Classical Christian Education: Wisdom and Eloquence

Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning
By Robert Littlejohn, Charles T. Evans
Crossway Books, 2006
(224 pages, $14.99, paperback)

To succeed in the world today, students need an education that equips them to recognize current trends, to be creative and flexible to respond to changing circumstances, to demonstrate sound judgment to work for society's good, and to gain the ability to communicate persuasively.

In Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning, authors Robert Littlejohn and Charles T. Evans argue for returning to the classical liberal arts educational system so that students are prepared for lifelong learning. Wisdom and eloquence, capacities of broad discernment and persuasive discourse, were Augustine's indicators of a well-educated Christian. They should be the immediate goals of Christian education, the authors contend, if the transcendent and mundane purposes of Christian education are to be realized:

[T]his book is not a polemic against a decadent West. Rather, it is the expression of a hope-filled goal: that the result of all the effort we pour into teaching and learning would not only benefit the individuals we educate, but would help our society toward more grace and civility, and toward a universally high quality of life.