The last several posts focused on evangelism, more specifically on the ontology of mission, if one can speak in such a way. I wish to shift our focus to education, and by education I use the word in the classical sense. Our English word finds its origin in Latin which is comprised of ex and ducere, the former meaning “out” and the latter “to lead,” thus the word becomes educere meaning to “bring out” or “lead forth,” ergo education denotes discipleship. Our contemporary usage of the word educate has come to mean a memorization of facts. Our school systems are focused on teaching the bare facts of history, science, mathematics, and so on, to ensure good standardized test results with, seemingly, very little concern with cultivating well rounded students with a thirst for knowledge. The trivium (logic, grammar, rhetoric) are barely taught, if at all. These subjects, or disciplines, were seen as foundational for further education. They ensured that students would have the capacity to think and act within the world.
The (post)modern world has deconstructed our Western cultural inheritance to the point nearing destruction. It has not completely and totally obliterated it, nevertheless it sits precariously on the edge.
The Church has always been an institution (for lack of a better word) whose focus has been on raising disciples. Education, in the classical sense, should be of utmost importance today. There is a generation being raised on the postmodern, transhumanist mythic, which has divorced itself from the past. These ideologies are enticing to many people who are not grounded within traditional belief systems for the simple fact that they employ religious language. Mainstream education has been shaped by the postmodern “cultural-linguistic,” to borrow a term from George Lindbeck. This linguistic acts as the plausibility structures reigning over society. According to preeminent sociologist Peter Berger, these structures determine what is plausible–or acceptable and unacceptable–in a given culture. Our culture has constructed these structures that we all live within, and religion has been filtered through them. Children spend more time in school than in church, this means the contemporary educational system is more involved with forming this generation than Orthodox Tradition–unless, of course, children are home schooled. The Church needs to take responsibility for filling in the gaps of education. This should happen at the parish level and, therefore, in the home. The Orthodox Church has been a bulwark throughout the centuries for truth, goodness and beauty; however, the need to instill this in the upcoming generations has become paramount.
The origins of the transcendentals are beyond the scope of this post. What can be said, however, is that truth, goodness and beauty understood philosophically go at least as far back as Socrates. We know of this from Plato’s dialogues. In The Republic, Plato elevated the good to the highest idea contrary to the popular notions of his day. Polemarchus claimed that justice (goodness) is “the art which gives good to friends and evil to enemies.” And Thrasymachus said, “justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger.” These two notions of justice and goodness are still prevalent today. Plato connects goodness (and the just ruler) with contemplation of the divine.
Thus we receive into Christian doctrine the importance of the good. For Christians aiming for the good will be lead to what is best, or by nature what is best for created beings, God Himself, who is the Source of Being and Goodness. The other transcendentals are also said to have their origin in the Divine. Orthodox Christians have inherited a millennia long tradition of truth, goodness and beauty. This same cultural inheritance that has shaped the entire Western Civilization for over two thousand years has been slowly eroding since the Enlightenment. It is the Church’s responsibility to ensure that this inheritance does not wind up in the dustbin of history.
A few things that can be done:
- Truth needs fertile ground in order to be received and germinate. C.S. Lewis, adhering to Scholastic epistemology, wrote that imagination needs to be cultivated prior to teaching truth. Why is this? Lewis tells us, “Imagination is the organ of meaning.” One is unable to grasp truth without the foundation of meaning. The best place to start is to read good stories. Modern people lack the imaginative framework to understand Scripture, the Fathers and the Divine Liturgy. Read Tolkien, Lewis, Dickens, Dostoevsky, and mythology.
- Goodness is often reduced to moralism. Morality must not give way to moralism. The latter is when morality becomes rigid, legalistic and judgmental with the aim of controlling others–it is essentially Procrustean. Obviously, morality is connected to the good, but the good needs to be negated of mere human action and understood as one of the Divine Energies, that by seeking the good we participate in the divine. It is not about do’s and don’ts. The Church should provide moral instruction, but should never let it be reduced to moralism.
- Out of the three, beauty is probably most vulnerable. Our suburbs are ugly and antithetical to the beauty and grandeur of creation. Music has devolved to mostly noise and performative utility. Art has become entombed in museums. There is nothing communal and participatory about modern art. Even books and film have become media for ideology. So what does one do? Beauty matters. Beauty is good for the soul. Dostoevsky famously said that “beauty will save the world.” It is imperative that we live as though we believe this, or it will disappear from the world and we will be left with the drab, grim and crumbling edifice that once was our cultural inheritance. Start with admiring the sunset. Or listen to Mozart’s 40th symphony. Or be attentive to the ethereal tones and cadences of chant during the Divine Liturgy.
“Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as though it did not matter.”
Sir Roger Scruton
St. Justin Martyr wrote that the spermatikos logos can be found in cultures other than the Judeo-Christian. These seeds were planted by the Logos that would come to fruition with His coming. The Church would point to these and say, see that is typologically Christ! The Church would claim truth wherever it was found as God’s truth. We must return to this in our day and age. The Church must engage with the culture with the caveat that she should be wary of its potential affect. This is why I’ve taught how one goes about engaging with books, music, films, and TV shows, because if one is not being proactive then these things are passively forming you and those you know. We as the Church must be audacious enough to reclaim truth, goodness and beauty wherever it is found.
This starts with education at the parish level. And I will refer again to the difference between classical and contemporary education. If you wish to dive deeper into this I recommend watching my fourth video in the “Come Let Us Reason: Education and Evangelism in a Post-Christian Landscape” series. I propose “three movements” for education and evangelism (because I believe they are linked), and I use the word movement as a musical term. I will write more about this and the need to create meaningful culture in the near future.
