Top 10 Books About The Liberal Arts in Classical Christian Education

This is the third post in my series on the 50 most important books on Classical Christian Education. I have tried to order my lists with some measure of thoughtfulness as it pertains to stages of need and interest. 

The first post in the series was a list of primers (five in all) that are thorough, yet, still accessible enough for the uninitiated to navigate the landscape fairly successfully. Building on the first five, the next post was a recommendation of 10 books that will help expand and better establish one’s understanding of Classical Christian Education.

This post will take us into the deep end of the pool where I offer 10 important books that will mostly focus on medieval educational philosophy, and specifically treat the Liberal Arts, the axiomatic foundation for Classical Christian Eduction.

In the second post, I referenced The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education by Ravi Jain and Kevin Clark. It is a fabulous primer because it is accessible, thorough, and well-researched; but, it’s really a culmination of the wisdeom from numerous classic texts on the subject, most of which will be mentioned here.

Cassiodorus: “Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning” and “On the Soul.” Cassiodorus was a 6th-century scholar, a contemporary of Boethius, who followed the thinking of St. Augustine that a well-rounded education was a means of Christian discipleship. His approach to ordering the subjects of education laid the foundation for the Trivium and Quadrivium of medieval liberal arts. 

The Metalogicon: A Twelfth-Century Defense of the Verbal and Logical Arts of the Trivium by John of Salisbury. John was the secretary and counselor to Thomas Becket, the renowned Archbishop of Canterbury. His Metalogicon is said to be “the cardinal treatise of mediaeval pedagogy…a classic in the history of educational theory,” and “a landmark in several fields of learning, including philosophy, theology, psychology, and education.” In this work, he advocates for a harmonized education on the grounds that the universe is intelligently created and ordered by a Triune God.

The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor: A Guide to the Arts provided students in the 12^th century who were coming to the Abbey of Saint Victor to study with “a survey of all they should ultimately read, and of the order, manner, and purpose which should govern their reading, both in the arts or disciplines, and in Sacred Scripture.” This work is a staple in medieval educational thought.

The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric: Understanding the Nature and Function of Language by Sister Miriam Joseph is a treasure trove with two important subtitles, revealing the important relationship between language and a proper understanding of education. Eva Brann suggested whoever owns this book owns a treasure. She was right. This happens to be the first book I ever read on the Trivium, propelling me on a lifelong trip down the CCE rabbit hole.

Logic: The Right Use of Reason in the Inquiry After Truth by Isaac Watts. You likely know Isaac Watts as the a prolific hymn writer who is credited with more than 700 hymns, like “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” But as an English Puritan and Theologian, he was greatly concerned with a Christians’ ability to think clearly. This work on The Right Use of Reason was a standard textbook on logic for nearly 200 years. It was used in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale.

Socratic Logic: A Logic Text Using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles by Peter Kreeft propels us in the modern era, but given Kreeft’s renown as a contemporary philosopher and educator in the Christian (Catholic) tradition, this work is a suitable complement to the Early Modern text of Isaac Watts.

The Meaning of a Liberal Education by Everett Dean Martin was an important book (first a series of lectures) when it was first published in 1926. Even John Dewey recommended it. Martin was a congregationalist minister and social psychologist, but most importantly he was known as an advocated for adult liberal education, which he saw as “an antidote to both the irrationality of the crowd and the power of propaganda.” In other words, in a period of history when occupational training was essential and had largely overtaken the educational sphere, Martin believed it was necessary for working men to be liberally educated if they were going to be able to navigate the proletarian mobs and the commercial and political propaganda of the day.

The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today by Eric Adler is an essential read, in my opinion. I debated whether to list it with the educational polemic books or with the ones focusing on the liberal arts. It’s a bit of both. I chose to list it here because Adler’s historical treatment of the liberal arts is not only the foundation for his thesis about saving the humanities today, but it is extremely insightful for understanding the development of the liberal arts and their distinction from the humanities. Good stuff!

The Truth of Things: Liberal Arts and the Recovery of Reality and Liberal Arts and Community: the Feeding of the Larger Body both by Marion Montgomery also move us toward polemics in education but they too are helpful in recognizing how the liberal arts help us discern “the truth of things.” Admittedly, I find Montgomery’s style challenging to read at times but his insights about our personal responsibility to educate ourselves as image bearers and citizens are compelling and reassuring. It’s worth doing some heavy lifting to get to the gold in Montgomery.

Anyone who takes up these works with importunity will earn a lifelong education in the liberal arts that’s certainly worth possessing.