Liberal Arts (eBook)

INTRODUCTION

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

—2 Timothy 3:16–17

A few years ago, the father of a college freshman approached me with a question. His student was attending a fairly expensive private school that had retained only nominal relations with its original sponsoring denomination. He expressed disappointment with the lack of a strong religious presence on the campus but was particularly concerned with what his student had related to him about her classes and the general ethos of the campus, which could only be described as hedonistic or fleshly, to use an old-fashioned term.

“You’re an administrator at a Christian college,” he said. “Maybe you can answer this question that I keep asking myself. It follows a kind of syllogism. ‘Knowledge is power,’ right? That’s what we hear all the time; I think it was Francis Bacon who first said it, but I hear it all the time. But what does power do? It corrupts, right? Isn’t that what Lord Acton once said? So if ‘knowledge is power’ and ‘power corrupts,’ and ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely,’ of course, then can you explain to me why I’m paying tens of thousands of dollars to have my student corrupted? That’s what it feels like. I look at my child, and I don’t even recognize who I see after only a semester in that place. What is college for if all it does is foster corruption?”

At the time, all I could do was shake my head and say, “It doesn’t have to be that way,” but I pondered his words carefully over the next few weeks. I realized that a worldly goal, power, would always result in a fleshly education that is quite secular and selfish. Power corrupts because it is the great magneto that drives our selfishness. Whether the power yields wealth or connections or fame or leverage in relationships, unfettered it always leads down the same path: destruction.

I decided to create my own competing syllogism, starting with an entirely different premise. “Education is the search for truth” (a sentiment reflected in the common use of veritas, Latin for “truth,” in college mottoes, such as that of Harvard). “The truth shall set you free” (a specific claim that John 8:32 makes in the New Testament). “Therefore, education can set you free” (freedom in Christ being one of the central themes of Christianity).

This paradigm possesses two distinct differences from the one with which I was originally confronted: the goal of the education and the result of such a pursuit. Truth is not worldly but rather is tied, particularly in the Christian tradition, to the person of Christ. Likewise, freedom is not found in this world but is effected by the divine rescue of persons from their selfish fallen natures, a rescue that is part of the priestly ministry of Christ. Freedom, genuine freedom that transcends the created order, may be found solely within the context of Christ-centered education rather than self-centered training.

The contrasting views of education that I have identified here are crucial to understanding the foundations of the Christian liberal arts tradition and the stark contrast it enjoys when compared against the reality of most educational approaches that are lived out in contemporary culture. Indeed, our culture is the poorer (and the more frail) because of a shift away from liberal learning in general and the Christian liberal arts in particular.

When I was growing up, I always liked Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies because of their iconic lion’s roar at the opening. If you look closely, the lion’s head is surrounded by an ornate, circular ribbon panel inscribed with these words: Ars Gratia Artis, “Art for the sake of Art.” Next to E Pluribus Unum, these are the first words in Latin that I remember seeing. “Art for the sake of Art,” which has been a rallying cry for millennia for artists as they have sought to balance their personal vision for their work against its practical value. If, as critics often ask, art is neither decorative nor practical in some way, then what value does it have? For artistic purists, art possesses an innate value that need not bear scrutiny from any source apart from the value that the artist him- or herself has assayed to the work.

Champions of liberal learning often repeat a version of this saying, proclaiming that learning should be undertaken for its own sake, that it has intrinsic value that stands apart from any purely practical values. Generally this is stated as a contrast of sorts between liberal learning and the vocational or practical arts that lead directly to employment. More times than not, the sense is that the latter is inferior to the former, that idealistic purity is superior to more mundane cares. This is the reverse, of course, of an opposite view of education: practicality trumps idealism and abstraction such as one might find in the liberal arts.1

Christians will quickly see the flaws in both viewpoints. We are more than mere human resources, finding purpose in work and business. As the Westminster Catechism answers its opening query: “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is that he glorify God and enjoy Him for ever.”2 The same may be asked of any human endeavor, including education. The primary purpose of education is the glorification of God. The glorification of God typically finds an overflow in the edification of his people, whether the people of faith or humanity as a created race.

Ephesians 4:11–25 describes the way that God uses the various gifts and callings to build up his people to his ultimate glory:

This passage speaks to the unity of knowledge in Christ (v. 13), to the importance of sound doctrine (v. 14), to the pursuit of truth (v. 15), to the abandoning of intellectual futility (v. 17) and ignorance (v. 18), all in the context of an education (v. 20) that seeks after the renewal of the mind (v. 23) and that comports with the goal of godliness (v. 24). The overall purpose of this enterprise, where the gifts and callings work together in total harmony, is the equipping of the saints (v. 12) for service that glorifies God.

Liberal learning in a Christian context is not, then, learning for the sake of learning but for the sake of glorifying God and the equipping of his people for good works. It is not merely a training ground for jobs and careers but also a proving ground for the skills that will one day be brought to bear on the unique calling and service that each Christ follower has in store for his or her life. Its goals are not bound to the created order but rather to the Creator, the source of truth and meaning, who calls and sustains each of us. Liberal learning equips the saints for the building up of the body and to the ultimate unity of the faith revealed once for all peoples and generations.

Second Timothy 3:16–17 speaks to the incredible power of Scripture to connect the theological with the practical: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” While the passage specifies the particular power of the revealed Word of God, we may reasonably extend the idea to the way that Scripture provides us with a lens for viewing the world correctly and for applying what we learn. Christ-centered learning, as viewed through the Scriptures, likewise is able to teach, to reprove, to correct, and to train in righteousness. In this way, the men and women of God may be prepared for their callings, and “equipped for every good work.” Liberal learning is a tool that may be employed to prepare us for the tasks that God has prepared for us. It allows us to connect orthodoxy (right belief) with orthopraxy (right behavior). It helps us to...