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Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education
Based in the riches of Christian worship and tradition, this book helps readers put back together again faith and reason, truth and beauty, and the fragmented academic disciplines.
156 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2009
85 people are currently reading
1489 people want to read
About the author
Stratford Caldecott
35 books69 followersStratford Caldecott MA (Oxon.), STD, was a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative, editor of the Humanum Review (online book review journal of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute), and co-editor of Second Spring and the UK/Ireland edition of Magnificat.
He had served as senior editor at Routledge, HarperCollins, T&T Clark, Sophia Institute Press, and as a commissioning editor for the Catholic Truth Society in London. He served on the editorial boards of Communio, The Chesterton Review, and Oasis.
Dr. Caldecott was the G.K. Chesterton Research Fellow at St. Benet’s Hall, Oxford.
He received an honorary doctorate in Theology from the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C.
He blogged at:
http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot...
http://beauty-in-education.blogspot.com/
He had served as senior editor at Routledge, HarperCollins, T&T Clark, Sophia Institute Press, and as a commissioning editor for the Catholic Truth Society in London. He served on the editorial boards of Communio, The Chesterton Review, and Oasis.
Dr. Caldecott was the G.K. Chesterton Research Fellow at St. Benet’s Hall, Oxford.
He received an honorary doctorate in Theology from the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C.
He blogged at:
http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot...
http://beauty-in-education.blogspot.com/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
June 16, 2012
This book was amazing--at least for me as someone who works in the education world. I've written elsewhere that we live in a world that has become a modern-day version of alchemists. We refuse to learn or work at anything without doing a cost-benefit analysis and knowing up front what the utilitarian and practical benefits of such learning or work will be. Whatever we are going to touch, we want it to turn to gold (as the alchemists did), although what we mean is a goo-paying job, nice house, fancy car, etc.
We need to see the world as a place replete with goodness and beauty, because--believe it or not--that's what it is.
Caldecott does an amazing job of pointing us back to goodness and beauty, of helping us to see the beauty in music, poetry, and especially in mathematics and science.
One of my favorite lines from the book (lines he is quoting from Hans Urs von Balthasar's The Glory of the Lord:
We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance>
Elsewhere, he says that "without beauty, we have no reason or motivation to pray." Think on that.
One of the ways he shows the beauty in math is to show through a kind of numerology study, what numbers mean symbolically and religiously. That study leads him into the golden ratio and other ideas. This leads him to contemplate theological concepts such as the Trinity, the Unity and Diversity of God, and the Incarnation, as well as why pi isn't a whole number, or the mathematical calculations within the Golden Rectangle do not lead to whole numbers. Uniting and integrating theology and mathematics because one catches a glimpse of the beauty of mathematics: a foreign idea in modern education and thinking. Yet, in classical education, that was the purpose of the seven liberal arts, to lead one to the study and contemplation of Theology, which of course is the study of God in order to know Him and to make Him known.
We need to see the world as a place replete with goodness and beauty, because--believe it or not--that's what it is.
Caldecott does an amazing job of pointing us back to goodness and beauty, of helping us to see the beauty in music, poetry, and especially in mathematics and science.
One of my favorite lines from the book (lines he is quoting from Hans Urs von Balthasar's The Glory of the Lord:
We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance>
Elsewhere, he says that "without beauty, we have no reason or motivation to pray." Think on that.
One of the ways he shows the beauty in math is to show through a kind of numerology study, what numbers mean symbolically and religiously. That study leads him into the golden ratio and other ideas. This leads him to contemplate theological concepts such as the Trinity, the Unity and Diversity of God, and the Incarnation, as well as why pi isn't a whole number, or the mathematical calculations within the Golden Rectangle do not lead to whole numbers. Uniting and integrating theology and mathematics because one catches a glimpse of the beauty of mathematics: a foreign idea in modern education and thinking. Yet, in classical education, that was the purpose of the seven liberal arts, to lead one to the study and contemplation of Theology, which of course is the study of God in order to know Him and to make Him known.
May 16, 2023
Caldecott's Beauty for Truth's Sake ranks up as one of the top two books I've read this alongside Josef Pieper's Leisure: The Basis Of Culture. Caldecott seeks to reintroduce, if not the seven Liberal Arts themselves, per se, the idea, ultimately, the cosmology behind them. The Liberal Arts, in their origin, saw meaning and symbol in the world, connecting all things to one another, and ultimately, to their Source: God.
Caldecott takes the specific examples related to the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) to show how the form, the cosmology of the Liberal Arts, and thus education as such, once worked. What Caldecott is calling for is return to a Christian cosmology in education. This return must not be forced on those to be educated, that is, students at Catholic University need not be forced to attend Mass, but the Mass must be celebrated. The Church Calendar must be the backbone for the structure of the academic year. The architecture of the buildings themselves must point to beauty through their use of mathematics (decorative and functional). I yearn for Caldecott's picture of education.
This educative manifesto must be read by all who work in education, but it must also be read by all who live in community, for we continue to learn in all our communities, familial, social, religious, academic, etc. If we can learn to take on these practices and this understanding of the cosmos into our lives it will spread out into our societies.
Caldecott takes the specific examples related to the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) to show how the form, the cosmology of the Liberal Arts, and thus education as such, once worked. What Caldecott is calling for is return to a Christian cosmology in education. This return must not be forced on those to be educated, that is, students at Catholic University need not be forced to attend Mass, but the Mass must be celebrated. The Church Calendar must be the backbone for the structure of the academic year. The architecture of the buildings themselves must point to beauty through their use of mathematics (decorative and functional). I yearn for Caldecott's picture of education.
This educative manifesto must be read by all who work in education, but it must also be read by all who live in community, for we continue to learn in all our communities, familial, social, religious, academic, etc. If we can learn to take on these practices and this understanding of the cosmos into our lives it will spread out into our societies.
June 15, 2011
Own. Wish I could do 3.5 stars.
I’m both smarter and dumber after reading this book.
This book is unabashedly Roman Catholic; quoting RC theologians and philosophers regularly and consistently, including the two most recent Popes frequently. His section on learning being by necessity in a liturgical framework emphasizes and highlights the RC Mass, which as an unabashed Reformed Protestant I found off-putting.
To me, parts of the book seemed wavering on the edge of a numerology that was reading more into numbers than are there … but not quite. At times, I found the writing confusing, but that was probably more my lack of knowledge than his writing.
There, the warnings are out of the way.
First, it must be said, footnotes are vastly superior over endnotes. So glad he included footnotes (only wish they had been funny like Susan Wise Bauer's). His large bibliography is also a treasure trove of recommendations.
Second, parts of this book are fascinating. Parts are encouraging. Parts were very thought provoking. Sometimes, I lost the thread of what he was trying to say. The concluding chapter, however, did as it was supposed to do and summed up nicely. He comes to a point where he's trying to get around a dualistic society pitting faith against reason:
I appreciated the examples of objective beauty found in the the quadrivium's disciplines, and had rather expected that most of the book would be that. It wasn't, which is probably good because I didn't comprehend parts of what he was explaining as it was (the deficiency is mine).
And it wasn't entirely about teaching those skills from a Christian perspective nor giving me direction on how to teach truth and beauty in the quadrivium, which I had also expected. Rather, it issued a challenge to me, the reader, to seek the beauty in the nature of things and to help my pupils to do that too. One of my favorite quotes from the book (found in the footnotes!) was: "For [Simone] Weil preayer consists of attention to God and the concentration required to solve (or even attempt) mathematical puzzles is never wasted, since it develops the soul's capacity for the higher attentiveness --not to mention (in the case of those of us who find mathematics difficult) humility!
I’m both smarter and dumber after reading this book.
This book is unabashedly Roman Catholic; quoting RC theologians and philosophers regularly and consistently, including the two most recent Popes frequently. His section on learning being by necessity in a liturgical framework emphasizes and highlights the RC Mass, which as an unabashed Reformed Protestant I found off-putting.
To me, parts of the book seemed wavering on the edge of a numerology that was reading more into numbers than are there … but not quite. At times, I found the writing confusing, but that was probably more my lack of knowledge than his writing.
There, the warnings are out of the way.
First, it must be said, footnotes are vastly superior over endnotes. So glad he included footnotes (only wish they had been funny like Susan Wise Bauer's). His large bibliography is also a treasure trove of recommendations.
Second, parts of this book are fascinating. Parts are encouraging. Parts were very thought provoking. Sometimes, I lost the thread of what he was trying to say. The concluding chapter, however, did as it was supposed to do and summed up nicely. He comes to a point where he's trying to get around a dualistic society pitting faith against reason:
Faith is not opposed to reason, but it does function as a constant goad, a challenge, a provocation to reason. Faith claims to stand beyond reason, to speak from the place that reason seeks. But it does not claim to understand what it knows, and it should not usurp the role of reason in that sense, any more than it should contradict it. The resolution lies not in faith, nor yet in reason, but in love. We are perennially tempted to reduce Christianity to something less than itself: either to power (will, faith, law) or to philosophy (knowledge, reason, wisdom). Nominalists tend to do the former. Realists tend to do the latter. But the solution to this supreme problem in binary logic is through a third and higher thing: love, in which both will and knowledge are reconciled and held in balance -- or rather, in which both are transcended. God is love, in which both will and knowledge are comprised.
I appreciated the examples of objective beauty found in the the quadrivium's disciplines, and had rather expected that most of the book would be that. It wasn't, which is probably good because I didn't comprehend parts of what he was explaining as it was (the deficiency is mine).
And it wasn't entirely about teaching those skills from a Christian perspective nor giving me direction on how to teach truth and beauty in the quadrivium, which I had also expected. Rather, it issued a challenge to me, the reader, to seek the beauty in the nature of things and to help my pupils to do that too. One of my favorite quotes from the book (found in the footnotes!) was: "For [Simone] Weil preayer consists of attention to God and the concentration required to solve (or even attempt) mathematical puzzles is never wasted, since it develops the soul's capacity for the higher attentiveness --not to mention (in the case of those of us who find mathematics difficult) humility!
September 18, 2015
As a parent and employee at a classical Christian school, I was enthralled by Stratford Caldecott's perspective on education. The modern world has divorced reason and faith and we are reaping the bitter harvest. As quoted in the book: "The separation of the two affects everything: science, economics, art, politics, and education. It lay behind 9/11 and spawned the War on Terror. Debates about contraception and gay marriage are conditioned by it. If fairth and reason are indeed incompatible, if they are mutually exculsive, then we are forced to choose between them. Once we have chosen, the energies of human nature will be channeled by our choice and we will shape the world accordingly."
I am encouraged that my boys have been educated in a school that recognizes the trivium and the quadrivium as relevant. In a school that values the four areas of education: religious, physical, moral and academic.
I am encouraged that my boys have been educated in a school that recognizes the trivium and the quadrivium as relevant. In a school that values the four areas of education: religious, physical, moral and academic.
February 3, 2021
Caldecott, Stratford. On the Re-enchantment of Education. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009.
Argument: We must go back to Plato through Boethius and Augustine. Our goal, however, is not Plato, but Pythagoras. That last name separates this book from all others on classical education. Caldecott’s argument, though, is straightforward. If the universe is an ordered cosmos (implying, among other things, a harmonic structure), then we have to deal with Pythagoras.
The book borders on sheer genius. I say that partly because I have no clue on how to classify it. I’ve seen it promoted among classical school educators, and that certainly makes sense, but even then it isn’t clear how the book would be integrated into a day-to-day classical school classroom.
I wouldn’t even call this “classical education.” It is simply, as he notes, “liberal arts.” The point of the quadrivium is to enable us to contemplate God and the harmonic nature of the universe.
One of our goals in education is to transmit a culture. If we let education become fragmented into disciplines, we communicate that education is simply bits and pieces that we can choose (Caldecott 17). By contrast, the keys to meaning are always form, interiority, beauty, relationship, and purpose.
Ancient man as knowing man: The ancient man, presumably following Socrates, understood that it is the nature of man to know. This “knowledge can only be obtained through the systematic ordering of the soul” (21).
Four levels of Platonic knowledge:
Reason -- Nous
Understanding
Opinion
Perception of shadows
Point: the instrument of knowledge must be a turning of the whole soul from becoming to being (22). Plato believed that the trivium is the tool to awaken us to the inner vision of the soul.
Caldecott realizes we can’t simply drop the quadrivium on students today. Even in the middle ages, it struggled to integrate new knowledge. Further, students would probably be better off studying medieval, rather than ancient, literature (or both). He argues that we must teach these advanced maths and sciences from a history of ideas standpoint (28).
Object of Education
It is difficult to summarize education into one single purpose. Each angle, though, sheds light on the whole:
Socrates: The purpose of education is to love what is beautiful. Beauty for Socrates was something objective.
Poetic Education
A child studies music and harmony at a more mature age in order to have his soul geared towards such a proportion.
Education and Number
Following Pythagoras, he suggests number is a facet of the Unity (Father) projected through Duality (mother) to create multiplicity (55).
One: Unity of being, often depicted by a circle. When it is squared it is still itself.
Two: Duality; separation of male and female, matter and spirit. It is a line between two points.
Three: Unity and diversity are reconciled in harmony. Depicted by a triangle within a circle.
Four: First solid number. Represents earth or the material plane. In the four elements, earth and fire (contraction and expansion, respectively) are opposed to each other. Water and air mediate.
Five: As it is the midpoint within the Decad, it symbolizes the human.
Six: Perfect number as it is the sum and product of its divisors. Represented by a regular hexagon.
Seven: Totality. It is the sum of four (the material world) and three (the Trinity).
Golden Ratio
This is the essence of beauty and probably the key to unlocking the universe.
Phi = whole/large part = large part/small part
1.61804/1
He takes these harmonies and applies it to the Trinity. By itself that isn’t wrong. However, you are getting on dangerous ground when you have the Son participating in both deity and humanity. The Son has these natures. He does not merely participate in them.
Fun fact: early Platonists anticipated the octave by the shape of the letter lamda. “The musical scale was a model of the cosmos” (92).
1
2 3
4 9
8 27
Criticisms:
In the middle of an excellent discussion on beauty, Caldecott says in a footnote that he does not wish to deny the beauty in modern and postmodern works (32 n28). This beggars belief. There is no beauty in postmodern works. It is trash. Literally. Some of it is pieces of garbage glued together.
Caldecott follows an amazing section on numbers with the Trinity. He tries to tie in certain number theories with Trinity and defend, among other things, the Filioque. I’m not saying his arguments are wrong, but they do seem out of place.
The book is written from a Roman Catholic perspective, so readers should be aware of that.
August 12, 2023
Making a quick review of this book is rather difficult since, while reading it, I could almost hear synapses firing in my brain. It covers so much covering some aspects of beauty that I had grasped intuitively but subliminally. It was putting pieces together in a coherent fashion what I had feebly tried to understand.
My former atheistic materialism had deadened me to so much that I viewed the world empirically. While I sought wonder, I could not see it in the simple things. The world is a brute fact and there is not directedness, not teleology.
Partly he goes through the Quadrivium, part of what previously formed the basis of Western Civilization, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Subjects underlined by mathematics. He explores these underpinnings in such an enjoyable way, bringing in also the symbolic nature of numbers and really the mystical aspects of the Quadrivium.
The subtitle concerns the re-enchantment of education and this is so accurate since they taught wonders as drudge-work dragging them down to a materialistic view. His familiarity with a range of disciplines, along with his skilled writing, made this a joy to read. I read some of this at Eucharistic Adoration and I could just stop and contemplate what was being imparted to me. There is just so much here in a relatively short book.
My former atheistic materialism had deadened me to so much that I viewed the world empirically. While I sought wonder, I could not see it in the simple things. The world is a brute fact and there is not directedness, not teleology.
Partly he goes through the Quadrivium, part of what previously formed the basis of Western Civilization, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Subjects underlined by mathematics. He explores these underpinnings in such an enjoyable way, bringing in also the symbolic nature of numbers and really the mystical aspects of the Quadrivium.
The subtitle concerns the re-enchantment of education and this is so accurate since they taught wonders as drudge-work dragging them down to a materialistic view. His familiarity with a range of disciplines, along with his skilled writing, made this a joy to read. I read some of this at Eucharistic Adoration and I could just stop and contemplate what was being imparted to me. There is just so much here in a relatively short book.
November 21, 2023
Easily one of the best books on classical education, and it covers a greater spectrum of topics within its remarkably succinct 143 pages than most comparable tomes. In fact, it's almost a perfect book, aside from my disagreements with Caldecott's Roman Catholic theology. This should be mandatory reading for liberal arts students in high school and college.
November 7, 2023
“Mathematics connects directly with theology.”
#sotrue
#sotrue
September 2, 2024
Although it is by no means his main point in the book, Caldecott has provided one of the best explanations I have seen for both the beauty and importance of mathematics from a Christian worldview. The work overall is fascinating and thought-provoking, yet accessible to a wide range of readers.
October 27, 2018
The Quadrivium - Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music/Harmonics. Symbolism. Poetic knowledge. Order. Hierarchy. The ancient and medieval mindset.
There were so many ideas in this book that were new to me, that I didn’t yet have a “hook” to hang them on. Oftentimes, I found myself scratching my head because this viewpoint is SO different from the one we’re all swimming in. I’ll have to reread this, probably several times in order to truly understand. I’m intrigued, though.
Surprisingly, several times he mentions Charles Taylor and his book A Secular Age, which I just finished. That was unexpected! I love when the books I read “speak” to each other.
I’m not going to dismiss this perspective just because it is unfamiliar to me. I believe there is something important here. I just need more preparation in order to grasp it.
Some favorite quotes:
“No wonder students come to a college education expecting nothing more than a set of paper qualifications that will enable them to earn a decent salary. The idea that they might be there to grow as human beings, to be inducted into an ancient culture, to become somehow more than they are already, is alien to them. They expect instant answers, but they have no deep questions. The great questions have not yet been woken in them. The process of education requires us to become open, receptive, curious, and humble in the face of what we do not know. The world is a fabric woven of mysteries, and a mystery is a provocation to our humanity that cannot be dissolved by googling a few more bits of information.”
“The ‘purpose’ of the quadrivium was to prepare us to contemplate God in an ordered fashion, to take delight in the source of all truth, beauty, and goodness, while the purpose of the trivium was to prepare us for the quadrivium. The ‘purpose’ of the Liberal Arts is therefore to purify the soul, to discipline the attention so that it becomes capable of devotion to God; that is, prayer.”
“As we have seen, observance of the laws of harmony has been traditionally believed to attune the soul to a heavenly ideal. The spheres associated with the planets, representing levels of the universe or the elements in its construction, were thought to be moved by angels. Each sang a certain note, together expressing the harmony of the universe; a harmony that may be transmitted through music to the human soul.”
“A disenchanted world is one viewed through the eyes of reason when reason is looking downward.”
There were so many ideas in this book that were new to me, that I didn’t yet have a “hook” to hang them on. Oftentimes, I found myself scratching my head because this viewpoint is SO different from the one we’re all swimming in. I’ll have to reread this, probably several times in order to truly understand. I’m intrigued, though.
Surprisingly, several times he mentions Charles Taylor and his book A Secular Age, which I just finished. That was unexpected! I love when the books I read “speak” to each other.
I’m not going to dismiss this perspective just because it is unfamiliar to me. I believe there is something important here. I just need more preparation in order to grasp it.
Some favorite quotes:
“No wonder students come to a college education expecting nothing more than a set of paper qualifications that will enable them to earn a decent salary. The idea that they might be there to grow as human beings, to be inducted into an ancient culture, to become somehow more than they are already, is alien to them. They expect instant answers, but they have no deep questions. The great questions have not yet been woken in them. The process of education requires us to become open, receptive, curious, and humble in the face of what we do not know. The world is a fabric woven of mysteries, and a mystery is a provocation to our humanity that cannot be dissolved by googling a few more bits of information.”
“The ‘purpose’ of the quadrivium was to prepare us to contemplate God in an ordered fashion, to take delight in the source of all truth, beauty, and goodness, while the purpose of the trivium was to prepare us for the quadrivium. The ‘purpose’ of the Liberal Arts is therefore to purify the soul, to discipline the attention so that it becomes capable of devotion to God; that is, prayer.”
“As we have seen, observance of the laws of harmony has been traditionally believed to attune the soul to a heavenly ideal. The spheres associated with the planets, representing levels of the universe or the elements in its construction, were thought to be moved by angels. Each sang a certain note, together expressing the harmony of the universe; a harmony that may be transmitted through music to the human soul.”
“A disenchanted world is one viewed through the eyes of reason when reason is looking downward.”
July 22, 2013
Stratford Caldecott presents his treatise for a trivium/quadrivium education altered to fit our day and time in his book Beauty for Truth's Sake.
He sets forth his thesis (which is grounded in a Catholic background) in the opening pages by emphasizing that since God is the one who created the world and God the Son (the Logos) is the author of its beauty and order, it is only by a right relationship and seeking after them that individuals can understand the depths of the beauty in order of the world around them and thereby reconcile faith and reason and join in the harmony of the symphony of THE Maestro.
He points out the symbols of God and the Trinity in each of the disciplines of the quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Through these chapters he assumes a familiarity in his readers of the ancient scholars and teachings (Plato, Aristotle, the Pythagoreans).
Considering the possibility that we can find in mathematics and music different ways in which God reveals himself to his creation is exciting and mind-boggling.
Caldecott's solution for better education seems to be a marrying of faith and reason with liturgy (prayer and praises of thanksgiving for life coupled with the sacrifice of one's self) as the center of all. He concludes that we cannot have faith and reason alone and expect to succeed...there must be love as well.
While I see his points and agree with much of what he says, I find his solution to be unrealistic in a fallen world. He alludes to this failure in his conclusion but never actually addresses it. He does make an excellent point that those who seek knowledge apart from a relationship with the Creator of knowledge miss out on the beauty of truth.
He sets forth his thesis (which is grounded in a Catholic background) in the opening pages by emphasizing that since God is the one who created the world and God the Son (the Logos) is the author of its beauty and order, it is only by a right relationship and seeking after them that individuals can understand the depths of the beauty in order of the world around them and thereby reconcile faith and reason and join in the harmony of the symphony of THE Maestro.
He points out the symbols of God and the Trinity in each of the disciplines of the quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Through these chapters he assumes a familiarity in his readers of the ancient scholars and teachings (Plato, Aristotle, the Pythagoreans).
Considering the possibility that we can find in mathematics and music different ways in which God reveals himself to his creation is exciting and mind-boggling.
Caldecott's solution for better education seems to be a marrying of faith and reason with liturgy (prayer and praises of thanksgiving for life coupled with the sacrifice of one's self) as the center of all. He concludes that we cannot have faith and reason alone and expect to succeed...there must be love as well.
While I see his points and agree with much of what he says, I find his solution to be unrealistic in a fallen world. He alludes to this failure in his conclusion but never actually addresses it. He does make an excellent point that those who seek knowledge apart from a relationship with the Creator of knowledge miss out on the beauty of truth.
May 27, 2023
Read again, Spring 2023. Took better notes.
Read for Quadrivium at UD, Spring 2022. Good book. At times the connection between arithmetic and theology was strained (analogies to the trinity, incarnation) but other than some incoherent parts here and there it was overall a breathtaking book. A lot going on in only 145 pages. The overall goal is to look at how the Liberal arts (especially the Quadrivium) imply the interconnectedness and beauty of reality, but also of a cosmos that must take into account poetical and theological dimensions to be complete. One of the best quotes from the book, which sort of summarizes it's "mood" is this one:
"The best way to put this might be that the Christian conception freedom is larger and fuller than the modern conception for it includes both vertical and horizontal dimensions...a popular misconception has it that medieval man thought the world was flat, and modern science gave us a round world floating in an infinite space. But the truth is almost the opposite of this. Medieval man inhabited a three-dimensional cosmos which has now been largely replaced by a flat universe, with no ontological depth." (p. 139)
Read for Quadrivium at UD, Spring 2022. Good book. At times the connection between arithmetic and theology was strained (analogies to the trinity, incarnation) but other than some incoherent parts here and there it was overall a breathtaking book. A lot going on in only 145 pages. The overall goal is to look at how the Liberal arts (especially the Quadrivium) imply the interconnectedness and beauty of reality, but also of a cosmos that must take into account poetical and theological dimensions to be complete. One of the best quotes from the book, which sort of summarizes it's "mood" is this one:
"The best way to put this might be that the Christian conception freedom is larger and fuller than the modern conception for it includes both vertical and horizontal dimensions...a popular misconception has it that medieval man thought the world was flat, and modern science gave us a round world floating in an infinite space. But the truth is almost the opposite of this. Medieval man inhabited a three-dimensional cosmos which has now been largely replaced by a flat universe, with no ontological depth." (p. 139)
December 23, 2019
Very good, kind of weird (exactly the kind of weirdness you might expect from a Roman Catholic). The central thrust of this book needs to be shouted through a megaphone: there is a unity to knowledge because all of creation is created by Ultimate Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
Even as I appreciate so much of this book, I cannot help but lament the absence of this kind of literature in the robustly Protestant, Reformed world. We have the Creator-creature distinction too. We have the Trinity too. We have the fathers too. We have reason to reject Enlightenment disenchantment just as much as our Roman Catholic friends.
Even as I appreciate so much of this book, I cannot help but lament the absence of this kind of literature in the robustly Protestant, Reformed world. We have the Creator-creature distinction too. We have the Trinity too. We have the fathers too. We have reason to reject Enlightenment disenchantment just as much as our Roman Catholic friends.
October 12, 2018
Fascinating look at the Quadrivium from a Catholic classical perspective. I really appreciate the fact that it actually tries to seriously grapple with the Quadrivium as an essential part of a classical education. Most modern educators have a tendency to brush the Quadrivium under the rug and treat the subjects, in practice, as unimportant parts of a CLA education. (You can certainly make a case for this approach... but it also flies in the face of the historical CLA tradition which prioritized the Quadrivium over the Trivium.) As a result of this devaluing of the Quadrivium, I've struggled to understand what it means to teach the Quadrivium classically. This book helped me a lot in contextualizing and fitting the Quadrivium into my educational framework.
The biggest thing I didn't care for about the book--which may be more a reflection of myself than the author--is that it's written as more of a reflection than an argument, which means it has a tendency to ramble and jump around. This artistic look at the issue was sometimes more helpful than an argumentative framework (beauty is hard to depict in a strict argument), so I appreciated how the reflective framework assisted the goals of this book. But there were also several places where I wanted more clarity on what the author was arguing for and more practicality in his applications. It's one thing to say that education should present the Quadrivium in a certain light--it's another thing to actually teach it with that light in mind, and that is unfortunately a topic the author never really addressed.
Taken as a whole, I'm glad I read this book. It doesn't address what it looks like to tangibly implement the Quadrivium in an actual classroom, so it wasn't everything I was looking for personally. But as a vision statement for what value the Quadrivium brings to the CLA movement, it's great and I did find that quite valuable as I think through this issue.
Rating: 3.5-4 Stars (Good).
The biggest thing I didn't care for about the book--which may be more a reflection of myself than the author--is that it's written as more of a reflection than an argument, which means it has a tendency to ramble and jump around. This artistic look at the issue was sometimes more helpful than an argumentative framework (beauty is hard to depict in a strict argument), so I appreciated how the reflective framework assisted the goals of this book. But there were also several places where I wanted more clarity on what the author was arguing for and more practicality in his applications. It's one thing to say that education should present the Quadrivium in a certain light--it's another thing to actually teach it with that light in mind, and that is unfortunately a topic the author never really addressed.
Taken as a whole, I'm glad I read this book. It doesn't address what it looks like to tangibly implement the Quadrivium in an actual classroom, so it wasn't everything I was looking for personally. But as a vision statement for what value the Quadrivium brings to the CLA movement, it's great and I did find that quite valuable as I think through this issue.
Rating: 3.5-4 Stars (Good).
July 26, 2020
"If beauty is a key to that lost unity [the fragmentation of education], it is because beauty (according to medieval philosophers) is one of the 'transcendental' properties of being, that is, properties found in absolutely everything that exists. These properties include being, truth, goodness, and unity. Everything, in other words, is true, good, and beautiful in some degree or in some respect. All that exists - because it gives itself, because it means something - is a kind of 'light.' It reveals its own nature and at the same time an aspect of that which gives rise to it. Beauty is the radiance of the true and the good, and it is what attracts us to both" (31).
Stratford Caldecott utilizes history, theology, and philosophy (et al.) to winsomely paint a tapestry of education that prizes beauty for truth's sake, the substance of which is love. I wish everyone invested in classical Christian education could read, wrestle with, and meditate on Caldecott's writing both here and in Beauty in the Word; his work is so much more than a philosophy of education - it is a work of theology, philosophy, history, ontology, and anthropology unified by a pursuit of the reenchantment of the classic trivium and quadrivium.
I will revisit and reread these books often.
Stratford Caldecott utilizes history, theology, and philosophy (et al.) to winsomely paint a tapestry of education that prizes beauty for truth's sake, the substance of which is love. I wish everyone invested in classical Christian education could read, wrestle with, and meditate on Caldecott's writing both here and in Beauty in the Word; his work is so much more than a philosophy of education - it is a work of theology, philosophy, history, ontology, and anthropology unified by a pursuit of the reenchantment of the classic trivium and quadrivium.
I will revisit and reread these books often.
April 1, 2023
I think this book is meant to be digested as a whole, with each chapter slowly and thoughtfully studied. I did not read it that way, so my gaps in understanding are likely due to that. The author is clearly brilliant and writing for an audience who would be familiar with the references he makes: I am not, so that made this a bit of a slog to get through.
That said, the basic thesis as explained in the first chapter or two is something I wholeheartedly endorse, and I'd love to see a layman's abridging of his argument, because I cannot now satisfactorily summarize it for this review.
It bears re-reading, because I believe all academic disciplines, from art to math and beyond, point us to the Creator, and we lose a great deal of motivation to study any of those disciplines when we lose sight of their object. I think Caldecott is making a similar point here that I would like to understand, but it's too low priority at this point in my life for me to invest the time.
That said, the basic thesis as explained in the first chapter or two is something I wholeheartedly endorse, and I'd love to see a layman's abridging of his argument, because I cannot now satisfactorily summarize it for this review.
It bears re-reading, because I believe all academic disciplines, from art to math and beyond, point us to the Creator, and we lose a great deal of motivation to study any of those disciplines when we lose sight of their object. I think Caldecott is making a similar point here that I would like to understand, but it's too low priority at this point in my life for me to invest the time.
October 5, 2023
This one is dense, and at times, I didn't always follow the thread of his argument (which I am sure is a deficiency on my part, not on the writing). I found it to be challenging at times and encouraging at others, and it gave me plenty to think about. I appreciate the exhortation to view the hand of God in all things and reclaim the sense of wonder in creation, and I am unsure of whether my sense that he was sometimes seeing more mysticism and meaning than is really there was valid, or was a byproduct of my modern sensibilities. His focus on the centrality of the Mass to a proper education and his remarks that the seeds of modernity's incoherent worldview were sown at the Reformation are a bit alienating to those of us Christians who are not Roman Catholic, but I didn't feel that those points took up a ton of space in this work.
May 7, 2022
3.5 stars
I’m still chewing on this book. I loved the opening chapters and his thoughts on the issues with modern education. His explanation of what the trivium and quadrivium actually are or should be were helpful. The chapters on math were fascinating although I’m already biased and don’t need to be convinced that math is beautiful.
He lost me in some of the middle chapters. I suspect the bulk of my disagreement lay in his overtly Catholic arguments about sacramentalism and liturgy, though I was still able to appreciate much of what he was saying as a Protestant.
I’m still chewing on this book. I loved the opening chapters and his thoughts on the issues with modern education. His explanation of what the trivium and quadrivium actually are or should be were helpful. The chapters on math were fascinating although I’m already biased and don’t need to be convinced that math is beautiful.
He lost me in some of the middle chapters. I suspect the bulk of my disagreement lay in his overtly Catholic arguments about sacramentalism and liturgy, though I was still able to appreciate much of what he was saying as a Protestant.
March 22, 2020
Forgot I hadn’t written this one up yet. Since finishing, I’ve read several other books on the philosophical side of education but they have all paled in comparison to this. Everything from Pieper is in here, but better. This is staunchly Christian (Catholic) and has my whole heart. If you aren’t convinced yet about liberal arts education, or if you need the joy brought back into it, read this book.
April 15, 2024
I need to re-read this as much of it I felt out of my depth, but my goodness did this change the way I understood the quadrivium, and especially the beauty in mathematics, geometry and architecture. It's influenced how I engage with astronomy and geometry as well. It's a fantastic book and is especially important for those pursuing classical education for their children into the high school levels
June 25, 2024
This book contains beautiful ideas that I cannot fully comprehend. My main takeaway is that we are created to give thanks to God and to enjoy contemplating His beauty, creativity, and consistency every time we study geometry, science, astronomy, etc. because everything stems from Him!
April 4, 2024
Just to the point!
August 16, 2021
I'm so glad books like this cross my path from time to time (usually via my erudite husband). Each page is so dense, yet beautifully written. I could not assimilate all the ideas, but gleaned some gems of philosophy and wisdom that have broadened my intellect and helped me make sense of the world.
July 25, 2025
Woof. About 80% of this book went over my head. It’s overly wordy and makes a lot of assumptions about what the reader knows. However, the author makes some very interesting assertions and keen connections that made me think. I’ll be grappling with these thoughts for a while!
January 30, 2019
A fabulous book about the beauty of the quadrivium and the importance of understanding the world with a sacramental understanding -realizing that there is so much more to see than simply that which meets the eye. The union of faith and reason through love can guide us in whatever study we choose to undertake and the pursuit of any branch of knowledge done for the sake of love will always lead us back to God.
August 15, 2017
Summary: An argument for the unity of faith and reason, beauty and truth, the sciences and the humanities, and for the recovery of education as a lifelong pursuit of wisdom, both rooted in and eventuating in liturgical worship.
As one who has long worked around universities, the fragmentation of knowledge among the disparate disciplines is an established fact. Those who teach in the humanities, and in the sciences often hold each other in mutual suspicion if not contempt, and speak in languages often unintelligible to each other. One of the few things that unites a number of these people is a shared suspicion toward religious faith (sometimes, but not always, warranted by stupid or wicked things done in God’s name).
In this work, Stratford Caldecott contends for an ancient, and yet contemporary vision of a restored unity of knowledge that brings together arts and humanities, math and the sciences, the beautiful and the true, reason and faith in a “re-enchantment” of education that leads to wisdom, and worship. He writes in his Introduction:
“I believe it is possible to remain an active learner throughout life, and yet to maintain a moral compass in good working order. But vital though they are, adaptability and ethics are not enough by themselves. There is a structural flaw in our education that we need to overcome. It is related to a profound malaise in our civilization, which by progressive stages has slipped into a way of thinking and living that is dualistic in character. The divisions between arts and sciences, between faith and reason, between nature and grace, have a common root. In particular, our struggle to reconcile religious faith with modern science is symptomatic of a failure to understand the full scope of human reason and its true grandeur” (p. 12).
Caldecott would argue that our modern fragmented education divorces meaning from fact, dooming the humanities to solipsism and the sciences to sterility. He would argue, along with Dorothy Sayers (in The Lost Tools of Learning) for a restoration of the trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, and an adaptation of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, expanded for additional disciplines). He believes that the key to the unity of these disciplines is beauty, which serves as a pointer to truth, as well as goodness. He connects the recovery of the poetic imagination with its focus on symbol to the recognition of the symbolic in the scientific study of the natural world, opening us to the wonder of what is beyond. He explores the beauty and symbolism in math and geometry, the structure and beauty of music, and concludes with how this “re-enchanted” cosmology finds its consummation in liturgy.
What I most appreciated in this work is the sense of the recovery of wonder in our inquiry. In the modern academy, it seems that one of the prices paid for advancing in proficiency, whether in “getting good data” in science, or in applying critical theory to historical events or literary works is the loss of wonder–the joy of a good story, admiration for a historical figure, appreciation of the structure of the cosmos. Certainly this is not always so, but to see the wide-eyed wonder of young scholars replaced by cynicism is grievous whenever it happens, and I cannot help but think that the educational flaws Caldecott critiques contribute to this loss.
Where Caldecott may be critiqued is in his “Christian Platonism” that views our language, our numbers, our physical world pointing to a world beyond–the world of forms, ideas, perhaps all found in the mind or person of God. I have to confess that I don’t have the philosophical wherewithal to critique or defend this idea, and I haven’t thought of things in quite these terms. I do believe that all human artistry, and the artistry of the physical world is a reflection of the Great Artist in a general sense. But I’m not as sure about the effort to “symbolize” all physical reality as a signifier of transcendent reality. There is something that feels as if it could be forced to me, akin to those who try to find some spiritual lesson in everything and sometimes reach some pretty wacky conclusions. I think I’d rather be open to beauty where I find it, to be attentive to what it points toward, and aware that we sing God’s songs, and think his thoughts after Him.
I’m not sure if that makes me a Christian Platonist or not. And perhaps that points to the goodness of this book, that it is making me think and re-examine my own understanding. It makes me think about how I relate goodness, truth, and beauty, how it is that I can claim reason and faith are not at odds and that there is an underlying unity to all knowledge. It poses the question to me in my work of how I can claim to suggest that the integration of faith, learning, and practice are a possibility in the modern university, and not just a slogan. Most of all, it inspires me afresh to think of how wonder might lead to doxology.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
As one who has long worked around universities, the fragmentation of knowledge among the disparate disciplines is an established fact. Those who teach in the humanities, and in the sciences often hold each other in mutual suspicion if not contempt, and speak in languages often unintelligible to each other. One of the few things that unites a number of these people is a shared suspicion toward religious faith (sometimes, but not always, warranted by stupid or wicked things done in God’s name).
In this work, Stratford Caldecott contends for an ancient, and yet contemporary vision of a restored unity of knowledge that brings together arts and humanities, math and the sciences, the beautiful and the true, reason and faith in a “re-enchantment” of education that leads to wisdom, and worship. He writes in his Introduction:
“I believe it is possible to remain an active learner throughout life, and yet to maintain a moral compass in good working order. But vital though they are, adaptability and ethics are not enough by themselves. There is a structural flaw in our education that we need to overcome. It is related to a profound malaise in our civilization, which by progressive stages has slipped into a way of thinking and living that is dualistic in character. The divisions between arts and sciences, between faith and reason, between nature and grace, have a common root. In particular, our struggle to reconcile religious faith with modern science is symptomatic of a failure to understand the full scope of human reason and its true grandeur” (p. 12).
Caldecott would argue that our modern fragmented education divorces meaning from fact, dooming the humanities to solipsism and the sciences to sterility. He would argue, along with Dorothy Sayers (in The Lost Tools of Learning) for a restoration of the trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, and an adaptation of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, expanded for additional disciplines). He believes that the key to the unity of these disciplines is beauty, which serves as a pointer to truth, as well as goodness. He connects the recovery of the poetic imagination with its focus on symbol to the recognition of the symbolic in the scientific study of the natural world, opening us to the wonder of what is beyond. He explores the beauty and symbolism in math and geometry, the structure and beauty of music, and concludes with how this “re-enchanted” cosmology finds its consummation in liturgy.
What I most appreciated in this work is the sense of the recovery of wonder in our inquiry. In the modern academy, it seems that one of the prices paid for advancing in proficiency, whether in “getting good data” in science, or in applying critical theory to historical events or literary works is the loss of wonder–the joy of a good story, admiration for a historical figure, appreciation of the structure of the cosmos. Certainly this is not always so, but to see the wide-eyed wonder of young scholars replaced by cynicism is grievous whenever it happens, and I cannot help but think that the educational flaws Caldecott critiques contribute to this loss.
Where Caldecott may be critiqued is in his “Christian Platonism” that views our language, our numbers, our physical world pointing to a world beyond–the world of forms, ideas, perhaps all found in the mind or person of God. I have to confess that I don’t have the philosophical wherewithal to critique or defend this idea, and I haven’t thought of things in quite these terms. I do believe that all human artistry, and the artistry of the physical world is a reflection of the Great Artist in a general sense. But I’m not as sure about the effort to “symbolize” all physical reality as a signifier of transcendent reality. There is something that feels as if it could be forced to me, akin to those who try to find some spiritual lesson in everything and sometimes reach some pretty wacky conclusions. I think I’d rather be open to beauty where I find it, to be attentive to what it points toward, and aware that we sing God’s songs, and think his thoughts after Him.
I’m not sure if that makes me a Christian Platonist or not. And perhaps that points to the goodness of this book, that it is making me think and re-examine my own understanding. It makes me think about how I relate goodness, truth, and beauty, how it is that I can claim reason and faith are not at odds and that there is an underlying unity to all knowledge. It poses the question to me in my work of how I can claim to suggest that the integration of faith, learning, and practice are a possibility in the modern university, and not just a slogan. Most of all, it inspires me afresh to think of how wonder might lead to doxology.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
August 11, 2021
It shouldn't take anyone this long to read the book. But It did for me, and that's okay. It was a pick up and put down again book. But always had very interesting points to be made. Like another reviewer, I feel smarter AND dumber after reading this book. Ha!
Recommend!
Recommend!
December 7, 2023
An inspired look at how the object of our education ought to be different than what it is now; we ought to engage the soul through beauty, liturgy, and glimpses of the world's ontological depth. I found some of the math examples in the book to be a bit simplistic and/or forced, but that actually challenges me to find my own examples for my own edification and for that of my students. I suppose the book could have been a bit more focused in its writing - I found it to be a bit rambly at times. However, it has certainly inspired me to move past the "isn't that cool?" phrase that I use in my classroom and instead attempt to make direct connections between mathematical/scientific content and pieces of the divine nature.
My highlights:
• “The principle remains the same: knowledge is its own end-"worth possessing for what it is, and not merely for what it does. “It is not to be valued for the power it gives us over nature, or even for the moral improvement it may bring about in us (even if these things may flow from it). It is to be valued for its beauty.”
• “"The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful." He meant, of course, what is objectively beautiful. We have been taught that beauty is a matter of feeling. That is not entirely wrong. The perception of beauty has to do with feelings, but this does not mean it is "purely subjective." Feelings, if properly refined and educated, can help us tell the difference between true and false.”
• “Rhythm, harmony, and melody—the subject of formal study at a more mature stage of a child's growth-must from the earliest age penetrate deeply into mind and soul through imitation and natural enjoyment. Only in this way, by ordering the soul in harmony and giving it a sense of the meaning of proportion and relationship, can it be induced later to become fully rational, and to derive pleasure from the theoretic contemplation of ideas. The road to reason leads through the ordering of the soul, which implies the necessity of an education in love, in discernment, and in virtue.”
• “Werner Heisenberg writes that "modern physics has definitely decided in favour of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms and ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language."
• “the point from which the circle begins or from which it projects is the Father, the line that extends from the point to make the radius or diameter represents the Son, and the circle made by swinging the radius around represents the Holy Spirit. Then pi could be read as describing the relationship between the Persons, a relationship that is infinitely fruitful and never ending.”
• “Speculations like those I have mentioned in this chapter will appear forced to many. Yet we must return to the central idea that God's archetypal forms or Ideas are inevitably found within nature at every level, reflected with greater or lesser degrees of accuracy. That is not pantheism but Christian Platonism, perfectly compatible with the insights of theology and the revelations of scripture.”
• “The result [of modern educational reforms] has been an intellectual anarchy imperfectly controlled by the crude methods of the examination system and of payment by results. The mind of the student is overwhelmed and dazed by the volume of new knowledge which is being accumulated by the labour of specialists, while the necessity for using education as a stepping-stone to a profitable career leaves him little time to stop and think. And the same is true of the teacher, who has become a kind of civil servant tied to a routine over which he can have little control.”
• “A popular misconception has it that medieval man thought the world was flat, and modern science gave us a round world floating in an infinite space. But the truth is almost the opposite of this. Medieval man inhabited a three-dimensional cosmos which has now been largely replaced by a flat universe, with no ontological depth. It is not a question of size, or even of infinite spaces. An infinite field is still essentially flat. In pure modernity there can be no up or down, no getting closer to hell or heaven, and there are no sacred places and times which participate in the divine.”
My highlights:
• “The principle remains the same: knowledge is its own end-"worth possessing for what it is, and not merely for what it does. “It is not to be valued for the power it gives us over nature, or even for the moral improvement it may bring about in us (even if these things may flow from it). It is to be valued for its beauty.”
• “"The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful." He meant, of course, what is objectively beautiful. We have been taught that beauty is a matter of feeling. That is not entirely wrong. The perception of beauty has to do with feelings, but this does not mean it is "purely subjective." Feelings, if properly refined and educated, can help us tell the difference between true and false.”
• “Rhythm, harmony, and melody—the subject of formal study at a more mature stage of a child's growth-must from the earliest age penetrate deeply into mind and soul through imitation and natural enjoyment. Only in this way, by ordering the soul in harmony and giving it a sense of the meaning of proportion and relationship, can it be induced later to become fully rational, and to derive pleasure from the theoretic contemplation of ideas. The road to reason leads through the ordering of the soul, which implies the necessity of an education in love, in discernment, and in virtue.”
• “Werner Heisenberg writes that "modern physics has definitely decided in favour of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms and ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language."
• “the point from which the circle begins or from which it projects is the Father, the line that extends from the point to make the radius or diameter represents the Son, and the circle made by swinging the radius around represents the Holy Spirit. Then pi could be read as describing the relationship between the Persons, a relationship that is infinitely fruitful and never ending.”
• “Speculations like those I have mentioned in this chapter will appear forced to many. Yet we must return to the central idea that God's archetypal forms or Ideas are inevitably found within nature at every level, reflected with greater or lesser degrees of accuracy. That is not pantheism but Christian Platonism, perfectly compatible with the insights of theology and the revelations of scripture.”
• “The result [of modern educational reforms] has been an intellectual anarchy imperfectly controlled by the crude methods of the examination system and of payment by results. The mind of the student is overwhelmed and dazed by the volume of new knowledge which is being accumulated by the labour of specialists, while the necessity for using education as a stepping-stone to a profitable career leaves him little time to stop and think. And the same is true of the teacher, who has become a kind of civil servant tied to a routine over which he can have little control.”
• “A popular misconception has it that medieval man thought the world was flat, and modern science gave us a round world floating in an infinite space. But the truth is almost the opposite of this. Medieval man inhabited a three-dimensional cosmos which has now been largely replaced by a flat universe, with no ontological depth. It is not a question of size, or even of infinite spaces. An infinite field is still essentially flat. In pure modernity there can be no up or down, no getting closer to hell or heaven, and there are no sacred places and times which participate in the divine.”
December 16, 2018
"Beauty for Truth's Sake" is a celebration of God's cosmic order which was the foundation for all education in ancient and medieval times. This book is an opportunity for the reader to join Caldecott in prayerful wonder of the Logos who is the Word, Pattern, and Wisdom of God, who shines His light upon all things. The Logos, so argues Caldecott, was incarnated as a physical, human being and links God's very mind to humans and humans to God's very mind. Through the Author of Life we have the eyes to see the patterns of love that God has left for us in absolutely everything.
This is a book to slowly savor. Caldecott begins with an evaluation of modern education, noting that it has severed learning from cosmic order. Without cosmic order, school becomes a factory, producing people who are less human because they've not been led to love; they've been taught subjects which society has deemed "useful." There's been a fragmentation of the modern mind; we've lost our way, so a ressourcement is necessary. Caldecott directs our attention to the cathedral schools.
The Trivium and Quadrivium were not "subjects" for the medieval students; they were ways or principles. The medieval student was not expected to master information, but to learn how to reason and then see how Reason is woven into the cosmos. This book is primarily concerned with the Quadrivium, because Caldecott is demonstrating the wonder that we have lost when we sever arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music from God. To do this he goes back to the marvelous Pythagoreans and Platonists whose discoveries were adopted by Christian theologians and transformed our world. It was they who showed how all the academic paths lead to the highest pursuit of all: theology.
Caldecott is fond of Pythagoras and his school, and devotes many pages to demonstration of the cosmic order of mathematics. From the spiritual symbolism of numbers to the wonders of the "Golden Section," Caldecott demonstrates that numbers are only "dry" because everything from counting to geometry has been divorced from mysticism. Likewise, he proceeds from arithmetic to geometry, astronomy and music to demonstrate the enchanting wonder that the ancients experienced when they appreciated these principles.
Perhaps the major background argument of the book is found on page 122 when Caldecott introduces the medieval philosophical approaches of nominalism and realism. Realism accepted that objects, individuals, concepts had a reality of their own distinct from the things they qualify. Nominalists (following Duns Scotus) argued that the only reality we can discuss is that of individual things; ideas are labels we stick onto bits of reality. Well, the nominalists paved the way for the thought of the Reformation, Descartes, and the Enlightenment. Since the 14th century, the belief in a divine cosmic order has been less and less important to human civilization.
We therefore end up where we are now: a "flat earth." The medievals saw our existence as both horizontal and vertical - that is, we interacted with other people and with the Logos of God Himself. People today have only a horizontal notion of existence; there is no higher order for humanity is not a part of a pattern or rhythm, they are simply a mistake at worst or a separate type of creature at best. Nominalism has exerted such an enormous influence, but most don't even realize it. It has led to our modern mentality, a mentality that sees no beauty in numbers, no mysticism in geometry, no divine message in the stars, and no heaven in music. Everything is separated, fragmented, flat - from our buildings to our philosophy to our education to ourselves. We cannot just return to the Middle Ages, but we can renew our celebration of Christian culture in the West, and this is what Caldecott hazards as practical application at the end: through liturgy (prayer) and education, show young people the richness of this tradition, and allow them to enter into it.
There is so much more to this surprising and deeply spiritual book that I can possibly say in a short review.
This is a book to slowly savor. Caldecott begins with an evaluation of modern education, noting that it has severed learning from cosmic order. Without cosmic order, school becomes a factory, producing people who are less human because they've not been led to love; they've been taught subjects which society has deemed "useful." There's been a fragmentation of the modern mind; we've lost our way, so a ressourcement is necessary. Caldecott directs our attention to the cathedral schools.
The Trivium and Quadrivium were not "subjects" for the medieval students; they were ways or principles. The medieval student was not expected to master information, but to learn how to reason and then see how Reason is woven into the cosmos. This book is primarily concerned with the Quadrivium, because Caldecott is demonstrating the wonder that we have lost when we sever arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music from God. To do this he goes back to the marvelous Pythagoreans and Platonists whose discoveries were adopted by Christian theologians and transformed our world. It was they who showed how all the academic paths lead to the highest pursuit of all: theology.
Caldecott is fond of Pythagoras and his school, and devotes many pages to demonstration of the cosmic order of mathematics. From the spiritual symbolism of numbers to the wonders of the "Golden Section," Caldecott demonstrates that numbers are only "dry" because everything from counting to geometry has been divorced from mysticism. Likewise, he proceeds from arithmetic to geometry, astronomy and music to demonstrate the enchanting wonder that the ancients experienced when they appreciated these principles.
Perhaps the major background argument of the book is found on page 122 when Caldecott introduces the medieval philosophical approaches of nominalism and realism. Realism accepted that objects, individuals, concepts had a reality of their own distinct from the things they qualify. Nominalists (following Duns Scotus) argued that the only reality we can discuss is that of individual things; ideas are labels we stick onto bits of reality. Well, the nominalists paved the way for the thought of the Reformation, Descartes, and the Enlightenment. Since the 14th century, the belief in a divine cosmic order has been less and less important to human civilization.
We therefore end up where we are now: a "flat earth." The medievals saw our existence as both horizontal and vertical - that is, we interacted with other people and with the Logos of God Himself. People today have only a horizontal notion of existence; there is no higher order for humanity is not a part of a pattern or rhythm, they are simply a mistake at worst or a separate type of creature at best. Nominalism has exerted such an enormous influence, but most don't even realize it. It has led to our modern mentality, a mentality that sees no beauty in numbers, no mysticism in geometry, no divine message in the stars, and no heaven in music. Everything is separated, fragmented, flat - from our buildings to our philosophy to our education to ourselves. We cannot just return to the Middle Ages, but we can renew our celebration of Christian culture in the West, and this is what Caldecott hazards as practical application at the end: through liturgy (prayer) and education, show young people the richness of this tradition, and allow them to enter into it.
There is so much more to this surprising and deeply spiritual book that I can possibly say in a short review.
Read
July 18, 2025A Number of Quotes Wherein I try to outline the argument of the book through them:
"The point here is simply that we are living in an era shaped by philosophical battles that most of us are unaware ever took place" (123)
"Modern culture has disenchanted the world by disenchanting numbers" (7)
"Concrete and cement by their very nature represent the brutality of modernism—the reduction of the world to particles in order to force it into shapes of our own devising...If we look at a modern city...it's underlying philosophy becomes more evident. It is a place where too many obvious features express the desire to control and manipulate, to herd and to standardize."(99)
"Freedom of the Liberal Arts consists in their not being disposable for purposes, that they do not need to be legitimated by a social function, by being 'work'. As Josef Pieper argues, the reduction of the liberal to the servile arts would mean the proletarianization of the world" (90)
"The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful" - Socrates (The Republic III.403c)
"Quadrivium...arithmetic being pure number, geometry number in space, music number in time, astronomy number in both space and time" (24)
"While we cannot step out history [to merely return to the past]—and Christianity confirms that view, by redeeming history!—history's forward moments, its great creative leaps, often involve retrievals of insights and ideas from the past (ressourcement). What we need to retrieve now is the hierarchy of levels of reality" (138)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. But I'll start with the negatives: I think the author rightly blames nominalism but tries to shift the blame to the Reformation. I actually think the best of the Reformation rejects nominalism (though certain strands of Protestantism do—I'm looking at you Zwingli). Further, I am guarded about his reliance on Pythagoreans. I will need to read more, but I think you can acknowledge they made great advances in the beauty of numbers without needing to call yourself a Christian Pythagorean (as the author does multiple times).
In terms of what is good, he convinced me that the trivium needs the quadrivium as a renewed look on numbers as sacred symbols. His chapter where he walks through 1-12 is good (but Augustine does this better in the City of God).
I fully agree that the disenchanting that occurred in the 'Enlightenment' was not based on any more reasonable grounds but on presuppositional grounds (that is, the bifurcation of faith and reason was by no means a necessity and in no sense has reason (or science) displaced or explained away faith. And further, I think he is exactly correct that our cities look so ugly because we have failed to take seriously numbers as symbols. We have created solely with ideas of pragmatism and efficiency and have effectively created a wasteland—no one can answer what it is we are try to efficiently 'do'? The malaise of modernity is in its ever-accelerating meaninglessness. We are going nowhere faster by the day.
But, I think he also right that we cannot return to the Middle Ages even if that was preferable (and it likely isn't, it certainly wasn't a utopia). But we must synthesize the apparent Hegelian dialectic of 'faith' and 'reason' (a la Charles Taylor). I think he's right on this point, and that poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins have a lot to offer us in this regard.
There is certainly more to say, but I'm not quite smart enough to explain it. There are doubtless other issues with this work, but I think it begins to move us in the right direction.
"The point here is simply that we are living in an era shaped by philosophical battles that most of us are unaware ever took place" (123)
"Modern culture has disenchanted the world by disenchanting numbers" (7)
"Concrete and cement by their very nature represent the brutality of modernism—the reduction of the world to particles in order to force it into shapes of our own devising...If we look at a modern city...it's underlying philosophy becomes more evident. It is a place where too many obvious features express the desire to control and manipulate, to herd and to standardize."(99)
"Freedom of the Liberal Arts consists in their not being disposable for purposes, that they do not need to be legitimated by a social function, by being 'work'. As Josef Pieper argues, the reduction of the liberal to the servile arts would mean the proletarianization of the world" (90)
"The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful" - Socrates (The Republic III.403c)
"Quadrivium...arithmetic being pure number, geometry number in space, music number in time, astronomy number in both space and time" (24)
"While we cannot step out history [to merely return to the past]—and Christianity confirms that view, by redeeming history!—history's forward moments, its great creative leaps, often involve retrievals of insights and ideas from the past (ressourcement). What we need to retrieve now is the hierarchy of levels of reality" (138)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. But I'll start with the negatives: I think the author rightly blames nominalism but tries to shift the blame to the Reformation. I actually think the best of the Reformation rejects nominalism (though certain strands of Protestantism do—I'm looking at you Zwingli). Further, I am guarded about his reliance on Pythagoreans. I will need to read more, but I think you can acknowledge they made great advances in the beauty of numbers without needing to call yourself a Christian Pythagorean (as the author does multiple times).
In terms of what is good, he convinced me that the trivium needs the quadrivium as a renewed look on numbers as sacred symbols. His chapter where he walks through 1-12 is good (but Augustine does this better in the City of God).
I fully agree that the disenchanting that occurred in the 'Enlightenment' was not based on any more reasonable grounds but on presuppositional grounds (that is, the bifurcation of faith and reason was by no means a necessity and in no sense has reason (or science) displaced or explained away faith. And further, I think he is exactly correct that our cities look so ugly because we have failed to take seriously numbers as symbols. We have created solely with ideas of pragmatism and efficiency and have effectively created a wasteland—no one can answer what it is we are try to efficiently 'do'? The malaise of modernity is in its ever-accelerating meaninglessness. We are going nowhere faster by the day.
But, I think he also right that we cannot return to the Middle Ages even if that was preferable (and it likely isn't, it certainly wasn't a utopia). But we must synthesize the apparent Hegelian dialectic of 'faith' and 'reason' (a la Charles Taylor). I think he's right on this point, and that poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins have a lot to offer us in this regard.
There is certainly more to say, but I'm not quite smart enough to explain it. There are doubtless other issues with this work, but I think it begins to move us in the right direction.
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