Crossing the “Bridge”

The love for all things Euclid continued at this morning’s first class, where students crossed the ancient mathematician’s famed “Bridge of Fools,” also known as the fifth proposition in Book 1 of the Elements. The prop demonstrates that, if two sides of an isosceles triangle are equal, then the angles opposite those sides will also be equal. In ancient Greece, this theorem is said to have served as a test of a student’s intelligence: Those who mastered it were allowed to cross the metaphorical “bridge” and study more complex mathematics, while those who did not were left behind. Having passed the test, the Summer Program students now look forward to more Euclid in the — gulp! — just two remaining days of classes.

In today’s afternoon session, students turned to theology, discussing St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation. They will delve more deeply into this work tomorrow, and then end the program on Friday with Flannery O’Connor’s The Enduring Chill.

Meanwhile, theology is on tap for tonight, when Summer Program Chaplain Fr. Sebastian presents a Q&A on the Faith in the coffee shop, complete with root-beer floats.