Lessons from Lewis’s “Learning In War-Time”

In October of 1939, at St. Mary’s Church in Oxford, C.S. Lewis spoke to an audience of undergrads who were questioning the futility of a college education in the midst of a country at war. To them, attending lectures and writing papers bordered on frivolity and selfishness when their fellow countrymen were fighting, not only for their lives but for the fate of Europe as well.

Lewis reminded them that “A man may have to die for his country, but no man must, in an exclusive sense, live for his country.” He goes on to admonish them to remember the difference between the temporal and the eternal. A nation, a party, and yes even a war are all temporal. The Kingdom alone is eternal.

He then outlines three key enemies that are created by the reality of war; the enemy of excitement, the enemy of frustration, and the enemy of fear.

It may not be October of 1939 and we may not be on the precipice of a world war, but if you’ve attended any recent classical conference, you’ve probably been told we are in the midst of a culture war. And I would argue that these three enemies: excitement, frustration, and fear, are still trying their best to shift our focus from our purpose, which is to establish our children in the Christian tradition with the hope that they live flourishing lives for the glory of God.

War itself isn’t bad, and Lewis even states in his essay that he believes entering into World War II was the right choice for England. Similarly, there is a culture war going on and we do find ourselves in the midst of it as educators. Yet, we need to be intentional about recognizing that this war has the potential to get us off-track, to shift our focus, and to distract us from our ultimate telos.

The culture war creates excitement. There are news stories to watch, first-hand accounts of teachers in public schools to read, and social media comments to get lost in. And, it gives us an opportunity to fight amongst ourselves; which alone is kind of exciting. We disagree about which subset of the culture war is most upsetting. We disagree about how to define the culture war. We disagree about the varying responses to the culture war. The list goes on and on. And while I wasn’t around during WWII, I’m sure the same was true then. War provides us with an opportunity to shift our focus to something new, and so we do. I’m reminded of the church in Corinth who found themselves arguing about who to follow, Paul or Apollos. They had lost track of what was most important. The classical movement is doing the same thing. When the majority of our conversations focus on who is responding to the culture war correctly; we’ve gotten off-track. So, while the culture war is all very exciting, it’s also not new and we need to not forget that there is nothing new under the sun. There will always be distractions that keep us from accomplishing the work set before us and the culture war, if given the opportunity, has the potential to become yet another distraction.

The culture war creates frustration. We look at all that is going on and the potential to feel helpless and hopeless bubbles up. There is so much to do, and things are not improving. The possibility that we won’t finish—or that our work will be in vain and forgotten, is looming over us. To this, I will simply state what Lewis said to his undergrads, “Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue…to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment “as to the Lord.” It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for.” I long for the conference where the plenary speaker brings hope and encouragement, rather than fear and frustration. We need tangible reminders of success stories, of teachers who are seeing it work, of lessons that have gone well.

The culture war creates fear. If you’ve sat through a recent plenary talk at any conference you’ve probably walked away with more fear than when you sat down. Fear is real, and there are legitimate things to fear in this world. We fear for our students, for our neighbors, and for our future. But we cannot let the paralysis that fear brings, distract us from the purpose we are called to. Rather than allowing fear to immobilize us or depress us, we should instead allow it to provide us with a healthy dose of reality. We are mortal and this world is temporal. Sometimes, I think we conflate classical Christian education with the salvation of our current culture. We are not the solution. Classical Christian education is not the solution. The world is fallen, and our task is not to build up a heaven on earth. The cities our schools are in are not our heavenly home and they will not satisfy. Yes, the conditions are unfavorable, but we are called to humbly press on; to remember our purpose and to not fall victim to the distractions of excitement, frustration, and fear.