ACCS conference notes, part 1 (of 5)

Envy is the enemy inside the camp, anticipatory apologetics for the scientific mind, a STEM without roots dies

Hi all. Many of us are presently down on the northern edge of Atlanta for the yearly conference of the Association of Classical Christian Schools.

Last year I posted my quick notes from the conference, and although they are a little scattered, some folks apparently found that helpful - just what are those classical school teachers thinking about right now, anyway? So I thought I’d do that again, probably in five parts just to keep these posts of manageable length. If you don’t care, just delete the next five emails you get, thank you.

Douglas Wilson, "Rene Girard, St. Anselm, and the Crackle of Envy"

It is impossible to fight a culture war if you don't have a culture. That's why organizations like ACCS exist. We must first have our own culture.

"If you are not on a war footing today, it's because you don't care."

The deadliest cultural disease is envy. Envy is the enemy inside the camp. Girard and Anselm both have helpful thoughts per envy.

Wilson debated Christopher Hitchens a while back, and there were two subjects that always set him off. One, the fatherhood of God, which he found suffocating. Two, substitutionary atonement, which he understood as the heart of the Christian faith.

There have historically been several theologies of the atonement. And they don't have to be set in opposition to each other. There is Biblical support for all three.

First, and most importantly because it is the center, Anselm helped develop a substitutionary atonement theology. Christ died as a penal substitute. This is Christ in his priestly role.

Second, Abelard preached that Christ died as an example for us to follow. That is inadequate by itself, but that is part of the Biblical message. This is Christ in his role as prophet.

Third, the Christus Victor theology, Christ triumphs over the devil and his angels. This is Christ in his role as king.

Girard is all about mimetic desire (perhaps too much - when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail). But he is immensely helpful. Wilson has taken to saying around the home, when he sees conflict, "it's all in Girard, man".

There are two kinds of desire.

1. Creational - desires you have because you are a creature. Thirst, hunger, etc.

2. Social - invisible lines running to all your neighbors. You want what you neighbors also have.

Conflict arises when you and your model converge on something (you can't both marry that girl, for example). This is the source of many "inexplicable" conflicts in life. "You desire and cannot have."

Even toddlers grab for that which has the greatest value. Put 20 identical toys in a room, toddler is holding one. Introduce a new toddler into that same room, and he wants just that one held by the first toddler. That the first toddler is holding it makes it the most valuable. (And if original toddler was about to give it up, if he sees someone else now wants it, now he wants to keep it. That someone else wants it makes it valuable.)

The whole world is after that three seconds of being on top.

The tension produced by all this desire will build up in any institution. How do you contradict it?

First of all, mortify the ache in your own heart.

Second, portray Jesus before your people. The crowds turned Jesus over out of envy. They wanted to be like him... not in the good ways, but they wanted a following, they wanted to work miracles.

The substitutionary death of Jesus mutes the danger of envy.

Modern evangelism often fails at this, it's more like recruiting. But good evangelists have understood you must preach "come die with Christ". Everyone dying daily is the only thing that will protect your school.

God has blessed classical Christian education of late, so we must be careful. "Faithfulness beget prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother." ~Cotton Mather

We are not just bringing the gospel to people by ones and twosies. Lots of good evangelicals want to stop there. Propitiatory sacrifice also disrupts the way of the world.

It cuts off the power that makes the machinery of Satan work. It makes you a good kind of cultural disrupter.

This makes your school a true alternative. It makes you more than just nice people. It produces holiness by grace.

Q&A

Wilson is asked, what things should good schools be wary of right now?

The desire for respectability. The world will tease you with it, and use it to control you, but you will never get it.

What are the 3 most important extra-Biblical texts?

1. Pilgrim's Progress.

2. George Herbert, The Temple. Best devotional poetry in the English language.

3. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters. An antidote to those who want to read literature "seriously".

How would you define culture?

"Culture is religion externalized."

George Grant, "Modern Apologetics for Scientific Skeptics: The Astronomical Discourses"

Talk was about Thomas Chalmers "The Astronomical Discourses", and my main takeaway was that I should get a copy.

This collection of seven talks was briefly the best-selling book in the English language. Chalmers refuted the idea that advances in modern astronomy made Christianity obsolete. He especially confronted the claims that Christianity is a religion designed for the single benefit of this world, and that God would not create a religion that cared so much for one world.

He discoursed on immensity, excogitation and the need for scientific humility, implausibility, exclusivity, immanency, and effectuality. Most importantly, it was an anticipatory apologetic, and this is what we need to be doing today. You have to be well-studied in order to do this. [Was telling someone yesterday that even in a classical Christian school, the most important factor in teaching science well is just knowing the science well.]

He advocated for reminding people that science was largely birthed out of Christianity, remind scientists where they came from. Part of the work of apologetics is remembering. Humility is the heart and soul of scientific progress. "I don't know, let's find out."

Love what you love in front of your students.

Kevin Roberts, "The Children of Hope: Augustine and Anselm"

Despite the title, this was mainly a pep talk from the president of Heritage for classical teachers, "what you are doing is our best chance to save the West".

Started off with a quotation from scripture, then said "now you can also call home tonight and say you met a Roman Catholic who quotes scripture." :)

Also said he wanted to make it easy for the FBI. "I am a parental rights extremist." Said he also attends the TLM. And he's speaking at a classical education conference. My goodness, he must be on every list.

But the heart of the problem today is not actually parental rights, though those are important. The problem is that our schools have become assembly lines meant to shape obedient little comrades.

His talk was themed around a line attributed to Augustine. "Hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage. Anger for the way things are, and courage to make them better."

Even many conservatives have bought the lie that education must be "useful", that the point of school is to get a job. No, we're shaping souls. An emphasis on utilitarianism means abandoning our heritage.

STEM is good, but a stem without roots dies.

We may not have wanted politics, but politics has come to us. But he is actually optimistic for the future.

There is a movement now to teach Western Civ in higher ed. We are finally building the parallel institutions we need.

Around 13% of students are now not attending government schools. Around 700,000 are now enrolled in classical schools.

In 2023, 8 states adopted universal school choice through a better mechanism, education savings accounts. Just yesterday, Louisiana did the same. Courage is contagious.

School choice invites parents who otherwise aren't paying attention to notice that there is an alternative.

[Shared some depressing statistics.] We're raising a generation of young people who believe in nothing, will work for nothing, and don't want to have children. We're raising young people without hope.

Classical education produces hope. We can raise a generation that knows how to receive the gift Christ gave us: eternal life.

Augustine also said, believe so that you may understand. Classical schools are operating from that framework today. Augustine lived a very long time ago. You don't know how long the impact of what you do will last.

Our current system of godless technical education will not last.

We need another Great Awakening to solve this, but we might be on the cusp of one. A lot of people have woken up over the last 5-7 years.

Q&A: When will we eliminate the Dept of Education? It could be abolished in the next decade. Trump needs to appoint someone who understands his job is to begin devolving power back to the states. The potential for success is actually high if we can start soon.

THE END

---