What Are Liberal Arts?

Living a good life requires critical skills and knowledge. A good life is not something that can be done only by instinct or feelings. In order to live well a person must know God and how He has made the world. New Saint Andrews College equips students by teaching the liberal arts. This specific course opens the way for students to gain fundamental ideas and skills in order to live a robust life for God’s glory. The college believes that only those who know how to live well can lead others. 

Dr. Christopher Schlect, senior fellow of history at NSA, wrote an article on the liberal arts for “Principia”, a journal of Classical Education. In that article, he explains in detail the meaning of the liberal arts. This discussion on the liberal arts highlights why they are so essential. The liberal arts are a map that guides one through life’s various vocations. This time-tested curriculum fostered leaders in the past and continues to do so today.

This time-tested curriculum fostered leaders in the past and continues to do so today.   

The liberal arts was originally divided into seven disciplines: grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry. This program was created during the medieval era by Christians who utilized content from the Greeks and Romans. Over time, they added courses in philosophy, science, literature, and history. To crown the whole program Christians established a course in theology. The foundational elements of this program is linguistic study in Latin and Greek as well as studies in logical reasoning and persuasive arts in Logic and Rhetoric. All these courses combine to create a powerful tool that teaches students the proper way to think about God’s world and communicate this knowledge to others. 

This program of study is called an art because it harnesses the human capacity to reason about the world. Ancient philosophers such as Aristotle believed principles of the world can be discovered through reason and then taught to others. Dr. Schlect, in his article, writes, “Arts are best taught by means of theory, imitation, and practice; and it is the presence of theory that makes an endeavor an art.” In contrast, if you learn something by mere imitation, like playing piano by ear, or if you learn something by experience, like climbing a tree as a child, then neither one of those things is an art. An art is based on principles which means it can be learned and then practiced. 

"Arts are best taught by means of theory, imitation, and practice; and it is the presence of theory that makes an endeavor an art.”

Employing the art in action is key to the whole process of learning. Dr. Schlect writes, “When we define art as ‘productive reason’, we simply echo Aristotle, who classified arts as intellectual virtues. Put another way, art is reason that informs how to do something.” The ability to reason and think about doing something is at the heart of what it means to live a good life in every domain. Do you want to know the best way to build a business? Do you want to be a good wife and mother? Do you want to be a skilled pastor? All of these actions require intellectual thought. 

Dr. Schlect goes on to explain that arts are not valueless. The arts are about using reason to produce something but in doing that action we must consider if it is a good action according to God’s word. He writes, “Thus the reason that informs an art’s productivity is reason that discerns what is good, and it directs an art to a good and proper end.”

There are several different kinds of arts: mechanical arts, fine arts, and others. These are arts because they focus on teaching key ideas about how to produce these particular works. The liberal arts are different from these others because they are about the production of knowledge. 

The liberal arts are foundational to all other arts because learning and knowing comes before other kinds of action can be performed. A person cannot produce anything unless he knows how to gain knowledge. In this way, we see that the liberal arts are a master key that unlocks  many doors of knowledge. 

Dr. Schlect writes, “A liberally educated person becomes the master over his own progress in learning. He is equipped to advance his learning at his own direction rather than at the direction of another.” He adds, “This means that, for the liberally educated person, the whole world of teachers is opened up to him. He is equipped to summon entire libraries of teachers, and their writings, to his service.”

"For the liberally educated person, the whole world of teachers is opened up to him."

God designed the world with crucial principles built in which means that man can study and explore the world in order to gain more usable knowledge. In order to do this exploration properly, key tools are needed so one can find that knowledge in the most accessible and direct method. The liberal arts are the best tools for digging into these foundational principles of knowledge.

The liberal arts are about helping one become a master learner so he can investigate and learn from various circumstances and teachers. Knowing how to learn and having the ability to express that knowledge to others is the mark of one who can live well. This is what NSA offers students: a map for walking in the world that God has designed. This knowledge makes one a leader who can guide others in the path of right living.