Our new year is underway! We’re so thrilled to welcome back all of our returning families, students, and staff, and to greet all of the new members of our Immanuel community! We’re delighted to begin this new year together, and we look forward to seeing you at all of the back to school events over the coming weeks.
One of the things we look forward to discussing as a faculty and with our families in the coming year is the idea of habit building. We enjoyed the conversation around this topic at our First Friday Coffee, and we look forward to building upon this throughout the year.
Our monthly "What we're reading..." blog series is one of the ways we engage in this on-going conversation as we share a selection of articles. As we think about and work together at shaping and nurturing our culture together at school and at home, we hope that these articles may be inspiring, intriguing, encouraging, or thought-provoking, and that hopefully they will spark further conversations and dialogue.
Are there things that you have read that you think others in our community may enjoy? Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!
Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us!
Back to the Books - Hannah K. Grieser, The Classical Difference
“Anyone involved in classical education has probably heard people talk about the Great Books—the texts that helped form the foundations of Western civilization. Before they graduate, students in ACCS schools will have read many titles from that list—Hamlet, Beowulf, The Iliad, The Faerie Queene.
Familiarity with the great works of the Western canon can help young people develop a love for beautiful language, an ability to wrestle with complex themes, and a better grasp of the lives and ideas that shaped the culture they inhabit. These works are called “great” for a reason.
But with so many great books to read, and such a short time to read them, shouldn’t we consider giving them to kids sooner? These are smart elementary kids, after all. Surely if any grade schoolers could handle it, ours can?”
Sermon: Eighth Sunday After Trinity - Pastor Esget, Esgetology
“The Speaker of the House visited Taiwan last week. Her visit threatened to disrupt America’s official policy on Taiwan: strategic ambiguity. I think that’s what we have going on in our own lives, especially as Christianity intersects desire: strategic ambiguity. We’re partially but not fully committed to being disciples of Jesus. Christianity is good, but let’s not take it too far.
But God demands an end to our ambiguity. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” [James 4.4]. Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” [Rev. 3:15f].
We cannot be lukewarm. We cannot be friends with the world. We cannot be strategically ambiguous about following Jesus. It’s all or nothing.
“Sin is certainly not forgiven so that we should do it, but so that we should cease doing it. Otherwise it would be fairer to call it not ‘forgiveness of sin,’ but ‘permission to sin.’”
— Martin Luther
We heard last week about the radical dichotomy: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Gospel is the free gift of the forgiveness of sins. But make no mistake: you are not free to go on sinning. Luther put it this way: “Sin is certainly not forgiven so that we should do it, but so that we should cease doing it. Otherwise it would be fairer to call it not ‘forgiveness of sin,’ but ‘permission to sin’” [AE 78:269].”
Strengthening our Singing Voice - Mrs. Marie Greenway, Prelude to Postlude: CPH Music Blog
“The people of God sing throughout the Bible. The Israelites sang when they were delivered from the Egyptians (see Exodus 15). The women of Israel sang when Saul and his army—including David, who famously slew Goliath—came back from defeating the Philistines (see 1 Samuel 18:6–7). Singers were appointed in the house of the Lord in both the tabernacle and the temple. Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn after the Last Supper in the Upper Room (see Matthew 26:30). Not to mention all the instances of calls to sing in the Book of Psalms!
“Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!” (Psalm 96:1).
Clearly, singing is an important aspect of our lives, both sacred and secular. The singing voice is an integral aspect of the body and has claimed a rich place in every culture. Indeed, mankind has invented many wonderful instruments, but out of all the instruments, the human voice, which God created, was the first and is the most important.”
Trinity 13 - Pastor Noah Rogness, Rogness on Tap
“Think back to when you were a child. Were you brought up in the Christian faith? How were you taught to treat others? How about those who hurt or harmed you either physically or emotionally? Those who deserted you and left you in times of greatest need?
In line with the words of the lawyer in today’s Gospel, you were likely brought up to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Even those who meant harm to you. And this is a good and correct response. It reveals a complete fear, love, and trust in God, as we learned the meaning of the First Commandment this past week in our memory work. It is also a reflection of how the Proverb says a parent is to raise their child as we hear, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
But like the lawyer, we are interested in loopholes as we grow and mature in this life to adulthood. That is what the lawyer’s following question to Jesus is all about, finding a loophole. The lawyer asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?””
The Passive Life: God’s Gifts in a Frantic World - Stacey Egger, The Lutheran Witness
“Fortunately for us, Luther critiqued the tradition of the vita contemplativa, in which he was raised as a monk. Substituting it with the term vita passiva (“the passive/receptive life”), he described the Christian life in radically receptive terms.[5] Rather than a program of self-development, which uses God’s Word as one step in elevating one’s intellect until it ascends to communion with God, the passive life is receptive at every stage: It begins with a prayer to receive the Holy Spirit, then receives God through meditation on His external Word. In the vita passiva,“we do not make something of ourselves, God fashions and forms us.”[6]
Unlike the austere, solitary and methodical practice of the contemplative life, the vita passiva can be lived out in situations that look a little rougher around the edges — in fact, in any situation. For the Word who made the universe comes to us in the humblest and most common way: in words, words that can be muttered under our breath from memory in line at the grocery store, listened to on our phones on the drive to work, spoken to a suffering friend when we have no words of our own to say, read to a group of wiggling kids during some quiet two minutes of a chaotic day of vacation. These words work in us even when we do not understand them. Rather than asking us to reach Him through a contemplative ascent, God the great Giver goes even further and descends to us in a Word that remains with us no matter our circumstances.
We can trust that the Word is doing what it says. We need not seek internal marks that we are with God or at rest. In this way, compared to our culture, compared even to the advice of many Christian voices, we can radically receive; we are fully made and formed by the Word, even if we don’t see it. Even if we feel as frantic as ever.”
Classical Ed’s Counterinsurgency - Scott Yenor, Law & Liberty
“America’s education system is irreparably corrupt, and classical Christian education may be the only remedy. This is the central point of a new book, a New York Times Best Seller, co-authored by Pete Hegseth, a popular Fox News television host, and my friend, David Goodwin, president of the Association of Classical Christian Schools.
Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation is steeped in an ancient idea of education. Education is not simply about acquiring skills or learning geometry, for Hegseth and Goodwin. Education is instead paideia or education toward a particular way of life, through a system of honor and shame that shapes affections and teaches the young to value certain things over other things. Paideia, as they write, “is the closest thing to a real-world cultural ‘force’ that envelops an entire civilization but is so deeply hidden, it’s hard to see.” The titular “battle” is between the Western Christian Paideia (WCP) and an ever-developing American Progressive Paideia (APP). Our miseducation reflects a genuine regime change, a transformation in the kind of citizen honored and formed.
The book is partly a history of this regime change, and partly an inspirational guide about what to do about it.”
Why You Should Enjoy Being Perplexed - Elayne Allen, Public Discourse
“Being perplexed means allowing other people and ideas to change or move you at times. Perplexity doesn’t seek cheap or easy answers to serious questions. And it isn’t satisfied with momentary highs from oversimplified and triumphant assertions, but prefers the rewards of prolonged contemplation. Perplexity also turns its sights from the grotesque, and doesn’t abuse its objects for the sake of stimulation or entertainment.”
The Cost of Wisdom - William Goodwin, CIRCE
“Any teacher (or parent) worth their salt will want their students (or children) to be wise. In Christian circles, Solomon is often seen as the paragon and exemplar of wisdom. We have the story of Yahweh coming to Solomon in a dream and asking him what he would like. Solomon asks to be able to discern between good and evil, and so pleased with his answer, Yahweh grants him this—and (let the reader understand) more.
Perhaps some get the idea, then, that if they wish to be wise, they must simply ask for wisdom from God. This is confirmed by St. James when he tells his audience that if anyone lacks wisdom, they should ask God for it. But there is a paradox here. It is the same paradox of the so-called efficacy of prayer: that is, prayer does not “work” (like the modernists think it ought) but the proof of the “working” of prayer is in the act of praying itself, for the purpose of prayer is to be in communion with God. In the same way, the asking for wisdom does not magically give one wisdom; the very asking is the proof that one is already wise: the wise one knows he is not wise. As Socrates says, “The only thing that I know is that I know nothing.”
But what does it mean to receive wisdom and how does one become wise? ”
Too Much Screen Time is Turning Our Kids Into Boring Beasts - Karol Markowicz, The New York Post
“Your kid is getting way too much screen time, and you know it. It’s time to do something about it.
We’ve known for a long time that kids and screens are a bad combination. Anxiety, attention problems, depression, eye pain, neck pain and so on come with spending your life online. But the pandemic hit, and our phones, tablets and laptops became our lifeline to the world.
So you let your kid on TikTok to learn all the dances. And all their friends were being puppies on Snapchat, and you didn’t want yours to be left out. They played video games together, they bonded over breaking beds and trading pets. They called each other “sus” — suspicious — and tried to find the imposter. It was a moment.
But now your child can’t function without a phone, and you’re not sure what to do.
School is back; activities and playdates are back. Life is back. It’s going to be hard in the short term, but you need to seriously restrict your child’s screen usage.
I’ve watched families arrive at a beach, lotion up their children and then tuck them under umbrellas with their phones to spend the day. Or arrive at restaurants and hand out iPads for the children with no expectation of any interaction through the meal. A playdate at a park with friends turns into two kids staring at iPads side by side.
This is damaging, and the harm will be long-lasting. You have to stop pretending otherwise.
Kids need boredom. They cannot be entertained every minute of every day. Kids who can’t be bored end up being boring. Their dull faces become incapable of maintaining a conversation with anyone. Eye contact is impossible. They can’t function. They’re on a drug, and everyone seems OK with it.
Keep up with today’s ”
The Great Conversation: Sense - Taryn Murphy, CLT Blog
“The senses are, of course, our earliest experience; indeed, they are arguably our only experience. Their nature and the role they play in our intellectual life are accordingly perennial topics of the “Great Conversation.”
Aristotle discussed and classified the senses in On the Soul: he divided the types of soul, or life, into vegetative, sensitive, and rational. Vegetative soul bestowed the capacities of life and growth, while the rational soul denoted the intellect; the sensitive soul, possessed by animals as well as humans, bestowed independent movement and sensation. The traditional five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch were paired with five interior senses, or wits, of which the “common sense” was believed to synthesize the input of the senses.
More important was the role the senses played in the process of knowledge. A famous slogan among the Scholastics, picked up from Aristotle, was nihil est in intellectu quod non sit prius in sensu: “there is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the senses.” This is the basic premise of empiricism, a theory of knowledge shared by several schools of philosophy. Though it is often associated with strict skepticism today, the great Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas was an empiricist in this sense, as were Protestant thinkers like Francis Bacon and John Locke. Locke famously described the mind as a tabula rasa or “blank slate” before education. One form empiricism takes in our day is that of scientism, which classifies the experimental sciences as conferring the only important kind of knowledge, or even treats things as necessarily imaginary if the sciences cannot study them.”