Dr. Barry Knowlton: The Dignity of Language in the Liberal Arts

Savina Villani

Staff Writer Abroad

Dr. Barry C. Knowlton is a long-standing member of Assumption, ever-familiar with its core beliefs––long before “The pursuit of truth in the company of friends” became a popularized phrase among students.

He attended Assumption College in 1980 when “Until Christ be formed in you,” the words of Fr. D’Alzon, was the common phrase that shaped the University’s fundamental beliefs. The phrase emphasizes how the transcendent can materialize itself in students, so long as they conduct their lives properly. It informs their core values, and gives their Catholic liberal arts education a directive and purpose––a directive and purpose which the postmodernity of the 21st century discards, replacing it with the aimless wanderings of individuals in isolation.

Dr. Knowlton’s work reflects how he lives to be formed by Christ, and how he helps his students to achieve the same formation that will mark the rest of their lives. An unsung hero of the University and firm believer in its deepest-held values, Dr. Knowlton works to reinvigorate today’s students’ desire to delve ever deeper into the liberal arts. His warm enthusiasm pervades every class, gently encouraging them to partake in his love of learning, a love that began decades ago and still burns brightly today.

Dr. Knowlton is what many would call a learned man, considering that he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English, two masters’ degrees in English and Classics, and a Ph.D. in History. He brings his expertise in these fields to Assumption, teaching in three different departments.

Those who know Dr. Knowlton personally are aware that teaching is not merely a career path that he chose to pursue, but a vocation that he was called to; it is not a one-time arbitrary selection of a job he might enjoy, but a gradual growth into the commitment that gives him purpose in the context of something far more important.

Despite being happily married to Dean Eloise Knowlton, he carries himself in an almost priestly manner, as if to give his words in the classroom due reverence, pointing students to a greater truth. 

“In everything I teach, I try to teach students to become better readers and writers,” said Dr. Knowlton. “…and this is based on my conviction that it’s the ability to use language that makes us human…and I think even most secular academics would agree with that.”

He appreciates and shares the incredible gift of language that humans have as a medium to formulate, deliver, and receive ideas––ideas which allow man to make sense of the world and his purpose in it, and ideas that allow him to examine the three transcendentals: truth, goodness, and beauty. Language, he argues, is at the heart of a liberal arts education, and furthermore, our humanity. 

“We are created in the image and likeness of God,” he said. “The ability to use language is the image of God in which we are created.”

By protecting and cultivating students’ ability to use language, which is unique to humans, Dr. Knowlton works to nurture not only their human dignity, but their formation in, with, and through Christ. This approach to teaching reflects how his guidance under the founder’s phrase, “Until Christ be formed in you,” encourages students to partake in the transcendent Good.

Yet this vision of cultivating language in a non-confrontational world of isolation and loneliness proves difficult. “This is why I get as anxious as I do about whether people are reading and writing anything anymore,” he commented. 

“What I think benefits the University is sticking to its mission and its core values to the Catholic liberal arts tradition, and to do that even when there are so many pressures saying, ‘No, no––we don’t need to study classics.’”

Today’s culture renders the liberal arts––the culmination of language––as irrelevant or optional. Against this portrayal damaging to human dignity, Dr. Knowlton believes that Assumption should insist on how indispensable the liberal arts are.

Dr. Knowlton’s work across departments at Assumption counters the postmodern disinterest and indifference towards the liberal arts that turns people off to authentic communication. “I think it’s so urgent…that we cultivate the capacities that make us human,” Dr. Knowlton argued. He teaches each lesson with delicacy and care, inspiring students to share both an enthusiasm to learn, and collective knowledge using language. 

“This Catholic faith…inspires [and] animates my teaching,” he said with conviction. With every class, he teaches with the faith that his lessons will form students in a profound way, the hope that the generation he teaches may continue the legacy of the liberal arts, and the love of the gifts of ideas communicated through language.

His work embodies the motto “Until Christ be formed in you” in a way that students admire as he enriches their human dignity, allowing them to commune with others in, with, and through Christ.