A Purposeful Curriculum for a Wholistic Education

Year 1 - Live Pure

In first year—the ‘Live Pure’ year—students study the nature and purpose of human beings and the competing ideas posed by Western Civilization on what it means to be a good human and a good man.  We also conduct a survey of ancient history, including the early Mesopotamian empires, ancient Israel, and ancient Greece.

The Great Books curriculum includes:

  • Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Esther, and Psalms

  • Epic of Gilgamesh

  • Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

  • Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

  • Herodotus’ Histories

  • Plato’s The Apology and Phaedo

  • Virgil’s Aeneid

  • Livy’s History of Rome

In addition, for the Spiritual Disciplines Challenge, the cohort will read and discuss a set of books related to living pure.  This may include Passion and Purity, by Elizabeth Eliot, and Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, by Tyler Staton.  The cohort will also memorize and meditate upon six passages of Scripture, practice a prayerful life, and complete a prayer journal.

Each student will complete the 30-day Exodus Challenge.  This is a period of ascetic practice in which the student clears his life of hurry and distraction so that he might give himself to prayer.

Each student will also complete the YouSchool Course.  In this course, the student is challenged to grow in his self-understanding, recognizing his strengths and weaknesses, recounting his story, seeing his goals and dreams.

Finally, each student will complete the Live Pure Project.  In this project, each student sets character goals, then makes a plan and forms a team to achieve those goals.  In setting the goals, the student identifies three people who embody the character traits of Living Pure.  Then the student identifies the habits of life these exemplars embody, and sets goals to embody the same habits.  The student also names an accountability team to keep him on track and assist him in forming these habits.

Year 2 - Work Hard

In Year 2—the ‘Work Hard’ year—students study the spiritual journeys of men and women throughout history as they struggle and seek after God.  We also conduct a survey of Roman and medieval history.

The Great Books curriculum includes the following texts: 

  • The Gospels

  • Acts

  • Augustine’s Confessions

  • Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy

  • Dante’s Divine Comedy

  • The Wisdom of the Desert, by Thomas Merton

  • When the Church Was Young, by Marcellino D'Ambrosio

  • The Forge of Christendom, by Tom Holland

  • The Journey of the Mind to God, by Bonaventure

  • Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis

In addition, for the Spiritual Disciplines Challenge, the cohort will read and discuss a set of books related to working hard, including Spirit of the Disciplines and The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard.  The cohort will also memorize and meditate upon six passages of Scripture, practice a prayerful life, and complete a prayer journal.

Each student will also complete the Work Hard Project.  In this project, each student sets character goals, then makes a plan and forms a team to achieve those goals.  In setting the goals, the student identifies three people who embody the character traits of Working Hard.  Then the student identifies the habits of life these exemplars embody, and sets goals to embody the same habits.  The student also names an accountability team to keep him on track and assist him in forming these habits.

Year 3 - Lead With Courage

In Year 3—the ‘Lead With Courage’ year—students read and discuss many of the great texts wrestling with the deep questions of evil and salvation: What is evil? Where does it come from? Why is there evil? Is there a means of salvation and healing? How can we courageously lead our families and communities into the light in the midst of such darkness?  This is studied in the context of ancient literature.

The Great Books curriculum includes the following texts:

  • On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius

  • Plato’s Gorgias

  • Job

  • Various Psalms

  • Isaiah

  • Daniel

  • The Gospels

  • Acts

  • Ephesians

  • Romans

  • Revelation

  • The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective, by Terence Freitheim

  • Evil and the Justice of God, by N.T. Wright

In addition, for the Spiritual Disciplines Challenge, the cohort will study the thought of N.T. Wright, a skilled New Testament exegete who can provide crucial guidance into understanding the Biblical message. Books to be studied include Surprised by Hope and After You Believe.  The cohort will also memorize and meditate upon six passages of Scripture, practice a prayerful life, and complete a prayer journal.

Each student will also complete the Lead With Courage Project.  For this project, the student will take up the leadership role, and practice servant leadership, within his family and within the local church.

Year 4 - Honor the King

In Year 4—the ‘Honor the King’ year—students continue wrestling with the deep questions of evil and salvation encountered in Year 3, but this time from the perspective of modern literature.

The Great Books curriculum includes the following texts:

  • Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes

  • Second Treatise on Civil Government, by John Locke

  • The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin

  • Civilization and Its Discontents, by Sigmund Freud

  • The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx

  • Short stories by Flannery O’Conner

  • East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

  • The Plague, by Albert Camus

  • Unspeakable, by Os Guinness

  • The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  • Poetry by W.H. Auden, William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot

In addition, for the Spiritual Disciplines Challenge, the cohort will read several books that explore new insights into the challenge of living the Christian life within the modern context.  These books may include New Monasticism, by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, The Weight of Glory and The Abolition of Man, by C.S. Lewis, and others.  The cohort will also memorize and meditate upon six passages of Scripture, practice a prayerful life, and complete a prayer journal.

Each student will also complete the Honor the King Project.  For this project, the student will plan and implement a project designed to further Jesus’ kingdom through service.

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