:
to preserve the original manuscripts of the
Writings, New Church literature, and any
other works which might prove useful to
students studying in the schools. And they
were actively engaged in publishing works for
the New Church.
In 1881 the Boys School was founded.
Three years later the Girls School was
added. And, as the vision of New Church
education encompassed all formal education,
elementary schools quickly followed
thereafter – three in the United States
(Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago), two in
Canada (Kitchener, then called Berlin, and
Toronto), and one in England (London).
Then in 1897 the Academy moved to what
would become its permanent base in Bryn
Athyn.
All of this came about on the premise that
the spiritual and the natural are inextricably
bound together – neither one sufficient by
itself. And they are interdependent. In the
schools this can be seen in two fundamental
ways. In the curriculum natural information and spiritual information are
brought together. So we don’t teach history, but the Lord’s providence in history;
not science and math, but the order of creation; and not English and literature,
but the affectional ordering of experience from the Lord. Our academics need
to be rigorous and thorough. But they also have to be intertwined with the
spiritual. It is the two together that open and feed the rational mind. Thus the
learning is both for this world, to be useful here, but, more importantly, for
one’s eternal life.
The second way this connection is seen is in the life that we promote.
We do care about your academic achievement. You need facts and skills to be
usefully employed in your natural life, and that will be a primary means by
which you develop spiritually. But on a deeper level, this is what we care most
about – your moral and spiritual life.
The whole point of learning and becoming useful is so that through it
you can practice and internalize caring about your neighbors. It is that inner
life, of gradually setting aside self-centeredness and too great an attraction for
worldly things, that becomes “you” and will be “you” forever. Thus everything
you learn here, everything you experience here, is for the purpose of you
The purpose of this
educational process
is to prepare and
launch you on a
heavenly path. It
is to open up your
minds so you can
see the wonders
of this world, the
variety of human
states, and how
spiritual truths are
present and make
natural things alive.
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