Saturday, February 23, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
One Scandal of Modern Education
When a man is born blind, like Bartimeaus in the Bible, he cannot know what he has never seen. When a child grows up into a culture that has dumbed him down, educationally, he cannot know what he has not learned and does not know. That is until he has been given "eyes to see."
I was given "eyes to see" about 20 years ago when I read the presentation of a now deceased Christian writer, thinker, and teacher, Dorothy Sayers. Her lecture, The Lost Tools of Learning, was presented at Oxford University in 1947. It has become the catalyst for the recovery of a philosophy and methodology known as Classical Christian education.
It seeks to restore, generationally, a mind and method that trained our founding fathers, for example, and contributed to the flowering of western civilization.
Below I have reproduced a quoted from her essay that powerfully demonstrates, in part (imho), what we have lost.
If this wets your appetite for more, email me at the perrycog2000@yahoo.com and request the complete transcript of her lecture. It is well worth the time to read.
Perry
"For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. We who were scandalized in 1940 when men were sent to fight armored tanks with rifles, are not scandalized when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed propaganda with a smattering of "subjects"; and when whole classes and whole nations become hypnotized by the arts of the spell binder, we have the impudence to be astonished. We dole out lip-service to the importance of education--lip- service and, just occasionally, a little grant of money; we postpone the school-leaving age, and plan to build bigger and better schools; the teachers slave conscientiously in and out of school hours; and yet, as I believe, all this devoted effort is largely frustrated, because we have lost the tools of learning, and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal job of it."
Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning, Oxford, 1947
I was given "eyes to see" about 20 years ago when I read the presentation of a now deceased Christian writer, thinker, and teacher, Dorothy Sayers. Her lecture, The Lost Tools of Learning, was presented at Oxford University in 1947. It has become the catalyst for the recovery of a philosophy and methodology known as Classical Christian education.
It seeks to restore, generationally, a mind and method that trained our founding fathers, for example, and contributed to the flowering of western civilization.
Below I have reproduced a quoted from her essay that powerfully demonstrates, in part (imho), what we have lost.
If this wets your appetite for more, email me at the perrycog2000@yahoo.com and request the complete transcript of her lecture. It is well worth the time to read.
Perry
"For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. We who were scandalized in 1940 when men were sent to fight armored tanks with rifles, are not scandalized when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed propaganda with a smattering of "subjects"; and when whole classes and whole nations become hypnotized by the arts of the spell binder, we have the impudence to be astonished. We dole out lip-service to the importance of education--lip- service and, just occasionally, a little grant of money; we postpone the school-leaving age, and plan to build bigger and better schools; the teachers slave conscientiously in and out of school hours; and yet, as I believe, all this devoted effort is largely frustrated, because we have lost the tools of learning, and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal job of it."
Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning, Oxford, 1947
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Behold, what the Father hath bestowed upon us
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God."—1 John 3:1,2.
BEHOLD, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Consider who we were, and what we feel ourselves to be even now when corruption is powerful in us, and you will wonder at our adoption. Yet we are called "the sons of God." What a high relationship is that of a son, and what privileges it brings! What care and tenderness the son expects from his father, and what love the father feels towards the son! But all that, and more than that, we now have through Christ. As for the temporary drawback of suffering with the elder brother, this we accept as an honour: "Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." We are content to be unknown with Him in His humiliation, for we are to be exalted with Him. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." That is easy to read, but it is not so easy to feel. How is it with your heart this morning? Are you in the lowest depths of sorrow? Does corruption rise within your spirit, and grace seem like a poor spark trampled under foot? Does your faith almost fail you? Fear not, it is neither your graces nor feelings on which you are to live: you must live simply by faith on Christ. With all these things against us, now—in the very depths of our sorrow, wherever we may be—now, as much in the valley as on the mountain, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." "Ah, but," you say, "see how I am arrayed! my graces are not bright; my righteousness does not shine with apparent glory." But read the next: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." The Holy Spirit shall purify our minds, and divine power shall refine our bodies, then shall we see Him as He is.
Charles Spurgeon
BEHOLD, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Consider who we were, and what we feel ourselves to be even now when corruption is powerful in us, and you will wonder at our adoption. Yet we are called "the sons of God." What a high relationship is that of a son, and what privileges it brings! What care and tenderness the son expects from his father, and what love the father feels towards the son! But all that, and more than that, we now have through Christ. As for the temporary drawback of suffering with the elder brother, this we accept as an honour: "Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." We are content to be unknown with Him in His humiliation, for we are to be exalted with Him. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." That is easy to read, but it is not so easy to feel. How is it with your heart this morning? Are you in the lowest depths of sorrow? Does corruption rise within your spirit, and grace seem like a poor spark trampled under foot? Does your faith almost fail you? Fear not, it is neither your graces nor feelings on which you are to live: you must live simply by faith on Christ. With all these things against us, now—in the very depths of our sorrow, wherever we may be—now, as much in the valley as on the mountain, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." "Ah, but," you say, "see how I am arrayed! my graces are not bright; my righteousness does not shine with apparent glory." But read the next: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." The Holy Spirit shall purify our minds, and divine power shall refine our bodies, then shall we see Him as He is.
Charles Spurgeon
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Recovering the Evangelical church
Understanding the covenantal relation that we have with God and one another will keep us from the "me and Jesus" individualism that has so affected evangelicalism.A s Chalmers observes below "...our salvation (is) in the form of a covenant..." It defines (or should) our relation with Him and "...each other...." It is a fundamental reason that we must be members of a community of covenant people. The relation God established is IN community NOT apart from it.
"OUR Father who art in heaven..." is pregnant with implications. One of which is this: we NEED each other and must not neglect one another by way of fellowship or service, or ignore the counsel of one another, be it an elder or a member (Gal. 6:1).
blessings,
Perry
"We do not often enough contemplate our salvation in the form of a covenant—yet, it is so represented in Scripture. From the beginning of God's dealings with men, covenant is set forth as the relation in which He and the people who are peculiarly His own are made to stand with each other. It is well for us to look more upon this, to dwell more on this—the very condition and state of the matter between Christians and our God—so that instead of the vague and loose and general views that take no real or practical hold of a man, we are able to precisely and distinctly understand the things which the great God of Heaven and Earth has bound Himself to do for us, and to what, on the other hand, He has bound us. Instead of this faith of ours floating before the eye of our mind in the form of a slight, shapeless, shadowy imagination, we can clearly apprehend it as an express and definite plan, both of what God is engaged by promise to do for us, and to what we are engaged by promise in return. Comprehending this covenantal overture of mercy is the means by which we may know the greatness of an amazing grace." Thomas Chalmers, 1847
"OUR Father who art in heaven..." is pregnant with implications. One of which is this: we NEED each other and must not neglect one another by way of fellowship or service, or ignore the counsel of one another, be it an elder or a member (Gal. 6:1).
blessings,
Perry
"We do not often enough contemplate our salvation in the form of a covenant—yet, it is so represented in Scripture. From the beginning of God's dealings with men, covenant is set forth as the relation in which He and the people who are peculiarly His own are made to stand with each other. It is well for us to look more upon this, to dwell more on this—the very condition and state of the matter between Christians and our God—so that instead of the vague and loose and general views that take no real or practical hold of a man, we are able to precisely and distinctly understand the things which the great God of Heaven and Earth has bound Himself to do for us, and to what, on the other hand, He has bound us. Instead of this faith of ours floating before the eye of our mind in the form of a slight, shapeless, shadowy imagination, we can clearly apprehend it as an express and definite plan, both of what God is engaged by promise to do for us, and to what we are engaged by promise in return. Comprehending this covenantal overture of mercy is the means by which we may know the greatness of an amazing grace." Thomas Chalmers, 1847
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Adversity
"Our blessings rarely arrest our attentions. Our adversities almost always do."
Tristan Gylberd
"Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is 'yes'? The fact is, I don't think that God particularly wants us to be happy. I think He wants us to love and be loved. He wants us to grow up. You see, we are like children who think that our toys bring us all the happiness there is, and that our nursery is the whole wide world. But something has to drive us out into the world of others, and that thing is suffering. Put simply, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. We are like blocks of stone from which the Sculptor carves a form. The blows of His chisel which hurt us so much are what make us perfect." C.S. Lewis
Tristan Gylberd
"Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is 'yes'? The fact is, I don't think that God particularly wants us to be happy. I think He wants us to love and be loved. He wants us to grow up. You see, we are like children who think that our toys bring us all the happiness there is, and that our nursery is the whole wide world. But something has to drive us out into the world of others, and that thing is suffering. Put simply, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. We are like blocks of stone from which the Sculptor carves a form. The blows of His chisel which hurt us so much are what make us perfect." C.S. Lewis
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