William R. Cook (1) (1943–)

I have been curious about the Great Courses for a few years now, but they have always been too expensive! Now that they are in the Audible store, however, I was willing to try one. This course, co-taught by two medievalists, was amazing. I did a directed reading last quarter on the life and hagiographies of St. Francis, but I still learned so much from Cook and Herzman.

One strong point of this course was the contextualization of Francis. They show what the moral and social issues of show more Francis’ day were and how Francis responded to them. In a developing market economy where money was being used more, Francis stressed absolute poverty. In an age where universities were beginning in Europe and theology went out of the prayerful world of cloisters and into the rational world of the classroom, Francis was an uneducated preacher with a simple message, a man who taught by dramatic gesture and stressed deed over act. He may look like a foolishly happy simpleton, but Francis was a man who saw the problems of his age and made himself the antidote.

Cook and Herzman’s discussion of the “Canticle of Creatures” was amazing. They show how he draws on the Psalms, on Genesis’ creation stories, and even on classical natural philosophy. They argue that this poem is not just an example of Christian nature mysticism, but the first piece of Italian literature.

Last, I thought they did a great job showing how Francis’ message was disseminated in the Church and in his orders. Their re-enactment of the dialogue between Francis and Innocent II approving the order really showed how radical his path was. They also guide the reader through the complicated thicket of post-Francis controversy between the spirituals and the progressives, between those who wanted the letter of Francis’ example and those who desired its spirit. Both sides exist to this day. They also spend a lecture on St. Clare, emphasizing that she was not just a passive vehicle for Francis’ teaching but a great mystic and teacher in her own right.

That said, I wish Cook and Herzman had discussed the hagiographic tradition. Though they discussed Thomas of Celano and Bonaventure, they didn’t talk about less official writings like the Legend of Perugia, or later ones like the Little Flowers. Though they talked about the Canticle, the two Rules, and the Testament, they didn’t talk about the various exhortations and letters he wrote. Giving a roadmap to the different types of literature and hagiography in the Franciscan canon would have been a good way to get people into Regis Armstrong’s scholarly edition of the early documents by and about Francis. show less

This course presents a decent overview of Augustine's life and work, but it lacks the intellectual rigor I expect from Teaching Company courses. The tag team of professors rambles on and on, and it seems they spend as much time talking about what they are going to talk about, or basically saying the same thing, that the actual content of this course could easily have been presented in half the time. More problematic is the complete lack of objectivity. They teach Augustine from a purely show more Catholic viewpoint, taking a brief moment to trash The Closing of the Western Mind along the way. There is none of the critical analysis I find in The Teaching Company's other courses on religion, where the presenters, whatever their personal beliefs, take time to acknowledge some of the critical opinions about or contradictions in the works they are teaching. Cook and Herzman come across as intellectual lightweights in comparison, whiling away their time in comfortable tenured positions at a university no one has heard of. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but this course just dragged on for so long, by the time it ended I was somewhat exasperated. show less

Wildly brilliant concept on Dante's part, and excellent analysis by Cook and Herzman. I had trouble staying focused during Purgatorio and Paradiso, having to go back and relisten multiple times. Might be just me, or maybe this is why Inferno is the most frequently studied book of the three.

Very educational and even entertaining history albeit viewed through a believer’s lens which tends to paper over the church’s more egregious historical flaws (the rapacious conquest of the new world, the current sexual abuse cover ups, etc).