Excerpt from Faculty Day Address - Aug. 17, 2022
I confess a certain attraction to a dark view of things, by which I mean something of a special interest in the moribund features of all that lies within this earthly realm. 这应该与病态的幽默感区别开来:什么都没有 funny about death, even if we might mock it when secure in Christ’s triumph over it. Death, sin, the violence of slander, the cruelty of attacking another’s security in a sense of the sacred; these things abound in the world, and like the gathering moments of post-twilight, they can appear at times to be on the verge of overwhelming what remains of the world’s light.
受这种感性的驱使，我希望给我八年级的文学老师留下深刻印象， I poured my rather melancholic soul into what my teacher eventually declared to be a most finely written and compelling story. The subject of that story was a young 男孩，他把他和其他人经常的劝告记在心里 我的童年告诉我，只要他用心，他可以成为任何他想成为的人 to it—led to his death when he disproved that claim by failing to fly like Superman. 我知道很夸张，但我真的演得很好. I was at first delighted 有了表扬，但后来我的老师告诉我永远不要再写这样的故事了. 他说世界上已经够黑暗的了，我永远不应该用什么礼物 God gave me to wallow in it. 他说世界需要看到光明，尤其是在那些地方 corners where things are most dark, even if I could only manage to cast a little of it in certain places.
It is remarkable how such little moments, a five-minute conversation with a revered teacher, shape the efforts of a lifetime.
That teacher, by the way, was Dr. Rollin Lasseter. A Yale PhD, poet, literary critic, scholar of Yeats, and celebrated teacher at Kentucky and NC State, who had taken a few years off from university teaching to plow his efforts into shaping the writing 我有幸参加了这所古典学校的课程. This is the same Dr. Lasseter 他后来于1992年加入云顶集团，并在这里任教多年， where he no doubt refocused the imaginations of many of our alumni and honed their efforts towards similarly light-bearing goals.
I share this story to honor Dr. Lasseter. I share it also to encourage each of us with the reminder that the encounters we have with our students matter deeply, and sometimes matter ultimately. 最后，我分享它是因为，也许是为了你，当然 对我来说，对事物的黑暗观点的吸引力最近变得更难抗拒了 than in the past.
就我而言，也许这与我大部分的学术成就有关 最近的阅读清单:我主持了一门关于弗里德里希·尼采主要作品的研究生课程 through the spring semester, followed by a quick read of Carl Truemann’s sobering The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, and then a return to some of the works of an author from whom I learned much on a first reading more than a dozen years ago, 一个毕生致力于理解文明噩梦的作家 of the last 100 years, nightmares which came true when Auschwitz came to stand as the starkest fact and the most telling symbol for the culture wars in which we are enmeshed. 我指的当然是已故的社会学家菲利普·里夫.
These were not random selections, of course. I announced last year that the effort 我们所从事的是提供优秀而解放的教育 of a reclaiming of culture. From what does culture need to be reclaimed? There are many symptoms of cultural madness to which any one of us can point: what are their causes? 在喋喋不休的人群中找到的大多数解释似乎都是如此 too shallow or off-base. 更深层次的解释往往指向马克思和他的继承人，但是 我一直怀疑，一定有别的原因导致人们放弃信仰 我们父亲的思想，并把它纳入马克思主义:必须有更深入的解释， 这是我们目睹并参与的各种破坏的宣传. Marxism does not explain the Shoah. 里夫探究的正是这个更深层次的问题.
Rieff certainly takes a dark view of things. The three-world schema he proposes for 理解我们的文化时刻是一种简化，但却是有用的. (You should 不要在这里强加“第一世界”和“第三世界”等术语的经济含义; 里夫的图式是一个历史和社会学的图式). We find ourselves, we exist 在文化上，里夫在他2006年的作品《云顶集团4008om》中论证了我们之间的关系 to ultimate authority: “Wherever we may be, in the whatness of our whoness, what we 它是由我们所处的神圣秩序构成的。.” Or, perhaps less enigmatically, he writes: “A culture is the vertical in authority, that space between sacred order 社会秩序是由世界创造者创造的世界(45).”
里夫认为，在第一世界的文化之后，最终的权威在于 命运，就像在希腊和罗马的异教文化中一样，产生了信仰的第二个世界 如犹太教、基督教和伊斯兰教，在至高无上的法律中，上帝被框定. Rieff 将西斯廷教堂的天花板作为第二世界文化的代表; “Here is where culture is, in what is perhaps the most famous image of the via, or the way of authority, known to us. 这是西斯廷教堂天花板上的图像 在罗马，米开朗基罗创造了亚当，这同时也是创造 of our second world culture. 右边是造物主的形象，还有 on the left the first created. The key element is the space between…. That space is extraordinarily limited. 在这个看似很小的空间里，是所有的空间 all humanity lives (45).”
Third world culture, ushered in, Rieff argues, by Nietzsche, Freud, and their many 《云顶集团》是一项宏大的实验，旨在攻击里夫所称的垂直市场 in authority. 我们杀死上帝或嘲笑天意，我们把自己从方向中解放出来 to the vertical in authority. 我们否认有从天而降的禁令， 我们被解放了，可以随心所欲地塑造自己. Efforts to such effect, 里夫认为，这些都是他用“死亡作品”这个词来概括的. A prime example Rieff examines as a deathwork is Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ (1987), which 一个装有十字架的玻璃容器是否浸没在艺术家自己的尿液中. It 不难看出，这部作品颠覆了垂直权威. What 里夫对它的分析提供了一个看到许多其他文化的基础 手工艺品，言语和行为都是对上帝，摩西，祭司的亵渎， 牧师们，拉比们，以及那些努力寻找自己正义的人的嘲弄 orientation to the ultimate sacred authority. Rieff reveals that most of these deathworks 比塞拉诺的更微妙，更有说服力，而且数量众多. 里夫认为，第三世界文化本质上是反文化的，因为它试图反文化 摧毁了上帝之手和第一个人类之间的那一点空间 人类找到自己真正文化的空间. It is impossible to avoid the effects of such deathworks: However hard we may try to maintain the posture of one who sees 他本人主要是第二世界文化的居民，我们甚至在内部也处于战争状态 我们自己，因为我们只能生活在当代无数的死亡作品中 culture.
I warned you this was a dark view of the challenges before us, and, should you pick 里夫，我想在座的每个人，包括我自己，都会觉得不舒服 里夫提供的一些分析，尤其是他对“特殊”的解释 works of art, both visual and literary. But I warrant he is on to something, and that, indeed, the challenges are stark, and that even our best and brightest students who 也在他们的父母的信仰中得到了良好的培养， suffer the intra and inter-personal torments he describes in their efforts to find their way forward as shapers of our culture.
尽管里夫对我们当代萎靡不振的调查是黑暗的，但就连他也看到了希望. His point 他告诉我们，写这部作品是为了揭开死亡作品的真面目。. To 看清它们的本来面目是为了削弱它们对我们灵魂的控制. His goal is to disarm deathworks. 人们不会对最近的身体暴力行为这样做 assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie. Besides violating the interdict against murder, such acts of violence are self-defeating. Nor does Rieff argue that there is no role for subversive art or literature. 它指出，伟大的文学作品， 伟大的艺术作品，无论是否具有颠覆性，都值得研究. It also stands pointing out that “subversive” is a pliable word: Rushdie’s playful and engaging literature, 举个例子来说，可能会颠覆某些正统的伊斯兰教， 但它是否可能肯定其他类型的正确思维? One cannot judge rightly without study. 里夫的努力是通过揭示将我们从反文化中解放出来 颠覆性就是颠覆性，通过命名事物的本来面目. And, we should name things what they are; but a well educated person knows that such naming can really only be the fruit of assessing things himself.
Hope is strengthened still further when you have a university dedicated not just to 正确地指出潜伏在黑暗中的东西，而是在教育中培养学生 in the true, good, and beautiful. We are explicitly dedicated to strengthening our 学生的关系在权威的纵向教育中是最好的 西方和天主教的知识传统，鼓励他们真正的宽宏大量 这种精神，使他们能够用一生的努力，为祖国创造光荣的事业 the greater glory of God.
但请记住，我们不应该太快地忽视可能看起来陌生的东西. 我对里夫的反思不应被解读为忽视创造性的建议 works that fall outside comfortable patterns of thought, or worse, as fostering any 害怕从事可能超出我们传统的工作. Liberal education is animated 因为每个矿里都有金子. Our mission statement (/about-ud/mission.php ) does indeed dedicate us to “the recovery of the Christian intellectual tradition, and to the renewal of Catholic theology in fidelity to the Church,” but also to do 在与现代世界的建设性对话中.” If we, the faculty of the University 如果达拉斯没有找到一种方法来做好这两件事，谁会呢?
作为教育者，我们的工作比以往任何时候都更加至关重要. We are dedicated in 我们的使命宣言是引导我们的学生走向智慧，真理和美德. It is to that orientation we must tend with the very best of our efforts, taking special care to keep our own orientation aright. And for that latter effort, we all ought to be grateful that we are in this work together.
我的暑期阅读以约翰·亨利·纽曼的《云顶集团》结束. 值得注意的是，这部相对较老的作品很好地应对了我们当前的挑战. 纽曼对为学习而学习的坚定辩护，在《云顶集团》一书中进行了详尽的探讨 V, contains the heart of the matter. Liberal education concerns the cultivation of 心灵首先是最重要的，真正的文化来自于心灵的培养 is secured. 在《云顶集团》一书中也有一些值得注意的警告. For instance, that though learning for its own sake is unarguably a great good, it alone does not make us or our students good. 这就是为什么我们在学生生活和校园里所做的工作 教育是非常重要的:培养整个人，整合知识分子， 道德和神学上的美德需要把注意力集中在大学的各个领域 life.
《云顶集团》也包含了充分的论据来平息人们对大学的恐惧 实用学科，比如商业，可能会削弱我们大学的文科特色 university. 纽曼认为文理大学是一个 students and faculty are brought to appreciate the unity of all the disciplines, he really means all the disciplines. So long as the foundation remains the liberating 纽曼认为，不只是商业，还有法律、医学和其他领域 实用学科在文科大学找到了最合适的归宿. As Newman 在第七篇论述中指出，这不仅仅是适当的自由学科 不是主要以有用性为导向，但却非常有用，因为， "对个人最有利的智力训练，最能使人 他[JJS2]履行他对社会的义务(Idea, 136)，“[1]而是实践纪律 both benefit and are benefitted by their inclusion within a liberal arts university 因为这些学科的教师更明确地丰富了教师的生活 liberal disciplines and come to appreciate their discipline’s relation to the other disciplines (Idea, 128-9).
Newman concludes Discourse VII arguing not only that a great Catholic liberal arts 的确，大学必须首先致力于培养人才的主要任务 the minds of its students, and secondly to preparing them for successful careers in 任何一种职业，但也有更多的是我们必须奉献. A great Catholic liberal arts university is preparing its students to live lives of rich meaning and purpose, and to shaping the culture in which they find themselves world makers, that is to say, culture formers. Newman’s words on this subject are too fitting to merely gloss:
But a university training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end; 它的目的是提高社会的知识水平，培养公众的思想， at purifying the national taste, at supplying true principles to popular enthusiasm 而固定的目标则是满足大众的愿望，使思想得到扩展和冷静 这个时代，在促进政治权力的行使，和精炼交往 of private life. 正是教育使一个人对自己的前途有了清醒的认识 own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go 开门见山，解开思想的纠缠，发现什么是诡辩， and to discard what is irrelevant. It prepares him to fill any post with credit and to master any subject with facility. 它教会了他如何适应他人， how to throw himself in their state of mind, how to bring before them his own, how to influence them, how to come to an understanding with them, how to bear with them. He is at home in any society, he has common ground with any class; he knows when to speak and when to be silent; he is able to converse, he is able to listen; he can 当他无话可说的时候，适时地提出问题，适时地吸取教训 himself; he is ever ready, yet never in the way; he is a pleasant companion, and a comrade you can depend upon; he knows when to be serious and when to trifle, and he has sure tact which enables him to trifle with gracefulness and to be serious with effect. 他有一种心灵的宁静，这种心灵既活在自己身上，又活在世界上， 当它不能走出国门时，它的幸福资源就在国内. He has 这是一份在公众面前为他服务，在退休后养活他的礼物，没有它也有好处 命运是庸俗的，失败和失望与它有一种魅力。 137).
We, the faculty of the University of Dallas, are the ones who provide this gift to our students. 它是光的礼物，穿透每一个黑暗并加强 flagging courage. 反过来，我们也有天赋团结一致，努力传递这一点 gift. 我们确实需要意识到摆在我们面前的文化挑战. We need to 为事物的本来面目命名，以放松对我们和学生的控制。 souls. 但我们不要在黑暗的事上耽延太久. Let us rally our 努力提供最优秀的礼物通过优秀的教育这些学生 who will soon be before us in our classrooms. This is our great work. Let us begin it anew.
Sincerely,
Jonathan J. Sanford, Ph.D.
President
Professor of Philosophy