TAN Courses – Literature
The Hidden Meaning of The Lord of the Rings: The Theological Vision in Tolkien’s Fiction
Taught by Joseph Pearce Despite the absence of any direct mention of Christ or the Catholic Church, Tolkien described his work as “fundamentally religious and Catholic.” He was able to infuse his fictional world with theological orthodoxy through his creation myth and world order, by endowing his protagonists with Christian virtues, and by incorporating themes…
Read MoreThe Hobbit: Discovering Grace and Providence in Bilbo’s Adventures
Taught by Joseph Pearce In this companion course to The Hidden Meaning of The Lord of the Rings, Professor Joseph Pearce highlights the “fundamentally religious and Catholic” nature of Tolkien’s famous novel, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. In this course, Joseph Pearce shows that Tolkien’s own words about The Lord of the Rings…
Read MoreShakespeare’s Catholicism: A Critical Analysis of the Bard’s Life and Plays
Taught by Joseph Pearce In Shakespeare’s Catholicism, Joseph Pearce presents biographical and literary evidence proving the Bard’s adherence to the true Faith in a time of persecution and upheaval in Elizabethan England. Professor Pearce reveals little-known details of Shakespeare’s life, including his Catholic education, openly Catholic father and daughter, his friendship with Jesuit martyr St.…
Read MoreDante’s Paradise: A Study on Part III of the Divine Comedy
Taught by Anthony Esolen, Ph.D. You’ve followed Dante through the dread gates of Hell, to the arduous slopes of Mount Purgatory, and now, finally, to the transcendence of the Heavenly Court. With Dr. Anthony Esolen, you’ve travelled into the depths of the Inferno. You’ve witnessed the terrible hopelessness of Hell and the bitter punishments for…
Read MoreDante’s Purgatory: A Study on Part II of The Divine Comedy
Taught by Anthony Esolen, Ph.D. We know what happens in Hell…but what about Purgatory? Dante’s Inferno revealed some titillating details about the punishments inflicted on sinners – but in a way, we already knew what happens to people in Hell. What we don’t know is what happens to people who end up in Purgatory. In this second…
Read MoreDante’s Inferno: A Study on Part I of The Divine Comedy
Taught by Anthony Esolen, Ph.D. Dante’s Divine Comedy can rightly be called the greatest poem ever written, praised through the ages by a pantheon of writers and scholars. Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) referred to Dante’s crowned “visionary brow.” Irish novelist James Joyce (1882-1941) said “Dante is my spiritual food!” Pope Benedict XV (1854-1922) called…
Read MoreHomer’s Odyssey: The World Without Fathers
Taught by Henry Russell, Ph.D. Why should a Catholic study Homer? These ancient texts and the world view they represent are part of the pre-Christian era and so lack the revelation of Jesus Christ. However, because men of all times and places are made for God, all civilizations reveal the pursuit of truth and represent…
Read MoreVirgil’s Aeneid: The Founding of Nations in the Will of God
Taught by Henry Russell, Ph.D. Why should a Catholic study Virgil? These ancient texts and the world view they represent are part of the pre-Christian era and so lack the revelation of Jesus Christ. However, because men of all times and places are made for God, all civilizations reveal the pursuit of truth and represent…
Read MoreThe Roots of Western Civilization: The Ancient World from Gilgamesh to Augustine
Taught by: Anthony Esolen In this course, Prof. Anthony Esolen will examine ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and Israel, seeing the disappointment and Messianic longing in the pagan Roman poet Virgil, and the fulfilled Messianic longing among the prophets and the inspired authors of the Old Testament. You will discover the ways in which the fulfillment…
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