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Matthew Reiskytl

Dr. Schuchardt

Core 101: The Good life in the Media Age

07 December 2017

Word Count: 760

Life in the Present

“The learned life then is, for some, a duty.” – C.S. Lewis

Growing up, I had heard of the liberal arts, but had never known what they were. In high

school, I realized there was not just the term “college,” but rather a vast array of different types

of colleges and universities. I knew I wanted to go to Wheaton, but really had no personal

perception of what the liberal arts were, except that they made you a well-rounded person. I later

learned much more about the liberal arts, but the question always going through my head was

what are the liberal arts? As a math major and person who likes definitive answers, I was sure

that there had to be some defined amount of “arts” that made up the liberal arts, but I just could

not find the answers I was looking for. I concluded that there must not actually be a true

definition or number of the liberal arts, but that it must just be an abstract concept in place to

graduate well rounded students ready to face the world.

It was not until a few weeks into studying at Wheaton that I learned what the liberal arts

are and their value. My professor for my Core 101 class taught us what the liberal arts are. It

turns out that there are a definite number of them and they are not undefinable, abstract concepts.

They are made up into two parts: the trivium and the quadrivium. The trivium, which is right-

brained, historically contingent, and language based, is made up of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

While on the other hand, the quadrivium, which is left-brained, number based, and universal, is
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made up of mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy. Both the trivium and quadrivium are

cumulative, and necessarily ordered, but specifically the quadrivium’s elements build off of one

another. Mathematics or arithmetic is the study of numbers, just numbers, no strings attached.

Geometry is the study of numbers in space; music is the study of numbers in time, and

astronomy is the study of numbers in space and time. Ever since this lecture, I now understand

what the liberal arts truly are and can more easily apply them to my life and future.

But why should I study the liberal arts? Why can I sit here in a state of freedom,

studying, while there are people starving overseas and wars happening that need soldiers

(Lewis). Part of the reason Wheaton exists is as an extension of the body of Christ, or the

Church, and “The church also exists for a third purpose … to learn from one another and teach

one another,” (Wright). The liberal arts exist to further the body of Christ, and some members of

that body’s calling is to learn and use that knowledge for the kingdom. This has changed my

view on why I am at a liberal arts school. I am not here to build my own kingdom, to succeed, to

get a high-paying job, but rather, I am here as a form of worship and service to the Lord, doing

my best with the life he has given me and using what I learn later in life to further his kingdom.

As I go on throughout my Christian liberal arts education, I have begun to see not what

God holds for my future, but the ways in which he will bring it about. When I think about the

future, I think about what St. Augustine said regarding the present, “How can the past and future

be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always

present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity,” (Augustine).

After reading Confessions, and specifically, this quote, I am able to see that God, although he

wants me to plan for the future, wills that I live and am present with those around me in the here

and now, not always dwelling on the future, of which will never come. We are constrained to
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live within time and in the present, so there is nothing that should hold us back from not just

living in the present, but being in the present with the body of Christ for the sake of the Lord.

My future vocation will be something that I do in that present time, in which I am not living yet,

nor do I need to worry about, as my heavenly father all the plans for my life up above.
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Works Cited

Augustine. Confessions.

Lewis, C. S. “Learning in Wartime.” The Weight of Glory and Other Essays, 1980,

www.hebrew-streams.org/works/texts/learning-in-war-time.pdf.

Wright, N. T. Simply Christian.