In Classical Conversations, young students prepare for these big conversations by learning the facts of history, maths, Latin, geography, science, and English grammar. These academic subjects in and of themselves are not Christian subjects. However, the simple act of discussing how these facts point to a Creator can lay the foundation for a biblical worldview. With young children, this can be as simple as reminding them that 13 x 2 always equals 26 precisely because God created an orderly universe that is governed by certain rules. Seeing tiny Israel on a map can lead us into a conversation about God’s amazing plans for mankind. When children study the human digestive system, they can discuss how they are fearfully and wonderfully made.

As students mature, their thoughts and conversations also mature and grow deeper. As children enter the dialectic stage in Challenges A and B, they begin to have theological discussions each week in which they study beginning apologetics and practice the defence of their faith. In Challenges I–IV, training in theology becomes more rigorous as students refine their biblical worldview by comparing Scripture to philosophy. Logic trains students to think clearly about contemporary issues and to form persuasive arguments about virtuous, biblical choices and actions. In a medieval school, teachers and students regarded theology as the mistress science that governed all of the branches of knowledge.

In Classical Conversations, we seek to recover that understanding of theology as we train students to seek God in all areas of study, from chemistry, history, literature, and philosophy to the fine arts. Older students will study logic to form careful arguments grounded in a biblical worldview, and they will practice rhetoric regularly in order to deliver those arguments persuasively. The result of all these labours will be a deeper understanding of God’s attributes. As students comprehend God more deeply and develop a deeper relationship with Him, they will want to praise Him continually. Not only can an education be both classical and Christian, but this form of education has the potential to make manifest a rich earthly process of sanctification: human existence lived out as doxology.