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The phrase all things in the book of Colossians
makes it pretty clear. Not only has every square
inch that ever existed in creation been made by
Christ and through Christ, Jesus Christ himself – at
this very moment - holds it all together. Even within
the thin sheet of paper on which this article is
printed (or the screen from which you may be
reading these words) there is not a single atom that
Jesus Christ is not right now holding together… an
atom which otherwise would fly apart into thermo-nuclear explosion. I’m not being
dramatic. He simply holds all material and immaterial things together. It’s exhilarating to
think about, if not a little scary. He is not a tame lion.

What bearing does all this have on education? Simply this: when students enter the
classroom, the most thrilling place to be is gathered around the truths of the Lord Jesus
Christ as math, science, literature, history, logic, debate, even math facts, handwriting,
and rules of grammar come alive in the light of the one who makes them work.

The Seven Liberal Arts of a Classical Christian education are simply the best instructive
path we’ve found to make this plain to a student. Raising a child into a thinking,
compassionate, contributing adult who loves God and loves his neighbor starts with 13
years of slow, relentless, and joyful soaking in truths, habits, and ways of thinking. Day
after day, lesson after lesson, it comes clear: it is Jesus Christ who rules every square
inch of this life. This slow cultivation of loves, virtues, and devotions, are ultimately used
by the Holy Spirit to profoundly form a life as God intended. Discipling children in this
manner is truly a beautiful thing.

Every Square Inch and Psalm 19

Early in my teaching career I asked the question, how is it that these seven liberal arts,
carried forward from the Greeks and Romans by early Christendom, have proven
themselves such a powerful tool in Christian discipleship. How do they uniquely train the
student to have an “Every Square Inch” sense of reality?

Throughout the Scriptures, we find clues. If we just consider Psalm 19, for example, the
author, David, uses 14 verses of poetry to extol the entirety of God’s revelation in its two
realms: material and immaterial, general revelation and special revelation, God’s world 

and God’s Word. Not only does David teach us, “ The heavens (and everything under
them) declare the glory of God,” but later in the Psalm he unpacks how, “the Law of the
Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” In other words, if David’s categories of reality are
correct, not only do we need an education for the heavens, shorthand for every square
inch of God’s created order, we need an education that brings clarity to every jot and
tittle of His law, the logic and spiritual realities of God’s Word to His people. Enter the
Seven Liberal Arts.

Every Square Inch and the Seven Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts is a neutered term in American culture. At today’s colleges, “Liberal Arts” is
just a pejorative label put on the majors that freshmen sign up for when they know they
like to read but don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. It’s often a track of
study that gives parents hives as they daydream about Johnny’s future earning power.
Quite to the contrary, a true liberal arts education is far more comprehensive, dynamic,
and powerful.

Very simply, the Seven Liberal Arts grew out of the scholastic efforts of the Middle Ages,
capitalizing on what was so powerful within the educational models of the ancients. The
first three disciplines of the Seven Liberal Arts (known as the Trivium) include grammar
(the joyful acquisition of language), logic (the precise meaning of language), and
rhetoric (the artful use of language) giving a student mastery in the full realm of words.
Meanwhile, the final four phases of the Arts (known as the Quadrivium), unfold the
concrete realities of God’s creation through number by moving progressively from
arithmetic (number as concept), to geometry (number in space), music (number in time),
and finally to astronomy (number in space and time). Keep in mind with these titles of
the Seven Liberal Arts, we speak of phases of deepening understanding rather than
courses in a college syllabus.

By the time a student graduates a classical Christian education like we find at
Rockbridge Academy, their education gives them the tools to unfold God’s world and to
sift the realm of ideas through the scrim of His Word. If we believe David’s categories of
reality from Psalm 19, it is a framework of education equipping them with tools for the
whole of reality; an education for everything. But more importantly, as the Holy Spirit
does His work, these children will move forward into adulthood with a holy awe before
the one who commands every square inch of life… "for in Him all things hold together.”