From the Headmaster
The glory of God is man fully alive ~ Irenaeus
Welcome!
All education is teleological. Teleology is the study of the purpose and/or end goal of a thing. So to say that all education is teleological is simply to say that there is an ultimate purpose for education. That purpose: the glory of God, the joy of mankind, and the renewal of all things!
In ancient Greece and Rome, they understood the telos of education to be the cultivation of a virtuous humanity. Closely tied to virtue in antiquity was the concept of arete (pronounced: ar-ah-tay). Arete carried with it the idea of excellence and applied to animate and inanimate objects. If anything was of arete, it fulfilled its inherent function with excellence. When applied to human beings, it carried with it the notion of moral excellence while encompassing every facet of a human being’s life.
According to the biblical gospel, excellence begins with a human being trusting in Jesus as Savior and living under his lordship. In reality, human beings possess no “excellence” or “righteousness” apart from Jesus. Therefore, the implications of the gospel are foundational to our understanding of the human condition. Dutch scholar and philosopher Hans Rookmaaker observed, “Jesus did not come to make us Christians; Jesus came to make us fully human.” Simply put, Rookmaaker is stating that Jesus’s gift of salvation not only rescues humanity from the penalty of sin but also from its power. Consequently, Jesus restores our fallen humanity partially in this life and completely in the next. The second century church father Irenaeus once said, “The glory of God is man fully alive!” This captures well a more holistic view of God’s salvific work in Jesus and the ultimate goals of education. Namely, Jesus did not only come to rescue humanity from hell but to begin the process of making us excellent (arete) in this life—the kind of excellence that is aligned with God’s purposes for humanity in creation and redemption. So how does all this relate to the purpose of academics at The Geneva School?
Namely, the purpose of education is to become excellent human beings according to God’s definitions revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Education equips us to know and love God and to delight in the world he has made—every facet of it. Education should inform our intellect (head), rightly order our loves (heart), and equip us for service to God and neighbor (hands). Any approach to education that falls short of these goals is woefully misguided and has departed from a biblical view of education. Additionally, an excellent education enables us to know, embrace, and delight in that which is true, good, and beautiful. A “fully alive” education! Therefore, at The Geneva School, we seek to do “education on purpose” by solidly tethering ourselves to the liberal arts tradition: a tradition that has given birth to the modern resurgence of Christian classical schools in the United States and around the world.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Dr. Russ Kapusinsk
Headmaster
