The College of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More was launched in Fort Worth, Texas, on the 5th of May. It is really the continuation of St. Thomas More College, begun in 1981, but reorganized along classical and traditionalist lines. Longtime W4 readers will be pleased to learn that May 5 was chosen because it is the feast of Pope St. Pius V, who "instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victory—a particularly fond title of Our Lady to certain members of our faculty. This feast was instituted in gratitude for victory in the Battle of Lepanto since the victory was attributed to Our Lady after all of Europe prayed the Rosary for aid."
Liturgically, the College is devoted to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, with the blessing of the diocese. It's the only four-year college of its kind in the United States (and perhaps the world). The academic curriculum seems fairly rigorous. In addition to liberal arts, the college plans to offer a business and commerce degree. Fisher-More is the first to fulfill a long neglected "niche" in American higher education.
I hope you'll take some time to persuse the website, and if similarly inspired, spread the news.
Comments (10)
I know this won't be popular here, but I think it's sad that such a reactionary institution has been founded in this age of reason. The point of the university is to Foster academic freedom and unbiased inquiry, not serve as an indoctrination center for a moribund and discredited worldview that died with the massive Western empires built on unjust conquest and plunder.
Posted by Jeremy | May 12, 2012 5:25 AM
Must...not...feed...troll. Must...not...
Posted by Lydia | May 12, 2012 1:09 PM
Meanwhile, here's the story of a writer being fired from The Chronicle of Higher Education for noting that the dissertations coming out of Black Studies programs from those academically free and unbiased colleges are pure crap. Yep, a veritable age of reason free inquiry.
Posted by Scott W. | May 12, 2012 3:32 PM
Jeremy writes: "The point of the university is to Foster academic freedom and unbiased inquiry."
Who are the students at this "university," the virgins that occupy Hugh Hefner's mansion? For there are as many of them as there are such universities.
Posted by Thomas Aquinas | May 12, 2012 4:16 PM
Funny, isn't it, how starting off with a rudderless premise like this ends in intellectual suicide.
Posted by Jeff Culbreath | May 12, 2012 4:38 PM
The way I look at it, any school with two bloodied axes in its logo can't be all bad.
Posted by George R. | May 12, 2012 5:03 PM
It's the school's dinning hall policy. "Fish or chicken?" :D
Seriously, a good design: http://www.fishermore.edu/the-fisher-more-college-coat-of-arms/
Posted by Scott W. | May 12, 2012 5:10 PM
The classical worldview moribund and discredited? Can anybody give me directions to one of these universities that foster academic freedom and unbiased inquiry?
Posted by Agricola | May 14, 2012 9:57 AM
Perhaps the direction is more PROactive than REactive. I'd be interested to what specifics Jeremy is assuming this college is reacting.
Posted by dulac90 | May 14, 2012 11:33 AM
Jeff,
I'm afraid your post starts with a misrepresentation. Fisher-More College is NOT a continuation of the College of St. Thomas More, except in the most literal sense. It is the same legal institution, but the faculty, curriculum, liturgy, culture, vision, and mission have all been changed. It is a completely different college from the old St. Thomas More.
Additionally, Fisher-More College is not a reorganization of St. Thomas More along classical lines. Traditionalist, yes, but not classical. The former College of St. Thomas More was perhaps the most classical Catholic college in the country -- it drew deeply upon the structure and vision of the medieval university and of old Oxford, and its curriculum involved the reading of the great works of Western Civilization, with the order and hierarchy of the classical Catholic tradition. Fisher-More College does not appear to be devoted to reading the great works of Western Civilization (except perhaps in literature), and its vision and mission are quite different from both the medieval and Oxfordian traditions. Its sources, its models are the parochial and seminary institutions of the relatively recent Catholic past, combined with a misguided and stunningly simplistic understanding of college education.
Are you certain that the local bishop has given his blessing to Fisher-More's celebration of the Extraordinary Form to the exclusion of the Ordinary Form?
Posted by DFW Viator | May 17, 2012 10:12 PM