LEADER
John Riley has focused many of his Classical Pursuits seminars on modern and postmodern literature and philosophy, including courses on Kierkegaard, Freud, Derrida, Sartre, Camus, Bolaño, Márquez, Joyce and others. He is keenly interested in the philosophical implications of modernity and how our contemporary world sorts these out.
SEMINAR OVERVIEW
“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.”
― Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History
What do we do with our anxiety and trauma, some of it centuries old? Denial doesn’t work and acceptance without understanding is not much better. Trials and tribulations are supposed to help us discover ourselves, but it is not an easy process. We get stuck; we need help!
This seminar investigates how we transcend those emotional and psychological hardships we face. The greatest writers and thinkers have much to say about this universal experience. The world’s great religions do as well.
Do you believe in bibliotherapy? Do you think literature, philosophy and theology can provide the antidote to emotional distress? Writing that works on our souls was not created to give us escape from the world’s problems, but to show the way to confront them. Philosophy, speaking etymologically, is rooted in love and its purpose is to make us happy! Or at the least, happier.
These selections for this survey seminar will be very short and organized around five stages of processing our despondency. Not exactly Kubler-Ross, but in the same ballpark, philosophically speaking. It is a challenging but not an overwhelming reading load:
1) Rolling around in your misery
2) Getting over yourself
3) Making sense and taking responsibility
4) Achieving radical acceptance
5) Finding hope and forgiveness
READINGS
It is not necessary to purchase the full works, many of which are quite long. PDFs of short passages will be provided well in advance of the seminar. This list is subject to change:
Grand Inquisitor, Dostoevsky
Enchiridion, Epictetus
On the Shortness of Life, Seneca
The Rule of Saint Benedict
The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion
Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl
Ethics, Spinoza
The Politics of Pity, Arendt
For the Time Being, Dillard
The Problem of Pain, Lewis
The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, Jung
Evil and the God of Love, Hick
Philosophical Thoughts, Diderot
Two Sermons, Niebuhr
Selected play and sonnets, Shakespeare
New Hopes for a Changing World, Russell
As well as passages from the following sacred texts:
The Bhagavad Gita
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)
Qu’ran
Confucius
TORONTO PURSUITS 2026 PRICING
The registration cost for Toronto Pursuits 2026 is C$1850. All seminars are C$75 off through 11:59 p.m. Eastern, January 3, 2026. Sale prices are automatically applied.
All orders placed by 11:59 p.m. Eastern, January 3, 2026, also get a complimentary Toronto Summer Music Festival ticket. Participants who register after January 3 can purchase a concert ticket at our group rate, typically around C$80. The concert we will be attending will be announced in early spring 2026.
Bring a new friend and save even more! Take $100 off your registration for every new friend you bring to Toronto Pursuits. Your friend also saves $100 on their registration. Choose your discount from the dropdown menu based on the number of friends who also plan to register, and let us know your friend’s name in the order notes.
The fine print: To get the bring-a-friend discount, your friend must not have registered for any previous Toronto Pursuits seminar in any year. Your friend must register by May 31, 2026, or Classical Pursuits will apply the nondiscounted price to your final payment. Limit one $100 discount per participant for being referred as a new friend. For example, if person A brings new friend B, person C cannot also claim friend B for the bring-a-friend discount. If friend B brings new friend D, friend B qualifies for $100 discount for being a new referral, and an additional $100 for referring new friend D. Classical Pursuits reserves the right to make all decisions about discount eligibility.
Toronto Pursuits 2026
See the Toronto Pursuits 2026 page for full details on the program schedule, health and safety, booking your accommodations, terms and conditions, and more.
