The tension between two things we have good reason to think might be true causes us to wonder: what is true? How might those two ideas harmonize, is one false, are both false? This sense of wonder is wonderful and the source of much intellectual joy in anyone with a waking mind. We are driven from dogmatic slumber to look for the good God and the Orthodox way. In his Ethics, Aristotle suggested that virtue could be found in the... Read more

Plato gave the ancient world the form of dialectic education in his writings, especially his masterwork Republic. Plato presented education that began in questioning the received wisdom, moved to constructing a hypothesis about the problem, and ended in a great Myth, the most likely story to explain all of reality. This worldview generates new questions, having become the new received wisdom, and so is refined in the same process. Eventually Plato hoped we would have a vision of the Good... Read more

We have souls in bodies. This duality is difficult to live. Our bodies and our minds should work synergistically, but sometimes the harmony is broken. In philosophy this dualism has fallen out of fashion. While the idea of body and soul has had recent defenders, lthere is a materialist prejudice inside Anglo-American philosophy out of proportion to the evidence. As committed atheist and materialist philosopher William G. Lycan notes: “The dialectical upshot is that, on points, and going just by... Read more

There is a tension in classical, Christian education and this tension is both why our schools can do so much good and why we might fail. The ancient question: “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?”exposes the problem. Wisdom found within the Church or that easily agrees with the received truths of the Church does not always harmonize quickly with wisdom found outside the Church. One solution would have been to reject the pagans, the non-Christians altogether, but that... Read more

The Church can be the ark of education: taking scholarship and learning into the future against waves of barbarism. For educators, the Church plays a special role. We are not clergy nor are we (normally) functionaries of the Church, yet we will teach theological truths because the Church contains truth. The Church also can be counted on, despite all the imperfections of people in the Church, to preserve education in difficult times. A healthy society contains a sound church, loving families, just government,... Read more

Who should be educated? The liturgical life of the Church is an education of every aspect of a human person. The deep work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is the subject of profound theological reflection available to all. Without attempting to describe this experience, the scope of the work of the church, available to whosoever will, suggests that classical, Christian education should also be universal. Surely if all can be baptized, all should receive, as... Read more