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In what, exactly, are we partaking as we labor together in classical Christian education, and in particular as we at 91��Ƭ�� strive to “equip students to live with wisdom, excellence, and purpose in the modern world by offering them an education grounded in the Christian faith and the Classical tradition”? What is significant about the carefully curated word, “tradition”?

What does Tradition really mean?

The root of our English word hails from the Latin verb tradere which means to hand over or to give for safekeeping. Thus, traditions are those elements of human life deemed important enough to hand over to those who follow, so that they may also participate in the tradition. These inherited traditions are not stagnant; they grow and change, expand, shrink and reimagine themselves over time through conversation, debate, and argument.

In his book Whose Justice? Which Rationality?, Alasdair MacIntyre suggests that accepting and participating in the traditions offered to us is a reasonable, not slavish, response, because the “history of…traditions involves both a narrative of enquiry and debate within that tradition and also one of debate and disagreement between it and its rivals.” In this way, traditions are forged through generations living out, questioning, and honing them, then handing them to the next generation for safekeeping. Traditions are shared within communities and usually signal import.

How does classical Christian education overlap with tradition?

In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke explains that “tradition is a partnership in all science, all art, every virtue…partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, who are dead, and those who are to be born.” Classical Christian education is the great tradition in which we are participating.

We learn from the tradition handed down to us from the Greeks, taken and adapted by the Romans, folded into and expanded by the Christian vision of life, preserved through the Medieval world, and curated through the Renaissance– it is also currently breathing life into our own post-modern landscape. With each iteration, this way of education is expanded, deepened, and refined. This beautiful, abiding tradition seeks to educate the whole child, by forming the “intellectual, moral, aesthetic, spiritual, physical, practical, and social” elements of each child, so that they may participate in the “true, good, beautiful, holy, healthy, beneficial, and neighborly,” writes Brian Williams. It is a privilege, indeed, to have the chance to participate in this expansive tradition.

In what are we partaking?

To return to the original question, then, in what are we partaking? We are participants in a grand ball, with sweeping turns and hallowed halls teeming with life. The dance preceded us and will persist long after we take our seats.

We dance among the flowers; we dance among the stars.
We dance among the mathematicians, logicians, artists and poets.
We usher each other and our children into this celebration, and as they follow the steps laid out for them, they grow in moral virtue, understand God’s wide world better, and, in humility, start to learn how they might also add a step to the waltz.

We are taking this inherited tradition, this gift of Classical Christian education, and handing it over to the next generation for safekeeping, so that they might continue waltzing in wonder with their children and their children’s children.

Works Cited

MacIntyre, Alasdair. “The Rationality of Traditions.” Whose Justice? Which Rationality?,
University of Notre Dame Press, 1988, pp. 349-369.
stable/j.ctv1bvnf11.21.

Williams, Brian. “Comments on Tradition, from Lecture Two Presentation.” Accessed in the
Templeton Honors College MAT In Classical Education HONR 500 Reading Packet,
2026, p. 1.

Williams, Brian. “Introducing Principia and Classical Education.” Principia 1, no. 1, 2022, pp.
1-14, doi: .

Disclaimer: The above article solely represents the views of the author and does not represent any endorsement or statement by the Academy. Read more here.