“A good man must do everything with an eye to the public benefit.” --St. John Chrysostom

The Christian Church has long held education in high regard as an essential part of discipleship. In the ancient world, the instruction of the youth was called the paideia, and it included not only instruction in reading and writing, but in reasoning, diction, public speaking and a variety of scientific and philosophical disciplines. This was the education of the Greeks, and many early leaders of the Church were raised with such an education.

It was not, however, simply schooling that they received. Paideia was also formation, as the purpose was to liberate man not only from ignorance, but from manipulation either from others, or their own passions. This method was assiduously practiced in the east for centuries, and spread throughout the western world. Many schools sprang up early in Christian history to teach not only catechumens, but Christian theologians, teachers, leaders, and future bishops.

The Catechetical School of Alexandria

St. Jerome records that the Didascalia – the Catechetical School of Alexandria was founded by the Apostle and Evangelist St. Mark himself. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to establish it to teach Christianity, and this gave the Christian faith a solid foundation in the city. The School became the oldest center for sacred sciences in the history of Christianity.

Origen, in speaking to those desiring to learn from him in Alexandria, said,

If you want to receive Baptism, you must first learn about God’s Word, cut away the roots of your vices, correct your barbarous wild lives, and practice meekness and humility.

Christian education was to form man intellectually, spiritually and especially noeticallly. Otherwise, they knew they were simple creating clever devils.

European Education

Eventually in Europe, learning left the monastery for the University, abrogating itself from spiritual and interior formation. Even then, though, the remnants of the Church’s influence was obvious. Professors and college dons had to remain celibate, for example, following the example of their own highly disciplined monastic professors. The spiritual context for this liberal learning continued to exert less and less influence, until today one would be surprised to find one professor at a public university who was a cleric or a monk.

In the east, however, there were no dark ages. Learning continued to flourish in a society which, by any standard, exceeded by far the literacy rate of any other in the ancient world. The classical method of education continued to develop and grow. The Academy was not separate from the life of spiritual formation. Often, the professors were monastics, as they understood the learning of the exterior world, and also knew the interior world and its disciplines, with great familiarity.

Pandidikterion – The University of Constantinople

Founded in the 5th century A.D. by Emperor Theodosius II, the great university of Constantinople was probably the first University in the world. It began with 31 chairs for law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric and over a dozen each for Greek and Latin studies. This university continued for a thousand years. Thanks to its influence, Byzantine society was highly educated, with high levels of literacy, compared to the rest of the world. Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria was an alumnus, and St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Photius the Great, and St. Cyril, Evangelizer of the Slavs all taught there.

The Last Century

While Mortimer Adler advocated a return to “The Great Books” and hence the great formative ideas of civilization, in American Orthodox education there existed a kind of dark ages during the 20th century. Despite the opening of a few good theological schools and seminaries, Orthodox schools in America, by and large, were few, poorly funded, and haphazard in their programs. Often, the only ‘education’ was the instruction in the language of the homeland (Russian, Greek, etc.) These were cultural heritage schools, not places of formation and liberal learning. The need for traditional, classical Christian instruction and formation was considered unnecessary by many. This manner of thinking eroded in the late 20th century as Orthodox Christian classical schools broke on the scene, and continue to flourish and multiply.

Classical Education

The Classical Christian educational model best known today is that put forth by Dorothy Sayers in her essay “The Lost Tools Of Learning.” In this essay, Ms. Sayers describes the medieval European model of classical education with great detail, including its purposes, functions and methods. It is an inspiring read for anyone.

In brief, it is the classical study of the Seven Liberal Arts, focusing initially on the study of the Trivium (Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric). Each of these initial stages relates perfectly with a child’s developmental stage in growth and development. This is what made it so successful in the ancient world as well as today.

After this, intense study of the Quadrivium (Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy) completed the study for an educated man, one who had been liberated from ignorance. The remnants of this are seen even today, in the hat of four points – the doctoral tam, representing mastery of the Quadrivium, worn by those who have reached the degree of Doctor (itself a Latin word meaning ‘teacher’).

Ms. Sayers’ essay, however, focuses exclusively on the intellectual development of the student, underlying the philosophy that in man, reason is the highest faculty, and therefore the level at which one apprehends God.

It is this which separates this method from traditional Orthodox Christian paideia. In the Orthodox Classical education tradition (which preceded the medieval model) the goal did not stop at excellent discursive reasoning, but with noetic experience. It was understood that reason was not the highest faculty in man, but rather the noetic faculty. At the level of the nous, man personally and directly experiences God. The cultivation of this in students was profoundly important. The three stages of the Trivium were also linked with the three stages of spiritual life – purification, illumination, and glorification (theosis). Ideally, the paideia prepared the student intellectually and spiritually to move beyond the basics of ‘knowing more information’ to intellectual and spiritual discernment – the rarest of all acquisitions, and the most valuable.

St. Katherine College

At the dawn of the 21st century, American Higher Education is a shambles. Beholden to educators with personal political agendas protected by tenure, too often Christian students find themselves either held hostage by ideologues whose prime intellectual and pedagogical days are far behind them, or forced to defend themselves from the crashing waves of arbitrary political ideologies and cultural Marxism which deadens dialogue and rewards mediocre thinking. In many ‘free thinking’ campuses, true dialogue is dead.

We also stand before an incredible phenomenon. Do due the wide dissemination of massive amounts of information, there are so many facts available to even the youngest student, that these facts are becoming meaningless. Too much information, without the formation of a philosophical context, has led to a powerful moral relativism simply because youth, let alone adults, are not intellectually and spiritually equipped to discern between facts, and guard against self-delusion.

This new venture, St. Katherine College, endeavors to continue the Orthodox Christian Classical tradition of instruction, formation, and paideia.

The motto of St. Katherine College is inquiry seeking wisdom. This presupposes a desire for wisdom, not just knowledge, context, not just fact. It is the motto for seekers of truth, unafraid of facts, exploring the dark and feared recesses of every human endeavor.

Always, however, seeking wisdom.

Written by Fr. John Peck

Fr. John Peck is the author of “Called To Serve – a basic Bible Survey” with both Student and Leader Manuals. His published works include: Orthodox Study Bible: Old Testament commentary (Hosea, Song of Songs, III Maccabees), “The Orthodox Church of Tomorrow” and “Divine Liturgy – A Student Study Text”. He has developed children’s education programs including, “Bible Drill” “Bible Diva” and “SWAT”. *He received his bachelors degree from Michigan State University and attended St. Herman Orthodox Theological Seminary in Alaska. He completed M.P.A. coursework at So. Illinois University- Carbondale. He also holds the title of D.Min. Veritas Theological Seminary. *He is the Director of The Preachers Institute (preachersinstitute.com) and President of Journey To Orthodoxy, the Welcome Home Network (journeytoorthodoxy.com) *Fr. John and his wife Deborah have three sons. He is the pastor of St. George Orthodox Church in Prescott Arizona.