Education

Proclaiming the Christian World View

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Russ Lipton
Contributing Columnist
Publisher, Scriptora.org
July 9, 2001

In a real sense, it would be rather pointless to promote Christian classical schooling unless we have a well-formed Christian world view at its root. Yet, unfortunately, we must admit that the church is not especially strong in this area today.

Often, a Christian world view so-called is nothing more than the world view of the surrounding culture christened with a bit of scripture. Where our world view does seek to be scriptural, we must admit humbly that we often fall far short of the cohesive, comprehensive and penetrating work done by our forefathers. A candid view of Christian classic schooling (indeed, schooling broadly) acknowledges that we are often improvising our biblical world view in parallel with the curriculum itself.

There are several core principles upon which a Christian world view must be based if it is to have staying power in an otherwise hostile world system.

First, we must ground our world view on the conviction - and practice - of an inerrant Bible. In other words, the classical Christian curriculum must be submitted at all points to scripture.

This is something more than teaching the Bible as just another course in the classic curriculum, though we will indeed do so. It means that students must be given scripture as the tool by which all other learning can be evaluated. This, in turn, requires our helping them to form a 'biblical mind' for themselves.

While I spoke of the trivium in my previous column as the core set of learning tools, it is really the Bible that underlies and shapes the purpose of the trivium. Otherwise, the trivium becomes merely a clever technique for rearranging the informational deck chairs on our cultural Titanic.

A Christian world view also recognizes that, while Christianity must always be reformed, we have much to learn from those of our brethren who have gone before. Indeed, it would be schizophrenic in the extreme to advocate a classical Christian education that rejected what Christians themselves have learned over the centuries.

Third, while Christians who hold the highest view of scripture may well disagree about the extent of Christ's visible reign over the earth in this age, all should agree that He has absolute rights to reign. He has these rights not only spiritually in heaven but over the nations on earth - and the schools.

In other words, Christ's Lordship extends to the Trivium and the Quadrivium (the latter are the actual subjects of the typical educational curriculum). Math, English, History, Literature and Science are all subject to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Of course, this cosmic reality cannot be applied in a wooden manner within a classical school. But then, it cannot be applied woodenly in any sphere of life, including the church itself. This does mean that a Christian world view is not just another 'something' added to the Christian classical school like an ingredient in a cake. It is the cake.

I spoke at the beginning about our rather benighted cultural and spiritual condition. Let us take hold of this positively. We are called to engage our classical schools, teachers, students and parents in the recovery of this world view as a core aspect of classical education. Thus, we engage them in the task of articulating and proclaiming that view for the rest of their lives.

Christian classical education does not end with a high school diploma. The proclamation of Christ's Lordship goes on - eternally.