Students and teachers in the Honors Institute are all students of master teachers – authors of great texts. We have a love of learning and aim at the same goal: progress in true understanding of the most important matters. In this undertaking, the more experienced assist the less experienced in a shared quest – collaborative rather than competitive. Although grades and various kinds of assignments are necessary, these are ultimately subordinate to the joys of seeking to know the truth and to the high friendships which develop through shared spiritual, intellectual, and social activity.
In a related vein, Honors Institute students, Honors faculty, and college administrators spend time together during occasional dinners, at the sophomore beach retreat, and in attending Honors Cultural Events.
John Paul II describes what Belmont Abbey College intends to foster among students and between students and teachers in the Honors Institute: “It must not be forgotten that reason, too, needs to be sustained in all its searching by trusting dialogue and sincere friendship. A climate of suspicion and distrust, which can beset speculative research, ignores the teaching of the ancient philosophers who proposed friendship as one of the most appropriate contexts for philosophical inquiry.” John Paul II, Fides et Ratio.