As the college’s Steering Committee (now Board of Directors) considered what to name the institution, we looked to the past for an institution that matched our goals. The University of Aberdeen in Scotland is an institution that was founded in 1495 to prepare students for medicine, canon law, the arts, and theology — disciplines that we strongly want to celebrate. The University of Aberdeen remains a stalwart institution where many excellent, conservative Christian scholars, pastors, and theologians emerge.
From that institution, men like Horatius Bonar, the great hymnwriter, and Carl Trueman, a modern philosopher and theologian, have emerged. It is these types of faithful believers that our college wishes to cultivate and prepare for ministry.
We asked Rev. Nathan Trice, a veteran pastor in the OPC, to explain the role of classical education in his ministry. Here’s what Rev. Trice has to say:
“The Church Father Tertullian famously asked, ‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ I take up here a more narrow question: ‘What has classical education to do with ministry in the Church?’ Consider just the following:
The classically educated preacher has been exposed to some of the greatest rhetorical masterpieces of human history. In addition, then, to learning the basic principles of rhetoric and putting them into practice in the crafting of sermons, he has the advantage of having experienced the effect of good rhetoric on his own soul. He thus knows experientially what he is aiming for in his hearers as, ‘knowing the fear of the Lord,’ he seeks to ‘persuade others’ (2 Corinthians 5:11).
The classically educated pastor has been introduced to the great questions and existential struggles of the human race. In the literary classics of Western civilization he has found not only profound insight into human nature, but also the various alternatives to the Christian worldview which to this day are most compelling to his congregation. He is all the better able to ‘keep watch over their souls’ as a faithful shepherd (Hebrews 13:17).
And the classically educated churchman has been informed of the rise and progress of Christendom in the world. In the history of Western civilization he has found a record of the great conquests of the Christian Church, as well as the tragic setbacks suffered at the hands of her enemies from without and within. He is thus better able to lead the Church of today in its mission to ‘bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations’ (Romans 1:5; 16:26).
None of these benefits of a classical education are more basic to ministry in the Church than the graces and gifts of Christ. But they can be the means that the Spirit of Christ uses to better equip the preacher, pastor, and churchman for his noble task.”
Mr. Evan Kvale, a student at Covenant Theological Seminary and intern with the PCA Historical Society, writes how his education from high school through college prepared him to thrive in seminary.
“Classical education, such as that provided by New Aberdeen, is invaluable to the preparation for ministry, I have found. There are many reasons for this, but I will focus on just two.
“First, classical education through a Christian lens aims at directing the whole person to the true, good, and beautiful. In our current context, where you hear about the moral failings of major pastors every other day, we are in need of men who are well-rounded, virtuous, and love the truth. The liberal arts and classical education are focused on the formation of such men, rather than their information, as other educational philosophies.
“Second, classical education also connects you to a deep stream that flows back through centuries of Christian thought, because this is the education that Calvin, Augustine, and countless other magnificent theologians and pastors received. Open the Institutes or the City of God, and you will encounter Homer, Plato, Virgil, and Cicero. A robust classical education allows you to swim in those same waters.
“In a classical education, you are interacting with the greatest works created by mankind over the past three thousand years or so. This means that all of your reading must be critical–the student is confronted on every page by concepts that are foreign, and he must learn to evaluate what he reads, page by page. In a modern technical education, the readings are primarily to tell you what to think, not to expose you to what people have thought and to force you to figure out what you think. Critical reading like this does not come overnight, and a classical education does the best job at developing this skill.”
