At Clapham School, where I serve as an administrator, we were able to hold a small, in-person ceremony for our graduates. As I composed my commencement address, I was struck by parallels with the class of 1919, which had graduation ceremonies cancelled or postponed in various locations due to the Spanish Influenza pandemic. In this message, I try to bring perspective to graduates this summer, that the challenges we face due to Covid-19 may go a long way toward shaping the outlook of this next generation, if one embraces the opportunity a catastrophe provides. In many ways, this speech is a sequel to my article on the Black Death in the 14th century.

Here I’ve shared my commencement address in the hope that perhaps this message will be meaningful to you as a teacher and leader in your school.

Commencement Address – Class of 2020

Good evening, class of 2020. I am so grateful that we can meet this evening with a small gathering of parents, siblings, teachers, relatives and friends. Little about the past several months has gone according to plan, so it is that much more satisfying to have planned this event, bringing a little order in the midst of chaos.

The “Greatest Generation” is a term used to describe the Americans who experienced both the Great Depression and World War 2. What characterizes these Americans is that they lived through some of the greatest hardships of the depression and exhibited the will to win on the battlefields of Africa, Europe and Asia. Of the 16 million who served in WW2, only about half a million remain today.

When we look back on the Greatest Generation, we can observe that such a generation is forged by the harshest of trials. You can’t engineer such a generation. There’s no recipe or lab manual. There were attempts to create great generations. Warren G. Harding called for a return to normalcy in 1920, a phrase that anticipated “Make America Great Again.” What is normalcy? And can normalcy be created through public policy?

The post-war 1950s represented another attempt at social fabrication of a great generation. The idea was social conformity. The picture of suburban docility was promoted on the covers of the Saturday Evening Post with weekly prints of Norman Rockwell paintings. What, though, are we striving for when we call for conformity? Can social pressure create a great generation? This is a highly relevant consideration in light of the dominant position social media has taken since the early 2000s.

My thesis, and the point that I want to make for our graduating seniors, is that great generations are forged through unexpected hardship, and cannot be made by the will of cultural engineers. And what has 2020 been, but a year of hardship after hardship. This pandemic gives me pause to ask whether we are experiencing the kinds of conditions that will contribute to the making of a new great generation. To assess this hunch of mine, I want to take us back to 1918 and 1919.

The Great War, or WW1, was drawing to a close after years of stagnation. The US was ultimately drawn into the conflict as the decisive force, bringing victory to the allied forces against the central powers. One of the unexpected consequences of American soldiers serving overseas was that they brought back the Spanish Influenza, which hit pandemic levels in the fall of 1918. Schools closed in September and October of 1918. Homecoming events, a fairly new annual celebration in the early 1900s, were cancelled that fall. We can empathize with some of the experiences from that pandemic that swept the nation. For instance, students in Los Angeles remained at home and were sent assignments by teachers through mail-in correspondence.

There were subsequent spikes of the Spanish Influenza in January of 1919 and then again in the April-May timeframe later that year. This meant that graduations were cancelled or delayed in various hotspots throughout America. The class of 2020 seems to have similarities with the class of 1919. There were no vaccines or treatments available, so the only protocols to follow were isolation, quarantine, washing hands, disinfecting surfaces, and canceling or limiting public gatherings. If nothing else, it’s good to know we are not alone. Mark Twain is reputed to have said that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Well, sometimes it sure seems like it does repeat itself.

For reasons we don’t particularly know, the Spanish Influenza just went away. It took researchers until 2008 to fully understand the genetic makeup of the H1N1 virus, colloquially termed the Spanish Flu. Side note: the Spanish Flu did not originate in Spain. Spain became associated with this virus simply because they remained neutral in WW1, and were therefore able to provide unbiased reporting about this new virus during the war, a service which ultimately associated their national identity with a virus. The Spanish, by the way, referred to the virus as the French Flu.

The parallels between the Spanish Flu and the Coronavirus interest me for this simple reason. The Spanish Flu is something we can regard as the first in a series of hardships that impacted the generation who would subsequently experience both the Great Depression and WW2. Yet, few ever associate that pandemic with the ensuing events. But could it be that the Influenza pandemic served as an initial crisis in a string of events creating the greatest generation?

And so I ask you now, our graduates, a compelling question. Will our pandemic serve as an initial crisis that will forge the next greatest generation? I don’t know what the future will hold. I can’t promise you that depressions and world wars will further galvanize your generation. But perhaps if the mantle is born with only this one catastrophic event, the work of making a next great generation is accomplished here and now.

The temptation will exist to dive deeply into social distractions. We could be on the verge of the next roaring 20s. But I trust that the books that you’ve read here at Clapham, the discussions about what it takes to live life with meaning and purpose, will have prepared you to fully embrace the opportunity now made available to you in our current traumatic experiences.

Let me be clear about my charge to you. I do not spell these things out to you to place a burden of expectations on you. It matters not whether you become labelled a great generation. Instead, what does matter is to notice that your class has had a bit of rubbish luck when it comes to your graduation. And I say, good for you! That’s now part of your story. That’s something that becomes part of your perspective on life. That’s something that marks your graduation as something unique and special. And if you can own that and truly embrace it, you will find joy and blessing.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plan for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

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If Christianity is projected to increase globally, but decrease in the West, in what parts of the world is the religion on the rise? In short, practically everywhere in the majority world! Africa, Asia, South America–in each of these continents, Christianity is experiencing record-breaking growth. So much so that sociologists predict that sub-Saharan Africa will be the new global home of Christianity. By 2060, 40% of all Christians will live in this region of the world, making it the locale of the majority of Christians globally.[3]

Despite this bright future for Christianity in the global south, western Christians must wrestle with the fact that the faith may continue to decline in their own cities and neighborhoods. Parents must think prudently about how they will raise their children with confident faith in an age of religious uncertainty. More than anything, the present situation should lead parents to pray for their children…and remember that saving faith is ultimately in the hands of God alone.

Alongside prayer, however, there are some practical steps parents can take to help cultivate confident faith in their children in this socio-cultural moment. These steps begin in the home and will expand into school, church, and society. In this blog, I will offer some thoughts for how schools can support the efforts of parents by organizing their curricular approaches in a way that will nurture confident faith.

Arguments Can Wait

Apologetics is the academic field focused on defending the reasonableness and truth of the Christian faith. For many years now, I have enjoyed reading apologetics literature and have come to appreciate the numerous persuasive arguments for skeptical challenges pertaining to, for example, the existence of God, the reliability of scripture, the historicity of Christ’s resurrection, and the goodness of God.

However, over time, I have come to realize that apologetics is limited in its ability to sufficiently nurture confident faith…and that’s okay. Apologetics seeks to influence the rational part of a person, in particular, her belief-forming faculties. This is a worthy aim, but there are two problems with leaning too heavily on apologetics, especially in the early years.

The first problem is rather obvious. The rational capacity of a child is not yet fully developed. Consequently, a grammar school child isn’t typically asking the intellectual questions that apologetics is seeking to address. If the teacher isn’t careful, the mind of a child can be overwhelmed by the tedium. It’s not yet the right time to implement a curriculum focused on abstract ideas and argumentation.

But second, and more crucially, human beings, regardless of age, are simply not reducible to their rationality. As much as modernism, and the Enlightenment project that grew out of it, emphasizes the rational capabilities of humans, we are not simply brains on a popsicle stick, as James K.A. Smith likes to put it. Smith writes:

What if, instead of starting from the assumption that human beings are thinking things, we started from the conviction that human beings are first and foremost lovers? What if you are defined not by what you know but by what you desire? What if the center and seat of the human person is found not in the heady regions of the intellect but in the gut-level regions of the heart? How would that change our approach to discipleship and Christian formation?

You Are What You Love (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2016) by James K.A. Smith

Smith is right. We are driven, more than anything else, by the engine of our affections. This is not to say we are irrational, impulse-driven beasts. Humans have minds, and within these minds, moral compasses. But modernism has led us to overestimate how much our minds guide our decision-making, and as a corollary, belief formation. The reality is we often make decisions and form beliefs based on intuition, rather than evidence, and affection, rather than argument.

So while apologetics may be useful for targeting the rational part of a person, it cannot effectively influence the hopes, dreams, inclinations, and deep-seated affections of a person. To reach this subterranean level, we need the power of story.

The Power of Story

Our hearts are captured, more than anything, by story. Stories enrapture us. They draw us into a different world: a world of intrigue, imagination, and curiosity. The experience Lucy felt as she stepped through a dusty English wardrobe into a cold, snow-covered wood is a metaphor for our own experience each time we cautiously wade into the counterfactual world of a good story.

What’s more, stories (at least the good ones) tend to leave us wanting more. There is a certain hunger or longing one feels upon the conclusion of a good book. It’s often the feeling of “I’m so glad it ended that way, but I wish it could have continued.” There is a reason why the Pevensy children, of which Lucy was the youngest, kept returning (well, except for Susan). The more they experienced the land of Narnia and all the joy it brought them, the more they wanted to stay. Though they didn’t realize it, their hearts were being rewired for something else–something beyond the immanent frame of the material world–and this process took place through the stories they inhabited.

As we think about nurturing confident faith in our youngest children, we must not begin with lofty arguments, but instead, the very best stories. These stories will shape the moral imaginations of students, filling their souls with a rich feast of ideas, characters, stories, poems, and fables. They will introduce for perhaps the very first time the seedling ideas integral to Christianity: friendship, courage, forgiveness, sacrifice, grace, faith, hope, and love. Most importantly, these stories will develop a subterranean desire within a child for something else.

An Intellectual Training Ground

Having said all this, it is essential for the development of confident faith to train the mind for the religious contestation that will inevitably come. Man cannot live on story alone. Students will need tools–or perhaps weapons is a more fitting metaphor–to prepare for the intellectual battle for their faith in an age of religious uncertainty. But what kind of weapons?

It may be tempting at this point to transition to an apologetics curriculum. Students could be led to perform worldview analysis and memorize arguments for the Christian faith. I certainly see the merits of such a curriculum having taught versions of it myself, but I suggest this tactic puts the cart before the horse. Before students can effectively do apologetics, they must develop the intellectual weaponry they will need to enter the arena in the first place. These weapons have a name: the classical liberal arts. Gaining proficiency in these arts will function as the intellectual training ground for the student with confident faith.

The classical liberal arts are a set of complex skills that enable students to truly think and, therefore, know. Too often educators today equate memorization with learning and factual recall with knowing. But really, factual recall only scratches the surface of what it means to have a vibrant intellectual life. Real learning leads to thinking that is dynamic, agile, and creative. It equips students to develop reasoned opinions for themselves and be able to trace the path they took to arrive at a certain conclusion. True learning requires training in thinking.

Historically, the number of the liberal arts was seven: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. The first three arts focused on language while the last four focused on number. Together, the Trivium and Quadrivium made up the seven arts, or skills, for fashioning knowledge. 

Case Study: The Problem of Evil

Why should training in these arts come before the formal study of apologetics? Simple: Every apologetics argument is crafted using the liberal arts. Training in these arts can begin in various forms throughout grade levels and when the time is right (usually 8th grade or high school), they can be applied to the field of apologetics.

Let’s take the problem of evil, for example. It has long been doubted–yes, even before the dawn of the Enlightenment–that God could be good in light of the sheer amount of evil and suffering in the world. Surely a good God would put an end to such evil immediately. If he was able. Or knew the extent of it. So the problem of evil, as it is usually presented, raises a series of questions about God’s attitude toward it, his power to defeat it, and to some extent, his awareness of it. 

Now, in theory, one could simply pick up the latest apologetics book and commit to memory some of the ways Christian thinkers respond to this objection. (As an aside, I recently read Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019) by Rebecca McLaughlin, and found it superb. She addresses the problem of evil in Chapter 12 in a way that is nuanced and thought-provoking.) This would solve the quandary, at least temporarily.

But I submit it would not provide long-term satisfaction. Soon enough, another variation of the problem of evil would surface, thereby generating a need for a nuanced response. Or perhaps the same version of the problem would return, leaving the Christian straining to recall what she once knew. This is the problem with mere memorization. It eventually leaves the mind of a person entirely “…unless fixed by almost endless repetitions” as educator John Milton Gregory put it (The Seven Laws of Teaching, 103). But the prescribed repetition would take an unreasonable amount of time as well as constant effort.

In order to maintain a robust apologetic to the problem of evil, Christians need more than arguments. They need the tools to construct arguments of their own. The liberal art of grammar, for instance, enables a student to read and interpret a text with robust comprehension. The liberal art of dialectic prepares a student to dissect an argument in terms of presuppositions and logical relationships. And the liberal art of rhetoric equips a student to present the truth in an eloquent and persuasive manner.

The Arts in Action

The result is a student who is not dependent on one single defense, but instead has the intellectual training to “duck and weave,” to use an old boxing metaphor, and when necessary, strike. Regarding the problem of evil specifically, a response fueled by the liberal arts would consider all the available resources for thinking through the problem. An initial step might be to research ancient understandings of the gods, including what has been thought about the nature of good and evil. Then one might consider potential biblical theodicies (responses to the problem of evil) found in the Old and New Testaments. Additionally, one could examine the writings of the church fathers, who were first-rate apologists themselves. 

After this preliminary study, which leans on the art of grammar, one could begin to use dialectic to analyze the question further and construct potential responses. One could try out different ways of viewing the question, being sure to think through every presupposition or implication of the problem as it is stated. This step would also include cross-referencing these perspectives with what philosophers of religion are writing about on the topic. I suggest philosophers and not apologists because philosophers would be considered the experts on material related to the problem of evil. They are the knowledge workers, down in the mines, doing the heavy intellectual lifting on the metaphysical questions pertaining to ethical theory, good and evil, and God himself. Professional philosophical insights and ruminations, though more complex than the average popular apologetics work, will offer more fodder for dialectic.

Finally, after researching a reasonable amount of the relevant material, and then interacting with various arguments and logical formulations, one can move into the crafting of a response, which takes us to the art of rhetoric. This response would begin by thinking through all material one could include in a coherent defense. Cicero called this the rhetorical canon of invention. Then one would go about arranging this material and stating it in a way that is coherent and persuasive. These are the canons of arrangement and style. With the content of the response now complete, one could test one’s memory of the response and practice presenting it. Through this rigorous process of self-formulating and present one’s case for the goodness of God despite the amount of evil and suffering in the world, a confident faith can begin to germinate.

Humble Confidence

Although I am convinced that a liberal arts approach to teaching apologetics is the way to go, please don’t misunderstand: I greatly value the field of apologetics and all that have apologists have contributed over the years to provide answers to the questions skeptics ask. But to truly teach apologetics, from an educational standpoint, reading apologetics literature and memorizing arguments is not enough. One must begin with the power of story and then move into deliberate training of the liberal arts.

Let me close with two final thoughts on the topic of apologetics and educating for confident faith. 

The first is a warning. In my experience, there is a real hubris that can develop anytime one teaches apologetics to young people or new Christians. The legitimate study of defending the Christian faith can quickly deteriorate into mocking unbelievers or their doubts about Christian belief. The reality is that religious belief is far more complex than we might think. Despite one’s efforts, one cannot simply coerce oneself to belief. That’s not how belief formation works. Usually it takes time, experience, and exposure to new horizons.

Therefore we need to teach humility alongside confidence as we prepare young people, or new Christians, to engage the outside world. Let us remember the words of the Apostle Paul. Referring to the bondage of sin that enslaves all people, including Christians, Paul writes, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11, ESV; italics added).  As we remember who we were before Christ, we can have compassion on those who have not encountered him personally.

Second, as confident as Christians should be in the hope that they have, we must remember that there remains much we do not know. While there are compelling arguments for the goodness of God, the problem of evil can easily return in its old monstrous form at any moment. Therefore, we should embrace the truth that ultimately our faith is not in a certain subset of knowledge, but in a person: Jesus Christ. We must cling to him, especially during times of doubt, and trust that despite our lack of confident faith, his grace is sufficient. On that long-awaited day, when our Lord returns, all will be made right and we shall fix our eyes upon the object of our faith for the first time. What we once saw in a mirror dimly, we shall see face to face.

[1] https://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/

[2] https://www.pewforum.org/2018/05/29/being-christian-in-western-europe/

[3] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/19/sub-saharan-africa-will-be-home-to-growing-shares-of-the-worlds-christians-and-muslims/

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