Content: Permanent over Transitory

It is our desire to utilize that which helps, not hinders, our stated aims. We agree with St. Gregory Palamas, that there are two types of human knowledge— knowledge of the created universe and knowledge of the Uncreated God, and we desire to put both before our students. Just as the physical world reflects the beauty and order of God, we likewise want to mirror the same, both in what and how we offer it. 

While our priority is on Orthodox Christian formation rather than a particular methodology, it would be remiss not to mention that our suggested content is focused on that which is permanent, rather than transitory. By nature of this, it would be described as classical rather than progressive, with a precedence for what has stood the test of time. Not because old is intrinsically good, or new is intrinsically bad, but as Orthodox Christians, we know that what is good will remain. C.S. Lewis reminds us in his introduction to Athanasius’ On The Incarnation, that while modern ideas are not necessarily wrong, we can identify the errors of times past far more readily than those we are currently immersed in. He suggests that “the only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.” 

Yet our content is primarily classical not simply for the vantage point it provides, but because as Christians, it is our heritage. Dr. Timothy Patitsas in his first chapter of The Ethics of Beauty (where he discusses the Orthodox ethics of war and The Iliad), tells us that:

 Christian Rome—Byzantium—was a perfect blend and balance of three modes of being in this world. They had the mind of the Classical and Hellenistic Greeks; they had the heart and personalism of the Semitic world, of the Jews in particular; and they had the practical rationality and organization of the Romans.

At this intersection of influences, infrastructure, and mindsets the Logos is born in a cave in Bethlehem, and shortly thereafter, the Church is born at Pentecost. While surely both the good and the bad abounded in the pre-Christian and pagan cultures that formed this heritage of ours, rather than being rejected by the early Church, it was instead “baptized" and transformed. This heritage asked the questions that prepared us for the answer. It prioritized rightly-ordered thinking and pursuit of the “good," as it asked (and continues to ask), “What is truth?” (John 19:7). 

Our postmodern-culture insists that truth (if it exists) is a contextual, pragmatic, and ever-evolving concept that can be explained by the heart via experience, while our western-scholasticism insists that it is an objective, indisputable philosophical or ethical concept that can be explained via reason and logic. Yet, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” says the Lord. Truth is neither preference, nor proposition—it is a person. As Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky puts it, “Truth is the way through life. Truth does not appear to a person complete and transparent. It cannot just be contained in a doctrine. It cannot be contained in a book. Even the Bible doesn’t describe it an as idea. Truth is worked out by living."  It cannot be stripped from its source or relegated to the mind."

While seeds of truth, or “spermatikos logos," as St. Justin Martyr calls them, can be found in all manner of places (and belong to those who possess the fullness of the Logos in the incarnate Jesus Christ), we can find them far more readily when we first learn who we are, and from where we came.  So an aim of our content is to learn about our heritage, its questions, and ultimately, the answers in which it found its fulfillment, so that we might live out the Truth it revealed. We would describe this Orthodox classical education as: 

Seeking the Truth and the Logos in our cultural inheritance that was planted in the soil of ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, & Rome; transformed by the Incarnation; and imbued and safeguarded by the Church for the cultivation and embodiment of wisdom and virtue.

Subjects

Subjects are offered from the following four categories (with examples from each, though not exhaustive): 

• LOVE OF GOD: Philothéia — Morning Time (Rhythms of the Church) and Catechesis (Christian Education & Formation)

• LOVE OF BEAUTY: Philokalía — Enrichment & the Arts: Lives of the Saints, Iconography, Hymns, Artist & Picture Study, Composers, Folk Songs, Poetry, Music, Art, Handicrafts

• LOVE OF MANKIND: Philanthropía — Humanities: Tales, Literature, Church History, Ancient History, World & Local History, Geography, Shakespeare, Classical & Foreign Languages, Biographies, Plutarch

• LOVE OF THE UNIVERSE: Philokosmía — Maths, Sciences, & the Natural World: Maths, Sciences, Nature Study, Scientist Biographies, Geographic Science/ Physical Geography

Content is generally organized within the following twelve subjects:

I. MORNING TIME: 

Rhythms of the Church

II. CATECHESIS:

Christian Education & Formation

III. ENRICHMENT:

Saints, Icons, Hymns; Artists, Composers, Folk Songs; Poets, Shakespeare; Plutarch

IV. TALES

Folk Stories, Myths, & Great Tales

V. LANGUAGE ARTS:

Copywork, Dictation, Grammar, & Composition

VI. LITERATURE

VII. HISTORY:

Ancient, Church, Local, & World

VIII. GEOGRAPHY:

IX. MATHS, SCIENCES, & NATURE

X. CLASSICAL & FOREIGN LANGUAGES

XI. ART & MUSIC

XII. HANDICRAFTS & LIFE SKILLS

Next: Our Schedule, Rhythms, & Forms 

*An overview of some of our Orthodox Studies components can be found here.

*An overview of some of our Classical Studies components can be found here.