Christian Paideia

Vol 1: A History of Christian Education to 500 AD

(From Athens to the Church Fathers)

This first volume takes the reader from Greek and Roman paideia to the early Christian adoption of these educational systems for the Church's own benefit. One of the major achievements of the Church Fathers was to establish the practice and criteria of sifting through the pre-Christian educational system. This led to the establishment of the seven liberal arts of the trivium and quadrivium as the foundation for higher studies in philosophy and theology. This book shows that the Fathers did much more than this, as they brought Greek paideia to loftier purposes and development than the Greeks and Romans could have imagined.