I’ve really enjoyed reading “Repairing the Ruins,” which is a compilation of talks given at the national conferences of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools.
These are a few of my favorite quotes from the first several chapters:
“Christian education is really the task of relating the biblical faith to the world around us.” (13)
“Theology is the integration point for all knowledge.” (17)
“In not mentioning God, my public school teachers preached a thundering sermon every day. By implication, they taught that God is not relevant to most areas of my life… daily I was taught that two and two are four, the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, and that frogs breathe in water, regardless of whether Jesus Christ is Lord over such matters… in every class period, all day every day for twelve years, I was being taught to think like an atheist in the academic realm.” (48)
“Whatever might rightly be called an education must teach the lordship of Christ. Any subject treated apart from Christ fails to meet the basic goal of education: to impart knowledge. Apart from Christ there is no education, for without Him knowledge is impossible. A Christian curriculum must include study in Christ’s lordship and the study must not be restricted to a theology course. As Lord, His dominion is to be studied in mathematics and logic, the sciences, and the arts. Falling short of such instruction denies His lordship, which stands against the fundamental purpose of education.” (57)
These quotes make me think about how unnatural it is for people—even those raised in the church—to bring God into our every day conversations. Most of us don’t naturally think about how the spiritual world intersects with grocery shopping, driving around town, going to work, etc. Most of life has been segregated for us such that in our minds there are spiritual conversations and activities and then there is everything else. When we are in the “everything else” category we certainly must be prudent so that we do not contradict the things we have learned from the Bible, but so long as we don’t blatantly do so, we’re probably ok.
However if all of our education sprung from the belief that “Theology is the integration point for all knowledge,” then perhaps we would naturally see how God relates to literally all of life, we would see all of life as spiritual, and Christ would be the natural focal point of all our conversations and activities—the true cornerstone of our lives.
- Laura
