Pietas - foundations of counterculture

It may also guide us back toward a leisure-based as opposed to work-based culture, identified by Josef Pieper and many classical education authors as a fundamental necessity for the continuance of Western civilisation.

For the Australian classical education community we have the opportunity to keep first things first. If we are being honest, whilst classical education is an ancient path, it is also a genuinely radical countercultural proposal with potential allies in unlikely places. Many who identify with social justice movements are arguably seeking a community culture oriented in a kind of pietas, honour and love of neighbour. The disconnection and inhumanity of contemporary work-obsessed, materialistic consumer society is resulting in a diverse range of people seeking contemplation and sincere community.

Presently, many Christian schools and institutions are actually indistinguishable from worldly organisations in terms of obvious values and culture. They no longer operate as contemplative communities but as global corporate businesses. It is these modern cultural norms that have become so assimilated into the modern West as to be almost imperceptible that pose the greatest barrier to the Classical education renewal in Australia. It is therefore centrally important that as we delve into ideas of pedagogy and curriculum we also hold to our core a true counterculture founded in pietas.

What does this look like?....Well let this be our Spirit-led challenge.