1.2—Why School? Why the Humanities? (8 min video)

Transcript

_{The following transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors in spelling and/or grammar. It is provided for assistance in note-taking and review.}

Well, if you and I were actually in the same room right now and we could actually communicate and talk to each other, I would do with you what I do with every single one of my history students whenever we begin a year’s study of history. I would do what’s called the Socratic method, where I would ask you a series of questions, and I would wait for your answers, and I would keep asking you questions based upon your answers.

In other words, I’ll try to do a little bit here, kind of on a one-sided approach. In other words, let’s begin with the question of why are we studying American history? Now, of course, I could just try to answer that right now, but what’s the fun in that? If we’re going to answer that, we really need to answer the question, okay, why are we studying history? I mean, why the study of dates and dead people in the first place? But of course, before we can answer even that question, we have to ask ourselves the question, OK, why do we study the humanities? Why do we study these things like history, English, art, various languages, and so forth? I mean, why do we spend all our time doing that? And of course, we won’t answer that. You have to ask yourself the question, OK, why school? Why is it that I spend so many years poring over books, poring over textbooks, answering questions, doing assignments, making projects, trying to earn this credit or that credit?

Why do we do all that? Why is that necessary? Why is that required? And of course if you want to answer that question, you really have to ask yourself the question, “Well, why is it that we actually live?” “Why is it that we actually live and move and have our being in this actual world?” That’s really where we have to start, funnily enough, in order to answer the question, “Why do we do American history?” And there’s a reason for this, because God has made us to do that. I mean, the primary reason why we live, the primary reason why we have this life, is first of all for God’s glory. I mean, He made us not because He needed to. He made us not because He was somehow incomplete. He simply made us because He wanted to. We were made for His pleasure, and we’re entirely unnecessary. And that’s really the best thing about us. We were made simply because we have a God who is so incredible, who is so infinite and who is so amazing that it delighted him to create us.

It delighted him to create a universe as vast as it is, a universe that is seemingly endless as it is, as well as a universe that is microscopically awe-inspiring.

It’s microscopically incredible when you look at how detailed the world goes, both if you look out at the stars and if you look under the lens of a microscope at a cell.

And so, that really is our chief end. In fact, the chief end, as the Confession says, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That, in and of itself, is the actual purpose of life. In fact, even the Greeks understood this in a way. The Greeks had an interesting story. It was about what the gods made after they had created all the things of the universe, all the things of the world, created mankind and so forth.

they realized there was just one thing missing. There was no one to actually praise what had been made. So the story goes, they made nine muses, these nine beautiful women who oversaw various arts like comedy or drama or music or poetry, for example.

And each of these muses who practiced one of these arts, the whole purpose was to praise and to give thanks for what has actually been made.

If you think about it, the humanities, The whole thing, things like poetry, things like music, things like dance, things like drama and comedy, for example, these things, you could argue, really aren’t necessary for our survival. They don’t provide food, they don’t provide shelter, they don’t provide clothing, they don’t provide warmth. They’re simply there, it would seem, to adorn. They’re simply there to adorn what has been made. But you and I know as believers that we were made to actually praise an infinite creator. A creator who is completely above his creation, but who has also miraculously been completely involved in his creation. In fact, has been so involved that he actually became a part of his creation when he became man and yet somehow was still God and above it at the same time.

That’s the miracle and the great paradox and the great mystery of the incarnation. And that is something that should inspire both praise and thanks in us. And so we want to praise that whether it be through a beautiful painting, whether it be through a lovely song of great complexity but is also easily able to be sung, or whether it be through a wonderful piece of poetry.

We do those things because we have true thanksgiving and true praise. In fact, it’s something that you’ll see in your reader that J.R.R. Tolkien spoke about. He understood that the whole purpose of man is to give praise and thanks for what has been made. In fact, the Greeks, once again, and the Romans understood this at least in a basic idea. When they talked about school, they called it “scholae.” So we can talk about this section, by the way, in your notes, you can call this “Why School?” But the Greeks called it “scholae,” the Romans called it “ludus,” and “scholae,” which we we do get the word school from, and ludus also essentially meant school. What’s curious about both of those words is while they both meant school, and they both meant something like learning or education as well, they also both meant play.

And they also both meant rest. In other words, the Greeks and the Romans, like we believers should have, had a worldview that said that when you learn something, even if you can’t immediately apply it to some practical skill like feeding or clothing or sheltering yourself. That when you learn certain things, sometimes they’re just worth learning because they reflect who our God is and they show how he has actually made his world. And so something like history or something like the humanities, they show us how God has adorned his world. After all, he didn’t make a world that is plain and simple. He made a world that is beautiful and complex. In fact, one of the great marvels of studying science is that you see how marvelous and how complex it is. Whether you be studying geology, astronomy, botany, or biology, it doesn’t really matter. You begin to explore what a wonderful and what a beautiful creation our God has actually made. And so when you look at the humanities, for example, which takes us into history, which is one of the arts of the humanities, it really shows us what has been achieved by mankind throughout the ages, despite the fact that he’s fallen, but also affirming the fact that he’s made in God’s image. And because we’re made in God’s image, who is a creator, we also want to create. In fact, to use another one of Tolkien’s quotes, we sub-create. We take what God has already made, and we make it into new artworks. We make it into new buildings. We make it into new states. We make it into new literature and etc. All of those things we do, they actually show what it means to be human. They actually show us what it means to practice the humanities because it reveals that we are a people who desire to praise and who desire to give thanksgiving to a glorious God.

That is what we were made to do. And that really is the key to understanding why we have life, to understanding why we do school. It’s meant to provide thanks and praise for you. It’s meant to have you marvel at what God has done. Yes, it’s difficult. Yes, some of your subjects are harder than others. But all of those things reveal that we have a God who thinks in incredible ways and who has revealed himself to us, primarily through the scriptures, but also through his world.

Keep those things in mind as we go into future lessons.