Why Luther Believed Christians Should Study the Liberal Arts

What lies at the core of an authentically Christian education? Bible classes, faithful teachers, chapel services, certainly. How about the liberal arts? For many parents of faith, they aren’t so sure. After all, the liberal arts aren’t necessary for coming to faith or remaining in the fold. And in 2019, with a diversified economy, the increase in demand for STEM degrees, and the rising cost of higher education, the liberal arts don’t appear necessary for a successful career either. So what gives? Should Christian parents really care that much about ensuring their children receive a Christ-centered liberal arts education?

As a new parent myself, I have learned how common it is for parents to consult relevant authorities on all their parenting questions. Whatever the parenting question maybe, there’s an answer out there… written by someone… somewhere. Parents might start by googling their questions. Others text their parents or friends. Still others turn to a trusted book or blog that has proven helpful in the past.

In this blog article, I want to do something somewhat counterintuitive to us living in late modernity: look for wisdom from the distant past. The question I’ll seek to answer is about Christian education and the liberal arts. What is a liberal arts education and why is it important for Christians today? To answer this question, I’ll take a close look at a letter the great reformer Martin Luther penned to German political leaders, advocating for nothing less than a Christ-centered liberal arts education for German school children living five hundred years ago. 

Luther and the Liberal Arts

As a monk and professor living during the late Middle Ages, it isn’t much of a surprise that Luther would be familiar with the liberal arts tradition. After all, as a member of the teaching faculty at the University of Wittenburg, he himself received a liberal arts education, particularly in the Renaissance Humanism vein. In fact, the Ninety-Five Theses he allegedly nailed onto the castle door in Wittenburg that fateful autumn day in 1517 were nothing other than a proposal to engage in disputation, or formal debate, over the church practice of selling indulgences. Disputations during the medieval era were a call to arms to pick up one’s intellectual weaponry (e.g. the liberal arts) in order to fiercely debate and discern the truth on a complex or difficult question. Luther was no stranger to this kind of debate nor the weapons necessary to secure a victory.

So what is the surprise regarding Luther and the liberal arts? Despite caricatures of Luther’s life and work as being solely focused on his reformation efforts, what isn’t as well known is that Luther maintained a lifelong commitment to the value of education in society, particularly a Christ-centered liberal arts education. This is perhaps no better illustrated than through a letter he wrote to German political leaders in 1524, just seven years after the reformation in Germany began. In this letter, Luther laments the fact that across the country, schools, universities, and monasteries were on the decline. German families, having been liberated from the Roman Catholic polity, no longer were obligated to educate their children for admission to the monastery. 

Consequently, parents neglected to send their children to day school altogether and instead kept them home to hone practical skills for future employment and to help around the home. This abandonment of education was a travesty for Luther, who, as I mentioned, was a university professor and fierce advocate for cultivating the life of the mind. So in the remainder of the letter, he casts a rich vision for the purpose of education and provides practical guidance for what schools in Germany should prioritize in the education of future generations.

Luther’s Educational Philosophy

One of Luther’s key arguments for bolstering the educational efforts in Germany was that western Europe had been undergoing a resurgence in education supported by Renaissance Humanism. Not to be confused with secularized forms of humanism today, Renaissance Humanism was an intellectual movement in the late Middle Ages that explored the vast potential of human beings as creatures made in the image of God. Integrating biblical truth with insights from history, literature, and philosophy, humanists sought to push the limits of both knowledge and societal reform. The educational curriculum they proposed to fulfill this vision was comprised of certain core subjects, including the seven liberal arts, ancient languages, the classic Greek authors (Homer, Plato, Aristotle, etc.), Roman authors (Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, Horace, etc.), the early church fathers (e.g. Basil, Chrysostom, and Augustine), and the Bible. Those who went on to truly master this full scope of literature were referred to as humanists (Exploring the History and Philosophy of Christian Education, Michael J. Anthony & Warren S. Benson, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 171).

With this educational backdrop in mind, Luther writes,

“We have today the finest and most learned group of men, adorned with languages and all the arts, who could also render real service if only we would make use of them as instructors of the young people. Is it not evident that we are now able to prepare a boy in three years, so that at the age of fifteen or eighteen he will know more than all the universities and monasteries have known before? Indeed, what have men been learning til now in the universities and monasteries except to become asses, blockheads, and numbskulls? For twenty, even forty, years, they poured over their books, and still failed to master either Latin or German, to say nothing of the scandalous and immoral life in which many a fine young fellow was shamefully corrupted…. Now that God has so richly blessed us, however, and provided us with so many men able to instruct and train our youth aright, it is surely imperative that we not throw his blessings to the winds and let him knock in vain.”

Martin Luther, “To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools” in Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2005), ed. Timothy F. Lull, 463.

In this excerpt, Luther simultaneously criticizes scholasticism, the philosophical paradigm of the high Middle Ages, and praises humanism, the philosophy of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance era. Highlighting the advances in human thought that gave rise to the movement, particularly in the language arts, Luther insists that school children ought to receive this education due to its capacity to form students both intellectually and morally. Intellectually, the humanistic expertise on the classics was key for mining the wisdom of classical authors and equipping their students to do so as well. After all, as John Milton Gregory emphasizes in Seven Laws, you can’t teach what you don’t know yourself! And morally, the classical emphasis on pursuing wisdom and cultivating virtues is key for keeping at the forefront the reality that students are not disembodied minds, but persons with real moral agency.

Liberal Arts, STEM, and Human Flourishing

But Luther’s argument for a resurgence in a liberal arts education goes beyond the benefit of the individual lives of the students. He envisions society as a whole benefiting from this sort of education. Later in the letter, Luther writes,

“Now the welfare of a city does not consist solely in accumulating vast treasures, building mighty walls and magnificent buildings, and producing a goodly supply of guns and armor…. A city’s best and greatest welfare, safety, and strength consist rather in its having many able, learned, wise, honorable, and well-educated citizens. They can then readily gather, protect, and properly use treasure and all manner of property.”

Martin Luther, “To the Councilmen of All Cities,” 465.

Here we can see Luther make the crucial connection between education and society, between moral formation and human flourishing. You cannot have one without the other. Perhaps this is part of the problem in our nation today. In seeking the good of the city, what Luther calls “welfare,” modern education has myopically focused on the development of technological prowess at the expense of moral and spiritual formation. This correlates with the steep rise in demand for STEM college degrees (science, technology, engineering, and math), which are certainly necessary for the flourishing of any society as it seeks to steward its natural and technological resources effectively.

But we must not forget, as Luther cautions us here, that the greatest asset of any society is not its physical infrastructures or technological developments, but the minds, hearts, and souls of its members. And the tried and true method for cultivating the intellectual, moral, and spiritual capacities in a person is the liberal arts tradition. Through equipping students to be exceptionally literate, charitable thinkers, careful reasoners, cogent writers, and eloquent speakers, they are prepared to navigate the complex questions that late modern era brings to bear on us all: Who am I? Why do I exist? Does God exist? How do we know? What is truth and where can it be found? How do I lead a fulfilling life? What are the benefits and perils unlocked by technology? 

For a person to flourish on the individual level, and society to flourish on a community level, educators must provide students with the tools to answer these questions. Only after this moral foundation is laid securely can questions regarding profession and career be asked and answered most wisely and effectively.

Luther’s Curriculum

So what specifically would Luther recommend when it comes his Christ-centered liberal arts education? He closes his letter with a specific prescription:

“First of all, there would be the Holy Scriptures, in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and German, and any other language in which they might be found. Next, the best commentaries, and, if I could find them, the most ancient in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Then, books that would be helpful in learning the languages, such as the poets and orators, regardless of whether they were pagan or Christian, Greek or Latin, for it is from such books that one must learn grammar [note: by ‘grammar’ Luther is referring to the liberal art of grammar: vocabulary, reading, interpretation, and creative expression]. After that would come books on the liberal arts and all the other arts. Finally, there would be books of law and medicine; here too there should be careful choice among commentaries. Among the foremost would be the chronicles and histories, in whatever languages they are to be had. For they are wonderful help in understanding and guiding the course of events, and especially for observing the marvelous works of God.”

Martin Luther, “To the Councilmen of All Cities,” 477.

As you can see, Luther’s view of a robust Christian education doesn’t begin with practical skills that may be useful for a job one day. Nor is it reducible to an exclusive study of the Bible and Christian doctrine. Rather, Luther sees the long-term value in training students in the tools of learning, the liberal arts, so that they might go on to be wise and prudent students of the Bible and other fields of knowledge helpful for leading a flourishing life on earth. Through rigorous training in the liberal arts, including reading scripture in the original languages, Luther believes that families seeking to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord will bear much fruit.

His text-centric curriculum reminds me of a line from Charlotte Mason’s writings:

The teacher who allows his scholars the freedom of the city of books is at liberty to be their guide, philosopher and friend; and is no longer the mere instrument of forcible intellectual feeding.

Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, Seven Treasures Publications (2009), 23.

I can’t help but think that Luther would agree. In a true liberal arts education, the role of the teacher is to lead students to do the work of learning (side note: have you downloaded Jason’s eBook on narration yet?), utilizing the tools of learning, so that they can experience the joy and fulfillment of learning . She does this through, first and foremost, putting books before her students that will stimulate the imagination and captivate the heart. Luther, in his own way, highlights this reality through his emphasis that the right books be chosen and that they be taught by the right teachers, namely, ones who share a delight in the chosen texts and are trained in the art of interpreting them properly.

Conclusion

So back to my original question: What lies at the core of an authentically Christian education? There are all sorts of answers to the question, and parents and educators alike may ultimately disagree on their final answer. But if you were to ask a learned German pastor who lived five hundred years ago, the answer is clear: a Christ-centered liberal arts education that prepares its students to interpret scripture, read widely, think deeply, and live wisely all in service to Jesus Christ. And although Martin Luther lived in a different time and different place, with many different assumptions about the same world we inhabit today, I would suggest that it is precisely a thinker like him that will most helpfully challenge our own assumptions, expose our blindspots, and give us keen insights into how we are to educate our children for lifelong service to Christ in the twenty-first century.

Let us know your thoughts and responses in the comments!