How would classical education work in eastern countries?

by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Aug 30, 2009 | Schools & Other Organizations | 2 comments

Next week I will be participating in an world mission’s conference that among other things will be exploring how education can serve world missions. Classical education has always morphed and adapted to new, dynamic settings, and it has flourished in the east as well at the west. Historically, it has been anything but static. Still, I am challenged by the question of how we can deploy the curricula, pedagogy and insights of classical education to countries in the east today. I will be exploring this question with some others at the coming conference. Ideas and thoughts are welcome.

2 Comments

Todd Wedel on October 2, 2009 at 10:20 am

I’m interested in the history of classical education in the East, if there has been any. Are there any references or sources that discuss this?
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- Chris Perrin on October 7, 2009 at 8:18 am
  
  Todd,
  Here are some sources that come from an article written by Bryan Smith, a colleague of mine and headmaster of an orthodox classical school in Texas. Several of the sources should prove helpful to you. CP
  
  1. Justin the Philosopher, “St. Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies,” trans.
  Leslie William Barnard in Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in
  Translation, No. 56 (New York: Paulist Press, 1997) 55, 84.
  2. Aratus, Loeb Classical Library Vol. 129, trans. A. W. Mair and G. R. Mair
  (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921) 207.
  3. Clement of Alexandria “Stromata I. V” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander
  Roberts and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989) 305.
  4. Robert Browning, “Byzantine Scholarship” in Studies on Byzantine History, Literature and Education (London: Variorum Reprints, 1977) XIII, 4.
  5. George Kennedy, Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980) 163; Reynolds, L. D. and N. G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) 50; Wilson, N. G., Scholars of Byzantium (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983) 8.
  6. Georgina Buckler, “Byzantine Education” in Byzantium: An Introduction to East Roman Civilization (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1948) 203, 211.
  7. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, trans. David Anderson (Crestwood, NY: St.
  Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1980) 16.
  8. Buckler, “Byzantine Education”; 211.
  9. Basil the Great, “Letter CCCXXXIV” in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989) 320.
  10. N. G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983) 117.
  11. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit; 16.
  12. Georgina Buckler, “Byzantine Education” in Byzantium: An Introduction to East Roman Civilization (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1948) 203; Browning, Robert, “Homer in Byzantium” in Studies on Byzantine History, Literature and Education (London: Variorum Reprints, 1977) XVII, 15–17.
  13. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium; 24.
  14. George Kennedy, Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980) 163; Reynolds, Suzanne, Medieval Reading (Cambridge, England: New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 20.
  15. R. H. Robins, The Byzantine Grammarians: Their Place in History (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993) 104.
  16. R. H. Robins, The Byzantine Grammarians: Their Place in History (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993) 111, 116; N. G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983) 24.
  17. Robins, The Byzantine Grammarians; 169.
  18. ibid., 168–169.
  19. ibid., 170–171.
  20. R. M. Dawkins, “Greek Language in the Byzantine Period” in Byzantium: An Introduction to East Roman Civilization (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1948, 253; Kennedy, George, Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press,1980) 169.
  21. Ruth Webb, “A Slavish Art? Language and Grammar in Late Byzantine Education and Society” in Dialogos: Hellenic Studies Review, Vol. 1, 1994, 86.
  22. Robins, The Byzantine Grammarians; 163–164.
  20. Robert Browning, “Homer in Byzantium” in Studies on Byzantine History, Literature and Education (London: Variorum Reprints, 1977) XVII, 16; Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, trans. E. R. A. Sewter (New York: Penguin Books, 1966) 89; N. G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983) 24.
  23. Jeffrey Rusten, Loeb Classical Library Vol. 225 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
  University Press, 1993) 29.
  24. Aline Rousselle, “Images as Education in the Roman Empire (Second-Third Centuries AD)” trans. Ruth Webb in Dialogos: Hellenic Studies Review, Vol. 1, 1994, 373, 380–381, 401–403.
  25. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium; 24.
  26. ibid., 152–153.
  27. Buckler, “Byzantine Education”; 212.
  28. Browning, “Byzantine Scholarship”; 7.
  29. H. I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, trans. George Lamb (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1956) 165–169.
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