Themes of the book: 2

2. The Transcendentals. I detect the triad of the Trivium (Memory, Thought, Speech, or if y'all prefer Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric) echoed inwards many others, from the Trinity of divine persons on downwardly through the diverse levels of creation. The Trivium is thence intimately saltation upwards amongst the divine icon inwards Man, which is a Trinitarian image. God himself is the root of Memory, Thought, together with Speech (Being/Father, Logos/Son, together with Breath/Spirit).

One of those triads is composed of the so-called "transcendental properties of being", pregnant properties that are so "general" that they tin endure constitute inwards varying degrees inwards everything that exists. The 3 I hateful are Goodness, Truth, together with Beauty – although i mightiness likewise hold off at the threesome of Unity, Truth, together with Goodness. As I explicate (Beauty inwards the Word, p. 157), such triads are impossible to align definitively amongst exceptional members of the Trinity, because they tin endure looked at nether dissimilar aspects. In fact each is i of
the Names of God, and applies to all 3 divine persons. The human beingness who searches for whatever of them is on the route to God, on whom these 3 roads converge. The Transcendentals are vitally of import if nosotros are to sympathize the the world equally a cosmos together with laid a civilisation worthy of our humanity.

I desire to suggest an catch that came to me after writing Beauty inwards the Word, that mightiness serve equally an interesting footnote, or opened upwards up or so other avenue to explore. It is this. Human civilisation seems to convey 3 pillars: Law, Language, and Religion. It is these that brand us into a community or nation. And inwards each instance the aim or destination is i of the Transcendentals, fifty-fifty if they cannot accomplish that destination without divine assistance. The aim of the Law is goodness, the aim of Language is Truth, together with the aim of Religion is (spiritual) Beauty -– that is, holiness. Culture is the effect of all three; of Law, Language, together with Religion acting inwards concert (body, soul, together with spirit, equally it were).

But how does this relate to the Trivium? Law it seems to me aims to recollect us to our truthful nature, or encourages us to ascension to our highest nature. In that feel it corresponds to Memory or Grammar. (The moral or natural law, equally Pope Benedict has written inwards his piddling book On Conscience, may endure equated amongst Platonic "reminiscence", which is inwards Christian damage an awakening to our truthful nature inwards God's intention.) Language so corresponds to Thought, pregnant the human yell for for truth inwards all things. (For inwards lodge to sympathize reality nosotros must discern the Son, the Logos of all things.) Thirdly, Religion inwards the feel of a tradition or path of holiness is what gives the spirit that animates the community. It is this that makes us aware of our intimate human relationship to each other, able to utter "heart to heart".

This is an extension of an catch I seat forrad inwards the book, that earlier nosotros reform our schools nosotros require to sympathize to a greater extent than deeply the destination of education, which is a truer humanity together with a civilisation of love.

NEXT: The Spiral Curriculum.

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