T. Chris Crain

Famous Last Words

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:33:00 +0000

I've been reading through the letters of C.S. Lewis and was encouraged by what Lewis wrote to his childhood friend Arhur Greeves in 1916: "You ask me my religious views: you know, I think, that I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity is not even the best. All religions, that is, all mythologies to give them their proper name, are merely man's own invention--Christ as much as Loki." Similar to the Apostle Paul, Lewis made an about face later in life, which goes to show that even the skeptic can become a believer.

I look like that?

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:41:00 +0000

I competed in the Run Wild 5K a few weekends ago and Papa Razzi took some photos you can see here. I might have to give up running if I look that pained, even if I did get first in my age group. There are some good pictures of the kids right below the pictures of me.

Crain Camping

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 12:51:00 +0000

Last week we had a great time camping at Davidson River Campground in the Pisgah National Forest. I was so proud of the kids. They hiked up Looking Glass Rock, a round trip of 6.2 miles! I bribed them with ice cream.

The girls and I enjoyed one of the great wonders of NC: Sliding Rock. Sliding Rock, as the picture shows, is about 60 feet of slippery rock that then plunges you into a pool with 55 degree water.

Now I’ve often pondered, who was the first person in the world who decided it might be fun to slide down that rock? Was it a Native American from long ago? A European settler? Whoever it was had some real guts, it seems.

Camping with the kids is great because it is quiet, relaxing, brings us close to nature(I really enjoyed the skunk that came within five feet of our camp area!), and affordable.

Critical

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:26:00 +0000

I'm preparing some critical thinking exercises for returning teachers and ran across this quote and thought that it was pretty cool:

“Very few really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justification, explanations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To
really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the
questioner.”

Spoken by the Vampire Marius in
Ann Rice’s book The Vampire Lestat
Ballantine Books. New York, NY. 1985.

HT: http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/what&why2006.pdf

Big Cat

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:56:00 +0000

Nancy's dad, Ed, and I went out on Clark's Hill Lake Friday night and put out three trot lines . We put chicken gizzards on two and herring on the other one. The chicken gizzards didn't catch us anything except for this big 33 pound flathead catfish. I really couldn't believe it when I saw the fish on the line. It was just too big to be true. Ed and I were laughing like two schoolboy children. Nancy was in the boat too--looking a little squeamish and interested despite her misgivings (ha!).

Properly ordered love

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:44:00 +0000

“For bodily beauty is indeed created by God; but it is temporal and carnal, and therefore a lower, good; and if it is loved more than God is, Who is the eternal, inward and everlasting God, that love is as wrong as the miser’s when he forsakes justice out of his love for gold. The fault here, though, lies not with the gold, but with the man; and this is true of every created thing; though it is good, it can be loved well or ill; well when the proper order is observed, and ill when that order is disturbed,” Augustine, City of God, XV, Chapter 22.

What the best college teachers do

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:58:00 +0000

Don't let the title to this book fool you. If you teach--at whatever level or age--this would be a good book to read because it has many useful tips on what to do to be a good teacher. The author, Ken Bain, Director of the Center for Teaching at New York University, along with some colleagues, did a comprehensive study of teachers who significantly impact how students think, act, and feel.

In the introduction Bain lists six broad questions the study asked:

i. What do the best teachers know and understand? They know their subjects very well and can do whatever they ask their students to do. But, more importantly, Bain says, they have developed techniques and organizing principles so that students might begin to understand the subject well and start building their own understandings. They simplify things and use illustrations and insights to get to the core of the matter. They do not speak about transmitting knowledge or conveying facts but about helping students wrestle with ideas

ii. How do they prepare to teach? They begin by asking what the student learning objectives are not what the teacher will do.

iii. What do they expect of their students? They expect more not by piling enormous amounts of work on but by tying objectives to thinking and acting for life.

iv. What do they do when they teach? They try to create a “natural critical learning environment.”

v. How do they treat students? They trust students. They assume students want to learn and can learn. They discuss with students their awe over life.

vi. How do they check their progress and evaluate their efforts? They have systemic programs to assess their efforts and to make changes.

The rest of the book answers those six questions more in-depth.

Sorry (Summer plans)

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:45:00 +0000

I apologize for the dearth of posts. I really do want to blog but other things seem to get in the way. Once the school year ended at Covenant Christian School things didn't slow down much at all. I've been working on next year already, planning, reading, meeting new families, and reviewing curriculum.

I enjoyed going to Southern Illinois to spend some time fishing and golfing with two old seminary buddies. I caught a 13 pound catfish and a 3 pound bass as well as some other minor fish; can't say the golf was as productive.

We all went down to Tampa to celebrate my sister's wedding and we look forward to going camping at the end of July in western NC at Camp Davidson.

The garden is growing nicely; we eat our first tomatoes tonight and have enjoyed our basil by making pesto many times already.

I read Marilyn Robinson's Gilead and enjoyed it a whole lot. Currently I'm rereading Till We have Faces by Lewis and I plan on reading The Bronze Bow since a lot of my students read that in the grammar school. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was also a page turner. Can't wait for the last Harry Potter book to come out.

I decided to teach Greek to my girls this summer. So I picked up the curriculum, Hey, Andrew, Teach me some Greek! They are such eager learners. The other morning I knew that we could not have our fun lesson in the afternoon so I had told them the day before that we would do it in the morning. As I ate breakfast they marched in with big smiles and went straight to den where they set up their notebooks. I try to make it fun for them. The other day I didn't give them a test but an "expresso yourself," which was basically an exam followed by a homemade coffee shake. Learning was never so tasty.

No power in the blood?

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:21:00 +0000

Russell D. Moore writes in the March issue of Touchstone that "American Christianity is far les blody than it used to be. Songs like 'Power in the Blood' or 'There is a Fountain Filed with Blood' or 'Are you Washed in the Blood' are still sung in some places but fewer and fewer, and there aren't many newer songs or priase choruses focsed on blood. The cross yes; redemption, yes; but blood rarely."

Moore says, "What could be more repulsive, even sickening, to a clean, antiseptic society than talk of spattered blood?"

Does the lack of blood in choruses or hymns chosen indicate a less robust Christianty or is the gospel-in-song being contextualized in different ways? If the blood makes you clean then that's what an antiseptic society needs.

Imprimis

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:15:00 +0000

In the last year or so I got on the Imprimis mailing list. Imprimis is a free publication of Hillsdale College. Usually they publish speeches given at the college by well-known thinkers. I thought the last one by Rober Sirico on why free enterprise is better for the common good than socialism to be helpful. Sirico is president of Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. Here's a teaser:

"When we speak of the common good, we need also to be clear-minded about the political and juridical institutions that are most likely to bring it about. These happen to be the very institutions that socialists have worked so hard to discredit. Let me list them: private property in the means of production; stable money to serve as a means of exchange; the freedom of enterprise that allows people to start businesses; the free association of workers that permits people to choose where they would like to work and under what conditions; the enforcement of contracts that provides institutional support for the idea that people should keep their promises; and a vibrant trade within and among nations to permit the fullest possible flowering of the division of labor. These institutions must be supported by a cultural infrastructure that respects private property, regards the human person as possessing an inherent dignity, and confers its first loyalty to transcendent authority over civil authority."

Catfish Crain

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:32:00 +0000

My father-in-law and I went trotline fishing this past weekend on Clarks' Hill Lake (aka Lake Strom Thurmond). It was pretty exciting to put in the lines Friday evening and wonder if we would have anything the next morning. Visions of catfish filled my dreams. When we came back early Saturday morning we had five catfish on the two lines we put out. The two beauties above are 4.5 pounds each. After filleting them we then breaded them in a cornmeal batter and deep-fried them to perfection. Nothing like catching your food, killing it, and then eating it!

"I die like Jesus Christ"?

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:05:00 +0000

This week Cho Seung-Hui committed the second worse school mass murder (HT: Barlowfarms) in U.S. history. After the first shooting inthe dorm room and before he went to the classroom building he mailed a video manifesto to NBC news. In that video manifesto he ranted against what he considered were rich, spoiled kids:

“You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.

Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon on a cross? And left to bleed to death for your amusement? You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life.”

What I find interesting is his claim that he died “like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and defenseless people.” What do you think of his claim? Are there any similarities between Cho’s life and death and Jesus Christ’s life and death?

While some will probably imitate Cho’s actions and find him as role-model, the difference between Cho’s actions and Jesus Christ’s actions are as far removed as heaven is from hell. When we look at the differences between Cho’s life and death and Jesus’ life and death, we see why Christianity makes so much sense; why Jesus Christ is the most written about figure in world history; why more people have made Jesus Christ a model to imitate, a person to believe, than any other human being ever. Here are some reasons why their lives and deaths are different:

1. The means of their deaths is different. Jesus Christ was ruthlessly killed by others’ hands but Cho took his own life. Even though Jesus Christ was God and had the authority to keep his life (John 10:14), he freely gave himself over to the Jews and Roman soldiers. He did not kill himself; they crucified him. Peter says, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazereth…[was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:22-24) (emphasis added). Christ submitted himself into the hands of others while Cho decided to end his own life by his own hand.

2. The manner of their deaths is different. Jesus Christ died praying “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” but Cho died with unforgiveness in his heart (Luke 23:28). Though Jesus’ death was painful, he died in peace, giving his life over to God at the moment he perished: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).

3. The motive of their lives and deaths is different. Jesus Christ died because he loved sinners like you and I. Cho died because he was filled with hate. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son. Since we know that the Father and the Son are one in motive (John 10:30), we know that the Father sent the Son in love and the Son went, of his own volition, because of love.

We must not distance ourselves so readily from Cho, thinking we are vastly different. We may not do what Cho did but when we harbor bitterness, anger, and resentment, clinging to those things in sinful delight, then we become Cho-like. If we relish hatred and envy then we begin to walk the path of Cho. We may never come to the point of mass murder but to be on the path of sin should be warning enough that its destination is fraught with danger—to ourselves and others.

4. The goal of their lives and deaths is different. Jesus Christ died so that others might live but Cho lived so that others might die. In John 10:14 Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd….I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus said that “whoever believes in [me will] have eternal life” (John 3:15). The goal of Jesus was to grant people life, which is fellowship with the Triune God. True life is found in walking with God, knowing God, and praising God. But because of the wolves of sin, death, and the devil, humans are beset like helpless sheep. We are defenseless against our enemies. Jesus, the good shepherd, makes it his goal to deliver us from the wolves of sin, death, and the devil.

Augustine’s Enchiridion: A little book worth reading

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:23:00 +0000

Most anything by Augustine is worth reading. At the top, arguably, is the Confessions, but equally famous, and more lengthy, is a book that might serve as stepladder for some (or as the supreme work on the follies of paganism for others), the massive, City of God. Somewhat less lengthy but no less stimulating is On the Trinity. And what about all the other works he wrote on such topics as rhetoric, Donatism, Pelagianism, semi-Pelagianism, the bible, and so on.

For the uninitiated-to-Augustine The Augustine Catechism: Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love is an excellent place to begin. Why? Mainly because Augustine adumbrates many doctrines in this work which he expands upon in his other works.

For instance, Augustine discusses his conception of evil as “a removal of good” (11). Evil, Augustine says, doesn’t exist of itself, but always corrupts the good. For “evils cannot exist at all without goods, and they can only exist in goods, although goods can exist without evils” (14). This thought reminds me of J.R.R. Tolkien’s orcs: they were once elves that were corrupted. In this respect, Tolkien was very much an Augustinian.

Augustine, ever the rhetorician, has some choice quotes in his little book. Take this one:

“[E]ven in the one sin which came into the world through one man and passed to all men…we can understand there to be many sins, if the one sin is divided into its component parts. For there is pride there, by which the man preferred to be in his own power rather than God’s, and sacrilege because he did not believe God, and murder because he cast himself down to death, and spiritual fornication, because the integrity of a human mind was corrupted by the persuasion of the serpent, and theft, because a forbidden food was wrongfully taken, and avarice, because he sought more than should have been sufficient for him” (45).

Augustine also briefly discusses his theology of depravity, lying, theodicy, grace, original sin, baptism, the church, purgatory, merit, the two cities, and love.

So, for those who want a taste of Augustine’s thought this is a good place to begin. And, by the way, it is also an edifying work, challenging the reader to greater faith, hope and love.

What’s so fishy about Jesus’ teaching?

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:07:00 +0000

(I was teaching a Sunday School class on Leviticus and someone said later that I offered an allegorical interpretation.)

I. The difference between symbolic actions and allegorical interpretation.

Jesus came eating fish and calling fishermen to be his disciples. Rather than Jesus’ fishy diet being an historical curiosity, his diet ties in with several OT themes, all of which taken together show that Jesus was eating fish because he going to “eat” the Gentiles (i.e., the Gentiles will be included in the new covenant.).

Is linking Jesus’ diet to the Gentiles an allegorical interpretation? To answer this one must define allegorical. It is good to make a distinction between interpretive allegory and compositional allegory. “Interpretive allegory takes the details of a text, whether fictional or not, and seeks to discover what philosophical or theological or moral principles are symbolized in its words and images. Compositional allegory begins with moral principles or spiritual truths and creates a fictional tale to display them in narrative form.”[1] Pilgrim’s Progress is a compositional allegorical story because each character represents some reality outside the text. Christian represents the typical Christian. The slough of despond equals the effect of sin on one’s emotions

Iterpretive allegory seeks to misinterpret the text by reading into the text meanings that are not there. Greek philosophers who disdained the straight-forward interpretation of Greek myths illustrate interpretive allegory. They thought it would be impious to associate heinous acts (e.g., Zeus carousing with earthly women) with divine beings. Better to interpret these tales by way of allegory.

But authors can compose allegories and intend for them to be read as allegories. I do not think that the Bible was written as an allegory like Pilgrim’s Progress but that does not mean that the Bible does not have symbolic (or typological) dimensions to it. That is, literary themes and types reoccur throughout the Scriptures. Israel goes down into Egypt and so does Jesus (Matthew 2:13-15). Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days and, unlike Israel, he survives the test. Could it be that Jesus is the true Israel, who will save his people from their sins not just on the cross but by “reliving” what they failed to do? God, being the consummate storyteller, expects us to find the links, resonances, repetitions, and allusions in His (true) story.

And so I do not think that linking Jesus’ diet to the Gentiles is allegorical. Rather, I’d prefer to say that his eating has symbolic dimensions to it. To take a parallel example, when Jesus cursed the fig tree, why did he do that (Mark 11:12-25)? When you study the OT you see that God calls Israel a fig tree (Hos. 9:10, Nah. 3:12). Right after Jesus curses the fig tree he cleanses the temple, ceasing the sacrificial activity for the day. Both the fig tree and the temple are symbols of Israel. If God calls Israel a fig tree and then Jesus curses a fig tree it is not allegorical to say that Jesus is cursing Israel. That is the logical interpretation of the symbolic action. If I burn the flag of the United States you know that is probably a symbolic action of protest against the nation.

What about when Jesus fed the 5000? How many baskets are left over? Twelve (Matthew 14:19). Is this number recorded as a mere historical curiosity with no symbolic import whatsoever? If I named my son George Washington Crain and wrote that in the family history registry would it have no symbolic import whatsoever? The number twelve has historical importance because God constituted Israel as twelve tribes. Jesus called twelve disciples to reconstitute the true Israel and twelve baskets are left over (filled with “Gentile” fish, mind you) as a sign of the coming new age: True Israel will gather in the Gentiles. (But I’m getting ahead of myself).

Let’s take a modern day example. The terrorists said that they flew the planes into the WTC because those buildings stood for what they hate in the West. They “cursed” the West in their act. Their notorious flight was a way to denounce the Western way of life. It had symbolic import far beyond two planes hitting two buildings.

So, when I claim that Jesus’ diet has symbolic import I am saying so because the OT lays a foundation for this sort of interpretation when it consistently links Gentiles with the sea. These themes of the OT tie in with Jesus’ practice of eating fish and serving his disciples fish.

II. God’s diet in the OT

In the OT God limits his diet to the clean sacrificial animals (Lev. 1-7). I’m using “God’s diet” here anthropomorphically. Obviously God doesn’t need to eat. God, as the catechism says, doesn’t have a body as we do. Yet the OT describes the sacrifices as “bread for God.” God smells the food and it is a pleasing aroma to him (Lev. 1:9, 17). Symbolically, God eats the sacrifice, which represents the worshiper.

Although some sea creatures are clean in the OT (Lev. 11:9-12), God doesn’t eat them sacrificially. Though the Israelite may eat some sea creatures, they are not part of God’s diet. God has limited his diet to certain clean land animals. This is an important point, as we shall “sea.”

III. In the OT the sea is used as a poetic metaphor for Gentiles nations

While many passages point to the sea as a metaphor for the Gentile nations I’ll limit myself to a few. If it is true that a few passages prove the connection then an abundance of passages is superfluous. If I claim a spider is in the room I only need to find one spider to prove my point.

In Psalm 65:5-8 the Psalmist praises the awesome deeds of God, proclaiming that he is

“the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.” The Psalmist then goes on to highlight God’s ability to still “the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves.” The very next poetic line is “the tumult of the peoples.” Using the common Hebrew poetic device of repetition, the author has conceptually linked the roaring of seas and waves with the tumult of the peoples, a connection that links the sea with the gentile nations.

In Isaiah 8:6-8 the author rebukes the people of Israel for rejecting him. He then proclaims that the Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon them in judgment. He compares the king of Assyria to “the waters of the River,” which “rise over all its channels and go over all its banks.” Though not using the word “sea” here the idea is still the same. The waters of the world are a fit metaphor for gentiles because they are chaotic. The sea is stormy and rivers flood, both signs of their “chaotic-ness.”

In Isaiah 17:12-13 the prophet compares the thunder and roaring of the peoples and nations to the thunder and roaring of the sea and mighty warriors:

Ah, the thunder of many peoples;

they thunder like the thundering of the sea!

Ah, the roar of nations;

they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

[13] The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,

but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind

and whirling dust before the storm.

Isaiah can use the sea as a metaphor because this poetic motif is so firmly entrenched in the Hebraic mind and Scriptures. Christ himself would have read these Scriptures and the same motifs would have been part of his mental furniture.

When Jeremiah prophesies of the coming kingdom of Babylon he links this coming to the roaring of the sea:

They lay hold on bow and javelin;

they are cruel and have no mercy;

the sound of them is like the roaring sea;

they ride on horses,

set in array as a man for battle,

against you, O daughter of Zion!" (6:23).

When Daniel prophesies he mentions four beasts that come out of the sea:

“Daniel declared, "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. [3] And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another” (7:2-3). The Lord interprets this verse for Daniel, saying, “These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth” (7:17). The Bible is poetically flexible in that the beasts come out of the sea and the kings come out of the earth because in its less metaphorical moments the Bible knows that no nation exists solely at sea.

IV. Jesus, fish and the sea

The NT continues the OT practice of linking the gentile nations with the sea. In Revelation, a vision given to John by Jesus, a beast rises out of the sea (13:1-4). This vision is like the vision that Daniel had in that the beasts coming out of the sea equal nations.

But preeminently we see the theme continue in Jesus’ life and ministry. When Jesus comes calling fishermen (Mark 1:16), asking them to be fishermen of men (Mark 1:17), stilling storms (Mark 7:35-41), walking across water (Mark 6:45-52), and serving fish from the sea (Matthew 14:19; John 21:1-14), all of these watery motifs tie in with the sea themes of the OT.

The OT likens the gentiles to the sea and so in God’s providence Jesus comes calling fishermen to be his disciples. Formerly these men caught fish from the sea but now they will catch men from the sea of nations. God has decided to “eat” the gentiles now. His fishermen are gathering fish for him. Far from being allegorical, this fishy interpretation does justice to the OT literary practice of describing the nations as “sea” and the NT picking up that same theme not just poetically but in the lived practice of Jesus’ miracles, ministry through his disciples (his fishermen), and his eating habits.

[1] Robert Louis Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 229.

Heating the Family

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:19:00 +0000

A few weeks ago our heat went out and the part to fix it was on back order until this past Monday. We had space heaters to keep us warm but our family tended to congregate in the only room with a fireplace.

And this made me think about the blessings of a heat furnace and its pontential problems. Technology shapes people. In times when fireplaces were a necessity and not a luxury families spent their time together in the most heated room. That's the way it appears in Laura Ingalls Wilder's books and in Jane Austen's too.

With the advent of modern heating systems family members can be in different parts of the house, not interacting, but staying warm. While I don't intend on getting rid of my furnace anytime soon, I am more aware of where my warmth should come: cuddling up on a couch with my kids and wife all around me as we read a good book together.

Wisdom and Eloquence

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 16:00:00 +0000

This is a review of the fine book, Wisdom and Eloquence.

In the last twenty five years, a new movement within primary and secondary education has swept across America—classical, Christian education. Churches and parents have founded new schools and realigned existing ones based on the model of the medieval trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Two national organizations have been created to advance the mission of classical, Christian education: the Association of Classical Christian Schools (http://www.accsedu.org) and the Society for Classical Learning (http://www.societyforclassicallearning.org/). Douglas Wilson’s Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning: An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991) provided the first comprehensive paradigm for classical, Christian education. Wilson’s insights were based on his experience helping to start one of the flagship schools of the movement, Logos School of Moscow, Idaho, and on his reading of Dorothy Sayers’s “The Lost Tools of Learning,” an essay that has been extremely important to the classical movement.

Littlejohn and Evans’s work continues the conversation by making a case for this type of education, refining what is meant by the term trivium, and offering seasoned insights into what makes a healthy, vibrant school. The authors are both experienced educators and administrators. Their collective wisdom and eloquence shine through, offering light to teachers, administrators, and boards who may have lost their way in the morass of educational theories, management conundrums, and curriculum offerings.

The authors argue that today’s schools should equip students with two qualities: wisdom and eloquence. “[S]ince education is more about cultural relevance than about attaining economic advantage,” we must train students “to make a profound difference in the world into which they emerge” (13). Wisdom is needed so that students can understand our culture in relationship to God’s Word; eloquence is needed so that students can communicate to our culture by applying God’s Word. To provide these two qualities, the authors propose the liberal arts tradition of the trivium and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy [which they define as science], and music). Liberal education matters because it creates people who have the intellectual skills, spiritual resources, and mental flexibility to compete in today’s environment and to change careers. They believe that the liberal arts are traditional not because they are old but because they work (14). The liberal arts have traditionally been the best education for the best and, as Robert Maynard Hutschins remarks, “[t]he best education for the best is the best education for all” (69).

The liberal arts work, and are the best, because a healthy course in the arts bequeaths fundamental skills. For instance, grammar teaches children how their own language works and, if taught systematically, teaches children to think systematically. Literature exposes students to great books, and only great books can make great readers (98). But, for the Christian educator, the liberal arts can never be enough. Teaching and learning must be grounded in a Christian worldview. Because positions and values flow from a worldview, educators must be aware of their own and of their students’. The authors suggest that the Christian school adopt the Scriptural paradigm of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation (46-49).

While making common cause with many within the classical, Christian arena, the authors also critique how some classical educators interpret the trivium, especially Dorothy Sayers. Sayers argued that the trivium was a set of subjects, but she also linked the trivium to three stages of cognitive development. In the grammar stage, students are like sponges which absorb all kinds of information. Hence, they should be taught the grammar (i.e., the basic facts) of each subject. In the logic stage, students become more argumentative. Therefore, the teachers should integrate logic into their courses, and a formal course in logic should be given. In the rhetoric stage, students are more concerned with how they appear to others. Educators should take this natural tendency, then, and focus on teaching proper forms of expression.

Littlejohn and Evans emphasize that the trivium is a set of subjects and disciplines, not a pedagogy or theory of cognitive development (33-42, 74, 89). They find no place in the history of the liberal arts for Sayers’s theory. They note that many are confused by the paradigm. Parents ask, “Do my children just learn facts in the grammar stage? Shouldn’t good speaking skills taught at their level be a part of the first grade experience?” They also critique her for making the trivium the foundation for the quadrivium (115). For them, all seven sciences should be part of the curriculum from day one of formal education. If followed rigidly, the Sayers model would leave math and science until the mid-teenage years, an absurd notion.

While theoretical in scope, the book is useful for its practical advice for creating a school of excellence. The authors cover such diverse subjects as dress code, class size, a suggested rhetoric curriculum, learning theory, and faculty development—and these are only a few of the subjects addressed. As an administrator of a classical, Christian school, I found many of their insights helpful. For instance, while Littlejohn and Evans are proponents of the liberal arts, they also recognize that each school will implement the liberal arts distinctly. To do so, they suggest that a school’s curriculum be built from the top down or from 12-K by asking, “What kind of graduates do I want to produce?” Once a core set of skills, values, and virtues have been decided upon, the school can proceed with implementing that throughout each grade. In choosing what great books to read, they offer as the core canon the Bible, Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Milton (98). From these books, schools can branch out. In order to engage the world, however, Christian schools have to read books from the world. Evans and Littlejohn argue that the “key to approaching topics that are controversial (in science or any other discipline) is, to borrow an analogy from science, inoculation, not quarantine” (125). Rather than creating a fortress to protect students from all worldly ideas, the authors argue for a training ground so that students can go forth and conquer the world.

Educators will profit from this book, but some, especially those within the classical movement, may have a few nagging questions. Littlejohn and Evans critique the classical movement for making the trivium a model of cognitive development and for making logic and rhetoric methods of dealing with subjects. Even though I grant that the classical movement is most likely wrong to say that the trivium was always tied to a theory of cognitive development, it is not erroneous to say that students in lower grades memorize very well and should be given the basics (i.e., the grammar) for each of the subjects so that they can develop into seasoned thinkers (i.e., logic) and then into articulate speakers (i.e., rhetoric). Evans and Littlejohn take issue with classical educators who speak of a grammar of science, a logic of history, or a rhetoric of history because this confuses those who do not know the trivium, involves using the same terms in multiple ways, and has no basis in history. For them, grammar should mean the study of language and logic and rhetoric are distinct subjects (that must still be implemented throughout the curriculum). Despite not using the terms of the trivium in the way other classical educators have, Littlejohn and Evans end up in essentially the same place. They write that “for each discipline there are foundational elements that…must be committed to memory early in the students’ learning experience,” which seems similar to saying that young students must learn the grammar of each subject (79; emphasis mine). Words take on new meanings, and, borrowing from Sayers, many in the classical movement have used the term “grammar” in another of its senses: “the principles or rules of an art, science, or technique” (from Miriam Webster Online, http://www.webster.com/). The authors helpfully show that the term “trivium” has changed meaning in this modern reincarnation of classical education. This reviewer is not convinced that is a bad thing.

Overall, this book is a succinct and helpful apologia for classical, Christian education that advances the discussion about what this type of education is and offers useful instruction on how to implement it in the real world of primary and secondary schools. The authors are to be praised for writing a book so full of wisdom and eloquence.

(To be published in the Fall edition of Intégrité.)

Van Til on Culture and Religion II

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 16:24:00 +0000

What is the difference between culture and civilization?

Van Til says all civilizations have a culture but not all cultures mount the pinacle of civilization. Civilization is culture advanced, matured, well-aged.

Van Til uses the idea of culture to attack those who call man an "animal." Why? Because even though man has a physical body that resembles an animal's there is still a fundamental distinction between man and beast. Men think and will; beasts act by instinct. An animal never developed a culture, much less a civilization. Bees make the same hives, however intricate and well-planned, year after year.

Animals are defined by their biological wants and needs whereas man transcends his different constitute parts. No one aspect of man can define man for that one aspect comes from man.

Van Til argues that culture is always social. It "takes in the whole man, not merely as an individual, but as a member of the human organism, and therefore, in his various relationships to other men, and in the different instiutions that are thus called into existence, the institution of the home, of society, with its relationship between employer and employee, capital and labor, commerce and industry, education and science, politics and government" (32).

Man, as a social creature, takes nature and tranforms it into culture: "A river is nature, but a canal is culture. speech is nature, but a Shakespearian drama is culture; a horse is nature, but a five-gaited trotter is culture" (32).

But what about culture and individual freedom? Does culture determine what we are? Van Til likens culture to a river. The river carries you along but you can also swim in the stream and influence the stream because you are a moral agent (33).

The problem with apostate culture is that it is too conernend with the temporal and the material (33). Culture is for man's fulfillment and his fulfillment alone. The best culture will be the one in which man is the least and God the most. The most beautiful culture is when man serves the Lord who made him. If culture expresses religion then the best culture will be the true religion truly lived.

Better than a Swiss Miss Education

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 21:05:00 +0000

I wrote this little piece up for our monthly Communique at school. The recipe at the end is a real winner. I dare you to make it.

I have something to confess. My family and I are hot chocolate snobs. We didn’t intend on being hot chocolate snobs. It just sort of happened one day. I ran across a hot chocolate recipe and decided to give the heartwarming beverage a try. I was instantly hooked because I could taste the difference between the homemade version and Swiss Miss, just like most anyone can tell the difference between grandma’s apple pie and a gas station version. My children, having hardly ever tasted anything else but my special recipe, are ruined for life—hot chocolate aficionados, all of them.

In the educational world there are Swiss Miss educations and gourmet educations. At CCS we are striving to offer “gourmet” education. What goes into a gourmet education? Well, like making homemade hot chocolate, gourmet education takes discipline and patience. We live in a world that likes Swiss Miss types of things. Instant hot chocolate is quick and easy. We don’t have the time, supposedly, to spend on the gourmet version. But we make a serious mistake when we translate that into education. Like gourmet hot chocolate, good education takes time, patience, and energy. It is not easy, even for the best students. As parents we shouldn’t be surprised that our children have to discipline their mental habits to succeed. As students master the educational recipe—something which can take years—they develop the mental and emotional toughness to succeed.

While gourmet education takes discipline and patience, it also offers greater delight, both for our students and for our students as they serve others. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to make my special recipe for many people. The sheer act of making the recipe has given me pleasure because I know I’m making something worthwhile. It is my hope and prayer that students here would delight in using their talents for God. God told us to subdue the earth and we fulfill that calling through gourmet recipes and gourmet education (Genesis 1:28).

There is an intrinsic delight when we do something difficult and worthwhile. How much more delight is added, however, when we do these kinds of things for others. Isn’t that what a gourmet education is for—other people? Often our society touts how we should do things for ourselves and ourselves alone: Swiss Miss does come in individual packets after all. But my recipe for hot chocolate makes too much for a non-gluttonous person and so it demands to be shared. Gourmet education is the same. A student drinking from the cup of gourmet education delights to serve and bless others.

So please help us by encouraging your child(ren) to imbibe from CCS’s gourmet offerings. Discipline and patience are required but the delight in doing something worthwhile for others more than makes up for the inconvenience.

If you’d like to try the recipe here it is. But I warn you: You could become a hot chocolate snob!

1/3 Cup Coffee
1 oz. Baker’s Chocolate
1 Tbs. Cocoa Powder
5 Tbs. Sugar (can be lessened if you don’t like yours so sweet)
1 ½ Cup of Whole Milk
1 Cup of Cream (We often use 2% milk for both milk ingredients)
1 Tsp. vanilla

1. Mix first four ingredients in a pot and melt chocolate over medium heat. Do not boil.
2. Add milk and cream. Heat to piping hot but do not boil.
3. Transfer to blender, add vanilla, and blend for 20-30 seconds.
4. Enjoy!

Van Til on Culture and Religion

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:47:00 +0000

While Van Til is concerned with culture he knows that culture, by itself, does not restore man, for that would be Pelagianism. As image-bearers of God, all humans will contribute to culture, but what kind of spirit animates that culture? He draws an antithesis between godly culture and ungodly culture (23).

Van Til argues that culture does not include religion (27). Religion is not one aspect of culture. To claim so is a naturalistic position. "The reason religion cannot be subsumed under culture is the fact that whereas man as a religious being transcends all his ativities under the sun, culture is but one aspect of the sum total of these activities and their results in forming history....The meaning of life does not lie in culture as such, but culture derives its meaning from man's faith in God; it is never an end in itself, but always a means of expressing one's religioius faith" (28).

The Calvinistic Concept of Culture

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:38:00 +0000

Before Schaeffer, Sire, and Ravi there was Henry R. Van Til. His book, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture, is not about TULIP. Though Calvinism is often reduced to soteriology it is more than that. Rather, his book is about Christianity and culture. A son of the Dutch tradition, Van Til's work takes the best of Augustine, Calvin, Kuyper, and Schilder and sets forth a profound formulation of what Christian culture is and should be.

Van Til describes culture in several ways. Culture is "that activity of man, the image-bearer of God, by which he fulfills the creation mandate to cultivate the earth, to have dominion over it and to subdue it" (xvii).

He defines culture as "any and all human effort and labor expended upon the cosmos, to unearth its treasures and its riches and bring them into the service of man for the enrichment of human existence unto the glory of God" (30).

As a counter-point He quotes Matthew Arnold on culture: It is the "pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world' (25).

While this is partially true, Van Til says, it is also faulty. Culture is not just knowing; it is also producing. It is not just learning passively; it is acting.

Thus, culture is not just an activity of civilized nations but of all men everywhere. Where men are, there culture exists (27).

I look forward to reading more of Van Til. As a shaper of young minds I hope to mold them into positive agents of cultural transformation.

Happy Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 16:30:00 +0000

This is our first Thanksgiving in SC since were were married almost 12 years ago. Both our parents are here celebrating and to mark the occassion I whipped up this liturgy (and a quiche lorraine to go with the turkey):

Thanksgiving Liturgy

L: And you shall spend…money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires.

P: We shall eat here before the Lord our God, and we shall rejoice with our family.

L: You shall rejoice because the Lord sends springs into the valleys; they flow among the hills. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle and vegetation for the service of man.

P: We shall rejoice that God brings forth food from the earth, and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.

L: You shall rejoice as you look forward to the day when Jesus will drink of the fruit of the vine with you in his Father’s consummated kingdom.

P: We shall rejoice as we wait for the marriage supper of the lamb who was slain that we might have life. We shall rejoice because his love is better than wine.

L: Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil.

Adapted from Deut. 14:26; Ps. 104:15ff.; Mt. 26:29,;Eccl. 9:7; Rev. 3:18; 19:9

We then sang Come, Ye Thankful People Come.

How not to apologize

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 16:51:00 +0000

This analysis is right on the money.

Before we jump on the self-righteous bandwagon and condemn this politician, though, we should meditate on how often we have apologized in a similar manner.

It is so tempting to offer an apology that is not quite an apology because it saves us from admitting the truth: we are wrong. It is so tempting because it offers a (dead-end) way out of the shame (we should feel) over what we've done. It is so tempting because we think we can dupe someone into believeing we're sorry even while making them feel sorry for making us apologize.

In short, it is tempting because of our pride.

Never Again...

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 19:29:00 +0000

will I eat Chinese food after reading this.

A Passion for Truth

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:38:00 +0000

“Minds dulled by the smothering conformity of popular culture cannot plumb the depths or explore the breadths of the distinctively Christian virtue of hopeful contentment in the face of perpetual tasks. Thus they rush toward what they think will be the termination of this, that, or another chapter in their lives. They cannot wait to finish school. Thus, for instance, graduation is not a commencement, but a conclusion. Afterwards they hurry through their lives and careers: they plod impatiently through their work week anxious for the weekend; they bid their time until vacation and plod on toward retirement—always coming to the end of things until at last things come to an end.”

--George Grant, "A Passion for Truth," Tabletalk, September 2006

Two Useful Resources

noreply@blogger.com (T. Chris) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:33:00 +0000

How did I ever get through Seminary and Graduate without this? I love it!

Evernote is also a useful and free program.