Scala Foundation - Playing a Crucial Role in the Evangelization of the Culture and Breaking the Mould of Education

Attend the spring conference, Art, the Sacred, and the Common Good, at Princeton, NJ, April 30th, 2022. Free to register and attend.

I want to highlight the work of the SCALA Foundation. The Scala Foundation’s mission is to renew American culture by restoring beauty and wisdom to the liberal arts. Scala’s seminars, reading groups, conferences, summer programs and online resources help educators and culture creators engage the millennia-old tradition of liberal arts education and its power to form virtuous, purpose-driven citizens, form young leaders who are pivotal agents of cultural renewal, and build communities of like-minded cultural entrepreneurs and magnify their impact.

Some may remember that I recently spoke on the Scala webinar, listen here. or here. She has also invited me to be on a panel for the SCALA 2022 conference - Art, the Sacred, and the Common Good - in Princeton NJ this April, which is free to attend.

The focus of SCALA is in creating creative communities at a local level that are able to contribute to Catholic education locally and to the culture through the creation of art, music, literature etc (eg she organizes writers' workshops).

It occurs to me that SCALA is offering programs that complement formal online education, such as that offered by www.Pontifex.University, where I work, and when the two approaches to student formation are combined offer a genuine opportunity. The zoom revolution that has happened as a result of Covid has opened up people’s minds to the idea of online education.

The advantages of this are that high-quality and standardized educational material can be delivered at a fraction of the cost of the traditional on-campus experience. However, I am conscious that providing community of learning - so important in education - is the weakness of online education and while things are improving, it is clear that Facebook pages and chatrooms don't fill the gap. This is where SCALA comes in. They are guiding educators and artistic creatives who can contribute to a culture of beauty to form communities locally.

I am encouraging Pontifex students to attend and participate in the conferences and events and meet each other, (and me if they are interested!) so that they might start to form communities with each other locally under Scala's guidance. It is these local communities, it occurs to me, which might be portals for grace and love that can transform the culture.

The Martyrdom of St Lawrence, by Antonio Campi

Today is the commemoration of the martyrdom of St Lawrence, who died in the persecution of Emperor Valerian in AD 258. 

TThis picture was painted by the Italian Antonio Campi and completed in 1581. Stylistically it belongs to what is called the Mannerist period. This runs from the period of the Council of Trent until about the end of the 16th century. Artists were searching for a new Christian harmonization of idealism and naturalism that was not necessarily so slavishly attached to the classical ideal of ancient Greece and Rome, as typified by the High Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo or Raphael, although some still chose to do so. It produced a variety of individual styles, some of which in my opinion had great merit and beauty, such as the paintings of Pontormo and El Greco, but most did not inspire followers. Hence we did not see the emergence of any coherent tradition that could fulfill the directives of the Council as part of the Counter-reformation, until the end of the century. This tradition became what we now call the baroque style and the pioneers were, Titian, lesser-known (today) Francesco Barocci who died in 1612, and the great popularizer of this new style, possibly named after Barocci, Caravaggio.

I chose this painting because it shows the gruesome death of this great martyr on a grid iron. We live in a time more than any other in the recent past of persecution of Christian. In the US it is still a soft persecution (although it may yet become a more violent persecution that involves physical danger, and what Christians in Pakistan, for example, face daily. Nevertheless, I feel the pressure to witness the Faith daily and I pray for the grace the courage to do so (and am dismayed at how easily I hesitate to speak up). Part of the inspiration for me is the courage of these great saints of the past, who stood up to the greatest of tests so heroically.

Some artists stuck more closely to the classical ideal than others. Pontormo's is one who continued to draw heavily to the classical ideal. He painted a picture of the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, now lost. Here is one by his student Bronzini: