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Speaker BioDr. Brian Phillips is the Director of Training for The Circe Institute (a classical education research institute) and the pastor of Holy Trinity Reformed Church in Concord, NC. He teaches literature at Belmont Abbey College, hosts The Commons podcast, and serves as a fire department EMT.
He is the author/editor of multiple books, including Sunday Mornings: An Introduction to Biblical Worship, The Space Between: A Guide to the Iliad, The Journey Home: A Guide to the Odyssey, and Tales of Wonder.
Brian and his wife, Shannon, have been married for nearly twenty years and homeschool their four children.
Embracing the Struggle: Encouragement for Weary Educators
Bearing responsibility for the education of a child is a high calling, one that brings with it great challenge and the potential for great anxiety. In this talk, Brian Phillips looks to Scripture, Church history, and classic literature, drawing practical lessons to encourage the hearts of educators in the trenches. The struggle will continue, but there is strength available to face it.
Christ Among the Pagans: Christians & Classical Education
The Church father Tertullian famously asked, “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Many conclude that the answer is nothing; an answer which poses problems for classical educators who teach pagan literature from nearly every historical period. So, what are Christians to do with pagan stories? Should Christian students read such books? If so, how should Christian educators engage with such writings? This talk examines Tertullian’s important question in light of Scripture and several classic writings, drawing principles for how Christian educators and their students can better interact with classic literature and ideas.
The Classical Educator as Lifelong Learner
Parents and teachers trying to provide a classical education to their students are in the difficult position of providing what they did not receive themselves. That is, the overwhelming majority of classical educators were not classically educated themselves. So what do we do? This talk explores how classical teachers and homeschooling parents can better prepare themselves to model and provide a classical education for their students by developing habits of lifelong learning.
Trivium & Trinity: Classical Education beyond Dorothy Sayers
Many Christian classical educators started on their journey through Dorothy Sayers’s 1947 essay, The Lost Tools of Learning, which, in recent decades, sparked interest in the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and an attempt to recover education as it once was. But, Dorothy Sayers’s presentation of the Trivium was intended as a beginning, not an end. This talk looks into the Trivium, its educational significance, and its often overlooked theological connections.