Tag: Jesus

Embrace the Cross: An Easter Vigil Homily

The beautiful and the grotesque, when considered together are the essence not only of our human existence, but of all created reality. In some ways, aesthetics is in the eye of the beholder. What one considers beautiful differs from what another would hold up as an example of beauty. We share with each other both the beautiful and the grotesque. “Come here and see the beautiful sunset,” one might say to a spouse. “Smell this, has it gone bad?” is yet another phrase shared between husband and wife. The Beautiful and the Grotesque How do we value beauty? What does

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Renaissance Children: How Our View of Children Shapes Our Educational Aims

Perhaps no figure in Twentieth century America captured the idealization of childhood innocence better than Norman Rockwell. His paintings, appearing regularly on The Saturday Evening Post, often included children who evoked an innocence untouched by hard realities that grown ups experienced through the Great Depression and two World Wars. Consider the painting Marble Champion. This 1939 piece features three children, one girl and two boys. It is painted in such a way that one only sees the children and the marbles. There is no physical context given. The viewer is drawn into a world solely inhabited by children at play.

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The Advent of Christ as an Act of Teaching

The advent season is upon us and this blog post will explore how advent expresses God’s educational heart for humanity. You are likely familiar with the following stanza: O come! O come! Emmanuel! And ransom captive Israel; That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear. This hymn speaks both to the longing we all have to be reached by God and to the manner in which he reaches us: through his Son, Jesus Christ. So the first point to establish is more than just a theological dogma, but a profound existential reality. We are limited people

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Christianity, a Superior Philosophy: Book Review of Jonathan T. Pennington’s Jesus the Great Philosopher, Part 2

In the previous article in this two-part review of Jonathan Pennington’s book Jesus the Great Philosopher, I spelled out the first two sections of his book dealing with the ancient philosophers (chapters 1 and 2) and then the Old and New Testaments (chapters 3 and 4). Here I will dive into the final three sections on emotions, relationships and the flourishing life. In each of these sections, Pennington provides insights that help us understand better the nature of our roles as teachers to educate formationally the students given into our care. The thesis that emerges through my review is a

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Bloch Sermon on the Mount

A Synthesis of Ancient and Biblical Wisdom: Book Review of Jonathan T. Pennington’s Jesus the Great Philosopher, Part 1

If you attended the Society for Classical Learning conference this past summer in Charleston, South Carolina, you may have attended the plenary session with Jonathan T. Pennington. He presented on “Jesus the Classical Educator.” The presentation was drawn from his new book Jesus the Great Philosopher. I think this is a really important book that classical educators need to read and grapple with. In this and the following post I will review the book and lay out several of the ideas that we well worth your attention. But first, a disclaimer. I am not an unbiased reader. Jonathan is a

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Training the Prophetic Voice, Part 4: Jesus as Prophetic Trainer

In my ongoing series on training the prophetic voice, we have looked at several biblical and theological aspects of what it means to speak with a prophetic voice. We have seen how speaking truth is the heart of the prophetic voice, and that God himself is the theological grounding of our conception of truth-speaking. In my last article, I developed the concept of the schools of the prophets in the Old Testament. The master prophets not only spoke truth to power, but they cultivated the prophetic voice among their disciples. In today’s article, we will explore how Jesus founded a

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temple wall in Jerusalem

Jesus the Ideal Learner: Priestly Lessons for Education

 In a previous article on Jesus’ student-teacher relationship with John the Baptist, we mentioned that there is so much that can be learned about education from Jesus’ example. The mystery of the incarnation is packed with significance for the process of learning, human maturation and discipleship. As it says in Hebrews, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb 5:8-9 ESV) The idea that Jesus “learned obedience

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