A Letter from Dr. Bond—New CASJE Headmaster
Dear Friends of Chesterton Academy of St. John the Evangelist,
I am both honored and humbled by the Board of Directors’ invitation to become the founding headmaster of Chesterton Academy of St. John the Evangelist in Charlottesville, Virginia. Inspired by the Board’s infectious enthusiasm and manifest dedication to the creation of a new classical high school in the Catholic tradition, I have happily committed myself to this wonderful project, the final goal of which is the sanctification of souls.
As servant to the universal Church’s mission to restore all things in Christ, Chesterton Academy of St. John the Evangelist seeks to participate in the rebirth of Catholic liberal arts education by establishing an academy centered on the Mass, the source and summit of the Christian life, for all good things are ordered to faith in Christ Jesus and the worship of the triune God. As part of the Chesterton Schools Network, which has a proven track record in the restoration of Catholic classical education, our curriculum aims at the perfection of the human person and his supernatural destiny.
We live in an age deeply afflicted with the moral, intellectual, and spiritual diseases of relativism, skepticism, and nihilism. Our beloved Church, founded by our Lord to save us from sin and open the way to Heaven, is under attack from unbelief without and dissent within. The rebirth of Catholic culture and education demands the reaffirmation of the timeless truths of reason and of faith by those who joyfully submit their intellect and will to Christ and His Church. A cultivated mind, perfected by faith, is the necessary foundation of this reaffirmation, and thus our students must be properly prepared so that they, in keeping with the exhortation of St. Peter, will always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks them for a reason for their hope.
The Chesterton Schools Network has grounded its curriculum on the traditional liberal arts, the roots of which can be traced back through St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine to the ancient Greek philosophers, particularly Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The study of these seven liberal arts—the three verbal arts of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the four mathematical arts of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music)—is the foundation that makes fruitful the further studies of history, natural science, literature, philosophy, and Holy Scripture. In addition, persuaded by Plato’s profound insight that the purpose of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful, we will teach our students to cultivate and contemplate beauty by singing sacred music, especially Gregorian chant, as well as drawing, studying art history, and performing dramatic productions.
Following our heavenly patron, St. John the Evangelist, the first line of whose Gospel proclaims, “In the beginning was the Word,” we affirm that the foundation of all human learning is the Word, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Christ Jesus, the true light which enlightens every mind. For this reason, St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Philippians that “our conversation is in Heaven.” Our students, therefore, will be invited daily to participate in that divine discourse both at Mass and in the classroom, where the Socratic method will be employed to help them learn not just to think for themselves, but especially to think rightly.
While the cultivation of right reason unifies the entire curriculum, Chesterton Academy of St. John the Evangelist also has a significant role to play in the perfecting of the moral virtues, without which the acquisition of the intellectual virtues is not possible. By providing a wholesome, edifying, and studious environment, the school will contribute to the growth of virtue in its students. Ultimately, of course, the acquisition and exercise of both the moral and intellectual virtues depend on the receptivity and will of the students who must voluntarily and regularly apply themselves in study and in moral acts for their own good and the common good. Indeed, all the virtues, and especially the crowning theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, come through cooperation with the grace of God.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Chesterton Academy of St. John the Evangelist, and with deep gratitude to our patrons in Heaven and on earth, I invite you to join us as we seek to do something beautiful for God and his children. As G. K. Chesterton famously said, “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” Our broken society, overshadowed by the culture of death, can be healed only by the culture of love and the life-giving truth of the Gospel. I therefore ask you to consider prayerfully how you might assist us in this educational mission.
St. John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Jeffrey Bond, Ph.D.
Dr. Jeffrey Bond has been involved in liberal arts education since he first encountered Plato and Aristotle as an undergraduate at Kenyon College from which he graduated in 1978. Inspired by these ancient authors, he went on to study at the University of Chicago where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in political philosophy. While completing his graduate studies, he became convinced that Plato’s and Aristotle’s insights into reality had been perfected by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, which led to his conversion to Catholicism. For the past forty-five years, he has taught the great books on both the high school and college levels. Jeffrey and his wife Donna have nine children and seven grandchildren.