Page 10 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 3 Spring 2013

MEMORIES
On October 13, 1956, Dr. Paul Tillich,
a Harvard professor and one of the pre-
eminent theologians of the 20th century,
visited St. Paul’s School during the
celebration of the centennial. Dr. Tillich
spoke at an academic symposium, which
examined “the church school in our time.”
In his address, “Theology of Education,”
Tillich first offered an analysis of three
principal aims of education – the tech-
nical, the humanistic, and the inducting.
Tillich posited that modern education
in the 20th century focused more exclus-
ively on the technical skills, superficially
connected these with humanistic elements,
and often overlooked the inducting edu-
cation that was central in the medieval
approach to learning.
“The induction of the Middle Ages was
induction into a community of symbols,
in which the answers to the questions of
human existence and its meaning were
embodied,” Tillich wrote. “One can say
that induction was initiation, initiation
into the mystery of human existence!”
As an Episcopal School in the Angli-
can tradition of Christian humanist edu-
cation, St. Paul’s has long embraced the
Christian existentialist approach described
by Tillich, an approach in which critical
questioning, honest doubt, and deep
engagement with symbols and ideas is
foundational for spiritual identity. While
we are more than 60 years removed from
Tillich’s visit to St. Paul’s, the accuracy
of his observation and the poignancy of
his words are still relevant. The “double
emptiness” of modern society is perhaps
more deeply felt now, which makes the
role of the Episcopal school and its re-
covery of the humanistic and inducting
education even more important today.
– Michael Spencer,
Dean of Chapel and Religious Life
The Church School
in Our Time
Paul Tillich (r.) with Eton College Headmaster Robert Birley
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