How we teach will always be informed by our view of the human person. In our modern age of fragmentations, education is almost exclusively conceived of in terms of intellectual development. The agenda of such an education is inherently pragmatic. The Christian pedagogical tradition offers resistance to this modern impulse of pragmatizing education. To Patristic and Medieval Christian educators, education pertained not only to intellectual advancement, but also moral and spiritual development. In fact, these three facets were not separate, but united: intellectual improvement came alongside moral and spiritual maturation. One of this most important Medieval thinkers who contributed to the development of this holistic understanding of pedagogy is Hugh of Saint Victor (1096-1141).

In this presentation, Fr. Wesley will argue that Hugh’s innovative and thorough approach to education is informed by a thoroughly Augustinian anthropology. For Hugh, the fall of humanity resulted in the disintegration of the person; redemption, then, entails reintegration. The trivium (grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric) is a bridge to carry the person from God’s works of foundation (creation) to redemption (salvation) by preparing them to read the Scriptures.

Fr. Wesley is the Rector of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Crownsville, Maryland. He has his STM from Nashotah House Theological Seminary where he did his thesis on the Christology of Hugh of Saint Victor. He has been an educator for about a decade, teaching homeschool students and at classical Christian schools. He co-hosts The Sacramentalists Podcast and The Classical Mind Podcast.