“Basil of Caesarea (ca. 330–79) is probably best known for his many contributions to Christian theological discourse in the second half of the fourth century. Basil’s writings on trinitarian theology were instrumental in helping to resolve the Arian controversy about the nature of Christ, offering a vigorous defense of Nicene theology and paving the way for its triumph at the Council of Constantinople in 381, just two years after his death. Basil is also celebrated for his works on asceticism and monasticism; his life and ministry, which were deeply informed by these perspectives, would pave the way for later ascetical bishops in his mold such as John Chrysostom and Gregory the Great. As Basil’s thoughts on the ascetical life matured, he came to organize one of the first monastic communities in the Greek-speaking world, earning him the title of Father of Eastern Monasticism. As with the other church fathers examined in this book, Basil’s asceticism serves as an important background theme for rightly interpreting his work, and we will engage with it throughout this chapter.
“Most relevantly for this book, Basil provides us with a new lens for considering the formational impact of what we teach in the classroom. Over the course of the fourth century, church leaders such as Basil wrestled with the place of traditional pagan literature within Christian education. On the one hand, Christian scholars would come to identify the Scriptures as an alternative body of literature that could serve as the foundation for a more distinctively Christian education, even as the basic exegetical and rhetorical practices of the Greco-Roman schools were adapted for the new context. On the other, though, familiarity with the classics of Greek literature was such a long-ingrained part of classical education that it was difficult to conceive of dispensing with them all together. Even John Chrysostom, who as we saw in the previous chapter of this book seemed to suggest setting aside pagan literature in its entirety in favor of an exclusive focus on the Scriptures, nevertheless drew extensively on his own classical education in rhetoric for both his style and content. It was, however, Chrysostom’s younger contemporary, Basil of Caesarea, who in his ‘Address to Young Men’ would most famously and influentially articulate a mediating view on the role of pagan literature that might be as close to what would come to be the consensus position on the issue as we can find in early Christianity.
“To set this text in its proper context, it helps to understand the specific political and cultural forces that shifted this issue from being a largely theoretical discussion about education to one that in fact had profound real-world consequences. In 362, the pagan emperor Julian (known to history as ‘the Apostate’), determined to stop the rising influence of Christianity on Roman society and restore paganism as the religion of the empire, issued an edict banning Christians from teaching classical literature, costing Christian teachers their jobs at traditional schools of rhetoric and denying Christians the ability to make use of the pagan classics for apologetic purposes. While Julian’s program of religious reformation came to a quick end with his abrupt death the following year, his reign illustrates how continued tensions between Christianity and paganism were often centered on matters of education, which should not be surprising, given the classical world’s universally agreed-upon understanding of education as essentially formative in nature.”
— from Kyle R. Hughes, Teaching for Spiritual Formation: A Patristic Approach to Christian Education in a Convulsed Age (Cascade Books, 2022). Kyle Hughes talked about this book on Volume 160 of the Journal.
James K. A. Smith explains how education always involves the formation of affections and how the form of Christian education should imitate patterns of formation evident in historic Christian liturgy. (15 minutes)
Michael L. Peterson discusses how Christianity could inform society’s understandings of education and human nature. (8 minutes)
Education for human flourishing — Co-authors Paul Spears and Steven Loomis argue that Christians should foster education that does justice to humans in our fullness of being. (23 minutes)
Professor C. John Sommerville describes the increasingly marginal influence of universities in our society, and why they seem to be of no substantive relevance to people outside the school. (13 minutes)
In tracing Christianity’s relationship to the academy, Arthur F. Holmes points to Augustine as one of the first to embrace higher learning, believing God’s ordered creation to be open to study by the rational mind of man. (9 minutes)
In praise of a hierarchy of taste — In a lecture at a CiRCE Institute conference, Ken Myers presented a rebuttal to the notion that encouraging the aesthetic appreciation of “higher things” is elitist and undemocratic. (58 minutes)
St. Irenaeus against the Gnostics — In this reading of an essay by theologian Khaled Anatolios, St. Irenaeus is remembered for his synthesis of faith and reason. (52 minutes)
On wonder, wisdom, worship, and work — Classical educator Ravi Jain dives deeply into the nature, purpose, and interconnectedness of the liberal, common, and fine arts. (43 minutes)
Orienting reason and passions — In an essay titled “The Abolition of Mania” (Modern Age, Spring 2022), Michael Ward applies C. S. Lewis’s insights to the polarization that afflicts modern societies. (16 minutes)
Hughes, Kyle — FROM THE GUEST PAGE: The Rev. Dr. Kyle R. Hughes is a scholar-pastor-teacher specializing in the study of early Christianity and working to mine the riches of patristic theology for the modern church and for Christian schools.
Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 160 — FEATURED GUESTS:
Jessica Hooten Wilson, Kyle Hughes, Gil Bailie, D. C. Schindler, Paul Tyson, and Holly Ordway
Teaching for wonderfulness — Stratford Caldecott on why education is about how we become more human, and therefore more free
Education and human be-ing in the world — In championing a classical approach to teaching, Stratford Caldecott was an advocate for a musical education, affirming the harmonious unity in Creation. (26 minutes)
Maintaining a connected grasp of things — Ian Ker summarizes the central concern of John Henry Newman’s educational philosophy as developed in The Idea of a University
The future of Christian learning — Historian Mark Noll insists that for Christian intellectual life to flourish, a vision for comprehensive and universal social and cultural consequences of the Gospel has to be assumed. (18 minutes)
Earthly things in relation to heavenly realities — In this lecture, Ken Myers argues that the end of education is to train students to recognize what is really real. The things of this earth are only intelligible in light of heavenly realities. (59 minutes)
Hans Boersma — author of Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry — explains why Christians should reject the modern separation of Heaven and Earth and recover a “sacramental ontology.” (26 minutes)
Sustaining a heritage of wisdom — Louise Cowan (1916–2015) explains how the classics reach the deep core of our imagination and teach us to order our loves according to the wholeness of reality. (16 minutes)
Parsing the intellectual vocation — Norman Klassen and Jens Zimmermann demonstrate that some form of humanism has always been central to the purposes of higher education, and insist that the recovery of a rich, Christocentric Christian humanism is the only way for the university to recover a coherent purpose. (39 minutes)
Teachers and Learners — Ian Ker shares John Henry Newman’s ideals of learning, and Mark Schwehn discusses the virtues of good teachers. (27 minutes)
Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 153 — FEATURED GUESTS:
Charles C. Camosy, O. Carter Snead, Matt Feeney, Margarita A. Mooney, Louis Markos, and Alan Jacobs
Visionary education — Josef Pieper on the mistake of confusing education with mere training
Healthy habits of mind — Scott Newstok describes how many efforts at educational reform have become obstacles to thinking well, and he offers a rich and evocative witness to a better way of understanding what thinking is. (20 minutes)
Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 151 — FEATURED GUESTS:
Richard Stivers, Holly Ordway, Robin Phillips, Scott Newstok, Junius Johnson, and Peter Mercer-Taylor
Wise use of educational technologies — David I. Smith articulates the difficulties Christian schools face as they seek to use technology in a faithful way. (24 minutes)
Educational provocations — Steve Talbott on establishing ends for education before selecting means
Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 150 — FEATURED GUESTS:
David I. Smith, Eric O. Jacobsen, Matthew Crawford, Andrew Davison, Joseph E. Davis, and Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung
How should we then teach? — Following three years of research, David I. Smith discusses what he and his colleagues learned about how educational technologies can be profitable servants and not tyrannical masters. (56 minutes)
The Liberal Arts tradition, II — context and extension — Kevin Clark explains how the book he co-authored defines a framework in which the Trivium and the Quadrivium are the core of a curriculum that includes piety, gymnastics, music, philosophy, and theology. (20 minutes)
Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 145 — FEATURED GUESTS:
David I. Smith, Bruce Hindmarsh, Jason Baxter, John Fea, Laurie Gagne, and Matthew O’Donovan
The Practice of Christian Pedagogy, Volume II — David I. Smith argues that more attention needs to be given to the meaning conveyed in teaching methods and assumptions about teaching.(63 minutes)
Thoughts about higher education — Four thoughtful academics discuss how the fact of the Incarnation should inform the ends of higher education. (16 minutes)
Learning to love the truth — Fr. Francis Bethel talks about his book John Senior and the Restoration of Realism. (17 minutes)
Irrigating deserts — C. S. Lewis on why teachers must train the sentiments
Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 116 — FEATURED GUESTS: Stratford Caldecott, Fred Bahnson, Eric O. Jacobsen, J. Budziszewski, Brian Brock, and Allen Verhey
