What is “Old Western Culture”?

In the video below Wes Callihan talks about how C. S. Lewis gave a speech when moved from Oxford to teach at Cambridge. He discussed how throughout Western history there have been many great moments and periods, but there was a shift in how we thought about history and culture in the 19th Century. From the ancient Greeks and Romans to this point in history there had been commonly held ideals and notions about reality, humanity, and the universe, but in the 1800s these things came under attack and were rejected and discarded leading us into the post-enlightenment age.

At Hartford College, we believe that there is value in going back and studying what made our culture what it is and rediscovering the great lessons and ideas of the past which are being lost. We must learn to understand and love our own culture before presuming to understand other cultures. It is far too difficult to understand where we are and where our culture is going if we do not first understand where we have been.