Media Reception
Foster's teaching style has made him the subject of BBC documentaries and a chapter in Alexander Stille's book The Future of the Past. It is characterized by a gruff style that feigns anger, disappointment, and a sense of despair for the future of Latin studies. Yet most students see that the demeanor is merely part of his style, and consider his "tough love" approach a refreshing contrast to the coddling of undergraduate American curricula. His pedagogy often can be a bit contrarian: In terms of his teaching, the task of translating any bawdy Latin text might, for example, go to a pious sister, and a text from St. Augustine or Pope St. Leo the Great to an atheist or a Jew.
On October 17, 2006, according to the Catholic News Agency, Foster announced to a group of about 100 students that he had been fired from his teaching position at the Gregorian University by the Society of Jesus, on grounds that too many students were taking his classes without paying tuition. As a result, on November 2, 2006, according to CNA, Foster founded the new "Academia Romae Latinitatis", a free Latin Academy for all interested English speakers interested in learning or brushing up on their Latin. The Academia, also known as the Istituto Ganganelli, is currently being housed near Piazza Venezia in Rome.
Foster was featured, in an interview segment conducted in front of the Vatican, in the 2008 film Religulous. In his interview with Bill Maher, Father Foster candidly admits that he does not believe Hell to be a place of literal burning, that December 25 was not the birth date of Jesus, and that the opulence of the Vatican is not in keeping with the original message of Jesus. He describes such beliefs as "nice stories" and part of the "old Catholic thing."
Read more about this topic: Reginald Foster (Latinist)
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