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Headmaster Email Archive
08/25/04
Coram
Deo Academy Strategic Planning
Rodney
J. Marshall
Click HERE to download pdf (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).
08/20/04
Coram
Deo Academy Mission Statement
Rodney J. Marshall
Outline of Oration Delivered at the Coram Deo Classical Educators Training August 4-6, 2004. The audio/video track of this presentation will be available on the CDA web site in September.
Coram Deo Academy exists to educate youth in a historic Christian worldview through a rigorous classical curriculum.
Historic
o The narrative that links us from now through the modern, middle,
classical and ancient epochs to creation
o The story of the Hebrew-Greco-Roman-Germanic-Christian civilizations
Educating Our Own
o The Ancient Hebrew Shema 13th C BC
o The synagogue schools
o Creeds and Catechism
o Alfred the Great 8th C
o Brothers of the Common Life 14th C
o Early American Dame and Grammar Schools
o Harvard, Princeton and Yale
o Early Southern Presbyterian Schools
o 20th C Christian Day and Home Schools
Christian Worldview
A comprehensively Christian conception of God, life, man and the
world
Based on the pattern
- Creation
- Fall
- Redemption
View of God-Theology
o Personal
- "I believe in God the Father"
o Sovereign
- … Almighty"
o Transcendent Creator
- Maker of heaven and earth"
View of Man-Anthropology
o Created in the image of God
- Designed for dominion over creation
- Declared very good
o Fallen
- Sinful
- In need of boundaries
- In need of a savior
o Redeemed
- To love God and love neighbor
- To again take dominion under God
View of the World-Cosmology
o Created comprehensively good
- God created out of nothing in the space of six days
- Physical and non physical order
o …of all things visible and invisible"
- The material and the social, political, economic order
o Comprehensively fallen
- The whole creation groans
o Comprehensively redeemed
- Repair, restore and renew
Rigorous Classical Curriculum
o Rigorous
- precise and formalized
o Classical
- characteristic of a form or system of first significance before
modern times…
- of recognized authority or excellence
- containing the best of western civilization
o From Euclid to Aristotle and Augustine to Newton, Bach and Jefferson
o Curriculum
- The total program or culture including academics, arts and athletics
The Goal of CDA is:
To train ethical leaders and wise thinkers who will shape culture
for the glory of God
Ethical Leaders
o Ethos
- "the moral character of the [person] and the customs and
life principles he or she lives by." -D. Fredrick
o Leadership
- "Follow me as I follow Christ." -Paul
Wise Thinkers
o Transformed
- Non-conformists Romans 12:1, 2
- Renewed in the mind
o Active
- Not the passive wisdom of the sophists
- But biblical wisdom demonstrated in loving service
Shape Culture for God's Glory
o The goal is neither isolation nor conformity
o The goal is the glory of God lived out in Christian faithfulness
o This will shape a malleable culture
Classical Content
Literacy and Orality
o God reveals Himself through His Word
- "In the beginning was the Word…" -John
- Word not image based
o Man communicates through words
History
o History is the record of Providence
o Linear and moving toward culmination
o Demonstrates the influence of the gospel
o Our best days lie ahead
Logic and Rhetoric
o "logic and rhetoric [make one] able to contend." -Francis
Bacon
o The good man/woman, reasoning well with elegance in presentation
will prevail.
Numeracy or Mathematics
o Discovering the Creator's ordered, precise, universe
o Unchangeable and dependable
o Useful gift from God
Science
o The creation is shot through with the grandeur of God
o Study particulars as a closed system like everyone else
o Understand them within an open and supernatural system
Bible and Theology
o Read the Bible as the revelation of God to man
o Adhere to orthodoxy as summarized in the creeds
o Study systematically while enjoying the stories
o Learn to defend the faith in apologetics
o Theology is the queen of the sciences
Fine Arts
History, appreciation and technique in
o Music
o Visual Art
o Theatre
Athletics
o Incarnational man
o No false dualism
o For recreation as well as competition
o Football, volleyball, soccer, baseball,
softball and tennis
Discovering the Author's or the Artist's Worldview
What is in a man's heart flows through his pen [or his brush]. -Francis Schaeffer
Learn to Ask Questions
o Who is the author/artist and how does he/she think?
o Who are the characters and how do they think and
o Why do they act the way they do?
o What is the author trying to accomplish?
Ultimate Reality
o What is the author's concept of the most real thing in existence?
- Is it our God or something else? Is it
- Knowable and/or mysterious
- Transcendent and/or immanent
- Unchanging and/or passionate
- Personal and/or impersonal
- Being and/or non-being
- Unified and/or many manifestations
- Creative and/or just material
Nature of the World
o What is the author's/artist's view of the essential nature of
the external world?
- Is it ordered or caotic?
- Is it material or spiritual?
- Real or unreal?
o How do the author's characters view the world?
What is Human?
o What is the author's concept of who we and others really are?
o What is the author's concept of human nature?
- Innately good
- Deceitfully wicked
- A combination
- Fallen but redeemable
o What happens after death? How does man know this?
What is Good
o What is the author's understanding of good?
- Is it earned?
- Is it deserved?
- Is it bestowed?
- Is there a difference between good and evil
Meaning
o What is the author's understanding of the meaning of humanity's
sojourn on earth?
- What is the meaning of history?
o Chaotic?
o Cyclical?
o Cause and effect?
o Linear?
o Providential?
o Closed or open system?
We Teach From Knowns
o God in unity and trinity is ultimate reality
o Man and the world were created very good
o Man and the entire created order comprehensively fell
o God in His mercy has redeemed man and the creative order
o Because God gives this meaning to life man should serve God
faithfully to bring renewal and restoration