Episode 60: A Living Tradition: Classical Education Without Nostalgia

About this episode

Christopher Perrin and Dr. John Mark Reynolds discuss the renewal of classical education and its implications for modern learning.

Description Christopher Perrin welcomes Dr. John Mark Reynolds for a extensive conversation about the renewal of classical education—and why the term classical often confuses more than it clarifies. Reynolds shares how family life, great teachers, and deep reading (especially C. S. Lewis and Plato) shaped his intellectual and spiritual journey, eventually drawing him into the classical Christian education movement. Together they explore how classical education is not nostalgia or narrow Greco-Roman elitism, but a living tradition rooted in wonder, dialectic, and a “great conversation” that has always been broader than the modern West. The conversation turns to virtue formation and liberal education, arguing that education should prepare students not only for work, but for judgment, sacrifice, and even death. Perrin and Reynolds also address how the classical movement can avoid becoming a guru-driven ideology, how it must remain open to science and modern technological change, and why false dichotomies distort educational debates. The episode closes with Reynolds’ vision for St. Constantine School, a K–16 “grown backward” model that integrates tutorial-style liberal arts education…

People in this episode

Host: Christopher Perrin

Guest: Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Topics covered

• classical education
• virtue formation
• liberal education
• intellectual journey
• modern technological change
• education debates

Keywords

• classical education
• education renewal
• virtue formation
• liberal arts
• C. S. Lewis
• Plato
• St. Constantine School
• modern education
• intellectual journey

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: St. Constantine School

Books & works: C. S. Lewis, Plato

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