When we look to the past, we can see that the ancient model of education from Greek and Roman civilization was inherited by the Christian civilization of the West. First, in the monasteries and cathedral schools, and then in the new universities, education continued in the timeless pattern. Indeed, the early Christians incorporated, transformed, and carried forward into the Church and civil society all the rich heritage of the classical world.

Through the centuries there developed a distinctive culture shaped from the Christian perspective. All of life was seen and understood in relation to God, in a comprehensive worldview that has come to be known as Christian humanism. Intellectual and artistic life in particular flourished in this context, for the life of the mind proceeded freely on the basis of accepted truth. Belief in the Creator implied that the created world was ordered and intelligible, and therefore worth studying closely. Here is the origin of the physical sciences as we know them today.

Classical education values this history as its firm foundation and seeks to build upon it. In the first place, then, we need to know our own history. At Saint Augustine’s Academy, the language, literature, art, philosophy, all the cultural heritage of Western Civilization, is taught and reinforced across the entire curriculum. In the second place, this heritage provides the basis and the impetus for new learning. It is both the starting point and the reference point for lasting achievement and cultural renewal.

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