Another Year of Teaching in the Books

May 28, 2025

I just finished my 24th year of teaching. Students I taught in their high school years are in their 30s, married, and having children. One couple I taught in high school has even helped start a new classical Christian school for their children! It’s such a privilege to have been part of so many young people’s lives for so many years. At Kepler Education, I finished my first year as the Student Life Coordinator. In that role, I penned two letters, which I’m posting here in abridged versions.

Letter for Kepler Eccentric (Student Magazine)

Welcome to the Spring edition of The Eccentric, Kepler Education’s student magazine. Thanks to our hardworking Student Council volunteers who helped gather submissions for this issue. Here, you will find wonderful examples of the creativity, passion, and hard work of the students at Kepler Education. These stories, photographs, and artworks were a labor of love. In creating these, our students are imitating the boundless creativity of our God. Many other authors, including Dorothy Sayers and J.R.R. Tolkien, have pointed out that God is the Supreme Creator. Our creativity both reflects his original creativity and is part of how we extend his rule and reign throughout the world, thus fulfilling the original creation mandate to take dominion over the world (Genesis 1:28). This is part of our mission here at Kepler Education–to help equip our students to faithfully use their talents, interests, and passions to glorify God and love their neighbors as themselves. A liberal arts education prepares students to do this in a wide range of callings. We want to help them sharpen the tools of creativity, persuasion, logical thinking, and calculation that will enable them to pursue God’s call throughout the rest of their lives.

When we create something–just because–we are getting close to the heart of God’s creativity. The entire creation is utterly unnecessary. God did not need us, whales, or tulips to make him happy. In the triune dance of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God was eternally happy. But, God chose to create a universe and fill it with countless examples of his creativity. He also chose to create us, as his image-bearers, to reflect his character and glory in all that we do. This issue of The Eccentric is a small celebration of that continuing drama–that ultimate story. I encourage you to pursue something creative this summer, just because. For the love of the thing. Slow down and take pictures of God’s creation. Paint it. Write a poem about it. Write a story. Compose a song. Get outside and celebrate the beauty and complexity of God’s world.

[You can read editions of the Kepler Eccentric here.]

Letter for Kepler Yearbook

Online education is a funny thing. Through Zoom and the internet, we are able to “see” and “talk” to people all over the world (I once had a student in Australia!). We can have wonderful conversations about Achilles, Athanasius, Augustine, and Austen. We can laugh together, and we can post hilarious chat threads. But, it’s not quite “real” is it? You are not a Zoom screen, and Zoom can’t capture who you really are. Have you ever had the strange experience of seeing someone for the first time “in real life,” someone you’ve only interacted with online? There’s a moment of hesitation–I think that’s her? But she looks different! (Students have told me I’m smaller in real life than on Zoom–maybe it’s the beard …)

I wonder if this is how it will be in the New Heavens and New Earth (Rev. 21). We know we will have resurrection bodies, but we’re not sure what that will look like (1 John 3:2). Will it take a few moments for us to recognize each other? “Wow, I didn’t realize you were so shiny, and noble, and beautiful!” It reminds me of the magnificent portrayal of Sarah Smith of Golders Green in Lewis’s Great Divorce. Of course, any beauty and nobility we have will be a result of Christ’s righteousness and the Holy Spirit working in our lives to conform us to the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:49).

The yearbook you’re holding right now is a collection of great memories, great classes, great conversations, and good friends. It is a small reminder of all of the ways that God has blessed us here at Kepler Education this year. It’s been a joy and privilege to serve as the Student Life Coordinator this year. I’ve had big shoes to fill–literally, if you know Mr. Swait [He’s 6’ 7’’ and you should subscribe to his Substack]! We have had student leaders step forward and help lead various clubs: Chess, Age of Empires, Art, Firesiders, and Yearbook. I’m thankful for all of these students, as well as the Faculty Mentors who assisted the clubs.

Ps. 139 reminds us that God watches over us every minute. Before we were even born, God wrote the number of our days in his book (vv. 13-16). You and I are old books [the theme of the yearbook.] We’ve been affected by the mold of sin and our pages have been singed by the afflictions of this fallen life. But, we just celebrated Easter, which reminds us to look forward to the resurrection–where God will repair our broken bindings, restore our tattered pages, and the glory of Christ will shine on every page of your existence! Here at Kepler, we love old books and old stories, but we know that the best books, and the best stories, are still to come! Thank you for being a part of Kepler’s story this year!

Publications & Appearances

It was fun to discuss my book John Brown of Haddington on Frequent Communion with Crawford Gribben on the New Books Netword podcast!

I was asked to write about St. Augustine and economics for Common Good Magazine. I felt a little guilty trying to summarize the thought of this giant in so few words.

Dr. Robert Tatum (UNC Ashevillew) and I co-wrote an article looking at some church fathers and their views on wealth and inequality.

I really enjoyed reviewing Hell Shall Not Prevail: Essays on Ecclesiocentric Postliberalism for Themelios!

Goodreads & Quotables

“Courage opens the way through difficulties to greatness but, once arrived there, it is immediately smothered by riches, weakened by culinary delights, deadened by sensual pleasures. It holds up through the wildest tempests and most dangerous storms on the high seas but it perishes and suffers shipwreck in port” (Botero, The Reason of State, 9).

“Theology” - Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) [this was just a humorous poem I came across]

There is a heaven, for ever, day by day,

The upward longing of my soul doth tell me so.

There is a hell, I’m quite as sure; for pray,

If there were not, where would my neighbors go?

Louise Perry’s “Modernity’s Self-Destruct Button” over at First Things is well worth your time.

Classes at Kepler Education

My classes at Kepler Education are filling quickly!

I'm offering these classes next year:

All classes cost only $800.00 for the entire year. Each class meets only 1x a week, for 90 min. Kepler Education utilizes the "flipped classroom" or "Oxford tutorial" style. Each week, students watch one or two lectures. Then they meet 1x a week as a class with me to discuss what they read in a seminar-style format. This model reduces screen time, and gives students more time to pursue jobs or interests outside of school. Old Western Culture classes at Kepler combine history, theology, literature, and philosophy, to help equip faithful leaders for the future.