Classical Christian Liberal Arts

In the beginning, our Triune God spoke and all things came into existence by the power of His Word. He established his covenant with Adam, our covenant head, who plunged all mankind into sin and death by breaking that covenant. But God promised a way of salvation by faith alone through the Seed of the Woman, the Messiah. He renewed his covenant promises to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, and all our Jewish forefathers. For this reason, New Saint Andrews College seeks to teach and emphasize biblical languages, biblical history, natural history, covenant theology, and the cultures of the ancient world and the Hebrew traditions.

In the fullness of time, during the reign of Caesar Augustus, Jesus Christ was born in Palestine. He ministered to a people saturated in Hebrew traditions, who spoke Greek and embraced Greek thought forms, and who lived under the dominion of Rome and its law. He was crucified on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem, David’s city, and rose on the third day according to the Hebrew Scriptures. The Christian church took root in this setting, and in the providence of God, it grew to maturity in the West. For this reason, New Saint Andrews teaches and emphasizes the languages, history, and culture of classical antiquity.

"Jesus Christ is Lord over this cultural war; He is the Lord of the West, and Lord of the whole world (Matt. 28:18)."

The world of classical antiquity was that into which the Gospel was introduced. This was the world that was transformed by that Gospel and grew into what we call Western civilization. That Gospel is part of our culture’s heritage, along with the Western forms of rebellion that vainly strive against it. This cultural war—between what Augustine described as the City of God and the City of Man—continues down to our own day. For this reason, New Saint Andrews teaches and emphasizes the history, philosophy, literature, and culture of Western Civilization.

Jesus Christ is Lord over this cultural war; He is the Lord of the West, and Lord of the whole world (Matt. 28:18). He is the Word of God, the One in whom dwells all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). Every thought, including every academic thought, must be taken captive to Him (2 Cor. 10:5). For this reason, New Saint Andrews teaches and emphasizes, above all else, a right understanding of Christ’s lordship over every human endeavor.

"It requires exposure to influential ideas, watershed arguments, and primary texts in history, philosophy, literature, and especially, theology."

This understanding demands careful instruction in discerning the antithesis between truth and falsehood, between the City of God and the City of Man. Cultivating such discernment calls for focused, hard work. It requires exposure to influential ideas, watershed arguments, and primary texts in history, philosophy, literature, and especially, theology. For this reason, New Saint Andrews employs a rigorous pedagogy centered on reading and student-instructor interaction with what is read.

For these reasons, New Saint Andrews is a classical and Christian college committed by policy and practice to the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness through the rigorous study of classical antiquity, Western civilization, Christian culture, and the liberal arts in the light and freedom of the Gospel and under the sovereign authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.