January 22, 2023

Later in his life, the great poet T.S. Eliot committed himself to Christianity and much of his poetry and prose writing subsequently dealt with Christian themes. Among them was the vision of a Christian society and Christian education. In today’s time, revisiting these questions is deeply worthwhile: What is the vision for Christian education?

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If there was a silver lining from the COVID restrictions, it was the awakening of the American public to the continued failures of our education system. This, in of itself, was nothing new. There have long been problems in our education system that have remained unaddressed over the decades, starting with the anti-Western vandalism of the 1960s.

But the COVID restrictions of the past couple years, coupled with an increasingly militant promotion of an ideological agenda of critical race theory, brought an awareness of failing education even to well-meaning and wealthy communities whose schools have not experienced underlying issues of poor performance, high rates of dropouts, and broad failures in preparing students for their next stage of soulful maturation.

Religious education in America has long coexisted with our public school system. It is one of the blessings of the United States which makes our republic stand apart from the many other countries of the world where religious education is shunned, banned, or severely limited.

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One of the confusing conundrums of religious education, though, is in its ultimate purpose. What is its mission? For many, religious schools have become a substitute for failing public education and private education with an ideological bent to it. To attend a Christian school is to attend a school that leads to better student performance in reading, writing, arithmetic, and science.

While these things are not bad in or of themselves, this should not be the sole aim of Christian education. If Christian education just seeks excellence in earthly matters, then there is nothing that distinguishes it from its failing alternatives. It is but another educational institution in the failing city of man.

Christian education should primarily be a training and shaping of souls in virtue. The greatest virtue is love of God which is manifested through an understanding and love of what is Good, True, and Beautiful. Thus, the vision for Christian education is a combination of the heart and mind rather than just the mind.

Moreover, Christian education’s emphasis on love and truth in all things is predicated on St. Augustine’s declaration that “all truth belongs to God” because God is Truth, as Holy Scripture reveals and as the Christian theological tradition has always maintained. Additionally, fostering and forming souls in the spirit of love: love of the good things God has created; love of the good things humans in pursuit of God have created; and love of the odyssey that love is, are the central pillars for Christian education.

Furthermore, it is love of learning as a means of loving God that Christian education must instill. Excellence in education must be related to something greater than the self. Otherwise, excellence in education walks a tightrope toward narcissism and ultimately deposits one in the suffocating pool of haughty pride.

As a graduate of Yale, this tension between educational excellence and narcissism abounds. I know it firsthand. Rather than acknowledge God, family, or friends, some who attain excellence in education become entirely self-centered and cut themselves off from their loved ones. There is a feeling of superiority, a pretentious pride, that comes over those who have attained such high degrees of exceptionalism in their educational life which becomes poisonous to their spiritual and personal life.