Previous Classes
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Are you looking for a previous Gibbs Classical online course? Good news—the entire library of Gibbs Classical courses is now available for purchase!
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Available Courses
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Course Details (per course)
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Length: Fourteen one-hour sessions
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Format: Every session can be viewed as a video or downloaded as audio (perfect for listening in the car or on a walk)
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Cost: $265 each
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What does a Gibbs Classical course offer?
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Like all good teachers, I seek to bring to light the most important themes, passages, images, and motifs from the work being discussed. What makes a Gibbs Classical course unique, however, is that it offers more than just an overview of the text or a collection of esoteric theories: you'll get something you can really chew on.
Over the last twenty years, I have taught classic books to high school students, college students, and older adults with the goal of bringing the moral weight of the text to bear on the student. An encounter with Paradise Lost or Frankenstein or Plato’s Republic should incline the reader toward virtue, and it is the teacher’s responsibility to help make the inclination sure by showing how the text can be used for moral and spiritual gain. Whether you want to read these books yourself or you're looking for instruction for a younger student, each course offers a guided path through one or more great works with plenty of thought-provoking questions and discussion along the way.
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Foundations of Modern Politics
Curriculum: The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke, The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
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Most Americans have strongly held beliefs about marriage, taxes, guns, and drugs, but few Americans have a coherent, unifying philosophy which holds their beliefs together. Consequently, many arguments about politics involve passionate assertions, but very little reason or discernment. When a man’s beliefs are not held together by a unifying philosophy, however, they are more likely to change. The loss of each small piece might seem negligible and forgettable, but it is possible to slowly lose a fortune—or your faith—in tens and twenties, without every laying down a hundred dollar bill.
"Foundations of Modern Politics" is a class which takes students back to the early modern era when political progressivism and conservatism first emerged as rival ideals and rival ways of life. Contemporary debates about politics often assume the division between conservatives and progressives began over competing views of freedom or morality. However, returning to the foundational texts of either party proves their disagreement is theological and centers on human nature. Once these rival philosophies of human nature are understood, individual political beliefs can be viewed within their broader context and unified, consistent thought becomes possible.
Because "Foundations of Modern Politics" offers students a coherent philosophy of government, the net result of the class is not merely students who have better ways of arguing the world should be run differently. Instead, students are given the intellectual tools they need to live out their political beliefs in every sphere of life—from the way they choose how to decorate their homes to the way they choose where to go to church.
Modern Romance: The Cult of Courtly Love in Theory, Literature, and Film
Curriculum: The Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult retold by Joseph Bedier (translated by Hilaire Belloc), Love in the Western World by Denis De Rougemont, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds
Have you ever watched a film billed as “a romance” and thought, “The people who made this movie don’t understand the first thing about love”? Do popular new love songs often strike you the same way?
The modern notion of romance comes from a very particular time and place in history—twelfth century France, to be precise. This class traces the history of “romance” in the west and explains exactly how love got so twisted. A great class for high school students who have begun thinking seriously about preparing to be good husbands and wives!
British Ladies of the Nineteenth Century
Curriculum: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Three of the most remarkable novels of all time were all written by British women in the early 1800s. Bronte, Shelley, and Austen were all witness to profound social change and each confronted progressivism in a different way. In this class, the key passages, characters, motifs, themes, and theories of each novel are discussed, the virtues of each novel are compared, and students come away with fresh insights into the diverse temptations that attend a life of virtue. This class is perfectly suited to first-time readers of these novels or lifelong fans that have already read them dozens of times.
Plato's Republic for Beginners
Curriculum: Plato’s Republic (Robin Waterfield translation)
What does it mean for a man to be at peace with himself? What does it look like when all the different aspects of your life—work, religion, tastes, pastimes—work in harmony with one another? Plato’s Republic is a long, slow, and very patient answer to these questions. It’s been said that the history of philosophy is but a footnote to Plato’s Republic—after you’ve read it, you’ll see why.
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The Republic is a book which presents a clear picture of intellectual strength self-control. This class is the perfect medicine for anyone who is disenchanted with the modern world’s dogmas of self-expression, self-help, self-care, and self-obsession, and instead wants a classical vision of the self.
Wisdom Literature for Beginners
Curriculum: The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, Ecclesiastes
When you’re angry because you’ve been treated unjustly, how do you get over it? When misfortune strikes—and you break an ankle, get dumped, or lose something valuable—what do you say to yourself so that you feel better? When it’s ten in the morning and you’ve got another grueling six hours of work before you can go home, what do you tell yourself to get through the day? Believe it or not, philosophers have been asking questions like these for thousands of years, and a few of them have reached some profound conclusions that can sturdy your soul in moments of pain and frustration. The Consolation of Philosophy and Ecclesiastes were both written for people who want to prepare their souls for whatever difficulties lay ahead. This class closely exams their most profound insights.
The Divine Comedy for Beginners
Curriculum: The Divine Comedy (translated by Mark Musa), Ascent to Love by Peter Leithart
In the last thousand years, no author has created a more beautiful and comprehensive vision of Christian virtue than Dante. The Comedy is a sprawling, sublime work of poetry which recounts Dante’s journey from the miserable depths of Hell to the glorious heights of God’s throne room. There may not be time enough to read all the classics, but no classical education is complete without a reading of the Comedy, and this class will cover the whole of Dante’s most celebrated work.
The Divine Comedy is an epic which can be reread endlessly and understood on many levels, but "The Divine Comedy for Beginners" is tailored for readers who are venturing through the poem for the first time. This class is well-suited for high school students, but homeschooling parents and educators who teach Medieval or Renaissance literature will also find it profitable.
Paradise Lost for Beginners
Curriculum: Paradise Lost by John Milton (Penguin Classics edition)
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The devil has a file on you. It is very thorough. He knows where you are strong and where you are weak. He knows all the subtle ways in which we justify our sins. He is a formidable enemy that very few modern Christians take all that seriously—and not being taken seriously is arguably the devil’s greatest accomplishment since the Enlightenment began. However, the devil’s tricks can also be understood.
This, at least, is one of the daring premises of Paradise Lost. While John Milton famously set out “to justify the ways of God to man,” a good deal of Paradise Lost is about how the devil thinks, how he reasons, and how he cons man into thinking and reasoning like himself. At the same time, Paradise Lost is about far more than the devil and his lies: it is also about happy marriages and sad marriages, about God’s love and His plan for mankind, and it contains a good deal about education, as well.
There are many different angles a teacher may take when teaching Paradise Lost because the poem is sometimes political, sometimes deeply theological, and at other times just a lively epic romp. However, when I teach Paradise Lost, I am most interested in what the poem has to say about living a good and righteous life. At the end of "Paradise Lost for Beginners," students will not only understand Milton’s vision for human flourishing, but also Milton’s deep wisdom insofar as the devil attempts to subvert that flourishing for his own twisted pleasure. I have lost count of how many times I’ve taught Paradise Lost (somewhere between 20 and 30), but I never finish it apart from some fresh appreciation for just how clearly Milton perceived the real nature of things. It is one of the classics for which I am most deeply grateful.