The abbey of regular canons of Saint Victor in Paris, founded by William of Champeaux in 1108, is perhaps one of the most important foundations inspired by the ideal of canonical reform in the twelfth century. By the mid twelfth century, the abbey of Saint Victor had developed into a prestigious centre of learning. The aim of teaching at St. Victor was not to produce scholars, but to promote a level of higher spiritual understanding and a model for Christian life. Teaching, in other words, was an undertaking that engaged the whole person, in body, mind, and spirit, and it was not limited to the classroom, but extended to a person’s whole life, both as individual and in the community. Hugh of St. Victor developed the theory that scientia, consisting of the study of the liberal arts and the exposition of Scripture according to its literal sense, was the foundation, and sapientia, the allegorical explication of Scripture, was the superstructure of this building of spiritual wisdom, while the outward Christian life, the moralia, was the adornment of this building of faith. While this material has attracted the attention of scholars specialized in the study of medieval pedagogy and twelfth-century schools, it hardly has been noticed, let alone studied, by Christian educators as a model for Christian education.
It is this potential for the contemporary theory of Christian education that we want to explore in this one-week seminar, through a program of reading, communal discussion, and private study. The model of Christian education that Hugh proposes resonates with a developmental approach to Christian education in which the whole person is engaged, and which takes into account the entire range of classical liberal arts learning, in the service of the Christian life, both as individual and in community. An integrative, rat her than a specialist, approach was characteristic for Hugh’s approach to Christian learning, and it was closely related to Hugh’s idea about the unity of truth in God as the supreme good. His theory has a rich potential for informing the discussion on the nature of Christian education and the integration of faith, learning, and Christian life.
It is recommended that participants come with particular questions that they wish to pursue during the week; there will be an opportunity to share progress at the close of the workshop. It is hoped that this workshop will not only enable participants to articulate more clearly the connections to their own teaching, but also inform future scholarly work. The participants in this seminar will be asked to pursue their research in this area and prepare a paper, which will be presented at a one-day conference in 2009. The results of this conference, if necessary supplemented with papers that will be sollicited from specialists in the field, will be made into a volume of essays, which aims at showing the relevance of the work of the Victorines to contemporary Christian educators, and offer a model to rethink the relationship between liberal arts education and Christian spiritual formation.
For further information contact:
- Seminars in Christian Scholarship
- Calvin College
- 1855 Knollcrest Circle SE
- Grand Rapids MI 49546-4402
- 616.526.8558
- fax 616.526.6682
- seminars@calvin.edu