The Philosophy of Great Hearts Christos

The Latin motto on the lower part of the Great Hearts Christos crest—via, veritas, vita—is translated as “the way, the truth, the life” and refers to Christ’s description of himself in John 14:6:I am the way and the truth and the life.”

We believe the Lord desires well-educated men and women who have developed the habits of mind and heart of which they are ordered to what is True, Good, and Beautiful and by which they are able to carry on His work. Educating is an act of love and ennobles human dignity. Scholars will be prepared for a lifetime of learning and a lifetime of service to the Lord, the Church, our neighbors, and society. They will look forward with confidence and expectation to the future and what we cannot yet see, precisely because of what we know Christ has accomplished and promised.

In Christ, culture gains height, depth, and breadth that it could not have enjoyed otherwise. Our knowledge of who we are is ultimately revealed in Christ. Our dignity is uniquely elevated through the Incarnation. Our purposes are forged by His purposes, which are His Father’s. Our love is filled and directed by the Spirit. Our work consists in completing Christ’s work.

Christian academies embrace the classical notion of education, that it is an end unto itself, a completion of our natural affinity for knowledge and wisdom. To learn—to wonder, seek, discover, know, and understand—is inherently good precisely because the human mind, what our Greek forebears called the highest or most divine feature of our humanity, allows us to participate in every level of reality. To understand the order of things is the foundational way we participate in that order. In that light, education is comparable to health, beauty, or love. Each is an intrinsic good.

As Christians, we especially understand that there is an inherent relational nature between who we are, what we learn, and our calling in Christ. If we say that education completes our natural affinity for what is knowable, we can also say Christ completes our natural desire to know who we are, to know God, and the world we inhabit. His calling to each of us completes the draw that reality has on our natural desire to learn.