In keeping with our 2017-18 school year theme, “Stand for Truth,” the tutorial-wide memory verse for the Advent season was John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
In a beautifully written essay titled “Beauty is Truth: Faith and Aesthetics,” Joseph Pearce writes about Christ’s incarnation, and the way that truth is incarnate in Him. And for all our focus on truth this year, Pearce points out something that is important for us to remember as a classical community, which is that truth cannot be separated from goodness and beauty, because all three find their ultimate expression in the person of Jesus Christ:
For the Greeks, and for Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, the good, the true, and
the beautiful are inextricably entwined. And, for the Christian, they are not only
entwined but ultimately are one and the same thing: they are the Thing that is Christ. Jesus Christ is the answer to Pilate’s perennial question: quid est veritas? It is Christ Himself who is truth. And it is Christ who is also beauty and goodness.Christ is the very incarnation of the good, the true and the beautiful. He is these three things rolled into one. Truth is, therefore, trinitarian. It is one with the good and the beautiful.
This often-cited triumverate of goodness, truth, and beauty, also known as the Transcendentals, is central to the classical Christian education. As Pearce puts it, “Since, properly understood, they are synonymous with Christ, it can be seen that the good, the true, and the beautiful are the ends for which we strive.”
But we would do well to ponder how we, as broken human beings could ever craft an education that would truly show our students the good, the true, and the beautiful. What hope could we possibly have of accomplishing this?
Thankfully, Pearce does not leave us in despair of ever achieving these ends. He continues:
They [goodness, truth, and beauty] are, however, also the means by which we attain the end. Christ is not merely the truth and the life, he is the way. He is not only the end, He is the means. All that is good, all that is true and all that is beautiful have their source in Christ and lead us to Him.
Christ became man, walked the earth, and embodied the Transcendentals so that we do have some hope of understanding them, teaching them, and living them out by His grace. That is an incredible, burden-lifting, encouraging promise to hold on to as an educator. None of us can ever fully, perfectly show our students truth, goodness, and beauty. But we can point to Christ, and trust that he who is the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, will capture our students’ hearts, minds, and souls.
Aubry Myers is the Director of Classical Education at Granite Classical Tutorials.
True Ends 