

Thursday evening, the students put on a talent show. We began each day with Matins, celebrated Sext before lunch, and finished with Vespers every afternoon in the Hodges Chapel. I’m very blessed to have been a part of it.”Īs always, the Trinity Term class was punctuated by worship.


“Its academic indicative became a living imperative. Pastor Jon Herr of Chicago observed that covenant epistemology spilled out of the classroom into the living room and lunch tables. She often laughed, surprised at some new facet of the topic.Īs Theopolis president, Peter Leithart, noted on his blog, the week was a “re-initiation into childhood, led by an authoritative guide in childlikeness, Esther Meek.” Meek is an engaging teacher, who takes unfeigned delight in her subject. Once the subsidiaries data come into focus, we might experience a sudden moment of surprised delight, the “Aha moment” of discovery.ĭr. Formulating a theory is like seeing the hidden picture in a Magic Eye. When we try to formulate a scientific theory, we pay attention to the data, but the goal of our experimentation and exploration is to discern the pattern in the data. As we acquire mastery, these elements of piano playing become subsidiary, and our focus turns to the overall skill of playing the piano.Īll knowing ventures move from subsidiaries to focal. Learning to play the piano, we focus on the instrument, our fingers and hands, our foot on the pedal, and the notes on the page. In order to learn something new, we have to master a set of subsidiary facts or skills. One of the central themes of the course was Michael Polanyi’s theory of subsidiary-focal integration. Pastors, students, teachers, an electrician, a city planner, and others from a variety of denominations spent five days at Beeson Divinity School studying covenant epistemology under the tutelage of philosopher Esther Lightcap Meek of Geneva College. Forty men and women came from all over the United States to attend the 2018 Trinity Term course at Theopolis.
