is the name used in Plato's Republic for the city envisioned by Socrates as perfectly just. Ruled by philosophers, its citizens coexist in harmony because their society is structured to mirror the properly ordered soul. The Republic is a foundational text in Western thought, considered by some to be Western philosophy's greatest work. The questions it raises and the answers it offers are essential to understanding our intellectual heritage.
I've chosen the Kallipolis as the inspiration for this website because the model of philosophic inquiry demonstrated in the Republic is the inspiration for all of the courses I teach, and because understanding the worldview of the text was essential to my own intellectual conversion (return) to Catholicism.
Here you will find all the relevant resources for my Theology courses at Cardinal Gibbons High School. If you are a student in one of those courses, make sure you are in the right place before proceeding. Additional information can be found at these sites:
Here you will find all the relevant resources for my Theology courses at Cardinal Gibbons High School. If you are a student in one of those courses, make sure you are in the right place before proceeding. Additional information can be found at these sites:
- The CGHS Homepage.
Use this website for school-required documentation regarding my courses. Your school login is required for access. - Google Classroom.
The class stream contains digital copies of all course readings not found in the textbooks, in the order assigned. Your school login is required for access.
You can access the main page for each course on the menu at the top of this page, or by clicking on the course titles below. I've also listed links to useful pages for each course.
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is a year-long class covering the contents of the Bible. This class also surveys the history of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity and the various methods of Biblical interpretation. The content of the class corresponds to the Jesus Christ in Scripture class in the Curriculum Guidelines provided by the National Council of Catholic Bishops. |
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is a semester-long elective class examining the thought of philosophers in the Classical Realist tradition, including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. The class also considers Modern and Postmodern developments in philosophy from the classical perspective, with the intent of determining why Classical Realism was and remains a compelling foundational philosophical worldview. |
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is a semester-long elective class surveying Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A brief history of each religion is considered, along with an examination of key ideas and contemporary issues. The relationship of Catholicism to each religion is also considered. |
About Me
My name is Rick Martin, and I am a Theology teacher at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, NC. I’ve been teaching high school Theology for 22 years.
I am a product of Catholic education myself. I attended Our Lady of Sorrows elementary school in Birmingham, AL, up until 6th grade, at which point my family moved to Little Rock, AR and I finished elementary school at Our Lady of Good Counsel (the school closed its doors in 2006). In 1984, I entered high school at Catholic High School for Boys, at that time under the leadership of the legendary Fr. George Tribou. My years at CHS were essential to my formation as a Catholic and as a person, but I didn’t realize it at the time.
I graduated from CHS in 1988, and moved to Memphis, TN to attend Rhodes College. Four and a half years later, I graduated with a BA in Political Science and, like many of my fellow students, an essentially atheistic worldview. A few years after graduating I realized that there were too many aspects of that worldview that did not adequately account for reality as I experienced it, and I went back to graduate school to find more adequate answers to the questions that bothered me.
In 1996 I began graduate studies at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Saint Meinrad, IN. I graduated in 1997 with a MA in Catholic Thought and Life. The following August, I began my career as a theology teacher at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, TN. I taught there for six and a half amazing years, serving as Chair of the Religion and Ethics Department for two and a half years. In 2005, I reluctantly left my position for familial reasons, and moved to Raleigh, NC to begin teaching at Cardinal Gibbons High School. As it happens, that decision to turned out to be a good one, and I’ve had the great privilege to teach at CGHS for fifteen years now, serving as chair of the Theology department for eleven years.
For every year of my career with the exception of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years, I've taught Sophomore Scripture. For the last eleven years, I have taught a senior theology class called Foundations of the Catholic Worldview, and I have taught the senior World Religions class for the last four years.
My primary interest as a teacher is in the Classical worldview of the Catholic Church. All of my classes are taught from the perspective that Socrates had it right when he claimed that "the unexamined life is not worth living." To that end, I am not focused on the conveyance of facts for the sake of tests and educational advancement. Rather, the goal of all of my classes is to approach the subject matter philosophically- to use each subject as a pathway into the perennial issues in philosophy and theology, and as an opportunity to shed light on those issues, with the intent of discerning how best to live rightly. I have decided that this is best accomplished by living in accord with the doctrines of the Catholic faith to the best of my ability, and I hope to show my students why I believe this to be the case so that they choose the same path, should they find it convincing. That being said, every student is on their own journey, and it is not my place or my right to force them in one direction or another. I only seek to turn the soul towards the light, with the hopes that, once a student has glimpsed it, they will make the journey towards it willingly. Also, I don't like arguing with teenagers. It's generally pointless.
