PROGRAMS

Plato’s Symposium weaves together themes of love, transcendence, and the power of beauty to change our lives for the better. We will spend five weeks reading Plato’s dialogue in the attempt to better understand what Plato has to say about these topics as well as explore how they embody a conception of human beings as essentially aspiring (or, as Plato would put it, “erotic”) creatures. We will also spend some of our time thinking about the figure of Socrates, since, in addition to being a dialogue about love, Symposium is also a dialogue about loving Socrates. In addition to Symposium, this group will read an excerpt from Jonathan Lear’s The Concept of Irony.

About the facilitator: 

Nathan Rothschild did his PhD work at the University of Chicago and was briefly a post-doc at Bowdoin College before coming to the University of Florida. He is a specialist in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, whose main interest is in philosophical psychology which he understands as an intersection of metaphysics and ethics. The philosophers he cares about most are Plato, Aristotle, and Heidegger. He also has a deep respect for the psychoanalytic tradition of depth psychology. Currently, he is working on Plato’s account of thumos (narcissism) and concept of intra-psychic persuasion. One day he hopes to be able to write a book on Plato’s belief that all desire is erotic.

Along with the Iliad, the Odyssey profoundly shaped the moral and religious imagination of classical civilization. Its influence persisted throughout the Christian era; Dante's encounter with Odysseus is one of the most famous episodes in the Inferno. Even today, the Odyssey inspires new translations and film adaptations. Join us for five weeks this summer as we read the Odyssey together and consider why it has remained such a timeless and engaging story. Like others before us, we will do so, in part, by reading the story of Odysseus as a story about a universal human longing, the longing for Home, a reading which frames our life as a quest in search of this elusive Home and in which hospitality plays a critical role.

This group will meet weekly on Mondays from May 11 to June 15 (with the exception of May 25) at 11:45am in the Study Center classroom.

About the facilitator:

Michael Sacasas earned his MA in Theological Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary in 2002. He was later a doctoral candidate at the University of Central Florida studying the relationship between technology and society with a focus on the work of Hannah Arendt. He currently serves as a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum, an Associate Fellow in Ethics and Culture at the Greystone Theological Institute, and is a contributing editor for Comment Magazine. His writing on technology and the moral life has appeared in The New Atlantis, Comment, The Point Magazine, and Plough.

How does one love without an end? C.S. Lewis’s retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche lingers long on this question. Till We Have Faces masterfully interweaves human fallibility against the silent and mysterious workings of a higher power––all while staying true to the glittering ferocity of the Bronze Age. Join us as we plumb the depths of this hauntingly beautiful text and explore what Lewis’s last novel has to say about being human.

This group will meet weekly on Mondays from July 6 to August 3 at 11:45am in the Study Center classroom.

About the facilitators:

Ethan Williamson received his PhD in history from UF in spring 2025. His specializations include medieval Christianity, Byzantine history, and teaching world history. He is a passionate educator who is currently teaching as a postdoctoral fellow with the University Writing Program at UF. Ethan is also involved in religious education and teaching catechism at St. Elizabeth the Wonderworker Greek Orthodox Church.

John Mark is a wrapping up his last Summer as a Barista Fellow and is going into his first year in the Hamilton School’s MA in Intellectual History. He also unofficially lives at Pascal’s and enjoys deeply the conversations and coffee contained within the place where his imagination was baptized.