TRUTH FOR ALL NATIONS BY REVEREND ROBERT W. PAUL
T
he Christian Church and classical education are a match made in heaven. In the Gospels, Jesus makes it clear that the kingdom of heaven also belongs to children and even infants (Matthew 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17). St. Paul tells Christian fathers not to provoke their children to anger but instead to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). In the Old Testament, God ensured that children would know who He was and what He did for them by exhorting Israel to teach and instruct the future generations (Deuteronomy 4 and 6). Christian children should be raised in the Lord's discipline and instruction. Classical education has had a home within Christianity for centuries. Ever since the days of St. Augustine and the decline of the Roman West, the civilizations of the Greeks and the Romans were preserved through the diligent work of churchmen. Thomas Cahill's classic, How the Irish Saved Civilization, details how the monks and monasteries of Ireland ensured that the classical Christian culture and learning of the West did not die. Throughout the subsequent medieval period, classical education and Christianity were wedded together. When Charlemagne sought better education through the help of Alcuin and other churchmen, it was classical education that revitalized the Carolingian Empire. When the universities of Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it was classical education that served as a springboard for what would be known as Scholasticism. And, when the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries saw the "rebirth" of classical learning, it was classical education that found its home with Christian humanists in Italy and Northern Europe, and ultimately in the churches and schools of the Reformation. Prior to the Enlightenment and the following ages of revolution, and even afterwards in England, classical education was Christianity's education. Reverend Paul serves as headmaster and associate pastor at Memorial Lutheran Church and School, Houston, TX.
20
Truth for All Nations
SimplyClassical.com
