Last week we kicked off the Center, held our first lecture, our first tutorials, our first discussion group meeting, and even had a special lecture on Sire's worldview questions. We are off and running. Dr. Callis gave us a great first look at Homer, using a bit of reverse psychology to get the students to take a closer look at the book, and begin questioning from the outset the applicability of the work to our day.
Much of what we discussed last week had to do with the comparing a Christian mind with the Greek pagan one. What does virtue look like -- that is, what do the gods approve of? And what sort of powers do the gods have over circumstances in the world they inhabit, compared with the sovereignty of the God of the Bible? We discussed how sovereignty is at best divided up among the various gods, and perhaps even beyond or behind them we find the Fates, spinning out fate without direct contact with men in the world.
Athena's love of Odysseus was another topic of discussion. How is it that she has such affection for him? Is it that she is taken with his abilities? He is so powerful, able, crafty, smart, et c? Or is it that the gods have made him that way first? What part does Athena's encouragement play in his successes that make him such a favorite? Which came first?
Books 7-12 tonight, and on we go! Planning for a trip to L'abri in Rochester starting Sept 15th. I can't wait for the students to get to know our friends the Snyders and the MacGregors.
...a tutorial study center dedicated to the great books and art that reflect and convey the civilizing ideas of Western history, evaluated in the light of Christ.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
We've kicked off!
Well, we have done it -- we have begun the first week of our year-long tutorial with our new students. Last night we had a kickoff dinner with students, their families, the faculty, and some of our supporters. Director Hodges gave a short speech on what we are doing, and why we are doing it, describing our unusual year of study as a combination of a Christian view of the world with a study of the history of ideas in the West, through the great books. He told us to think of the work more as an apprenticeship than a class -- the idea is to pass on what the faculty has grown to love in the books we will be reading, and in so doing light the flame of enthusiasm (or fan it!) in our students. Here's a short excerpt from his talk:
"Even 100 years ago these great books still had a strong position in our culture, although they were slowly losing ground. Now, in 2008 some colleges and universities consider these works backward-looking, or even oppressive and negative because they refer to certain visions of the good life that are no longer in vogue. The result has been, sadly, that we are losing what was once a cohesive cultural foundation set in the common stories of our education that for centuries has been communicated through these books.
1598 years ago, the barbarians were closing on the gates of Rome, after overwhelming the outposts of the Holy Roman Empire in Eastern Europe and Britannia over the previous century. Just 66 years later, the last emperor abdicated, and night fell on Western Europe. The barbarians were vicious, cruel, and technologically inept. They tore down buildings they didn’t know how to rebuild, killed citizens they didn’t understand, drove people into the wilderness but wouldn’t live in their homes, and destroyed a culture they had no way of rebuilding. Just imagine an angry inner city gang, a few hundred Islamic terrorists, and a tribe of New Guinea headhunters all attacking your neighborhood church. They wouldn’t have any interest in the sanctuary, the organ, the beauty of the architecture, the silly robes the pastors wear, the pastors themselves, or the people praying. They could no more create the civilization that inspired the church they destroy than fly to the moon. The trouble is, they couldn’t even imagine wanting to create such a thing. At that point, they don’t have the cultural framework even to imagine a Chartres, much less build one.
Yet – in the end, the story of the barbarian invasions is a story of God’s redemption, because no sooner had those barbarians taken over but they began to be converted to Christianity, and it is from those Barbarian ancestors that we have the great artworks of England, France, and Germany – think of Beowulf, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Kells, and ultimately, the great Romanesque cathedrals followed by the Gothic ones (including Chartres) – that the Italians never did like much because they were, well, of the Goths. But the Goths became Christians, and they made some of the most beautiful and profound art the world has known. What will the art of the 20th century converts from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism, and Atheism create in the years to come?
I have no doubt that God is in the business of bringing the unbelievers into contact with Westerners today in order that they too might hear the Gospel and be redeemed. It may be a slow and difficult process, but in the end, Islam will bow the knee to Jesus, and so will the pagans, the atheists, and the syncratists who are flooding into our country today.
So what, in the midst of a potential Dark Age, should Christians do? We should pass on what we know. The faithful ones in the 2nd half of the first millenium were the ones who kept the books: those who copied and taught the books they knew until such time that the culture would once again be interested in the questions those books answer. When folks come to their wits’ end and once again long to know the definitions of important words – words like, love, truth, trust, goodness, beauty, justice, mercy, grace…they will again need God to define these words for them, and they will find the definitions in marvelous books written over the centuries that can again help present generations remember what once was known by many but was lost.
And this is what we are hoping to do at the Center for Western Studies: not save Western civilization just because it is Western – but pass on Western civilization because it is civilized. We want to pass its ideas on to our students in faith that one day they will be needed again, and you will both be able to live in accordance with them yourselves (which will give great joy and peace) and pass them on to colleagues, peers, and children when the time comes. This is to glorify God.
Why do this, students? Not so that you can get this over with and get on with your lives. Rather so that you can begin to get a good idea of what your lives should be like. What are you going to value? What are you going to love? After this year, we hope that you have a better picture of what you have in common with Augustine and Dante and Shakespeare. These fellows are writing TO YOU. You are not listening in on a conversation they are having with someone else, hoping that you will remember enough to put down on a test and move on to the next thing – you are listening to them talk directly to you. You are going to learn to listen to their hearts through these books and music and paintings – you are going to realize that they had you in mind when they wrote. Dr. Jenkins, and Dr. Callis and I are not going to be telling you what you ought to know (as if there were a finite amount that can be known and we are going to give you a percentage of it), we are going to tell you what we love about these writers and the ideas they describe. We are not giving you a year of telling you what you need to know to pass a test – we want to infect you with a love for learning itself, and teach you what we know in hopes that you might go on learning the rest of your life. Think of it more as an apprenticeship than an education, though it will be both."
Tonight, Dr. Callis gave our first lecture on Homer's Odyssey, laying out 10+ reasons why we should NOT bother reading this work. This week we are going to prove him wrong! We will post notes on that lecture soon.
If you would like to be able to join us for some of our lectures, discussions, or cultural outings (plays, concerts, films, et c) please respond here and leave your email address so that we can send you the details. For suggested donations to the Center, interested folks can become auditors and participate in what is going to be a great first year.
"Even 100 years ago these great books still had a strong position in our culture, although they were slowly losing ground. Now, in 2008 some colleges and universities consider these works backward-looking, or even oppressive and negative because they refer to certain visions of the good life that are no longer in vogue. The result has been, sadly, that we are losing what was once a cohesive cultural foundation set in the common stories of our education that for centuries has been communicated through these books.
1598 years ago, the barbarians were closing on the gates of Rome, after overwhelming the outposts of the Holy Roman Empire in Eastern Europe and Britannia over the previous century. Just 66 years later, the last emperor abdicated, and night fell on Western Europe. The barbarians were vicious, cruel, and technologically inept. They tore down buildings they didn’t know how to rebuild, killed citizens they didn’t understand, drove people into the wilderness but wouldn’t live in their homes, and destroyed a culture they had no way of rebuilding. Just imagine an angry inner city gang, a few hundred Islamic terrorists, and a tribe of New Guinea headhunters all attacking your neighborhood church. They wouldn’t have any interest in the sanctuary, the organ, the beauty of the architecture, the silly robes the pastors wear, the pastors themselves, or the people praying. They could no more create the civilization that inspired the church they destroy than fly to the moon. The trouble is, they couldn’t even imagine wanting to create such a thing. At that point, they don’t have the cultural framework even to imagine a Chartres, much less build one.
Yet – in the end, the story of the barbarian invasions is a story of God’s redemption, because no sooner had those barbarians taken over but they began to be converted to Christianity, and it is from those Barbarian ancestors that we have the great artworks of England, France, and Germany – think of Beowulf, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Kells, and ultimately, the great Romanesque cathedrals followed by the Gothic ones (including Chartres) – that the Italians never did like much because they were, well, of the Goths. But the Goths became Christians, and they made some of the most beautiful and profound art the world has known. What will the art of the 20th century converts from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism, and Atheism create in the years to come?
I have no doubt that God is in the business of bringing the unbelievers into contact with Westerners today in order that they too might hear the Gospel and be redeemed. It may be a slow and difficult process, but in the end, Islam will bow the knee to Jesus, and so will the pagans, the atheists, and the syncratists who are flooding into our country today.
So what, in the midst of a potential Dark Age, should Christians do? We should pass on what we know. The faithful ones in the 2nd half of the first millenium were the ones who kept the books: those who copied and taught the books they knew until such time that the culture would once again be interested in the questions those books answer. When folks come to their wits’ end and once again long to know the definitions of important words – words like, love, truth, trust, goodness, beauty, justice, mercy, grace…they will again need God to define these words for them, and they will find the definitions in marvelous books written over the centuries that can again help present generations remember what once was known by many but was lost.
And this is what we are hoping to do at the Center for Western Studies: not save Western civilization just because it is Western – but pass on Western civilization because it is civilized. We want to pass its ideas on to our students in faith that one day they will be needed again, and you will both be able to live in accordance with them yourselves (which will give great joy and peace) and pass them on to colleagues, peers, and children when the time comes. This is to glorify God.
Why do this, students? Not so that you can get this over with and get on with your lives. Rather so that you can begin to get a good idea of what your lives should be like. What are you going to value? What are you going to love? After this year, we hope that you have a better picture of what you have in common with Augustine and Dante and Shakespeare. These fellows are writing TO YOU. You are not listening in on a conversation they are having with someone else, hoping that you will remember enough to put down on a test and move on to the next thing – you are listening to them talk directly to you. You are going to learn to listen to their hearts through these books and music and paintings – you are going to realize that they had you in mind when they wrote. Dr. Jenkins, and Dr. Callis and I are not going to be telling you what you ought to know (as if there were a finite amount that can be known and we are going to give you a percentage of it), we are going to tell you what we love about these writers and the ideas they describe. We are not giving you a year of telling you what you need to know to pass a test – we want to infect you with a love for learning itself, and teach you what we know in hopes that you might go on learning the rest of your life. Think of it more as an apprenticeship than an education, though it will be both."
Tonight, Dr. Callis gave our first lecture on Homer's Odyssey, laying out 10+ reasons why we should NOT bother reading this work. This week we are going to prove him wrong! We will post notes on that lecture soon.
If you would like to be able to join us for some of our lectures, discussions, or cultural outings (plays, concerts, films, et c) please respond here and leave your email address so that we can send you the details. For suggested donations to the Center, interested folks can become auditors and participate in what is going to be a great first year.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Saving the West
Saving the West through good grammar.
Actually, what this blogger argues is more than using good grammar to be a proper person. She argues for the reality of underlying structures of the cosmos, laws and patterns society is capable of recognizing and adapting to, and thus building a civilization worth inhabiting.
Actually, what this blogger argues is more than using good grammar to be a proper person. She argues for the reality of underlying structures of the cosmos, laws and patterns society is capable of recognizing and adapting to, and thus building a civilization worth inhabiting.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
A. Solzhenitsyn
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a man from the East. Not in the sense of being from Asian culture, but in the sense of being someone formed by Russian culture and spirituality, someone who could look at the West as something of an outsider and tell us what we had let go of to the danger of our souls.
When Solzhenitsyn first came to America, he was hailed by liberals and conservatives, but many people, both left and right, quickly turned against him as he began outlining the failures of the West. Much of what he said still resonates painfully today.
An example of this is his Nobel Prize speech of 1970.
When Solzhenitsyn first came to America, he was hailed by liberals and conservatives, but many people, both left and right, quickly turned against him as he began outlining the failures of the West. Much of what he said still resonates painfully today.
An example of this is his Nobel Prize speech of 1970.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Tradition Isn't a Bad Word
Though some Protestants have taken an extremely negative view of the concept of tradition--some to the point of rejecting anything even a few years old--other, more informed, Protestants have understood that a biblical faith does not entail automatic rejection of something just because it is old. A good example of this is John Milton, the British poet who swallowed whole the entire Western tradition as a Protestant and made great poetry out of it.
James Kurth, a political science professor and a Presbyterian Elder, shows how we can again go about this biblically shaped conservancy in his article "Western Tradition, Our Tradition". Tradition is not a dirty word.
James Kurth, a political science professor and a Presbyterian Elder, shows how we can again go about this biblically shaped conservancy in his article "Western Tradition, Our Tradition". Tradition is not a dirty word.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Commencement Address
Honored seniors, Westminster students, respected faculty, staff, and administration, fellow board members, friends, and most of all, parents, I am delighted to have the honor of addressing you on this important night when we celebrate the commencement of our latest senior class. I have enjoyed working with you seniors in Capstone all year, and I am very proud of your accomplishment.
Brevity is most certainly is the soul of wit, and while I am ordinarily reluctant to take any advice from Polonius, if there were an appropriate place to be brief, it would be when you are standing between a wild-eyed senior class and its stack of diplomas. In this case, brevity may prove also be the better part of valor. I want to promise you that I will indeed be brief, to the point, time-conscious, brief, short-winded, timely, brief, and most of all, redundant.
I do have to say at the outset, that I do not at all appreciate the sidelong glances and giggling that I have had to put up with from the faculty in the back halls. It is not at all professional. I have TOLD you that I didn’t pick the color of my stole – pink signifies a major in music – it is not a sissy color as some of you seem to think. So just grow up, will you?
Seniors, you have been told for years now WHAT a Classical/Christian education is, not only through the content of your classes, but in parent meetings and assemblies – some of you since first grade -- and you would probably rather have a root canal than hear it discussed in public again, and I can’t blame you. So, I’m going to make you a second promise, one that is even more daring: I am NOT going to tell you what Classical/Christian education is again…even if you beg. If you don’t know by now, there is really very little I can do to help you, anyway.
However, I do want to tell you a secret. I want to tell you WHY we did it. We, that is, the faculty, staff, board, and most of all, your parents, who chose to put you through this peculiar education when you could have been sent to public and private schools already in existence. It would have been easier, less expensive, and just the thought of the extra free-time we’d all have had --- well, all I can say is that we would all have better golf games…
Why did we do it? Because we believe it is the best way we know to prepare you to be used by God.
You have heard it said that the Classical/Christian education is the somewhat awkward combination of Greek reason and Christian revelation, and that this combination is the foundation of Western civilization. Actually neither of these statements is completely true. First, the only reason that the combination of reason and revelation is in any way awkward is that the two sides have been rather brutally separated by our recent ancestors, and putting them back together is a little reminiscent of Humpty Dumpty. And secondly, the only reason we think of this hybrid as the foundation of Western civilization is that we have overlooked what really IS the foundation of Western civilization, a foundation that is at once more clear and more mysterious.
You will recall that God had to throw the Apostle Paul down to the ground and blind him in order to get his attention. What really interests me tonight in this story is that when Paul is led into Damascus, God speaks to a fellow called Ananias, and tells him to go heal Paul’s blindness. Well, Paul’s motto was always “stone first and ask questions later,” and Ananias was understandably a bit reluctant to meet him. But God convinces him by telling him that he has chosen Paul to be the one to take God’s name to the gentiles. Why choose Paul?
Who can fathom the plans of God? Paul grew up in a Jewish home, learned his scriptures, knew the ways of temple worship, and by his own admission, kept the law perfectly. But in addition to being the consummate Pharisee, he was given a Greek education. He knew his revelation, but he also knew his rhetoric. He embodied the Athens/Jerusalem combination: reason and revelation, knowledge and belief, eloquence and wisdom. It should not surprise us that God chose this man to be the one to speak for him. He had been prepared for this job long before he had any idea what he was going to do.
A side bit of advice – it is not unusual not to know what you are going to be doing. Yes, we all like to have a plan, but God is in the business of changing your plans when it serves His purposes, and His purposes are always better for you than your original plans. So, hold those plans loosely – you may find one day that you are stoning the wrong people, and you don’t want God to have to blind you to get your attention…
So how did God’s chosen spokesman know where to preach? In Acts chapter 16, we read that Paul desires to turn north and east into the eastern world, probably toward Byzantium, but he is specifically stopped by the Holy Spirit, and given a dream of a man in Macedonia, that is in the west, calling him to come and preach the gospel to them. He immediately does so, traveling across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia, then south into Greece, and winds up in Acts 17 on Mars Hill in Athens, the center of the ancient Greek world.
In his remaining missionary work, he repeats his trip to Greece and points west, and finally goes to Rome. Rome, of course, is even further west than Athens. You see, from the point of that miraculous dream, Paul never again looks east. Once God set him on this path, he never looked back. It can rightly be argued that THIS is the true founding of what is known as Western civilization – all the accomplishments of Augustine, Boethius, Bede, Anselm, Suger, Thomas, Dante, Luther, Calvin, Erasmus, Leonardo, Shakespeare, Milton, Rembrandt, Handel, Bach, Pascal, Newton, Burke, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Eliot, Chesterton, and even what’s-his-name who authored the Prince Caspian story, all these people owe their accomplishments to one man who was prepared when God told him to preach the gospel to the west. And how many more in the future will be blessed by this event? How many in Africa, India, China, SE Asia, and in the dense jungles of Bartlett owe their knowledge of the Savior to the Western culture that was born from Paul’s obedience and education? This is how Western civilization was born. Not simply through a forced combination of two competing schools of thought, Athens and Jerusalem, science and faith, reason and revelation, but through one unified thing: an obedient Christian who was educated to think well.
Do you see why your parents thought this was worthwhile? Why the board, faculty, staff, and administration would sacrifice their golf games to be sure this education was passed on? We are part of a long history of faithful men and women who have passed on what they knew, regardless of the cost, and you are the next link. We are hoping that you will embody what is truly great about the West – that you will be a group of people with a command of language, and a command of the Scriptures. Then, armed with the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide you, you might be equipped to live out the gospel, and be witnesses to God’s work of redemption in the world. It is not by accident that you have been trained this way -- you have been chosen too, just like Paul – you have been educated for a reason. You are going to be ready to speak and write when the Lord says, “not this way, that way” – and the result of your faithful choices will echo through the future generations just as Paul’s have, should the Lord tarry. But always remember that without the leading of the Holy Spirit, your education is of no value at all. In fact it could make you quite proud, which is deadly. It required a conversion, not a diploma, for Saul to become Paul.
At this point in the speech, most commencement speakers tell you that this is an exciting time – the beginning of your careers, you can be anything you want to be, just believe in yourselves. What a load of nonsense! This IS an exciting time, but it is not because you can be anything you want to be – for example, I can say without too much fear of contradiction, that none of you, save perhaps your valedictorian, will have much of a future in the NBA. You can’t be ANYTHING, but you weren’t built to be anything – you were built to do the specific work that God has called You to -- “you are God’s workmanship, created for good works in Christ.” You will embody the faith, communicating it to your watching pagan/barbaric neighbors through your academic work, through the way you raise your children, through your writing, artwork, science, through the businesses you start, the churches you lead, through the way you spend your leisure time, through your carefully chosen words, and most of all, through the way you love one another – in short, the Lord will be made visible through the WAY you “do” culture.
Through you we hope to see a genuine turn back toward civilization again. It is a mighty burden to place on such a young and small group – and it may be that it will only be possible through your great-grandchildren, but it will be accomplished, if it is accomplished, through a million little faithful decisions day-by-day, week by week by a growing community of believers who reveal the truth by their actions. If we are each faithful in our own generations, God will use us for His glory, and what better thing is there than that?
May God bless you each and keep you safe as you enter into the world of college academics, and give you great joy as you stand with Him there. And now I want to ask you to promise me something: promise that you will never apologize for holding both to revelation and reason – they are your inheritance as godly men and women of the West.
Brevity is most certainly is the soul of wit, and while I am ordinarily reluctant to take any advice from Polonius, if there were an appropriate place to be brief, it would be when you are standing between a wild-eyed senior class and its stack of diplomas. In this case, brevity may prove also be the better part of valor. I want to promise you that I will indeed be brief, to the point, time-conscious, brief, short-winded, timely, brief, and most of all, redundant.
I do have to say at the outset, that I do not at all appreciate the sidelong glances and giggling that I have had to put up with from the faculty in the back halls. It is not at all professional. I have TOLD you that I didn’t pick the color of my stole – pink signifies a major in music – it is not a sissy color as some of you seem to think. So just grow up, will you?
Seniors, you have been told for years now WHAT a Classical/Christian education is, not only through the content of your classes, but in parent meetings and assemblies – some of you since first grade -- and you would probably rather have a root canal than hear it discussed in public again, and I can’t blame you. So, I’m going to make you a second promise, one that is even more daring: I am NOT going to tell you what Classical/Christian education is again…even if you beg. If you don’t know by now, there is really very little I can do to help you, anyway.
However, I do want to tell you a secret. I want to tell you WHY we did it. We, that is, the faculty, staff, board, and most of all, your parents, who chose to put you through this peculiar education when you could have been sent to public and private schools already in existence. It would have been easier, less expensive, and just the thought of the extra free-time we’d all have had --- well, all I can say is that we would all have better golf games…
Why did we do it? Because we believe it is the best way we know to prepare you to be used by God.
You have heard it said that the Classical/Christian education is the somewhat awkward combination of Greek reason and Christian revelation, and that this combination is the foundation of Western civilization. Actually neither of these statements is completely true. First, the only reason that the combination of reason and revelation is in any way awkward is that the two sides have been rather brutally separated by our recent ancestors, and putting them back together is a little reminiscent of Humpty Dumpty. And secondly, the only reason we think of this hybrid as the foundation of Western civilization is that we have overlooked what really IS the foundation of Western civilization, a foundation that is at once more clear and more mysterious.
You will recall that God had to throw the Apostle Paul down to the ground and blind him in order to get his attention. What really interests me tonight in this story is that when Paul is led into Damascus, God speaks to a fellow called Ananias, and tells him to go heal Paul’s blindness. Well, Paul’s motto was always “stone first and ask questions later,” and Ananias was understandably a bit reluctant to meet him. But God convinces him by telling him that he has chosen Paul to be the one to take God’s name to the gentiles. Why choose Paul?
Who can fathom the plans of God? Paul grew up in a Jewish home, learned his scriptures, knew the ways of temple worship, and by his own admission, kept the law perfectly. But in addition to being the consummate Pharisee, he was given a Greek education. He knew his revelation, but he also knew his rhetoric. He embodied the Athens/Jerusalem combination: reason and revelation, knowledge and belief, eloquence and wisdom. It should not surprise us that God chose this man to be the one to speak for him. He had been prepared for this job long before he had any idea what he was going to do.
A side bit of advice – it is not unusual not to know what you are going to be doing. Yes, we all like to have a plan, but God is in the business of changing your plans when it serves His purposes, and His purposes are always better for you than your original plans. So, hold those plans loosely – you may find one day that you are stoning the wrong people, and you don’t want God to have to blind you to get your attention…
So how did God’s chosen spokesman know where to preach? In Acts chapter 16, we read that Paul desires to turn north and east into the eastern world, probably toward Byzantium, but he is specifically stopped by the Holy Spirit, and given a dream of a man in Macedonia, that is in the west, calling him to come and preach the gospel to them. He immediately does so, traveling across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia, then south into Greece, and winds up in Acts 17 on Mars Hill in Athens, the center of the ancient Greek world.
In his remaining missionary work, he repeats his trip to Greece and points west, and finally goes to Rome. Rome, of course, is even further west than Athens. You see, from the point of that miraculous dream, Paul never again looks east. Once God set him on this path, he never looked back. It can rightly be argued that THIS is the true founding of what is known as Western civilization – all the accomplishments of Augustine, Boethius, Bede, Anselm, Suger, Thomas, Dante, Luther, Calvin, Erasmus, Leonardo, Shakespeare, Milton, Rembrandt, Handel, Bach, Pascal, Newton, Burke, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Eliot, Chesterton, and even what’s-his-name who authored the Prince Caspian story, all these people owe their accomplishments to one man who was prepared when God told him to preach the gospel to the west. And how many more in the future will be blessed by this event? How many in Africa, India, China, SE Asia, and in the dense jungles of Bartlett owe their knowledge of the Savior to the Western culture that was born from Paul’s obedience and education? This is how Western civilization was born. Not simply through a forced combination of two competing schools of thought, Athens and Jerusalem, science and faith, reason and revelation, but through one unified thing: an obedient Christian who was educated to think well.
Do you see why your parents thought this was worthwhile? Why the board, faculty, staff, and administration would sacrifice their golf games to be sure this education was passed on? We are part of a long history of faithful men and women who have passed on what they knew, regardless of the cost, and you are the next link. We are hoping that you will embody what is truly great about the West – that you will be a group of people with a command of language, and a command of the Scriptures. Then, armed with the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide you, you might be equipped to live out the gospel, and be witnesses to God’s work of redemption in the world. It is not by accident that you have been trained this way -- you have been chosen too, just like Paul – you have been educated for a reason. You are going to be ready to speak and write when the Lord says, “not this way, that way” – and the result of your faithful choices will echo through the future generations just as Paul’s have, should the Lord tarry. But always remember that without the leading of the Holy Spirit, your education is of no value at all. In fact it could make you quite proud, which is deadly. It required a conversion, not a diploma, for Saul to become Paul.
At this point in the speech, most commencement speakers tell you that this is an exciting time – the beginning of your careers, you can be anything you want to be, just believe in yourselves. What a load of nonsense! This IS an exciting time, but it is not because you can be anything you want to be – for example, I can say without too much fear of contradiction, that none of you, save perhaps your valedictorian, will have much of a future in the NBA. You can’t be ANYTHING, but you weren’t built to be anything – you were built to do the specific work that God has called You to -- “you are God’s workmanship, created for good works in Christ.” You will embody the faith, communicating it to your watching pagan/barbaric neighbors through your academic work, through the way you raise your children, through your writing, artwork, science, through the businesses you start, the churches you lead, through the way you spend your leisure time, through your carefully chosen words, and most of all, through the way you love one another – in short, the Lord will be made visible through the WAY you “do” culture.
Through you we hope to see a genuine turn back toward civilization again. It is a mighty burden to place on such a young and small group – and it may be that it will only be possible through your great-grandchildren, but it will be accomplished, if it is accomplished, through a million little faithful decisions day-by-day, week by week by a growing community of believers who reveal the truth by their actions. If we are each faithful in our own generations, God will use us for His glory, and what better thing is there than that?
May God bless you each and keep you safe as you enter into the world of college academics, and give you great joy as you stand with Him there. And now I want to ask you to promise me something: promise that you will never apologize for holding both to revelation and reason – they are your inheritance as godly men and women of the West.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Overview of Year Program
We are planning a Aug-June program that addresses two things: a Christian worldview, and the history of ideas in the West through a great books reading schedule. We’ll start the last two weeks of August, do 7 weeks on the Greeks and Romans, and then take two weeks off to attend the Rochester, MN L’abri branch. Then 7 weeks on the medievals, and a month plus off for Christmas. Then 7 weeks on the Renaissance and Reformation, 7 weeks on the Enlightenment and Romanticism, 2 weeks off to go to England and France, then back home for 6 weeks on the 20th century. In the end, the students will have a sense of the flow of history through ideas that have shaped our civilization, read from original sources. The hope is that this will prove to be a “clothes line” that the students can add to as they each go through college and for the rest of their lives.
We have 3 faculty members, myself dealing with art, music, theater, and general reading, Keith Callis, PhD in Romantics and also in Shakespeare, and Bill Jenkins, PhD, who is a 20th century fiction specialist and who also specializes in writing. We will also have guest lecturers here and in England (I have a couple of friends at Cambridge who we plan to meet with when we travel there).
Weekly schedules will include a lecture or two, lots of reading, tutorial time (one-on-one), group discussion time, and some sort of cultural event (play, film, concert, gallery showing, et c.) with discussion afterward. Some of the lectures and events will be opened to the public too, and perhaps the trip overseas too.
We are setting tuition at $12,500 for the year. It includes the expenses on the trip to Europe – not included are books, food or lodging during the regular year.
Also, we have connections with Belhaven College in Jackson, MS, and they are willing to give college credit for the work we are doing. (I have taught for Belhaven before.)
If you are interested in this program, please let us know, and we will be pleased to speak with you directly either by email or phone.
We have 3 faculty members, myself dealing with art, music, theater, and general reading, Keith Callis, PhD in Romantics and also in Shakespeare, and Bill Jenkins, PhD, who is a 20th century fiction specialist and who also specializes in writing. We will also have guest lecturers here and in England (I have a couple of friends at Cambridge who we plan to meet with when we travel there).
Weekly schedules will include a lecture or two, lots of reading, tutorial time (one-on-one), group discussion time, and some sort of cultural event (play, film, concert, gallery showing, et c.) with discussion afterward. Some of the lectures and events will be opened to the public too, and perhaps the trip overseas too.
We are setting tuition at $12,500 for the year. It includes the expenses on the trip to Europe – not included are books, food or lodging during the regular year.
Also, we have connections with Belhaven College in Jackson, MS, and they are willing to give college credit for the work we are doing. (I have taught for Belhaven before.)
If you are interested in this program, please let us know, and we will be pleased to speak with you directly either by email or phone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)