Education is necessary for an obedient and fruitful Christian life. All Christians are called to know God and to cultivate wisdom (Rom 16:19; Gal 4:8-9; Eph 3:18-19; Col 1:9). Christians are called to teach and exhort one another, and parents are called to train their children (Deut 6:4-7; Prov 22:6). Education, then, is a calling and a command; we are to “bring [our children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” (Eph 6:4). Whether or not our children profess faith in Christ, we are obligated to teach them about God, his Word, and his world. We must train our children in the way of righteousness while calling them to faith and repentance (Matt 28:18-20).
In this essay, I provide a sketch of Christian education in the classical tradition. First, I show that knowledge is possible because God exists and has revealed himself. Second, I discuss what makes Christian education truly Christian. Finally, I show how classical education is compatible and fitting with Christian education.
Education depends on the possibility of knowledge. Without knowledge, there is no education. Fortunately, knowledge is possible because God exists. All knowledge is grounded in God himself. God exists eternally and necessarily as a Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit. God created the world ex nihilo. That God is the Creator implies the Creator-creature distinction, that is, the distinction between God the Creator and all of creation. God is not part of the world. The world is not part of God. God does not depend on the world for his being, power, wisdom, knowledge, or happiness. Creation is utterly dependent upon God.
Because God created the world, he alone determines the world’s meaning, purpose, and value. Just as an artist determines the object and significance of his painting, or an author determines the storyline and meaning of his novel, God creates the object and gives it meaning. God said, “Let there be lights,” for example, and he created lights in the heavens: the sun and moon and stars. And the sun and moon and stars are what they are because God made them to be what they are. And God gave them a purpose: “And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth,” (Gen 1:14-15). And God also determined the lights’ value: “And God saw that it was good,” (Gen. 1:18). So it is with all things. Because God is the Creator, it is his prerogative to create and give meaning and purpose and value to all things.
God has made humanity in his own image. God gives humanity existence, meaning, purpose, and value—indeed, because we are created in his image, we are of great value. We can have real knowledge of the world and of God because God has made us to know him and the world. God has revealed himself generally in the world and specially in the Bible and in his Son. In other words, God reveals himself through general and special revelation.
All knowledge is revelation. God is the Giver of all existence, meaning, purpose, and value; thus, all things receive their existence, meaning, purpose, and value from God. Truths of history, language, and science, for example, are true because God has given existence, meaning, purpose, and value to time, space, nature, and humanity. For these truths to be known, they must be revealed. God must tell us what things are, what they mean, what is their purpose, and what is their value. God tells us these things through our natural faculties (e.g., the senses and intellect) and through Scripture. Likewise with truths about God; they must be revealed through the things God has made (nature) and through his word (the Bible).
Furthermore, all knowledge is founded and found in Christ who is the Word, the wisdom, and the revelation of God (Col. 2:3). Scripture teaches that all things were made through him, and he sustains the universe by the word of his power (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:3). Moreover, God’s plan for all eternity is centered in the work of Christ (Eph. 1:3-14). Thus, all things find their existence, meaning, purpose, and value in relation to the work of Christ. Therefore, all knowledge is Christocentric.
An implication of this Christocentric epistemology is that truth is neither relative nor subjective. There is real, objective, knowable, absolute truth. Furthermore, because there is a knowable reality that exists outside our subjective experience, there is a unified body of knowledge that can be expressed with human language and logic. All disciplines, all fields of study, then, are integrated in the book of reality, including the study of God. Faith, reason, and learning are naturally integrated.
Christian education is Christian because it recognizes that knowledge is possible only because God exists and has revealed himself. Christian education is also Christian because of its theocentrism (God-centeredness), Christocentrism (Christ-centeredness), fidelity to Scripture, and end (or telos).
Theocentrism means that all of reality is ultimately about God. The trinitarian God of the Bible created the world out of nothing for his own glory (Rom 11:36; 1 Cor 10:31)—not from any lack in himself but from an overabundance of goodness and love. The world is not anthropocentric; mankind is not the center of the world. Rather, the world is from God and for God. Although Christian education values human life, culture, and achievement, even these are from God and for God.
Christocentrism entails at least two things. First, Christocentrism entails that Christian education is permeated with the gospel. Mankind has fallen into sin and deserves the wrath of God. Jesus, who is fully God and fully man, lived a perfect, sinless life, died in the place of sinners, and rose again, so that those who believe in him and his work might be forgiven, redeemed, justified, and have eternal life. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, to the glory of God alone. Teachers and students alike are called to put their faith in Jesus Christ, and together, they call the world to Christ. Christian education, then, is marked by love, humility, grace, and forgiveness because of the work of Christ in his people. Second, Christocentrism entails the recognition that all knowledge is hidden in Christ through whom all things were created and by whom all things are sustained. Christ is the Logos, the Word which God spoke in the beginning, the Reason that binds all reality. Nothing can be understood properly apart from its relation to Christ, the Wisdom of God.
Christian education is founded upon the inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient Bible. Because God made the world and everything in it, he determines the meaning, purpose, and value of all things. Therefore, we can only know things rightly in light of what God says about them. The Bible is God’s Word spoken to us. Because of our own finitude, weakness, and sin, we need the Bible to interpret the world properly. The Bible is the corrective lens through which we view the world. The Bible sets the framework for a consistently Christian worldview. The Holy Spirit, in his work of regeneration, sanctification, and the illumination of Scripture, allows us to see true things as true, beautiful things as beautiful, and good things as good (1 Cor 2:14-15).
The end—the purpose or telos—of Christian education is to form wise and virtuous persons, “that we may present everyone mature in Christ,” (Col 1: 28). Thus, education is concerned with the whole person: the intellect, the affections, and the will. We acknowledge that only God can change hearts of stone to hearts of flesh (Ezek 36:26); nevertheless, we are responsible to obey God’s command to “Train up a child in the way he should go,” (Prov 22:6) and to “stir one another to love and good works,” (Heb 10:24). Christian education promotes Christian virtue and character in addition to academic excellence. Christian education integrates the pursuit of knowledge, virtue, and holiness.
Classical education is fully consistent with Christian education. Indeed, classical education is uniquely fitting with Christian education. Classical education is a philosophy, a curriculum, and a pedagogical method. The goal of classical education is not primarily the transference of knowledge from teacher to student but formation of virtue in the student, modeled by the teacher.
Classical education is a philosophy in the sense of being a broad response to a number of fundamental worldview questions—questions about the nature of reality (theology and metaphysics), knowledge (epistemology), morality (ethics), and humanity (anthropology). For example, classical education presupposes a real world that is really knowable. Classical education presupposes that humanity, human individuals, and human history are valuable. Classical education sees the problem with humanity as originating internally rather than externally, that is, the problem with humanity is primarily human depravity and sin, not the environment. Classical education is also a broad moral system which emphasizes virtue formation and/or biblical ethics. Classical education also maintains that learning is not merely about the intellect but about the affections and the will, as well. Classical education focuses our attention to the three transcendentals: goodness, truth, and beauty. These three transcendentals are real, knowable, objective, and attainable in varying degrees. Christians recognize that goodness, truth, and beauty are not merely abstract universals but the true character of God. All that is good, true, and beautiful in the world is, thus, a dim reflection of God its Creator.
Classical education is often associated with the liberal arts. The liberal arts are the skills of language, thought, and leisure rather than the skills of labor and trade. The liberal arts are comprised of the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) which represent the study of language, and the quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music) which represent the study of mathematics. Grammar is taught especially through Latin and Greek: the principle languages of Western Civilization. Logic is the study of argumentation, truth, and validity. Classical education emphasizes categorical logic—the system of logic developed by Aristotle and utilized by the Church for over 1,500 years. Rhetoric is the art of persuasive writing, speech, and debate. Classical education today often includes the modern sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.), but these sciences once belonged either to the quadrivium or to natural philosophy. The fine arts are often taught in classical education also. The fine arts are ends in themselves: painting, sculpture, singing, drama, and playing musical instruments.
The formal study of philosophy typically follows the liberal arts, but in reality, philosophy (i.e., the meaning of things) is intertwined in all subjects. The main branches of philosophy are metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. In the traditional sense of the terms, the branches of philosophy are not arts (skills) but sciences (bodies of knowledge).
Theology is considered the queen of the sciences because it is above all the liberal arts and sciences in explanatory priority and preeminence. Unlike the arts and sciences, theology does not have anything in the world as its object. Rather, theology is about God and his relation to all things. Theology is the highest body of knowledge, and it affects every other body of knowledge.
Classical education is also associated with reading classical literature, great books, and other primary literature. Classical literature comes from the classical period of western civilization between the 8th century BC and the 6th century AD. This period includes not only Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Ovid, and Cicero (to name a few), but also the Bible and the Church Fathers. Great books include those of the classical period, but it also includes literature of antiquity and literature of the medieval, renaissance, modern, and contemporary periods.
Classical education does not merely teach children how to think or how to learn. Classical education provides a vision and framework for all reality. In this way, classical education teaches children what to think and why they should learn. There are right answers to objective questions.
Classical education emphasizes several teaching methods. At the forefront are the mimetic and Socratic methods. The mimetic method has students imitating their teacher. The Socratic method is about asking deep and probing questions to encourage students to discover the answer for themselves. Even so, rote learning based on repetition has always been part of classical pedagogy. And Christian, classical educators recognize that the Socratic method cannot discover the truths of special revelation on its own. Biblical and theological groundwork must be laid before provocative questions can have their impact.
Classical education resists trends in contemporary education for philosophical and practical reasons. Classical education is resistant to utilitarianism because classical educators know that the end does not justify the means. Even more fundamentally, the end of classical education is not a transference of knowledge or skills but the making of a virtuous person. It is about soul-formation. Scientific or statistical analysis cannot measure the quality of the soul, and thus, they cannot measure the quality of an education. Classical education avoids the overuse of technology in the classroom, and it avoids uncritical adherence to modern teaching methods, such as student-centered or learning-centered approaches. Classical education has also been tested through the centuries and has proven reliable and worthy.
The goal of classical education is to form virtuous persons. It is concerned with the cardinal and theological virtues, as well as academic virtues. The goal is for the student to be like his teacher. For Christian, classical education, it is for the student to imitate the teacher as the teacher imitates Christ (1 Cor 11:1). Students are taught to know and appreciate the world as the teacher knows and appreciates the world. And, most importantly, the student is led to know and love God as the teacher knows and loves God because “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” (Prov 1:7).
Francis Schaeffer
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