While there are many sorts of arts, the first to proffer their services to the natural abilities of those who philosophize are the liberal arts. All of the latter are included in the courses of the Trivium and Quadrivium. The liberal arts are said to have become so efficacious among our ancestors, who studied them diligently, that they enabled them to comprehend everything they read, elevated their understanding to all things, and empowered them to cut through the knots of all problems possible of solution. Those to whom the system of the Trivium has disclosed the significance of all words, or the rules of the Quadrivium have unveiled the secrets of all nature, do not need the help of a teacher in order to understand the meaning of books and to find the solutions of questions. They [the branches of learning included in the Trivium and the Quadrivium] are called “arts” [either] because they delimit [artant] by rules and precepts; or from virtue, in Greek known as ares, which strengthens minds to apprehend the ways of wisdom; or from reason, called arso by the Greeks, which the arts nourish and cause to grow. They are called “liberal,” either because the ancients took care to have their children instructed in them; or because their object is to effect man’s liberation, so that, freed from cares, he may devote himself to wisdom. More often than not, they liberate us from cares incompatible with wisdom. They often even free us from worry about [material] necessities, so that the mind may have still greater liberty to apply itself to philosophy. 1
In his defense of the trivium, John of Salisbury offers us the practicality of basing education on the classical model. The trivium consists of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. All proper learning is built upon the foundation of these classic liberal arts. Although religious education is now rarely based on the classical model, it will behoove teachers and pastors to restructure not only catechism but also education for children and adults to reflect classical training. Dorothy Sayers believed that all education–all subjects–should be modeled on the trivium. Grammar does not have to be limited to grammar proper. For Christian education, this would mean that curricula should start with the “grammar of faith,” imparting to students the very building blocks of faith and proper ordering of right belief–the syntax of doxa–this can be as simple as facts, words, images, and story that serve as the foundation of meaning. Logic would best be understood as the logos, reason, or inner consistency of the faith, i.e. doctrine. “Logic of faith” does not mean that faith will be subject to reason, like the Enlightenment, but will teach how the basic pieces that are learned in grammar fit together. George Lindbeck’s application of doctrine as regulatory (rule theory) may offer us a way to see Logic as functioning as the boundaries for understanding and discourse, this sets up the third liberal art, rhetoric. Rhetoric would be the way of expressing and communicating the faith whether spoken or written.
Another way of understanding this model is based on the stages of growth that all people go through.
Grammar = Knowledge
Logic = Understanding
Rhetoric = Wisdom (practical wisdom, prudence)
The detractors will assert that as long as there is education the model is irrelevant, like why shouldn’t we adopt the Prussian model (the origin for public education) or Common Core (what most public education is now based on)? The trivium dates back thousands of years. We know the Romans inherited it from the Greeks, and it is likely that some form existed before them, however, it was the Greeks that formalized this model of learning. The trivium worked as well as it did for millennia because it is based on nature. John of Salisbury in his defense wrote about this, saying that grammar, although there is a certain amount of arbitrariness and variation between languages and cultures, is based on nature. Grammar reflects the ordering found within the created world. If creation, therefore Man, is founded upon certain principles and ordered a specific way, then learning is best accomplished when it reflects this inherent order. Modern models of education disrupt this natural order, and because of this, will often arrest development. The current model that public schools should not be the basis for Christian education. We will cover this in more detail later.
