He, he's, uh, he's muted.

Okay, good.

Thank you.

Yeah, I thought, uh, both books are wonderful.

I'm using this book in, uh, in a philosophy of art class this fall with Baylor students.

I, um, I wanna pick up on a couple things that Shannon just said.

One is the, uh, the, the reason I decided to use the book is not just because it's a very good book, but I sense what Shannon is sensing in students is this real hunger, a deep confusion.

Yeah.

To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org.

The text that I'm gonna draw from to-- in this first talk, mainly The Idea of a University, a little bit from the Grammar of Ascent, and actually the end, when I talk about the Grammar of Ascent, will take us a little bit back to the differences between Aquinas and Newman on approaches to the existence of God.

Want to say a little bit about that.

Uh, so those two books mainly, and then there are two sermons that I'll be drawing from.

One is Intellect, Instrument of Religious Training, which was, uh, a sermon that Newman gave, uh, at the opening of the Catholic University in Dublin on the Feast of St Monica.

And then he has another sermon, Personal Influence: The Means of Propagating the Truth.

So I'll be...

[laughs]

[laughs]

And we read, in this English class, even though he was an agnostic, we read poetry that was theological and we read Newman.

Uh, and for me, not real serious and not, not an athlete like a lot of other guys, uh, to have a, the c- the, one of the best coaches be also one of the best teachers brought together things at all-boys school.

This can make a difference in a, um, in a 17-year-old male's life.

Uh, and, but I got to read Newman with him and I'm really, uh, grateful for that experience.

We also read in that class a bunch of short stories, and one of which was, uh, a James Joyce short story from Dubliners called Evelyn.

And I wanna begin with a little bit from that short story as a way into Newman.

[laughs]