I was blessed to be able to call Mr Senior a friend. I had been his, Dennis Quinn's, and Franklyn 'Frank' Nellick's student at the University of Kansas (And they were always 'Mr' to their students, never 'Dr', tho' they all held doctorates!). It was after the heyday of the Pearson Integrated Humanities Program, which had been destroyed by the left-wing secular humanists in control of the University, but the three of them were still teaching courses in the College of Liberal Arts, based on the PIHP.
Even after my student days, Mr Senior and I stayed in contact. In fact, I consider him probably the most important personal contact on my path to Traditionalism. He was a daily Mass goer, as I strove to be. I knew that he preferred the TLM, but it wasn't available where we lived, so every morning, he was in the back pew of our Parish Church telling his beads.
It is important to remember that, given his innate conservatism and his love for the Traditions of the Church, he could not have been happy with our Pastor, an O.F.M. Cap., who was 'kewl'. He had wreckovated a beautiful Church, moved our Blessed Lord from the Altar to an 'Adoration Chapel' not visible from the Nave, and who, despite being a hale and hearty racquetball player, sat in the 'Presider's Chair' whilst lay people distributed Holy Communion. I once confessed to him before Mass, and by the time of Communion, because of the liturgical abuses he had committed, was so angry that I couldn't receive. I returned to confession after Mass and confessed my anger to him. It didn't seem to faze him. Oh, and just to prove his 'kewlness', he wrote a weekly column on rock music for the Diocesan newspaper. He later became Provincial of the Capuchins in the region!
Anyway, you get the idea. Not exactly a Pastor who endeared himself to Mr Senior or to an incipient Trad like myself! But, John Senior was still at Mass every day.
Mr Senior was a convert, which is mentioned in Fr Longenecker's review of Dom Francis's book I posted when it was published, but a fact of which I was ignorant until one day well after my student days. My wife was having a garage sale and wanted me to help her with it. The morning of the sale, I got a phone call from Mr Senior. Whilst we were friends, we were not 'exchanging phone calls' friends so I was a bit surprised. He said that his brother was in town, and he thought I might like to meet him. He invited me to lunch with them.
My wife was disappointed that I couldn't help with the sale, but she understood that this was an odd occurrence. I had absolutely no idea why Mr Senior would think I'd like to meet his brother, but an invitation from him was something special, so I accepted.
We lunched at a nice deli and when Mr Senior introduced his brother, I realised why he had invited me. His bother was Hereward Senior, UE, a Professor at McGill University in Montreal, PQ, and a mover-and-shaker in the Monarchist League of Canada, of which I had been a member for some years. During our conversations, it came out that Hereward Senior was still an Anglican and that John was a convert. I also didn't know, and it was never brought up, that he had been a cowboy in his younger days!
I remember 'on the fly' conversations around town as we ran into each other on our errands. They were usually about philosophy or 'Catholic politics'. At any rate, I had met Mr Senior just a few short years after my conversion, and it was his influence, and a lot of reading that turned me into a Trad, long before I ever found an available TLM.
There is much more that could and should be said about the legacy of John Senior and the Integrated Humanities Program which he co-founded, but the final words, the final testimony, should be left to the Most Reverend James D. Conley, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, who, like Fr. Bethel, had a life-changing experience when studying under Senior in the IHP: “John Senior was a gifted professor of classics, a writer, poet, thinker and a student of culture. He was my godfather and, more than anyone—besides Our Lady and the Holy Spirit, of course—he led me into the Roman Catholic Church…. Dr. Senior loved his students and we loved him.”
* p. 296. The quotes from John Senior are also taken from Fr. Bethel’s book, pp. 291-6.
It is important to remember that, given his innate conservatism and his love for the Traditions of the Church, he could not have been happy with our Pastor, an O.F.M. Cap., who was 'kewl'. He had wreckovated a beautiful Church, moved our Blessed Lord from the Altar to an 'Adoration Chapel' not visible from the Nave, and who, despite being a hale and hearty racquetball player, sat in the 'Presider's Chair' whilst lay people distributed Holy Communion. I once confessed to him before Mass, and by the time of Communion, because of the liturgical abuses he had committed, was so angry that I couldn't receive. I returned to confession after Mass and confessed my anger to him. It didn't seem to faze him. Oh, and just to prove his 'kewlness', he wrote a weekly column on rock music for the Diocesan newspaper. He later became Provincial of the Capuchins in the region!
Anyway, you get the idea. Not exactly a Pastor who endeared himself to Mr Senior or to an incipient Trad like myself! But, John Senior was still at Mass every day.
Mr Senior was a convert, which is mentioned in Fr Longenecker's review of Dom Francis's book I posted when it was published, but a fact of which I was ignorant until one day well after my student days. My wife was having a garage sale and wanted me to help her with it. The morning of the sale, I got a phone call from Mr Senior. Whilst we were friends, we were not 'exchanging phone calls' friends so I was a bit surprised. He said that his brother was in town, and he thought I might like to meet him. He invited me to lunch with them.
My wife was disappointed that I couldn't help with the sale, but she understood that this was an odd occurrence. I had absolutely no idea why Mr Senior would think I'd like to meet his brother, but an invitation from him was something special, so I accepted.
We lunched at a nice deli and when Mr Senior introduced his brother, I realised why he had invited me. His bother was Hereward Senior, UE, a Professor at McGill University in Montreal, PQ, and a mover-and-shaker in the Monarchist League of Canada, of which I had been a member for some years. During our conversations, it came out that Hereward Senior was still an Anglican and that John was a convert. I also didn't know, and it was never brought up, that he had been a cowboy in his younger days!
I remember 'on the fly' conversations around town as we ran into each other on our errands. They were usually about philosophy or 'Catholic politics'. At any rate, I had met Mr Senior just a few short years after my conversion, and it was his influence, and a lot of reading that turned me into a Trad, long before I ever found an available TLM.
By Joseph Pearce
Last year, I had the pleasure of hearing a talk by Fr. Francis Bethel, O.S.B., prior of Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma. The subject of Fr. Bethel’s talk was his experience of studying under John Senior in the celebrated Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas. For those who might be unaware of this inspiring and pioneering program, it was established by Dr. Senior and two colleagues in 1970 and was destined to have a profound influence during its short-lived existence. Many of the students who studied in the IHP had profound life-changing experiences, in many cases leading to conversion to Catholicism. It was, in fact, this aspect of the program which led to its closure, the University of Kansas becoming alarmed at the number of undergraduates who were embracing Christian orthodoxy as a logical (and theological) consequence of embracing the humanities. The program was, therefore, quite literally a victim of its own success.
“In an integrated program of studies,” Senior wrote, “every subject is seen in the light of each and all, and especially of the good, the true and the beautiful.” He insisted, furthermore, that “the purpose of [the] humanities is not knowledge but to humanize.” This was countercultural and indeed revolutionary. It was an insistence that the purpose of a healthy education was not simply the accumulation of known facts but the growth of the human person into the fullness of his humanity. In short and in sum, the humanities help us to become fully human.
At the heart of John Senior’s vision was a Thomistic understanding of the path of true perception. St. Thomas taught that humility opens the eyes of wonder, and that it is wonder that leads to contemplation and to the dilation (dilatatio) of the mind and soul into the fullness of the presence of reality. “The liberal arts college begins with wonder and ends in wisdom,” Senior wrote. The problem was that “the Freshman has had wonder pretty much crushed out of him” by the secular education system itself. As Fr. Bethel expressed it in his book, John Senior and the Restoration of Realism (Thomas More College Press):
“In an integrated program of studies,” Senior wrote, “every subject is seen in the light of each and all, and especially of the good, the true and the beautiful.” He insisted, furthermore, that “the purpose of [the] humanities is not knowledge but to humanize.” This was countercultural and indeed revolutionary. It was an insistence that the purpose of a healthy education was not simply the accumulation of known facts but the growth of the human person into the fullness of his humanity. In short and in sum, the humanities help us to become fully human.
At the heart of John Senior’s vision was a Thomistic understanding of the path of true perception. St. Thomas taught that humility opens the eyes of wonder, and that it is wonder that leads to contemplation and to the dilation (dilatatio) of the mind and soul into the fullness of the presence of reality. “The liberal arts college begins with wonder and ends in wisdom,” Senior wrote. The problem was that “the Freshman has had wonder pretty much crushed out of him” by the secular education system itself. As Fr. Bethel expressed it in his book, John Senior and the Restoration of Realism (Thomas More College Press):
[I]n secular colleges like the University of Kansas, professors faced a student body of modern Hamlets and Descartes, skeptical and doubtful of the true, the good and the beautiful, of being itself. KU students had turned their backs on reality, as it were, and the first thing to do was to help them turn around again, to convert them, so that they could look with their eyes, mind and heart and see what was really there.*This required a genuine humility on the part of the student, a willingness to start anew, to see things in a fresh and reinvigorated way. As the IHP’s brochure explained, the program “should be regarded as… a course for beginners, who look upon the primary things of the world, as it were, for the first time.” This overarching philosophy was encapsulated in the IHP’s motto: Nascantur in admiratione (Let them be born in wonder).
There is much more that could and should be said about the legacy of John Senior and the Integrated Humanities Program which he co-founded, but the final words, the final testimony, should be left to the Most Reverend James D. Conley, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, who, like Fr. Bethel, had a life-changing experience when studying under Senior in the IHP: “John Senior was a gifted professor of classics, a writer, poet, thinker and a student of culture. He was my godfather and, more than anyone—besides Our Lady and the Holy Spirit, of course—he led me into the Roman Catholic Church…. Dr. Senior loved his students and we loved him.”
* p. 296. The quotes from John Senior are also taken from Fr. Bethel’s book, pp. 291-6.
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