Laurence Freeman OSB in conversation with Robert Kiely: You know, I, I know you had this very popular class that you were talking about, on the Bible. I think you had about 300 students every semester for that. How would you describe beauty? How did you introduce the idea of beauty? Well, I had a very Protestant college education. I went to Amherst College, which was founded in the mid 19th century by separatists from Williams College, because they wanted to keep Protestant orthodoxy and so we were required to go to Chapel, twice a week, and it was a wonderful place. I mean, it wasn't crazily strict or anything, but basically, I call it Protestant, in the sense that you were told what was most important was to think for yourself and not accept authority. Think for yourself, argue for yourself, stand up for what you believe and what you think. And that was taught in a very gentle, wonderful way. And so, for example, when I teach the seminar on Beauty and Christianity and you know, one of the first questions, Laurence asked it, you know...you sit, you walk into a room and there are 12 students around the table and practically the first question is: What do you mean by beauty? And at a place other than Amherst, they probably would have told you what to think, but we were not told what to think.
