Keep calm. Carry on. Be careful about words and how they can roil us. I once saw a group of academics start to get very heated over the word postmodern until someone realized that the artists and the philosophers did not have a shared definition of the same term. They were both correct in concerns about the other if both had been using the same word in the same way. Beware “science” words imported into other fields. An unfortunate number of people thought the... Read more
Much was anticipated long before the coming of the Christ by the philosopher Plato. He was a father of Athens waiting in God’s Providence for the Christ. He built a set of questions that only Christmas could answer Plato did not know to count down the days of Christmas, but the incarnation came. The Word made flesh gave us the grace and truth we needed to educate without indoctrination or lies. Plato created classical education in his dialog Republic. In... Read more
The just live by faith. This is the Orthodox, classical, Christian school: faithful to what she believes so that not even a threat of death can make her lie about reality, yet loving to even our intellectual enemies. We know our failings, so our schools humble ourselves to theological wisdom, scientific truths, and to the Divine Logos who governs the cosmos. This life of faith is not living against our reason or experience, rather living by best reason and our... Read more
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
When you argue with a friend, you try to be charitable, understand where he is coming from and where he is going. You understand that arguments go on, philosophy is long, and nobody is “winning” who sides with a major, significant worldview like materialism, idealism, or dualism. We do not live by surety, but by faith: a reasonable hope. Then you meet a friend who has certainty or nearly certainty: one pal says “theism is certainly true” while another friend asserts... Read more
Background on the Discussion (Skippable): What is going on? If we wish to follow the Logos where He leads, we need to listen to critics, especially those with interesting things to say. Jeff Williams is a critic of metaphysics. A University of Chicago grad, he agreed to present his argument and I have posted it here unedited (except for some formatting and the title). As result of his rejection of metaphysics, he rejects objective moral law as an illusion. Mr. Williams... 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
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