As a publisher of classical curriculum, I would like to apologize for the great books.

For the many authors among the Greeks, the Romans, and Christendom,

they are an incredible heritage worth preserving, and here is my apology.

What?

Perhaps I should define my terms.

Apology, something said or written in defense or justification of what appears to others to be wrong, such as Tertullian's apology for Christianity.

Perhaps now more than ever, the great books and our cultural inheritance of Western

civilization is in need of this kind of apology.

We want to make the case that an essential part of a robust Christian education is being equipped to make an apology or a defense not only of your faith, but also of the cultural soil in which Christianity grew.

The authors, books, works, and history found in the great books.

A defense of a Christian inheritance of the great books.

And we'll do that by introducing you to some of these authors through our emails,

where you will be able to receive a small taste of such an education.

Old Western culture isn't the only curriculum to study the great books. There are many good ways to do it.

But it is very unique in its narrative story-like approach that is accessible and

loved by teens, usable alone or in groups or family settings,

yet engages with the ideas and texts to a degree

that educators have told us it is their favorite tool

for conveying a love of learning

and the great books to students of any age.

I want to share a short letter with you from one of the American founding fathers, John Adams,

to his then 17 year old son John Quincy, who would later become the sixth President of the United States.

...