
He now resides in South Carolina with his beloved wife, and they are happily expecting their fourth child on their coming anniversary.
His interest in and enthusiasm for the active use of Latin and Ancient Greek as the best method to learn and appreciate the genius of those languages stems in large part from felicitous friendships with several of our age’s most brilliant classicists: David Morgan (+), Luigi Miraglia, and Patrick Owens. In addition, he once shared a conversation (in Latin, of course) and a cappuccino with the renowned Nancy (Annula) Lewellyn, beside his favorite Roman Basilica, Santa Maria Maggiore. That experience whet his appetite for the promotion of Latin immersion in Catholic schools.
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