Kevin Simler

A sermon is more than a lecture. It's also a ritual. Simply showing up = participation.

Both lectures and sermons educate (speaker to audience). But sermons also *create common knowledge*, i.e., that certain values are accepted.

Corollary: Sermons suffer more than lectures when moving IRL to YouTube.

@KevinSimler the fact that moocs are struggling to take off suggests classrooms are more ritual than education, too.

@hamandcheese Yes!! (Maybe?) Different ritual transaction though, right? College education = prestigious ppl willing to teach me?

@KevinSimler Yes and I also think there's some proto-religious way that being in presence of greatness is suppose to rub off on you.

@KevinSimler particularly at the grad level. When you see so many of Stauss' college students becoming Straussians, say, something is up.