Episode Details

Send us Fan Mail

Irving Babbitt was the architect of New Humanism. He was also T.S. Eliot's mentor at Harvard. But in 1928, the newly Anglican Eliot's essay criticizing his old mentor's humanistic project was published, which provoked a terse, and sharp, rebuke from Babbitt. What is the relationship between traditional religion and humanistic learning? Can humanism provide society with the standards needed for democratic life? In this episode, we take a look at Babbitt's and Eliot's writings on the subject.

T.S. Eliot's The Humanism of Irving Babbitt: https://muse.jhu.edu/document/374

T.S. Eliot's Second Thoughts About Humanism: https://muse.jhu.edu/document/408

Irving Babbitt's Democracy and Leadership: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780913966556

Jay Parini's Irving Babbitt Revisited: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3856831

The Davenant Institute's Reforming Classical Education: https://davenantinstitute.org/reforming-classical-education

T.S. Eliot's Little Gidding: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/winter/w3206/edit/tseliotlittlegidding.html

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Support the show