Wednesday, September 20, 2006

We have a name! After much prayer and discussion the board has selected the name for our school...Vita Nova Christian Academy. The phrase vita nova means "new life," and this is appropriate for a number of reasons. First, the children who will study here are new at life, exploring for the first time the mysteries of what God has created. Second, and most importantly, we hope that all those who are involved with this school...parents, children, staff, and friends...will find the new and abundant life that Jesus spoke of in John 10:10.

We also, after prayer and discussion, decided upon a motto. It is credo ut intelligam, the famous dictum from the Proslogion of Anselm. It means "I believe so that I may understand." This, too, is appropriate, since faith must precede all true understanding. Only by believing first in God can one hope to understand the life and world He created. As Anselm went on to say in his Cur Deus Homo,

Sicut rectus ordo exigit ut profunda Christianae fidei prius credamus, quam ea praesumamus ratione discutere, ita negligentia mihi videtur, si, postquam confirmati sumus in fide, non studemus quod credimus intelligere.

Just as the right order of things compels us to believe the deep matters of the Christian faith before presume to discuss them through reason, so it seems negligent to me if, after we have been confirmed in the faith, we do not strive to understand what it is we believe.

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