NEW TO THE GREAT BOOKS?
The great books are the most impactful works within Western civilization. They are Homer, Aeschylus, Plato, Cicero, St. Augustine, Dante, and many modern authors like Hobbes, Locke, Kant, and Nietzsche. The great books are great, because they address perennial themes, like justice, ethics, happiness, and truth.
The great books, however, do not agree. Not all are an attempt to explore what is true, good, and beautiful - but all are in conversation with one another. And you can join that conversation by reading the great books with us!
Here are some excellent places to start:
A LIBRARY OF WRITTEN GUIDES TO THE GREAT BOOKS
Need help reading the great books? We have an entire library of written guides to Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Plato, and more.
Click the button below to review our library:
THE YEAR OF HOMER
Can everyone read Homer?
Yes! You can read Homer! Our "Year with Homer" guides you through both the Iliad and the Odyssey. On the podcast, we covered one book (chapter) of the Iliad and then the Odyssey per week using the Fagles' translation.
53 Videos and podcasts
60+ hours of discussion
100+ pages of written guides
Join Dcn. Harrison Garlick as he discusses Homer with great teachers like Dr. Patrick Deneen, Dr. Jennifer Frey, Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson, Dr. Frank Grabowski, and more!
LINKS:
The Iliad playlist on Youtube.
The Odyssey playlist on Youtube.
Introduction to Homer: Apple, Spotify and Youtube.
The Iliad Book One: Rage of Achilles - Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
Introduction to the Odyssey with Dr. Patrick Deneen: Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
The Odyssey Book One: Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
YOU CAN READ DANTE'S INFERNO WITH ASCEND
Why should we read Dante’s Inferno?
The Inferno is an invitation to save your soul. Dante the Pilgrim journeys through the pit of hell alongside his pagan guide, Virgil. In the narrative, Dante the Poet tears away the veneer of human desire and exposes the ugly reality of sin. We are supposed to find ourselves in Dante the Pilgrim and are invited to learn alongside him in his journey.
The Inferno is the first canticles or volume in the Divine Comedy alongside Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Comedy is righly said to be like St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae is poetic form. In it, Dante the Poet weaves together Holy Scripture, St. Augustine, Aristotle, pagan mythology, astronomy, and more into one brilliant pedagogical narrative. Reality is intelligible and holds lessons for our sanctification and salvation.
We are invited to become students of our own souls by understanding a hell structured by love, the horror of sin, and the ugliness of evil. Dante wants to save your soul.
Reading Schedule:
Introduction & the Dark Woods
1. Intro & Canto 1 with Dr. Jeremy Holmes (Wyoming Catholic)
Vestibule of Hell, Limbo & Lust
2. Cantos 2-5 with Dr. Jennifer Frey (TU) and Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson (Pepperdine).
Gluttony, Spendthrift/Hoarders, Wrathful/Acedia & Heretics
3. Cantos 6-11 with Dr. Jason Baxter of Benedictine College.
Violence: Against Neighbor, Self & God
4. Cantos 12-17 with Fr. Thomas Esposito, O. Cist., of the University of Dallas.
Simple Fraud: Pits 1-7
5. Cantos 18-25 with Noah Tyler, CFO of CLT, and Gabriel Blanchard, Staff Writer for CLT.
Simple Fraud: Pits 8-10
6. Cantos 26-31 with Dr. Donald Prudlo (TU)
Complex Fraud: The Traitors
7. Cantos 32-34 with Evan Amato.
8. Lying as Contraceptive Speech: Lessons from Dante's Inferno with Sean Berube and Shannon of Catholic Frequency
9. How to Read the Bible like St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante with Adam Minihan and Thomas Lackey
READING GUIDE AND LINKS:
Check out our 80+ Question and Answer Guide to Dante's Inferno! A fantastic resource to help you or your small group read Dante's Inferno.
Check out our YouTube playlist on Dante's Inferno!
START HERE on Apple Podcast or Spotify!
Read the Greek Plays with Ascend
The Greek plays are an intellectual bridge between Homer and Plato. They merit a slow, careful read on their own terms, but also as writings that tilled the soil for philosophy, properly speaking, to arise.
Though not a poet, we also covered Hesiod, a younger contemporary of Homer.
READING SCHEDULE
Intro to the Greek Plays
Hesiod's Theogony
The Oresteia by Aeschylus
Into to Aeschylus
Agamemnon Part I
Agamemnon Part II
Libation Bearers Part I
Libation Bearers Part II
Eumenides Part I
Eumenides Part II
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus
Prometheus Bound with Dr. Jared Zimmerer
The Theban Plays (Oedipus Cycle) by Sophocles
Antigone Part I
Antigone Part II
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus at Colonus Part I
Oedipus at Colonus Part II
The Bacchae by Euripides
The Bacchae Part I with Dr. Frank Grabowski
The Bacchae Part II with Dr. Frank Grabowski
Two Plays by Aristophanes
7/1 The Clouds by Aristophanes with Dr. Zena Hitz
7/8 The Frogs by Aristophanes with Tsh Oxenreider
Overview
7/15 Roundtable on the Tragic Plays
YOU CAN READ PLATO WITH ASCEND
WHY SHOULD WE READ PLATO?
WHY SHOULD CHRISTIANS READ PLATO?
UPDATED SCHEDULE
➡️7/22 Introduction to Plato with Dr. Grabowski, Dr. Larson, and more!
➡️7/29 Plutarch on Alcibiades with Alex of Cost of Glory
➡️8/5 First Alcibiades Pt I with Athenian Stranger and Alec Bianco
➡️8/12 First Alcibiades Pt II with Athenian Stranger and Alec Bianco
➡️8/19 Teaching First Alcibiades with Dr. Shields of Wyoming Catholic College
➡️8/26 Euthyphro Rountable Part I with Dr. Grabowski, Dr. Spencer, Thomas Lackey, and more!
➡️9/2 Euthyphro Rountable Part II with Dr. Grabowski, Dr. Spencer, Thomas Lackey, and more!
➡️9/9 Aquinas & the Euthyphro Dilemma with Dr. Prudlo, University of Tulsa
➡️9/16 The Apology Part I with Fr. Justin Brophy, OP, Providence College
➡️9/23 The Apology Part II with Fr. Justin Brophy, OP, Providence College
➡️9/30 The Crito with Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos
➡️10/7 Intro to the Phaedo with Alec Bianco and Athenian Stranger
➡️10/14 The Phaedo Pt I with Dr. Christopher Frey, University of Tulsa
➡️10/21 The Phaedo Pt II with Dr. Christopher Frey, University of Tulsa
➡️10/28 Halloween episode TBD 🎃
➡️ 11/4 The Meno & Education with Dr. Daniel Wagner of Aquinas College and the Lyceum Institute
➡️11/11 Gorgias Pt I: Gorgias with Johnathan Bi and Athenian Stranger
➡️11/18 Gorgias Pt II: Polus with Dr. Matthew Bianco, Circe Institute
➡️11/25 Gorgias Pt III: Callicles with Dr. Gregory McBrayer of the New Thinkery
➡️12/2 "The Lame Shall Enter First" by Flannery O'Connor with Dr. Kemple of the Lyceum Institute
➡️12/9 Plato: The Teacher as a Lover of the Soul with Dr. Grabowski, Thomas Lackey, and more!
Christmas 2025🎄✝️
Read either the Tolkien or Armitage translations. Both also have excellent audiobooks, especially Armitage, to capture the alliterative style.
➡️ 12/16 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pt 1
➡️ 12/23 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pt 2
➡️ 12/30 Sir Gawain and the Green Knights Pt 3
READING PLATO IN 2026 TOGETHER📚☕️🧵
➡️1/6 Should Christians read Pagan Authors with Alec Bianco and Sean Berube
➡️1/13 A Christian Defense of Eros
➡️ 1/20 Plato and St. Augustine with Dr. Pecknold, CUA
➡️1/27 Plato and St. Boethius with Dr. Thomas Ward, Baylor
➡️2/3 Plato and St. Thomas Aquinas with Dr. Donald Prudlo
🔥We'll be reading Dante' PURGATORY for Lent 2026
Then we'll start PLATO'S REPUBLIC in April 2026 and we already have Dr. Alex Priou, Dr. Gregory McBrayer, Dr. Jennifer Frey, and Dr. Zena Hitz signed up!
We plan to then cover the Symposium and the Timaeus.