Educational Breadth

Οἴμαι δὲ πᾶσιν ἀνωμολογῆσθαι τὸν νοῦν ἐχόντων, παίδευσιν τῶν παρ’ ἡμιν ἀγαθῶν εἶναι τὸ πρῶτον· οὐ ταύτην μόνην τὴν εὐγενεστέραν, καὶ ἡμετέραν, ἢ πὰν τὸ έν λόγοις κομψὸν καὶ φιλότιμον ἀτιμάζουσα, μόνης ἔχεται τῆς σωτηρίας, καὶ τοῦ κάλλους τῶν νοουμένων· ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἔξωθεν, ἤν οἱ πολλοὶ Χριστιανῶν διαπτύουσιν, ὡς ἐπίβουλον καὶ σφαλερὰν, καὶ Θεοῦ πόῥῥω βάλλουσαν, κακῶς εἰδοτες. Ὥσπερ γὰρ οὐρανὸν, καὶ γῆν, καὶ ἀέρα, καὶ ὅσα τούτων, οὐκ ἐπειδὴ κακῶς τινες ἐξειλήφασιν, ἀντὶ Θεοῦ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ σέβοντες, διὰ τοῦτο περιφρονητέον· ἀλλ’ ὅσον χρήσιμον αὐτῶν καρπούμενοι πρός τε ζωὴν καὶ ἀπόλαυσιν, ὅσον ἐπικίνδυνον διαφεύγομεν· οὐ τῷ Κτίστῃ τὴν κτίσιν ἐπανιστάντες κατά τοὺς ἄφρονας, ἀλλ’ ἐκ τῶν δημιουργημάρων τὸν Δημιουργὸν καταλαμβάνοντες, καὶ, ὅ φησιν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, αἰχμαλωτίζοντες πᾶν νόημα εἰς χριστόν· ὡς δέ καὶ πυρὸς, καὶ τροφῆς, καὶ σιδήρου, καὶ τῶν ἄλων, οὐδὲν καθ’ ἑαυτὸ χρησιμώτατον ἵσμεν, ἢ βλαβερώτατον, ἀλλ’ ὅπως ἄν δοκῇ τοῖς χρωμένοις· ἥδη δὲ καὶ τῶν ἑρπυστικῶν θηρίων ἔστιν, ἂ τοῖς πρὸς σωτηρίαν φαρμάκοις συνεκεράσαμεν· οὔτω καὶ τούτων, τὸ μὲν ἐξεταστικόν τε καὶ θεωρητικὸν, ἐδεξάμεθα· ὅσον δὲ εἰς δαίμονας φέρει, κα πλάνην, καὶ ἀπωλείας βυθὸν, διεπτύσαμεν· ὅτι μὴ κὰκ τούτων πρός θεοσέβεαιν ὠφελήμεθα ἐκ τοῦ χείρονος τὸ κρεῖττον καταμαθόντες, καὶ τὴν ἀσθένειαν ἐκείνων, ἰσχὺν τοῦ καθ’ ἡμᾶς παίδευσιν, ὅτι τοῦτο δοκεῖ τισιν· ἀλλὰ σκαιοὺς καὶ ἀπαιδεύτους ὑποληπτέον τοὺς οὔτως ἔχοντας, οἱ βούλοιντ’ ἂν ἄπαντας εἶναι καθ’ ἑαυτοὺς, ἵν’ ἐν τῷ κοινῷ τὸ κατ’ αὐτοὺς κρύπτηται, καὶ τοὺς τῆς ἀπαιδευσίας ἐλέγχους διαδιδράσκωσιν.   Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος ὁ Ναζιανζηνός, Λόγος ΜΓ’

I think it would be confessed by all men of sense that education is the first of our goods, and it is more noble, as ours is, when it disdains rhetorical ornaments and glory, and holds only to salvation and the beauty of things of the mind; but it is so even with learning external to us, which many Christians in despising it as a thing treacherous and dangerous, and casting us far from God, judge poorly. For as the heavens and earth and air, and all such things, have been wrongly grasped and the works of God in place of God honoured, the more we should reap what advantage we can from them for our life and enjoyment, while we avoid their dangers, not lifting up creation, as the mindless do, against the Creator, but from the works apprehending the Worker, and, as the divine Apostle says, 'bringing into captivity every thought to Christ.'1 And so as we know that neither fire, nor food, nor iron, nor any other thing, is in itself most useful, or most harmful, except according to the intent of the user, and as medicines have been fashioned even from reptiles, so from learning apart from us we have received insights while spurning idolatry, terror and the pit of destruction. And yet even those latter things have been of aid to us in our religion, for by our contemplation of the worse and the better, their weaknesses strengthen our teaching. So let it be understood that the uncouth and uneducated folk who wish all to be as they themselves are do so only that they may thus hide among the many and avoid detection of their ignorance. Saint Gregory Nazianzus, Oration 43  1 2 Cor 10.5