In the final book of the Ransom trilogy, That Hideous Strength (Scribner, 1945), C.S. Lewis presents his readers with a stark contrast between two communities: the residents of St. Anne’s on the Hill and the conspirators of the N.I.C.E. in Belbury. In doing so, Lewis offers two pictures of humanity. One is characterized by relationship, nature, and beauty, while the other is marked by bureaucracy, cold rationality, and deception. 

To explore these contrasting visions, Lewis follows Mark and Jane, a married couple, in their individual journeys for meaning, belonging, and ultimately, redemption. Mark is a trained sociologist and fellow at the fictitious Bracton College. Despite his marriage to Jane and successful academic career, Mark is lonely and unfulfilled. In the opening pages, he takes immense pleasure in simply being included in a clique. Meanwhile, Jane, an academic herself, regrets the toll her marriage has taken on her academic career, and the current state of her and Mark’s relationship. She is bitter, hopeless, and discontent with the cards life has dealt her. 

In this article, I want to briefly sketch out some pivotal moments in the novel and then offer some insights for educators today. For while this story’s plot is thick enough to stand on its own, Lewis shares in the preface that there is more to the story, so to speak. He writes, “This is a ‘tall story’ about devilry, though it it has behind it a serious ‘point’ which I have tried to make in my Abolition of Man” (7). Let us proceed with seeking to uncover this “point” to see what Lewis what might teach us.

Surprised by Joy

Early in the novel, Mark is brought into an exclusive group of the college, the Progressive Element, and eventually invited to join the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.) itself. Through this process, his desire for belonging is quenched, though never fully, as he makes his way further and further into the inner circle. Still, it is a painful process. Despite repeated attempts to understand his job description and the reporting structure of the institution, his requests are constantly pushed aside. The deputy director John Wither is evasive and dismissive, despite regularly referring to the N.I.C.E. as a family. 

Meanwhile, Jane finds herself being drawn to a very different kind of community. Despite the men and women at St. Anne’s on the Hill referring to themselves as a “company” and “army,” they live together in a beautiful and spacious manor, fulfilling the vision of family that the N.I.C.E. allegedly claimed to be. In her first visit to the manor at St. Anne’s, she walks through a beautiful garden, teeming with life and beauty. Later, she meets with the director of the community, Dr. Ransom, and leaves overflowing with joy (149). 

Interestingly, the source of her joy when meeting with Dr. Ransom was not the conversation they shared together, but the transcendent experience of encountering his divine and royal aura. For the first time, her soul had touched the heavens, as it were, awakening in her a desire for beauty that had grown dormant over the course of her life. Suddenly she gained new eyes for the beauty of nature, from rays of sunlight to grazing wildlife. She longed to hear the chorales of Bach again and read the sonnets of Shakespeare afresh. She cherished the speech of her cabinmates in the train and rejoiced in her hunger and thirst for buttered toast and tea. Her conversion had begun.

Isolation and Objectivity

In contrast, Mark’s progress through concentric circles of exclusivity in Belbury finally leads to his own isolation as he sits alone in a cell awaiting his training in “objectivity.” Professor Augustus Frost, a leader in the innermost circle of the N.I.C.E., shares with Mark his vision for humanity as a race of pure mind and liberated of emotional preference. He desires to destroy all human instincts for what is right, noble, and beautiful. Interestingly, Mark’s training takes place in a room of disproportion with a ceiling covered in specks at irregular intervals. On the walls of the room are pictures, many of them with scriptural themes, yet each of them distorted through bizarre elements of horror and strangeness. Professor Frost’s goal is clear: destroy all of Mark’s intuitions for what is natural, normal, and right. 

To Frost’s surprise, however, the room soon began to have the reverse effect. The striking abnormality and ugliness of the room engendered in Mark a longing for the straight, whole, and normal. The narrator Lewis writes, “As the desert first teaches men to love water, or as absence first reveals affection, there rose up against this background of the sour and crooked some kind of vision of the sweet and the straight. Something else–something he vaguely called the ‘Normal’–apparently existed” (296). In the end, Mark finds himself choosing a side, aligning himself with the mountainous pull towards the moral universe, and rejecting Professor Frost’s vision for objectivity untethered from objective value.

And yet, the ultimate test was yet to come. For, in a pivotal moment of the training in the objective room, Professor Frost, with demonic calculation, instructs Mark to trample on a full-sized crucifix and insult it. Unlike the moral defense against the other exercises that had risen inside of Mark, this was different. There was nothing about the wooden figure nailed to the cross that was inherently straight and normal. Though Mark is not a Christian, his conversation was already underway, and he realizes that the crucifix is…”what happened when the Straight met the Crooked, a picture of what the Crooked did to the Straight–what it would do to him if he remained straight. It was, in a more emphatic sense than he had yet understood, a cross” (333). In this decisive moment, this test of tests, Mark refused to desecrate the image.

Hope for Redemption

In the end, both characters encounter elements of redemption, not only for their marriage, but for their moral and spiritual salvation.

Jane’s struggle with pride, most visibly manifested in the novel through her repudiation of traditional gender norms, is overcome as she realizes the goodness of being a creature under the authority and care of God. And yet the divine goodness she accepts comes at a high price: control. She must give up herself to another, to God himself, and let him mold her as he sees fit (316). The universe now appears to her much larger than she imagined. It is massive, stormy, beautiful, and unbending, existing independently of any human emotion or idea. She must embrace the truth that this reality is greater than herself by recognizing she is a creature of God.

Mark’s conversion is different. Though he exhibits the moral courage to resist Professor Frost’s training in objectivity, he has not had the benefit of being formed by the community at St. Anne’s. Only in the end does he begin to recognize his own shortcomings as a husband and lover. His fear is that it is too late, that what would be best for Jane at this point is to move on. But then, in the last available moment, love strikes him as only the goddess Venus can, and his soul is saved.

Insights for Schools Today

There are so many layers to this story, from the redemption of Mark and Jane to the heavenly presence of Dr. Ransom to the demonic nature of the N.I.C.E. It truly is a battle for the abolition of humanity.

In The Abolition of Man (Harper Collins, 1971), Lewis warns against a dystopian future in which humanity abandons traditional moral values in the name of scientific progress. Though he is clear that his argument is not against science itself, in his context he can see that the many successes of modern science have created a lure to conquer nature completely. In the end, all that will be left is to conquer human nature. He writes, “Human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to Man. The battle will then be won” (59).

Inspired by That Hideous Strength and The Abolition of Man, I will conclude this article by offering three suggestions for schools in order to resist the coming abolition.

1. Create communities of joy and hospitality.

One of the most endearing elements of the story is the community of St. Anne’s. While I did not focus on the themes of comradeship and belonging so much in this article, it is well worth study and imitation. It can be easy to think that the abolition of man is ultimately a philosophical debate and therefore will take place at an intellectual level. But the reality is that strongest way we can retain our humanity and moral values is through creating beautiful spaces of belonging for learning to occur. From filling our schools with beautiful art and nature to building time for deep relationships to thrive, our schools can become their own manifestations of the idyllic St. Anne’s community.

2. Champion the reality of objective moral values.

Certainly Lewis’ greatest warning in The Abolition of Man, manifested in the N.I.C.E. at Belbury in That Hideous Strength, is the rejection of traditional moral values, what Lewis calls the Tao (pronounced “Dao”). As Alasdair MacIntyre addresses at great length in After Virtue, the modern West has traded out objective moral belief for mere emotional preferences. Ideas of virtue and duty have been reduced to mere subjective responses that cannot be used for moral evaluation. In this framework, a solder sacrificing his life to save his squadron is a story that can engender emotions of high praise, but it is not representative of a deeper truth that we are morally obligated to imitate.

But as Lewis argues through different means in both books, moral truth, goodness, and beauty does exist independently of human perception. In their own journeys, Mark and Jane encountered what Lewis described as a mountain–an entity that existed apart from themselves that is firm, immovable, and embedded in the universe itself. This is natural law, or what Mark experienced as the Straight and Normal.

Our schools need to cling to and proclaim the reality of objective goodness, truth, and beauty, for the future of humanity is at stake.

3. Connect the study of science to worship of our Creator.

There is a warning in both books regarding the dangers that emerge when modern science, or any discipline for that matter, is untethered from moral and biblical truth. In the case of Belbury, the scientific activity literally became demonic. While it is important to equip our students with understanding of the scientific method, steps for conducting a successful lab experiment, and other elements of modern science, we should regularly connect our study of creation to worship of our Creator. For scripture commands us to subdue and cultivate creation, not conquer it out of human arrogance and pride.

It is this temptation toward human arrogance and pride that is the “hideous strength” of which Lewis warns. As the inhabitants of Shinar sought to make a name for themselves through erecting a great tower at Babel, so the temptation to be our own gods resided in Mark and Jane, as well as in us today.

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It is a great irony, therefore, that even while western society continues to secularize, leaving belief in the Christian faith behind, its moral instincts remain largely unchanged. Westerners do not question the existence of human rights. Nor do they doubt the equal moral standing of all people, the obligation of the strong to care for the weak, the rich to care for the poor, the benefits of education, the importance of a scientific understanding of the world, or the value in reforming society of its evils and injustices. Westerners do not need to be convinced of these values. They are, as Scrivener puts it, “the air we breathe.” 

Tom Holland, a British historian who himself is an atheist, has played a key role in shaping Scrivener’s thinking on the topic. In Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (Basic Books, 2019), he contrasts the moral universe of modern western society with its ancient form in classical antiquity. Holland admits that even while his belief in God has faded over the course of his lifetime, he did not cease to be “Christian” in his thinking. The historian observes, “So profound has been the impact of Christianity on the development of Western civilization that it has come to be hidden from view” (17).

In other words, just as a goldfish has no conscious awareness of the concept of water, much less its H20 chemical composition, westerners today do not realize they live in a “Christian” world. They are living off the moral inheritance of a bygone era, prompting the question: What if the inheritance runs out?

In this article, I will explore one theory regarding how we reached this paradoxical moment in which society has left Christianity behind but retained vestiges of its moral foundation. Then I will offer some thoughts regarding how educators can equip the next generation of Christians to not only steward the inheritance, but contribute to it. Ultimately, I will argue that the new (ex-Christian) moral order, characterized by individual pluralistic spirituality and a preoccupation on happiness in this life, requires Christian educators to point students back to biblical, orthodox Christian thought and practice. This approach should be characterized by emphasizing the transcendence of God, the riches of Christian tradition, and the joy of following Christ within a local church community.

The Paganism of Secularism

In Remaking the World (Crossway, 2023), pastor and author Andrew Wilson offers a nuanced explanation for the rise of secularism in the Modern West. While simplistic explanations point to the displacement of religion via modern science, Wilson suggests that two ideologies emerged in the post-Reformation era that together became the theological parents of secularism: paganism and protestantism.

When Wilson refers to paganism, he does not have in mind animal sacrifices and witchcraft. Following intellectual historian Peter Gay, he observes that underlying the Enlightenment’s focus on progress and human reason lies a common appreciation for pagan antiquity and classical learning. There was something about the classical era that captured the attention of Enlightenment philosophes such as Diderot, Gibbon, Kant, and Hume. They revered the Greeks and Romans for their contributions to philosophy, mathematics, science, rhetoric, and lyrical beauty. This is easy enough to see on a visit to Washington D.C. The neo-classical architecture of a city erected following the Enlightenment is evident.

The reverence and appreciation for this pre-Christian intellectual era is one shared element between paganism and what will become modern secularism. But more importantly, the philosophes of the Enlightenment adopted the pagan worldview about the location of the sacred. Numinous encounters of the divine are a shared universal human experience. But where do these experiences come from? There are basically two answers: from this world or somewhere else. In classical paganism, the gods and goddesses possess supernatural power, and yet, they are still contained within this world. In contrast, the Christian response is that the origin of the sacred is a different world entirely, a spiritual realm ruled by a transcendent God.

There is therefore a surprising analogy between ancient paganism and modern secularism. Pagans and secularists alike look to life on earth for meaning and purpose. As Wilson puts it “The holy, the numinous and the sublime were essentially immanent rather than transcendent. And right across the ex-Christian spectrum, this had a significant impact on the way people thought about nature, art, sex, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (151). Why search for the sacred in a world beyond if it can be found here in our cosmos?

The Disruption of Protestantism

The other theological parent of modern secularism, according to Wilson (a practicing Anglican), is protestantism. In Wilson’s view, there are four main ways protestantism contributed, in partnership with modern paganism, to the present “Christian” society albeit without Christianity:

1. Protestantism created an ecclesial disaster, shattering medieval Christendom into a thousand pieces, by replacing church authority with the autonomous self. Salvation became a matter of heartfelt faith rather than a religious state overseen by the Catholic church.
2. Protestantism caused division within the Church by turning its guns, not merely on church leaders, but on Church doctrine itself. The Church was replaced by churches, which inevitably led to the call for religious toleration and the privatization of religion. With a vacuum for central authority up for grabs, experimental science took its place as the modern uncontested gatekeeper of truth. 
3. Protestantism engendered disenchantment by replacing a spiritually-infused enchanted world with an approach in which the individual’s inward experience takes precedent over pious practices and superstition. Insisting on the authority of Scripture alone and the importance of personal faith, spiritual flourishing became possible through an immanent frame, as philosopher Charles Taylor would put it.
4. Protestantism weaponized religious doubt through normalizing public skepticism and disdain for Church doctrine and authority. Thus, skepticism became a natural step in the modern religious experience and not all pilgrims, including today, successfully overcome doubt to reach enduring faith.

While each of these points requires further elaboration, which Wilson provides, the upshot is that protestantism brought about significant change in the way Christians in the West approached their religion. It inadvertently led to the emergence of a religious menu, full of attractive options, to be selected by the consumer. Coupled with the paganism described above, the modern milieu emerged in which a person’s religious and existential needs for the sacred and a higher purpose could be met individualistically and pluralistically in this world.

Educating Protestant Pagans

This modern mindset toward religion is what Wilson calls protestant paganism. He writes, “Ex-Christianity in the modern West is the unwitting product of both these forces working together. Paganism, which has always seen the sacred as immanent and ultimacy as located within this world of space and time, reacted with the divisions and doubts brought by Protestantism, and produced a new entity” (156). It is a religion in which its adherents focus on the inward spiritual experience of the individual and practice moral virtues that bring happiness in this life.

Now we need to talk about education. In light of this proposed account for the “Christian air” society “breaths” without realizing it, how can we educate our students to be orthodox Christians rather than protestant pagans? 

I want to make five suggestions:

First, we ought to incorporate into our schools the recitation of historic Christian creeds. As a Protestant myself, I am in full support of shepherding each student to make a personal decision to put their faith in Jesus Christ. We can nourish individual faith with corporate confession of what we believe as educational institutions in support of the church.

Second, we ought to lead our faculty and students to reflect on the transcendent and holy character of God. This can happen through public scripture readings, worship, and prayer. But the focus of the time should be on God’s being and works, not merely ourselves. The integration of faith and learning can lead students to experience harmony between what they believe and what they think.

Third, we should pass on the riches of the classical tradition–the art, the philosophy, the myths–as a foil for Christianity. As classical schools, we share with pride that our students can recite the myth of Heracles, explain Plato’s forms, and read the epic of Virgil’s Aeneid. Sometimes we can lose sight of the fact that as Christians we pass on this legacy because of the role it plays in a greater legacy, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

Fourth, we should explicitly help students make connections between the modern values of the day with biblical teaching and Christian thought. Our students need to understand that human rights, science, justice, and compassion are God’s ideas. While contemporary culture has found a way to divorce its inherited morality from its Christian theological origins, at least for now, we can brighten the lines around the genealogy of our culture’s morals (to quote Nietsche!).

Finally, we must lift up the name of Christ over and above these inherited values. As Scrivener himself indicates, if western society abandons Christ, but retains the values, we will be left with legalistic judgment (200). Values can only judge while persons are required to forgive. Our students need to be regularly reminded of the gospel. Moral values and virtues do not save them. Jesus does.

As Western society continues to live off the inheritance of its Christian heritage, there is a crucial role Christians can play. Through are unity with Christ, we have an opportunity to not merely live off the inheritance ourselves, but contribute new deposits. It may be that the inheritance will one day run out. If it does, I hope I am not around to see it. Or it may be that through the faithful and quiet laboring of churches and schools, the inheritance grows and the light once again shines.

As Jesus taught his disciples:

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)

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This is a foundational question that demands an answer. Organizations are complex entities with moving and disparate parts. Schools are no exception. Facilities, insurance, safety, technology, admissions, marketing, communications, and development are all essential functions of school operations, and I have yet to even mention academics.

Each department of the school must be aligned toward a singular purpose, what we call the school’s mission. This mission must answer the question: What is the goal of school education?

To consider a response, let us turn to philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff (b. 1932), whom I have interacted with in the past here. In 1992, Christian Schools International (CSI) invited Wolterstorff to deliver the keynote address at the organization’s inaugural international conference. Although the assigned topic for his session was curriculum, the philosopher made the case that in order to make good decisions about educational content, one must first be clear on the aim of the educational process. What are we trying to accomplish? Or, what is the goal of school education?

In this article, I will explore Nicholas Wolterstorff’s observation that there are four approaches to answering this question that are vying for first place in the American educational scene. Although he made this observation over thirty years ago, I believe there is relevance to his analysis today. In order to teach with an aim that is thoroughly Christian, we must be cognizant of competing approaches, and ultimately adopt a framework grounded in biblical theology and shaped by the classical Christian tradition.

The Socialization Approach

The first approach, according to Wolterstorff, is the socialization view, according to which “the fundamental goal of school education is to enable and dispose the student to occupy effectively some combination of approved social roles” (Educating for Life, Baker Academic, 2002, p. 260). These roles typically fall within the range of economical to political. The result is a graduate prepared to function and contribute as a member of society within these spheres.

One example of the economic socialization approach would be author Horatio Alger (1832-1899). An American fiction writer from the 19th century, Alger championed the “rags to riches” genre in which hard-working youths earned access to the security of the middle class. The vision of the good portrayed in Alger’s stories is economic stability. Alternatively, a political socialization approach is exemplified through the writings of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). Like his fellow Founding Fathers, Jefferson heralded democracy as the best political system and that this system could only prevail through an educated citizenry. 

In both examples, the goal of school education is to prepare the individual to successfully inhabit respectable social roles.

The Acculturation Approach

The acculturation approach to defining the goal of school education emphasizes the transmission of one’s cultural inheritance. Those who subscribe to this view assume that “immersing the student in the cultural heritage will imbue him or her with certain fundamental values” (260). For example, teaching Shakespearen plays will promote particular cultural values about the complexities of relationship, love, duty, and courage. Likewise, sharing with students the fascinating life story of Galileo will inspire them with values of scientific inquiry, observational discovery, and the courage to stand up for truth even in the face of punishment. 

A lead exponent of this approach would be Allan Bloom (1930-1992), a classicist and champion of Great Books from the University of Chicago. In The Closing of the American Mind (Simon and Schuster, 1987), Bloom argues that relativism in higher education was disabling students from thinking critically. His solution is to ground moral education in western civilization’s foundational texts, thereby shaping students with the ability to think critically and pursue objective truth.

The Individualization Approach

The third approach is the individualization view, which holds that the goal of school education is the development of the individual. The idea here is that the individual, not society and not one’s cultural heritage, is the ultimate good. Inspired by the Romanticism of the 19th century, the emphasis of the individualist approach is to equip each individual to express herself in a way that is true to who she is inside. 

It should be no surprise to anyone that this view is alive and well today. Though not featured as prominently in education circles per se, it is impossible to escape American culture’s emphasis on the individual. Flowing downstream from this emphasis, the goal of school education becomes to promote the growth of each individual student and steamroll inhibitions to this growth. 

Perhaps the preeminent figure of this approach is Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), a precursor of Romanticism. In Emile, Rousseau spells out his views on education through the fictional upbringing of an aristocratic boy named Emile. Emile is raised in accordance with his developing mind rather than through a standard educational process. The idea here is that a child is basically good and perfected through nature. The chief obstacle to this development is society, which must therefore be kept at bay through a child’s developmental years. 

The Social Criticism Approach

The final approach to answering the question, “What is the goal of school education?”, is what Wolterstorff identifies as the social criticism approach, which holds that the goal is to teach students to be critics of society when it fails to live up to ethical ideals of justice, peace, love, compassion, and democracy. Now, with current news headlines about the ideologization of education through critical theory, it is interesting to note that Wolterstorff observed the emergence of this approach over 30 years ago.

While there is clearly a leftist bent to the social criticism aim of education, which primarily conceives of reality in terms of matrices of power, it is worth clarifying that social critique in itself is not inherently marxist. The British abolitionist William Wilberforce, for example, made it his life’s ambition to improve the moral climate of Victorian English society and bring the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to an end. Likewise, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., famously led the American civil rights movement, referring often to scripture in his efforts to correct the injustice and inequality present in American society in the mid 20th century. 

The difference between the beliefs of these two men and critical theorists today is fundamentally a clash in worldview. Whereas Wilberforce and King believed in objective truth grounded in God’s very existence, postmodern critical theory abandons the possibility of objective truth, reducing all developments in society to a struggle for power.

Which Approach? What Goal?

Interestingly, I see elements of all four approaches in classical Christian education circles today. The socialization approach is present when we hearken back to classical antiquity and the idea of preparing future citizens and statesmen. The acculturation approach is present when we speak about seeking to preserve and pass on the treasures of western civilization. The individualization approach is at work when we seek to cultivate wisdom, virtue, and a love of learning in each student, instilling them with habits and knowledge that will enable them to thrive as individuals. And the social criticism approach is at work when we talk as Christians about impacting the world for Christ, equipping our graduates to pursue professions that will enable them to promote a free and flourishing society. 

Wolterstorff himself admits that Christian education is not a species of any of the approaches above (261). He writes,

The Christian vision, by contrast, sees the human good as achieved only by the right ordering of our relationships–with God, with society, with nature, with the legacy of human culture, and yes, with oneself…Christian education is inspired by the vision of development, healing, and delight in all these relationships.

Educating for Life (Baker Academic, 2002), 262.

Education for a New Community

In the Bible, we see relationships at the center of God’s creative act as well as the primary victim in humanity’s Fall. In the early chapters of Genesis, God commands both plants and animals alike to be fruitful and multiply on the earth. When we read “Let the earth sprout,” “Let the waters swarm,” and “Let the earth bring forth,” we get the sense that God’s newly created world is intended to be a home for life, relationship, and community. Like a family on moving day, there is a sense of joyful urgency to move in and fill the place up, as family members look forward to making new memories together.

When we read about the creation of humanity, we see a similar mandate to be fruitful and multiply with the added instructions to exercise dominion over creation, both creatures and plant life. Adam himself is given the task of naming the animals, that is, to implement meaningful differentiation between the creatures to make it possible to live in community. God even uses His own breath to give life to Adam, an intimate move to be sure, as he becomes a living creature. Soon after, God creates Eve from Adam for “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). Simply put, activity of relationship and community is all over the place in the earliest days of God’s newly created world.

Soon after, however, the Fall dismantles this community, disrupting relationships between God, humanity, and creation. Adam and Eve are commanded to leave the garden, the home within the home, signifying a new post-fall era of broken relationship and homelessness. The remaining corpus of scripture points to this post-fall reality and the redemptive intervention of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ to repair this ruin and restore these relationships. The first step of repair occurs between God and humanity as atonement and forgiveness of sin is provided, followed by a subsequent movement of repair regarding human relationships and a renewed sense of caring for creation. The church is the seedling of this new community, a small glimpse of what life under God’s rule is like, albeit only a foretaste of the perfection to come.

Conclusion

This all leads me to suggest that the proper goal of school education, from a classical Christian education perspective, is to support the church in its calling to live out its identity as the people of God, seeking to bring healing and restoration to broken relationships through the gospel of Jesus Christ. To achieve this goal, society must be governed and well-supported (the socialization approach), the best of cultural heritages must be carried forward (the acculturation approach), individuals must receive intentional discipling (the individualization approach), and society ills must be combated (the social criticism approach). 

This pluriform goal of school education requires educators to make use of all resources available to them, both in terms of breadth of curriculum and scope in historical development. Modern education’s prioritization on the practical for future job security simply will not suffice in the light of the aims above. Nor will its preoccupation with the here and now at the expense of teaching the great wisdom of the past. Thus, my thesis: a truly Christian goal of school education will be cognizant of the varying approaches described in this article, while utilizing a framework grounded in biblical theology and shaped by Christian tradition.

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In a similar way, the young church leader Timothy benefited from the counsel of the apostle Paul. The Book of 1 Timothy is essentially a letter of mentorship that Paul writes to Timothy to support the young leader as he seeks to shepherd the Ephesian church. Contextually, pernicious false teaching had infected the community, located in a wealthy, coastal city of the Roman Empire. Paul knew that if Timothy was going to successfully lead the Ephesian Christians through such troublesome times, he was going to need guidance.

In this article, I will explore the guidance Paul provides Timothy with the aim of drawing out general principles of mentorship. By doing so, I hope to introduce a biblical approach to mentorship that moves from theory to practice in the context of local church life. 

Right Doctrine

To begin, it is worth noting that Paul addresses his letter “To Timothy, my true child in the faith” (1:2). From the offset, Paul makes his relationship and love for Timothy clear. Though he will soon proceed through a list of mandates, the security of the relationship is never in question. Thus, Paul begins his mentorship letter with a key move: establishing trust.

Following the introduction, Paul transitions quickly to the root issue in the Ephesian church: false teaching. As biblical scholar Frank Thielman notes, “Letters like this were commonly sent in antiquity by a government official to a subordinate upon the subordinate’s resumption of some new public responsibility”.¹  In this way, the letter serves as both a reminder of duties and as a public commission.

False teaching had plagued the church in Ephesus, spreading as such. The only way to end the plague is to remove it from the organism. In this case, Paul’s counsel for Timothy is to charge the church to teach only what is true and in full alignment with the gospel of Jesus Christ (1:11). 

The key takeaway for mentorship is that ideas matter. They serve as the rutter of the ship. Mentors should be careful to not move too quickly to behaviors and practices when these are simply visible manifestations of some animating idea. In the case of the Ephesian church, the congregation was moving toward disorder as a result of the inception of heretical doctrine. Likewise, a person’s life trajectory can shift radically by the ideas they embrace and live by. Thus, the very first mentoring conversation should often focus on ideas and what the student views as her basic life principles.

Godly Conduct

Effective mentors cannot stay in the ideological realm for long, however. Following true doctrine, Paul impresses upon Timothy to promote conduct, or behavior, and godliness in the church. From worship approaches to style of dress, Christians are to live peaceful and quiet lives, “godly and dignified in every way” (2:2).

This godly approach to living must first and foremost be modeled by bishops and deacons. Notice that Paul does not leave it to Timothy’s imagination to determine the specifics of the godly conduct Paul envisions. Rather, he specifically elaborates on key character traits, familial relationships, and self-control over potential vices such as drunkenness and greed.

With these qualifications of church leaders in view, we can easily make a connection to the classical idea of virtue, that is, human excellence directed toward human flourishing. If the church in Ephesus is going to emerge from the disorder generated by false doctrine, its leaders must be freed from the slavery of the appetites, and become servants of Christ alone.

Likewise, effective mentors should discuss with their students what portrait of their future selves the Lord is calling them to become. Encourage them to be as specific as possible. What will they do for fun? What skills will they have mastered? How will they treat other people? How will they navigate complex topics like social media or peer pressure? They can then begin an honest conversation of whether their current conduct matches this desired trajectory. 

The Will to Train

Right doctrine and godly conduct will establish the path for Timothy, but to go the distance, an additional step is required: the will to train. Train for what? Godliness according to the words of the faith (4:6). He compares the reward of bodily training to training for godliness in that the latter reward is experienced both in the present life and the life to come (4:8). 

The idea of training appears often in our work at Educational Renaissance, particularly as it relates to the modern notions of possessing a growth mindset and engaging in deliberate practice. Research in elite performance has shown that the key to mastery in any skill or discipline is to practice with the right attitude and in the proper way. 

In the Christian faith, we are to train as well, though we must be careful to train for the right objective. The Bible is clear that we do not train to earn our salvation, but to live out our salvation. Salvation is a free gift for a person to accept. It is the result of the gracious work of God, the exact opposite of any sort of result through human training. And yet, when we did receive salvation through conversion, the training regiment sets in.

The topic of training for godliness is a fascinating one to bring up in a mentoring conversation. The metaphor has a way of underscoring intensity and dedication of growing in Christlikeness in a manner that the idea of sanctification does not. By mentors taking their conversations to the deeper level of spiritual growth, they fuse together true doctrine with godly conduct in a way that will cause the student to truly think differently about how to steward their lives most wisely.

Conclusion

This exploration of 1 Timothy regarding principles of mentorship is merely an introduction into what is truly an expansive topic. There is much more to cover in Paul’s school of mentorship found in 1 Timothy, including such topics as devotion to scripture, exhibiting compassion, and practicing true contentment. As mentors plan out their meeting with students, these are all worthy topics to discuss. Following Paul, mentors taking a multi-dimensional approach will help students grow in not just one area of their lives, but holistically, instead, in a way that allows these dimensions to complement one another.

1. Thielman, Frank. Theology of the New Testament (Zondervan, 2005). 413.

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And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Our modern world does not know what to do with nature. As a result, neither do our schools. For some, nature is a victim of humanity, a primordial entity (Mother Nature?) in need of rescue from the sins of industrialism. For others, nature is a tool, a utilitarian pathway to increased lifespans, decreased global poverty, improved technologies, and an overall brighter future. 

In scripture, we see that nature is the result of God’s creative activity. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” we read. The earth, in its earliest moments, is formless, empty, and dark. And yet, as the creation narrative unfolds, things change quickly. A once formless world is now given shape. Emptiness is replaced with life to the full even as darkness is swallowed up by light. “And God saw that it was good.”

A Calling to Cultivate

How might we lead our students to study the natural world in a way that is aligned with this biblical vision?

To do so, it seems, we must keep reading:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”… And God blessed them. And God said to them [humankind], “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

Genesis 1: 26-31 (ESV)

Here we see humankind’s distinct responsibility: to rule creation as God’s royal deputy, stewarding the natural world with authority, dominion, and prudence. To rule is not to oppress as some might interpret the word “subdue,” but rather to oversee or govern toward a state of flourishing. This is the creation mandate, a divine injunction for the human race to bring order to creation, which will be latter mirrored by Christ’s own mandate to his followers to bring this order to fulfillment in the kingdom of God.

Wisdom of the Natural World

In the classical tradition, the study of nature was considered a subset of philosophy, “the pursuit of wisdom.” Natural philosophy, hence, is “the study of wisdom about the natural world.” And yet, in modern schools today, we study science, not nature. Our students learn the scientific method, the process for conducting experiments, and the importance of evidence-based reasoning. Through this study, they become devotees to scientism, modern scientific investigation, and are trained to gather “data” about the natural world to attain the desired ends of society.

But amidst this process, are students actually encountering this world for themselves? Are they being equipped to prudently rule and steward creation as God commands them? Are they learning to see it rightly for what it is, indeed, to love it?

Here I am reminded of a famous scene from the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. In a crucial moment of dialogue between Will (played by Matt Damon) and his professor-therapist Dr. Maguire (played by Robin Williams), Dr. Maguire confronts his pupil with a prophetic word:

You’re just a boy. You don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about. You’ve never been out of Boston. So if I asked you about art you could give me the skinny on every art book ever written…Michelangelo? You know a lot about him I bet. Life’s work, criticisms, political aspirations. But you couldn’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling.”

In the story, Will, a self-taught genius, can rattle off facts like a human encyclopedia, and yet, he does not actually know in the deepest sense. Why? He has not experienced the truth, goodness, and beauty of what he has studied for himself. He has not opened himself up to real experiences, becoming vulnerable to these things, and risking the opportunity to love.

Connecting Children with Nature

If we are not careful, we as educators can inadvertently commit the same error in our modern educational approaches to studying nature. In efforts to make knowledge useful, we can seal off the possibility of encountering beauty. In aims to train students to have power over nature, we fail to experience its healing powers over us. In objectives to increase A.P. test scores, our students can tell us everything about flora, except which specimens grow in their own gardens.

To be clear, I fully support and respect the processes and achievements of modern science. I would not be able to write this article in the nexus of modern technologies swirling around me in good conscience if I did not. But if we are going to educate children to study nature in the fullest sense, we must lead them to encounter nature for themselves.

In Volume 1 of her Home Education Series, Charlotte Mason writes,

He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant. He must be accustomed to ask why–Why does the wind blow? Why does the river flow? Why is a leaf-bud sticky? And do not hurry to answer his questions for him; let him think his difficulties out so far as his small experience will carry him.

Home Education, p. 264-265

Here we see Mason’s instruction that for children to properly love and know nature, they must spend time outdoors. This time can be spent with generous amounts of free and unstructured play as well intentionally led nature studies. During these studies, students can observe a specimen closely and allow their minds to ponder what they observes.

In a later volume, Mason writes,

On one afternoon in the week, the children go for a ‘nature walk’ with their teachers. They notice for themselves, and the teacher gives a name or other information as it is asked for, and it is surprising what a range of knowledge a child of nine or ten acquires. The teachers are careful not to make these nature walks an opportunity for scientific instruction, as we wish the children’s attention to be given to observation with very little direction. In this way they lay up that store of ‘common information’ which Huxley considered should precede science teaching; and, what is much more important, they learn to know and delight in natural objects as in the familiar faces of friends. 

School Education, p. 237

Formal science instruction has its place, including the opportunity to conduct experiments and practice the scientific method. But in the earliest years, the goal of nature study is to put children in direct contact with nature. Through the nature walks described above, students self-direct their own observations, empowering their minds to explorer, wonder, and discover.

From Abstract to Concrete

In “The Parents’ Review,” the monthly magazine edited by Charlotte Mason, guest writer J.C. Medd, writes of nature study:

Its aim is to bring the child into direct relation with facts, to lead him from the abstract to the concrete, and to stimulate him to investigate phenomena for himself. This is to promote that process of self-instruction which is the basis of all true education.”

J.C. Medd, Volume 14, 1903, pgs. 902-906

In conclusion, a philosophy of nature study must begin with what nature is and our role as human beings in relation to it. In scripture, we see that nature is nothing less than God’s good creation, a masterpiece of God’s perfect design, echoing His love for beauty, design, physicality, life, and growth across ecosystems. We, as humans, are called to govern this great masterpiece, cultivating the natural world toward a state of flourishing. To lead our students to know nature for what it truly is, we must vacate our classrooms for a different classroom, one created a long time ago, and accessible by every child to be discovered, known, and loved.

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For millennia, gender was a given. More specifically, it was a given grounded in biological fact that there are two genders objectively tethered to one’s sex. Genetically speaking, a person born with two X chromosomes is a woman and a person born with an XY chromosome pair is a man. Sure, throughout history there have been anomalies to this binary, including rare cases of intersex people, but these instances were just that, anomalies. There was a givenness to the structure of reality related to one’s gender that could serve as an axiom for subsequent belief and identity formation.

Not so today. In the brave new world in which we live, gender is understood to be a social construct, a fiction that emerges within communities to govern behavioral norms and moral duties. According to professor of psychology Jean Twenge in her book Generations (Atria Books, 2023), in 2021, a survey revealed that a majority of the Gen Z population believes there are more than two genders.¹ In the figure below, you can see that over the generations, confidence in a traditional binary view of gender has declined. With Gen Z in particular, this decline is only accelerating.

Perhaps even more serious, this trend for Gen Z extends beyond statements of belief and into questions of identity. Gen Z young adults are much more likely to identify as either transgender or nonbinary than other generations.² See the figure below, which tracks the percent of U.S. adults identifying in these ways. Gen Z is the clear outlier compared to other generations. In fact, the number of young adults identifying as transgender quadrupled between 2014 and 2021, while the number of transgender people in the older cohorts changed little.³

In our post-Christian, American culture, one’s gender is simply no longer a given. In fact, neither is one’s orientation, with 23% of Gen Z women identifying as bisexual in 2022. This is twice as many as among Millennial women, 8 times as many as among Gen X’ers, and 32 times as many among Silents and Boomers.⁴ Gender identity and sexual orientation, rather than given axioms that a person can build one’s life around, have been added to the identity menu. Emerging teens must now navigate these aspects of identity in addition to the more conventional list about belonging, purpose, and religious belief.

Identify formation is a lifelong process, but it is a particularly sensitive phase of maturation during the adolescent and early adult years. It will be important for Gen Z, ranging from age 11-28, to have wise parents and teachers to come alongside them in the process. In the technological revolution in which we live, the road has already grown increasingly complex. This is, after all, the generation that has never known a world without the internet and of which their oldest members were 12 when the iPhone premiered. By 2012, half of Americans owned smartphones, thus making Gen Z’s entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. Noticeably, the decline in mental health for teens occurred between 2011-2013, right when Gen Z’s oldest members were this age and using social media. With identity about gender and sexuality now open, the identify formation process has become even more complex and will continue to be so for the subsequent Alpha generation (born 2013-2029).

Why Gender Matters in Education

As a Bible-believing Christian, I have moral concerns about these trends insofar as they reflect, in my view, confusion over God’s created order of reality. And as an educator, I also have concerns. I believe that there are demonstrable, hard-wired differences between men and women, boys and girls, and that these differences ought to be recognized in a healthy learning environment, not ignored, or left up to each child. Let me share just a few examples.

First, it has been proven biologically that girls’ brains develop faster than boys’ brains.

In Why Gender Matters (Harmony Books, 2017), psychologist and medical doctor Leonard Sax shares research demonstrating that the average girl reaches the halfway point in their brain development four years before the average boy.⁵ He writes,

Comparing a five-year-old boy to a five-year-old girl may in some respect be similar to comparing a three-and-a half-year-old girl to a five-year-old girl. The boy will appear less mature, less self-controlled, and less able to concentrate and focus for sustained periods of time compared to the girl.

The upshot is that gender matters for the development of a child, especially in the earliest years. We ought to consider this reality regarding decisions about when a child is ready to begin his or her formal education and what might be occurring if a child faces a learning difficulty or behavioral issue.

Second, there is growing evidence that men and women have different capacities with regards to smelling, seeing, and hearing.

Women, for example, have more olfactory neurons than men, providing them with a more robust olfactory system to be more sensitive to smell. In addition, studies have shown that girls and boys see and draw with different values in mind. Girls are more likely to draw flowers and trees and pets with lots of colors. The great majority of boys, in contrast, draw a scene of action with dynamic change. Human figures, if present at all, are often stick figure, lacking eyes, mouths, hair and clothes. Boys and girls have different visual systems, thus emphasizing different things in their drawings.⁶ Finally, with regards to hearing, the average boy benefits from a teacher’s instruction being eight decibels louder than the average girl. Boys, in general, are more comfortable with background noise, and thus may not even realize a noise they are making is distracting.

Finally, we ought to consider boy and girl friendly instructional strategies as opposed to gender blind education. Too often schools perpetuate gender stereotypes by ignoring gender differences with regards to instruction. With intentionality around curricular sequence and learning activities, for example, physics need not be a male-dominated subject anymore than theatre need be female-dominated. As a general rule, boys and girls have differing interests. By understanding these differences, we can increase engagement and decrease gender bias in particular disciplines.

There is much more to be said on the topic of why gender matters in education, especially in our present day and age. While surrounding culture has promoted the idea that one’s gender is not fixed and that biology is malleable to one’s inner identity, current science disagrees. As Christians who read both the holy book (the Bible) and the natural book (creation), we can pursue strategies for learning that will help both boys and girls thrive in our classrooms.

Endnotes

1. Twenge, Jean M. Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents–and What They Mean for America’s Future. New York: Atria Books, 2023. Page 350.
2. Twenge, 352.
3. Twenge, 356.
4. Twenge, 364.
5. Sax, Leonard. Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences. New York: Harmony Books, 20170. Page 86.
6. Sax, 21.

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What does it mean to love God? How are we to love Him? What are we to love about Him? What parts of ourselves are we to employ in this endeavor? 

It has become popular in church circles today to emphasize loving God through the heart, the seat of our desires, affections, and emotions. Scholars such as James K.A. Smith promote recalibrating these desires through implementing intentionally formative habits, liturgies, and rituals. This whole-body approach to worship, Smith teaches, will form over time our desires to long for God’s kingdom above all else.

Smith is writing in response to what he believes has become a key error in the western church today: an overemphasis on human rationality. Smith does not deny that the human capacity to think, remember, and understand is essential to being human. But, Smith contends, it is not sufficient. Therefore, a full-orbed approach to discipleship and education will include the intentional formation of the heart, specifically through encountering beauty in communities through art, music, poetry, nature, and feasts.

In general, I agree with Smith and have interacted closely with his writing, such as here. A human is more than a brain on a stick. At the same time, it is important for Christians today to not swing to the other side of the pendulum and ignore human rationality altogether. In 1994, Mark Noll, who taught at Wheaton College before Notre Dame, famously wrote The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Spoiler alert: The scandal Noll refers to essentially is that, at the time of the publication of the book, there was not much of an evangelical mind. Conservative, Bible-believing Christians too often settled for tweet-length quips (before Twitter), proof texting, and feel-good theology as an alternative to quality research. 

Similarly, in 2018, Jonathan Haidt, an agnostic social psychologist at New York University, wrote The Coddling of the American Mind to raise the alarm that many Americans today have exchanged a rigorous pursuit of truth for group think and emotional reasoning. As a result, we have sidelined the mind from doing the intellectual work God intended it to, specifically the task of thinking through complex topics with lucidity and care.

In this second article in my ongoing series on the life of the mind, I want to dig deeper into Jesus’ command in the gospels to love God with the mind, alongside heart, soul, and strength. According to Jesus, one’s intellectual life is not spiritually neutral. What we think about, how we think, and our approach to learning itself all contain import for the way we know and love God. A key aspect of Christian discipleship, therefore, becomes cultivating the life of the mind for a vibrant love of God to grow. Let us now explore how this might be.

Jesus‘ Pursuit of Wisdom From the Past

One distinctive characteristic of the Christian classical education renewal movement is an enthusiasm for gleaning wisdom from the past. This knowledge of ancient wisdom provides students with a broader context for the history of ideas and helps them better discern truth from falsehood in their own day. 

To illustrate this insight, C.S. Lewis uses the metaphor of a clock. He writes, “If you join at eleven o’clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said…Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeking certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period” (“Introduction” to On the Incarnation, p. 4). 

When we read the teachings of Jesus, we find that our Lord shared this deep appreciation for wisdom from the past. As a faithful Jew, Jesus was a faithful follower of the Old Testament Law, which he believed was wisdom revealed by God himself. In Luke 10:25-28, a legal expert approaches Jesus with the goal to put this knowledge of the Law to the test. With a striking blend of authority and compassion, Jesus showcases his commitment to the Law while counter-testing the legal expert with his own question.

The Shema with Two Additions

The legal expert’s test question is about how to inherit eternal life, the answer of which both he and Jesus agree is found in the Law. Quoting the Pentateuch, the expert recites to Jesus, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Deut. 6:5). Without pause, he continues “and [love] your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).

It is important to note that the Deuteronomy passage is one of the most well-known in Jewish history and culture. It begins with the injunction, “Hear, O Israel,” which becomes the inspiration for the passage’s name, Shema (the word for “hear” in Hebrew is “Shema”). For faithful Jews, the Shema is handwritten on a small parchment and placed at shoulder height on the doorposts of observant Jewish homes (see Joel B. Green’s The Gospel of Luke of the New International Commentary series for further background on this passage). This practice is in accordance with Moses’ command in the passage to teach the words of the Law to Hebrew tradition throughout all facets of everyday life.

Interestingly, in Jesus’ conversation with the legal expert, there are two notable additions to the Shema. One is the neighbor-love command. The other is the inclusion of the mind to the list of ways humans are commanded to love God. (In the Shema, Moses lists heart, soul, and might, but not mind because the heart in Hebrew anthropology includes one’s rationality.) While both additions are worth exploring, in this article, I will focus only on the second, the addition of the mind as a pathway for loving God.

Love’s Four-Fold Structure

In his new book The Life We’re Looking For (Penguin Random House, 2022), author Andy Crouch references the Shema to offer a biblically-informed summary of what being fully human involves: “Every human person is a heart-soul-mind-strength complex designed for love” (33). 

Crouch distills these four categories as follows:

• Heart: the seat of desire and emotion
• Soul: the depth of self that is distinctive to each person

• Mind: the capacity and inclination to better understand our experience of God and this world

• Strength: the ability to work and play with all our being 

Together, this four-fold structure of what it means to be human finds its underlying goal to love, first and foremost, God, and also our neighbor. Crouch writes, “Most of all, we are designed for love–primed before we were born to seek out others, wired neurologically to respond with empathy and recognition, coming most alive when we are in relationships of mutual dependence and trust. Love calls out the best in us–it awakens our hearts, it stirs up the depths of our souls, it focuses our minds, it arouses our bodies to action and passion (35). 

A Loving Mind

The question, then, is how do we love God with our minds? What does a loving mind look? How do we hold together the deep affections of the heart with the activities of the mind? I will continue this inquiry in my next article, but for now, I will leave readers with three potential categories for how we might answer the question.

What we think about

Paul writes in Philippians 4:8 that Christians are to think about “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise.” It seems to me that one way we love God is by filtering the attention and content of our minds on what is good, true, and beautiful, all of which comes from God Himself.

How we think

While the mind is often connoted with cold rationality, I want to suggest that there is an artistry to mental activity that can be warm, elegant, and connective. When humans learn to think wisely according to the broader vision of wisdom as described in the Book of Proverbs, they flourish in a way that aligns with how God created the world. Proverbs 8 provides clues, specifically, for how the pursuit of wisdom connects to loving God with our minds.

Our approach to learning

In modern society, learning has been stripped of its relational qualities in service of utilitarian ends. Knowledge is power, or at least, the avenue for getting into college. But what if the pursuit of knowledge is meant to be primarily a relational enterprise? We form relationships with whom and that which we know. We can love God with our minds when we seek knowledge about Him that our love for Him may abound.

Join the Conversation

These are preliminary ideas that I will pick up in my next article. For now, I would be curious to hear what you think. How can we love God with our minds? Please comment below and join me in this exploration.

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What is this purpose? Education is about coming alongside students made in God’s image and helping them achieve their God-given potential. It begins with the question, “Who is this person that sits before me?” and goes on to probe both the limits and possibilities of her growth. Consequently, education is a branch of applied ethics, grounded in a particular conception of human flourishing, both individually and corporately. Like Kant’s categorical imperatives, we must ask ourselves, “If I were to educate every human person in this way, what sort of world would result?” 

Through asking questions like this, we can arrive at a way of educating that is counter-cultural, inspirational, and robustly biblical. This approach will take seriously the image-bearing status of our students and invite them into the good life as defined within a broader biblical framework of human flourishing. As a result, it will prepare the next generation of people like William Wilberforce and Mother Teresa, men and women equipped to lead and ready to serve no matter the cost.

Of course, this sort of quality education comes with a budget. To give students the attention and support they need calls for a sufficient number of well-trained and godly faculty. It is also dependent upon a well-developed curriculum, a safe and reliable facility, and supplies. This all costs money.

Like most non-profits, Christian, classical schools rely on the generosity of donors who believe in the mission to deliver the outcomes of the education. The process of partnering with donors to fund the mission, known as fundraising, can be a touchy subject, both for the giver and receiver. In this blog article, I will explore the relationship between education and fundraising, showing how the vision for education we seek to promote here at Educational Renaissance offers some help guidance for how we can provide for it financially. 

Science of Relations, Including Money

Earlier this week, I met with my colleague about an Upper School course we are designing on applied theology. We brainstormed objectives for the course like implementing spiritual disciplines, growing in awareness of personal vocation, mapping out convictions that align with faith and virtue, and developing a biblical worldview on key ethical questions. While we were in the flow of our brainstorm, my colleague wisely suggested that we include a unit on the theology of money. I responded immediately that I thought this was a great idea. We do not often reflect theologically on money–what is and how it can be used to bring glory to God. And yet these are precisely the sort of questions one could explore in an “Applied Theology” course. Press pause on the hypostatic union for a moment; what should we do about bitcoin? 

In A Spirituality of Fundraising (Upper Room Books, 2010), Henry Nouwen observes that money is a central reality in our lives, beginning when we are children (28). It is likely that our view of money is influenced by family upbringing more than anything else. Each of us grow up and develop a particular relationship with money just as we do with other facets of the created order.

This relational existence is precisely what prompted Charlotte Mason to ultimately define education as “the science of relations.” She writes,

A child should be brought up to have relations of force with earth and water, should run and ride, swim and skate, lift and carry; should know texture, and work in material; should know by name, and where and how they live at any rate, the things of the earth about him, its birds and beasts and creeping things, its herbs and trees; should be in touch with the literature, art and thought of the past and the present. I do not mean that he should know all these things; but he should feel, when he reads of it in the newspapers, the thrill which stirred the Cretan peasants when the frescoes in the palace of King Minos were disclosed to the labour of their spades. He should feel the thrill, not from mere contiguity, but because he has with the past the relationship of living pulsing thought; and, if blood be thicker than water, thought is more quickening than blood. He must have a living relationship with the present, its historic movement, its science, literature, art, social needs and aspirations. In fact, he must have a wide outlook, intimate relations all round; and force, virtue, must pass out of him, whether of hand, will, or sympathy, wherever he touches.

School Education, p. 162, bold emphasis mine

I quote this passage in full because it captures so well the relational existence that we are all born into. True knowledge of the world, including money, expands beyond the domain of information. While we can speak abstractly about income and expenses, P&L statements, and cash budgets, these numbers impact us personally when they are ours to manage. Consequently, depending on our upbringing and training, we can view finances as a terrifying enigma, a necessary evil, or a God-given aspect of responsible living. When viewed as the latter, we can approach finances and fundraising just as we do the throne of grace: with confidence in the faithfulness of our gracious and generous God.

Relocating our Source of Security

Effective fundraising begins with a proper view and relationship to money. It also requires a new way of relating to material resources. For most people, money is a chief form of security. This is in large part why fundraising is such a touchy subject. To admit the need for money leaves one feeling exposed. To ask for it even more so.

But it does not have to be. Nouwen writes, “The pressure in our culture to secure our own future and to control our lives as much as possible does not find support in the Bible. Jesus knows our need for security…What is our security base? God or Mammon?” (32). In this chapter, Nouwen clarifies that money holds an important place, but never as the foundation. As believers, we must put our trust in God and constantly through prayer recalibrate our dependence on Him alone.

Can we trust God? Yes, we can! His transcendence and sovereignty know no depths. As the prophet Isaiah writes,

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?

Isaiah 40:12 NIV

Here the prophet underscores the unquantifiable distance between the knowledge and power of God and ourselves. This is an important truth to keep in my mind as we approach fundraising. Our security base cannot be our ability to forecast expenses, increase enrollment, or attract new donors. The only true base of security for believers is God alone.

Viewing Donors as Whole Persons

As Christian, classical educators, we talk often about the fact that we are educating whole persons. Here we are getting at the idea that humans are more than their grade point average, trophy case, or SAT score. They have minds, but they are not merely minds. They have bodies, but they are not merely bodies. They will likely one day join the work force and earn a salary, but this is not their sole purpose of existence. Therefore, we provide students with a liberal (generous), well-rounded education that will prepare them to thrive intellectually, physically, spiritually, and yes, economically.

Likewise, we should approach people with means to support the school as more than the biggest gift they can give. Donors are whole persons with families, interests, challenges, and aspirations. They have spiritual needs just like you and me, and need biblical encouragement. When we begin to view donors as whole persons, we grow more generous ourselves as we look for opportunities to bless and serve them.

It can be tempting to approach donors with a feeling of desperation and even helplessness. We feel the pressure of school expenses adding up and, as a result, fundraising can start to feel like begging. But, again, Nouwen is helpful here. He argues that fundraising is the opposite of begging; it is the invitation to join a compelling mission. He writes,

We are declaring, ‘We have a vision that is amazing and exciting. We are inviting you to invest yourself through the resources God has given you–your energy, your prayers, and your money–in this work to which God has called us to do.’

A Spirituality of Fundraising, p. 17

Seen in this way, fundraising is a form of ministry, not begging, in which we play the role of gift-giver even as we ask for monetary gifts to support the mission of educating the next generation.

Conclusion: The Role of Teachers

If you are a teacher reading this article, and you are still reading, well done! I am grateful for your attention. Many teachers are uncomfortable with the idea of fundraising and did not become a teacher to ask people for money. That is fine. But my hope in writing this article is that it will help you remember and appreciate the financial side of your school. I actually believe you will become a stronger faculty member and broader contributor to your school’s culture if you can appreciate this important dimension of your school’s sustainability.

In Journey to Excellence (ACSI, 2017), Ron Klein writes, “While the active fundraising effort of others is important for progress, the faculty’s subtle, indirect culture of gratefulness and appreciation for donors is no less crucial” (98). Teachers, understand that your school is a non-profit and relies on donors. It is very likely that your salary is dependent to some extent on the generosity of donors and therefore the efforts of those charged to raise funds. When appropriate, offer your gratitude to these partners in your school’s mission and prayerfully consider inviting potential new partners to learn more about your school.

Fundraising does not have to be a necessary evil. When we trust the Lord as our ultimate security and believe that our school’s vision is a cause worth getting behind, inviting others to partner together can bring an unexpected amount of joy.

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With this groundwork laid in Aristotle and modern research, we proceeded to articulate an understanding of the arts as situated in history and culture, as familial and traditional in nature. The upshot of this view is that we must apprentice students into specific traditions of artistry. We are not training abstract intellectual skills that can be transferred to new contexts, as Bloom’s taxonomy and the faculty theory of education supposed. When we train students in arithmetic or grammar, just like painting or gymnastics, we are inducting them into something both old and new. The ancient insights, styles and methods in these domains have been continuously adjusted and updated since their inception. This does not mean we must accept modern methods or assumptions in various arts (see A Pedagogy of Craft), but it does entail that some traditional artistic abilities and practices have little relevance in our contemporary context. Few schools teach horseback riding or ancient sailing and navigation techniques, and for good reason.

The Limitations of Artistic Divisions

In a similar way, there is no sacrosanct set of divisions between the arts handed down as if from on high. What we see in the classical tradition is a variety of distinctions between the branches of various artistic traditions as they developed over time. Many of the things that we regard as grammar (e.g., distinctions between singular and plural, parts of speech, types of sentences) are discussed by Augustine of Hippo in his treatise On Dialectic (de Dialectica). We should not be surprised at this fact. Since the arts are living traditions, human descriptions of their boundaries and nature are like mapping a flood plain. So, as much as we may nerd out about the Seven Liberal Arts (I am speaking to myself as much as to others…) we should not be disturbed when Hugh of St Victor, for instance, refuses to follow the early medieval divisions. 

(In the Didascalicon Hugh advocates for four branches of knowledge or wisdom: the theoretical [disciplines like mathematics, physics and theology], the practical [ethics and politics], the mechanical [architecture, medicine, agriculture, etc.], and logic, or the science which ensures proper reasoning and clarity in the other sciences.)

While we are, in this series, developing Aristotle’s divisions of the intellectual virtues, therefore, we should not prejudge the idea that his is the best or the only proper mapping of the intellectual virtues, the educational project or the distinctions between categories of knowledge. This series should be viewed as the opening of a conversation about rethinking our educational goals within Aristotelian terms, as more philosophically sound and helpful than Bloom’s Taxonomy. In the same way, though I have often referred to the classical distinction between the arts and sciences, it would be more accurate to reference the Aristotelian distinction between artistry (techne) and scientific knowledge (episteme), which had the effect in the tradition at varying times and places of issuing in a similar distinction between the branches of knowledge and of arts. 

Likewise, with arts in particular, I have proposed a fivefold division of the arts as in my view the most helpful for gesturing toward wholeness in our current renewal movement, and not because I dismiss the elegance of the threefold vision of common, liberal and fine arts, endorsed by Chris Hall, Ravi Jain and Kevin Clark. 

Techne — Artistry or craftsmanship

1. Athletics, games and sports
2. Common and domestic arts
3. Professions and trades
4. Fine and performing arts
5. The liberal arts of language and number

The main reason to do so lies in the realization that athletics, games and sports are indeed forms of techne, but they are not easily captured under the headings of common, liberal or fine. This is a problem if, as I contend, athletics, games and sports rightly play an important role within education. Separating out professions and trades from the common and domestic arts, secondarily, gestures towards modern cultural realities post-industrialization. Tending a garden in your backyard represents a different stream of craftsmanship than managing a commercial greenhouse. We risk a high degree of unhelpful equivocation by attempting to use medieval categories in the modern world. 

Of course, the fact that these are arts does not entail that we are obliged to train students in all of them—an impossibility in any case! What I have said is that we should structure the academy optimally to cultivate the arts and that we should aim at a universality, not a comprehensiveness, of artistic training in our K-12 educational programs. It is possible to train students in representatives from each of the five categories, with the liberal arts occupying a central role for the production of the other intellectual virtues (see later section in this article). As I discussed in an earlier article, the choice of which arts to cultivate constitutes a cultural judgment based on the calling and opportunities of a particular school. 

If all this talk of the culturally situated nature of the arts lands me in controversy, at least I can claim that I am not anti-tradition, but I am in fact restoring a proper understanding of artistic traditions against the modernist pretensions about objectivity. As Aristotle articulated so clearly, techne concerns itself with the ultimate particular facts, with what may or may not be, with contingent things and not with necessary being. Knowledge of how to make something does not constitute knowledge of the essences of things or philosophic wisdom. These truths are part and parcel of the natural limitations of artistry. 

The Transcendence of Artistry into Morality

However, it is also worth recognizing how artistry can in fact transcend itself. If craftsmanship can be figuratively represented by skillful hands, then as we already explained those same hands are hardwired to the heart and head, and even the spirit. In a way we have already noted this fact at length in the prelude to Apprenticeship in the Arts. Aristotle himself recognized the similarities between morality and artistry. But we have not as yet duly noted the extent to which the training of the hands also conditions the heart. As Comenius recognized, the arts require their own sort of prudence, by which the artisan foresees what will turn out for the best with his artistic production. 

Likewise, a hard and painful practice regimen enables the production of good and beautiful things. In this way, apprenticeship in the arts participates in the nature of the moral training that enables a person to delay instant gratification for the sake of a greater reward later. By thus disciplining the desires, artistic training acts as a natural prelude and arena for the development of self-control and this not only in athletics and sports, but in all the various arts. In both artistry and morality, one must aim at a target and pursue it through reasoned use of contingent means. Techne transcends itself through its natural participation in all the moral virtues and in the intellectual virtue of phronesis, or practical wisdom. 

After all, the sphere of human production has a natural affinity with the sphere of human action and goods. Producing something beautiful and valuable is itself a prudent action for a human being. Even more, developing some form of artistry is necessary for living a good life and enjoying the good things of life. Adopting a craftsman mindset in one’s work and getting into the flow of deliberate or purposeful practice constitutes a chief element of a prudent, and therefore happy, life. One must at times display the moral virtues of courage, temperance and justice in the serious work of artistic excellence. Jordan Peterson, for one, has discussed the importance of fair play and reciprocity in games as an emergent ethic. 

Artistry’s Moral and Spiritual Limitations

All this said, we can note again the limits of this blending of artistry into prudence. After all, the super star performer and artistic genius are also liable to moral dissolution and depravity, as we have daily witness in the tabloids. As in the case of the traditions of artistry themselves, it seems that self-control and moral foresight are not necessarily transferred from one sphere of life to another. The devoted Olympic athlete has his impeccable diet and training regimen, but he might be notoriously licentious or proud.

This limitation even shows itself in the spiritual sphere where transformations of artistry can mask, for a time, the impurities of the heart. As Jesus stated explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matt 7:21-23 ESV)

Spiritual gifts, or what we might call spiritual forms of artistry (since they are productive acts in the world), do not ensure that such artisans are morally sound. They might outwardly perform spiritual works, but in the eyes of God they remain still “workers of lawlessness.” In the same way, our liberal arts educated students may become nothing more than “clever devils,” to borrow C.S. Lewis’ phrase from The Abolition of Man. 

Among other things, this is why we must go on from artistry, which, for all its possibilities for transcendence, is properly basic and preparatory to the other intellectual virtues, rather than constituting them in itself. As Saint Paul claims, “I will show you a still more excellent way” (1 Cor 12:31b ESV), while he transitions from the gifts of spiritual artistry to the transcendent value of love, over and above all the intellectual and moral virtues on display in their full extravagance and grandiosity. Not just tongues of men, but of angels—what a statement to put the trivium arts to shame! “Prophetic powers” and understanding “all mysteries and all knowledge”—what phrases to humble the prophet, scholar and philosopher alike! 

It may be that we can ascribe the term ‘wisdom’ even to the greatest exponents of the arts, as Aristotle mentions in Book VI, ch. 4 of the Nicomachean Ethics. But by this we do not mean either that practical wisdom for life or philosophical wisdom of the highest mysteries.

Artistry as a Prelude to the Other Four Intellectual Virtues

And yet again, the arts can by their very nature transcend toward philosophical wisdom just like toward moral prudence. In the fine arts, for instance, it is not only their beauty that we prize but the messages that our great artists have embodied in shape and form. These insights into the nature of life and reality are valuable in so far as they are true. Or to put it another way, great artists rely on their intuition (nous) or understanding of reality (both in universals and in particulars) for the messages they have skillfully conveyed in artistic form. This intuition about life can, fortunately and unfortunately, coexist with poor habits and a personal lack of prudence. The artist may be our muse, whether or not she herself practices what she preaches!

Not all artistic productions convey a high degree of knowledge about the world, but the higher fine and performing arts, as well as the liberal arts do. In fact, it is these traditional productions of genius—paintings and sculptures, poems and novels, histories and plays, speeches and debates—that act as the forerunners of intuition and scientific knowledge in the student. It is through attention to these Great Works that defy easy categorization that the perceptive and reasoning abilities of the student are honed and developed. They provide a form of enriched second-hand experience enabling students’ thought to grow and mature. By imitating them throughout their training in the arts, students are given more than simply artistry itself. They are given the forerunners of the other intellectual virtues: the opinions of authorities, “the words of the wise and their riddles” (Prov 1:6b ESV).

While experiencing artistic productions can lead to artistry in the student when combined with imitation and coached practice, it is through reflection on the authorities, especially in the liberal arts, that prudence, intuition, scientific knowledge and ultimately philosophical wisdom are developed. In this way, while artistry is not enough, it is by nature a prelude to the other intellectual virtues. For this reason, the tradition recognized training in the liberal arts as preparatory to the sciences. In particular, the traditional productions of artistic wisdom are meant to provide fodder for reflection on the nature of human goods, thus developing prudence. From our Aristotelian vantage point, we can see the late medieval vision of moral philosophy as informing the individual’s development of phronesis. 

In a similar fashion, the arts help us see in a way that we would not on our own, forming our intuition or nous, those starting points for reasoning, whether in human, mathematical or natural spheres. At the same time, training in the liberal arts of language and number enable us to demonstrate propositions to be the case, establishing a statement as true or false. In this way, artistry with words and numbers constitutes the necessary prerequisite for scientific knowledge in what the later tradition would have called metaphysics and natural science. Both deliberation (for affairs of human choice regarding goods) and inquiry (for universal and particular truths regardless of human desire), then, require use, if not mastery, of the liberal arts for their practice. And so, these other intellectual virtues are dependent upon the liberal arts.

So, we are for this reason justified in seeing the liberal arts tradition as in a unique way indebted to the Aristotelian paradigm of intellectual virtues. Although not everyone in the tradition articulated this distinction between the liberal arts and sciences in the same way, the insight about the liberal arts’ central role as the pathways to moral virtue and wisdom owes a great deal to Aristotle. 

It is important to conclude by stating clearly that training in the liberal arts, like other forms of artistry, does not always and necessarily lead to the other intellectual virtues. As Clark and Jain have contended in The Liberal Arts Tradition, the liberal arts are not enough. We need only look to Plato’s Gorgias to see Socrates demolishing this supposition before Aristotle came along. Rhetoric could be a mere knack or craftiness that makes the worse appear to be the better cause. All the arts have their forms of trickery that are out of step with moral or spiritual reality. Artistry, particularly liberal artistry, can transcend itself as the doorway into deeper things, but it need not and therein lies the danger of relying or focusing on it alone. Which is why we must go on from artistry, entering the realms of prudence next….

Earlier Articles in this series:

1. Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Purpose of Education

2. Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Importance of Objectives: 3 Blessings of Bloom’s

3. Breaking Down the Bad of Bloom’s: The False Objectivity of Education as a Modern Social Scienc

4. When Bloom’s Gets Ugly: Cutting the Heart Out of Education

5. What Bloom’s Left Out: A Comparison with Aristotle’s Intellectual Virtues

6. Aristotle’s Virtue Theory and a Christian Purpose of Education

7. Moral Virtue and the Intellectual Virtue of Artistry or Craftsmanship

8. Practicing in the Dark or the Day: Well-worn Paths or Bushwalking, Artistry and Moral Virtue Continued

9. Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 1: Traditions and Divisions

10. Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 2: A Pedagogy of Craft

11. Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 3: Crafting Lessons in Artistry

12. Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 4: Artistry, the Academy and the Working World

13. Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 5: Structuring the Academy for Christian Artistry

Next subseries in Aristotle’s Intellectual Virtues:

The Counsels of the Wise, Part 1: Foundations of Christian Prudence

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Telling better stories requires a mastery of language, one of the keystone benefits of a liberal arts education. Language is perhaps the most under-appreciated gift that God has given His creatures. We often do not grasp language’s necessity until we are in need of it: when we are stranded in a foreign country or trying to communicate with a one-year old. Language is important because it unites us like no other medium. It serves as the vehicle for communicating how we feel, what we think, and why we are acting the way we are. Additionally, language has the rare ability of integrating the disparate strands of life, indeed of lives, into a unified whole. Language is the precondition for story, and story-telling is the foundation of culture.

In this blog, I will make the case that the liberal arts, especially the mastery of language, are crucial for preserving and transmitting a culture. Without language, formative stories are lost, and cultures fall into decline. Of course, not all cultures are worth preserving. For example, it is a good thing that the culture of the late Roman Empire passed out of existence. The hunger for world domination, degradation of human life, and lust for pleasure became propagations of Rome that made our world worse, not better. On the contrary, our mission as Christian, classical schools is to cultivate future culture makers, moored in biblical values, and heralds of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Training in the liberal arts will equip our students to tell better stories, and in turn, cultivate more attractive cultures, superior to the ones contemporary secular society can possibly offer.

Studying Latin: An Act of Resistance 

Let me begin with the study of Latin, a well-known curricular emphasis in classical liberal arts education. One of the most frequent questions I receive as an administrator at a classical, Christian school is “Why Latin?” After all, our modern world has been highly successful in passing on the metaphor that Latin is a “dead language.” Moreover, using a modern rubric of utility and innovation, it is difficult to discern any clear benefit of studying a language that is no longer spoken in the public square.

Amongst classical schools, it has become fashionable of late to please the modern demand for utility by citing the correlation between Latin and high SAT scores or to remind prospective parents that derivatives of Latin are present in 60% of English words. The usefulness of Latin relieves us moderns temporarily from the fear that all the time invested in an ancient language may not pay off in the real world. 

Of course, this perspective assumes a particular definition of “the real world,” namely, the world of professional advancement, wealth accumulation, and personal success, all measured against the performance metrics of the 21st century. But what if “the real world” encompasses more than our present century? What if the surest way to educate students who will shape future cultures is to ensure they have an acute grasp of the histories and ideas of the past? What if the key to a treasure-trove of wisdom accumulated over millennia is available only through the long-lost language of Latin?

If the answer to these questions is in the affirmative, then the study of Latin should be recovered as an act of resistance. At the risk of overstating my point, this can be illustrated in the stunning image (and example) of Tank Man. Tank Man, the moniker for the courageous unnamed citizen who protested the totalitarian regime in communist China, boldly stood his ground the day after the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators on June 5, 1989.

While studying Latin may not threaten one’s life (some students may disagree), it remains an act of sacrificial resistance in its own way. With the growing skepticism regarding the value of reading old books, coupled with the excellent English translations that are easily accessible today, doubt remains whether the study of Latin is worth it.

What we must remember is that Latin is a portal to “the real world” properly conceived. Contra popular opinion, the universe did not simply pop into existence one hundred years ago. Human civilizations across the globe have existed for millenia. Latin is one entry point into one prominent civilization that has served as the seed ground for the modern conception of human rights, modern science, and the development of the western church.

By studying Latin, students receive a rare gift: the ability to directly access the geniuses of this tradition: Virgil, Cicero, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, and John Calvin, to name a few. We read these authors as faithful trustees of the Great Conversation, listening carefully to these voices that we might preserve the insights of what is good and true for future generations, while also correcting them in places where they were wrong or misguided. This process of preservation and correction is crucial for the project of creating future cultures.

The Privilege of Studying the Arts

Lately, I have been reading and writing on the life of John Adams, a Founding Father of the United States. Adams kept up a faithful correspondence with his wife Abigail, despite years of living overseas in Europe. In one particular letter to Abigail, Adams shares his multi-generational vision for education and the development of culture. He looked forward to the day when his children and grandchildren would not be preoccupied with war, but instead, would have the freedom to build a culture of goodness, beauty, and order.

Adams writes,

“The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”

Here we gain a rare glimpse of how one cultural architect envisions building and transmitting a culture. Adams adopted a long-term mindset with regards to his role in the development of American society. He understood the pathway to freedom and order in society and that it runs through war and governance. Once a free and orderly society is established, the next phase of study, composed of STEM subjects like navigation and agriculture, is used to build on the foundation. Finally, it becomes the responsibility of those trained in the arts to create a beautiful and good culture, leading to a better world.

Unfortunately, many schools today have lost sight of this long-term vision by focusing exclusively on the urgent: career-readiness. We forget that careers only exist in the first place in a free, orderly, and cultivated society. The best way to prepare students for their future career, is ironically, to help them gain mastery in more rare and valuable skills: the liberal arts.

A Babylonian, Classical Education

Oddly enough, the ancients seemed to grasp the power of the liberal arts for culture building better than us moderns. In the book of Daniel, we see that the powerful Babylonian Empire followed a process for their territorial expansion: invade, capture and assimilate. 

After laying siege and destroying Jerusalem in 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar captured members of the Jewish elite to assimilate them into Babylonian culture. These members of Jewish nobility were “…youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace…” (Daniel 1:4). The chief servant of the king was instructed to train these men in the language and literature of the Chaldeans. They were to be educated for three years, eating the food of the city and, more importantly, imbibing the Babylonian culture. 

Why were the Babylonians so set on educating a group of captive youth? They understood that the key to transmitting a culture was forming the mind through the liberal arts. By introducing Daniel and his friends to the gods, stories, myths, and values of Babylon, they would assimilate these young Jewish men into the culture. In fact, these young Jewish men were even given new names, with theological significance, branding them as citizens of the Babylonian Empire.

As we know, however, Daniel and his friends refused to be assimilated. They continued to use their original Jewish names and refused to eat the king’s food. Instead, they ate only vegetables, being careful to live within the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law. In return, God blessed them both intellectually and physically. God granted them “learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams…. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom” (Dan 1:20). 

The story of Daniel is a sober reminder, both of the perceived power of the liberal arts and the blessing of obedience to God’s Word. While the Babylonians sought to promote their mighty culture through the liberal arts, only God’s plan for this world would endure.

Telling the Greatest Story

Ultimately, for Christians, the most powerful, culture-shaping story we pass on to future generations is not about western civilization, the founding of a particular nation, or Babylonian mythology (I would surely hope not!). The most transformative story is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that our loving Creator sent his Son to offer forgiveness of sin and life through the Spirit, and ultimately to usher in the kingdom of God. The culture we seek to build and transmit must be rooted in this great story.

Our learning communities, whether at school or at home, need to gather each day and remind one another of the story of the gospel. We can do this in a few ways.

First, we can begin each day in worship, singing songs that promote an understanding of the glory of God, the fallenness of humanity, and the need for a savior.

Second, when we teach classes on the Bible, we can lead students into deep dives in biblical studies, while also helping students see the grand narrative of the gospel that unites all of scripture. We can also leverage insights from other domains, for example, reading the Bible as literature, in order to engage the imaginations and hearts of students.

Finally, we can integrate the gospel in our approach to student discipline. The gospel is not a self-help manual to equip students to fix their problems on their own. Nor is it a legalistic tome, denoting each and every expectation God has for human behavior. Rather, it is the grand story of God’s grace in our lives and His restorative plan for creation. The gospel allows us to guide students in moments of discipline to utter the words, “I cannot do this on my own. Lord, please help me,” and restore them into the classroom.

Conclusion

The stories we tell are powerful for transmitting a culture, and the surest way to tell stories infused with meaning and persuasion is through training in the liberal arts. In the post-Christian western world in which we live, our society needs to hear the good news of Christ anew. By training our students in mastery of language and the arts, we are equipping students to not only have careers, but to be leaders of the future cultures of society. May God grant us much wisdom as we continue in this important work.

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