Author: Christina Lambert (Christina Lambert)

Historian Herbert Butterfield paints a portrait of historical study that compels its students to embrace the complexity of an idea, person, or event by exercising an “imaginative sympathy.” This sympathy seeks to understand rather than define a thing by collecting particularities rather than judgments. As I continue to reflect upon the moments and memories that...

When I enrolled in Justin Jackson’s Dostoevsky course last spring, I had little idea how this course would endlessly complicate my life. I’m glad I allowed it to. Near the close of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Idiot,” the leading women meet in a horrible confrontation — tempers flare and damaging words fly. Each woman paints a...

Just say “no.” Nope, I’m not talking about saying no to drugs. I’m talking about saying no to one too many extracurricular activities, coffee dates on full days, and paper-writing sessions on Sunday nights. The goal of a liberal education is to form the mind—to shape the person by shaping his thoughts, teaching him to...