Braiding the Triple Strands of “Constants”

“The only constant in life is change”.

Who said this? When? Can we surmise it must have been someone living with in the secularized Modern Era?

Actually, it can’t be true.

1. The universal questions in life are still the same old, same old questions.
2. The biblical answers are still the same old best answers to those questions.
3. The primary texts in which authors have deposited and bred ideas haven’t changed. People still read the same old, same old books: Plato, Plutarch, Justin Martyr, Augustine, Aquinas, Descarte and many others. And to date, other than Jefferson tearing out portions of the Bible, I’m not aware of teachers who literally attempt to change the texts. They ignore and mis-interpret texts, but rewrite them? I’m unaware.
4. And the eras of time haven’t changed. In the very PC world of the western academy, primary texts of western thought–are still broken up into the same old historical time frames —roughly and with some variances —here we go… into more categories:
   1. a) the Hebrews and their Covenant, 3000 BC to 300 BC
   1. b) The Greeks 800 B.C. – 300 BC
   2. c) The Romans 300 B-C – 400 AD
   3. d) The Church Age Christ – 100 AD
   4. e) The Patristics 200-450 AD
   5. f) The Anglo-Saxons 500-750 AD
   6. g) The Medievals 800-1274 AD
   7. h ) the Renaissance 1300-1495
   8. i) The Reformation 1517- 1650
   9. j) The Age of Reason 1650-1750
   10. k) The Romantic Age 1800- 1840 AD
   11. l) The Modern Age Descarte –1375 to present
   12. m) Post-Modernity 1960- present

What has changed is the way people think about the questions, the answers and the texts. Why raise the questions when we know there are no answers?

The texts are no longer read through the ‘glasses’ of objective categories of ultimate Truth, Goodness and Beauty, but rather through lens of polarities and inequalities of gender, ethnicity, sex, social mores, and the inequalities of social class and oppression of the dominance of privilege. Somewhere along the way, folks attempted to discard the ‘image of Christ’ by changing the B. C. — into ‘before the Common Era” and the A.D into— ‘After the Common Era” ‘ even though the person of Christ divides the millennia. And since ” Truth can not be known or discovered”, the Bible has lost its unifying power and authority.

WHY are we doing this?

Because learning to Braid these 3-4 strands of constants into a triple -stranded cord is the necessary lifeline to pull a sinking ship of education to shore and repair the ruins. The subsequent effects: We will RESCUE LIVES not the whales! Throw a lifeline to Suffocating Children! The Work will Save the Humanities! Stymie the pendulum swing! Establish the Faith of our Children! It will provide necessary context for the floundering millennials and everyone born since then…. along with the all the rest of us.

The Goldfish need a Goldfish bowl; they can’t swim in water on a table! And they do not thrive; they are unable to flourish in a raging ocean where they cannot part the waters.

Learning to think “ Classically and Biblically” is the work for our time. It is hard work; yet I have witnessed it. When given the tools, High School minds are very capable of Taking The Great Conversation Captive.

I submit they are bored, intellectually assaulted and insulted when not given the tools to fight for the Truth. I quote Dennis Prager who says.. “ They ( high school and college students ) are being given…..Dribble “.

It’s true; I concur.

Here we are going for the highest of summits. There is no greater conversation that can be had.

To this I will add, much of Christian education created within the modern era in our Christian high schools and Colleges have not yet made the paradigm shift. And the formation of the Child, the skill-sets, the grades are suffering horribly.

It is time to get on with the work of our times.