Trinitarian Paideia

In classical Greece, education was seen as holistic formation with an idea of excellence in mind: on this account, cultural education was as important as acquisition of knowledge. This understanding of education was called ‘paideia’. What ‘excellence’ might look like was contested and varied through the centuries, depending on the social and political aspirations of the State.

Plato was a key figure in influencing the emerging educational ideals that have been inherited today. Plato’s Socrates argued that learning should be pursued as an end in itself: that understanding the difference between subject areas and the discipline of bringing them into dialogue with each other could enable a moral awareness in learners and even spiritual enlightenment.

Plato’s understanding of the relationship between intellectual development and spiritual enlightenment resonated with the educational instincts of key figures in the early church. They developed their own cultural and formational model. Significantly, the Trinitarian paideia they developed didn’t give up a sense that learning needed to take account of – extend to – the limits of human knowledge in every field grasped on its own terms, but it was equally committed to revelation as inherited by Christian tradition.

It is interesting that Plato’s academy showed surprising diversity: learners came from different countries and backgrounds, including those considered ‘outsiders’, and had women who were integral to the learning community.

This combination of diversity within the learning community, a commitment to inherited revelation and to the limits of human knowledge suggests that there is something in this understanding of education which could be of value in Christian foundation education settings today.