For the Christian student of rhetoric, manipulative sophistry is clearly out of bounds. But putting careful thought into what constitutes eloquent speech and persuasive argument is not. What many people dismiss as a bunch of rhetoric is simply poor rhetoric. There is a Christian approach to the craft of memorable and effective expression, and it is the task of this book to lay out that approach.

Public education in America has run into hard times. Even many within the system admit that it is failing. While many factors contribute, Douglas Wilson lays much blame on the idea that education can take place in a moral vacuum. It is not possible for education to be nonreligious, deliberately excluding the basic questions about life. All education builds on the foundation of someone's worldview. Education deals with fundamental questions that require religious answers. Learning to read and write is simply the process of acquiring the tools to ask and answer such questions.

A second reason for the failure of public schools, Wilson feels, is modern teaching methods. He argues for a return to a classical education, firm discipline, and the requirement of hard work.

Often educational reforms create new problems that must be solved down the road. This book presents alternatives that have proved workable in experience.

Paul requires Christian fathers to provide their children with a "paideia of the Lord." To the ancient world, the boundaries of paideia were much wider than the boundaries of what we understand as education. Far more is involved in paideia than taking the kids to church, having an occasional time of devotions in the home, or even providing the kids with a Christian curriculum. In the ancient world, the paideia was all-encompassing and involved nothing less than the enculturation of the future citizen. He was enculturated when he was instructed in the classroom, but the process was also occurring when he walked along the streets of his city to and from school.

The idea of paideia was central to the ancient classical mind, and Paul's instruction here consequently had profound ramifications for how we in turn educate our children. In this collection of essays, Douglas Wilson discusses this and other education-related issues.

The modern view of the world is empty and lifeless, nothing more than a bunch of matter in motion, with life by the thousandth chance emerging from chaos. The modern world, as a result, can only conceive of progress as more efficiency, more technology, more domination. In stark contrast to this, Christianity presents a glorious vision for culture, and the vision of a world with truth, beauty, and goodness built into the very molecules of the universe. Medieval and Protestant Christianity began a conversation about truth, beauty, and goodness, but secularism ended the conversation mid-sentence. Sadly many Christians, while continuing to believe in the Gospel have become just as blind to the beauty of the universe and the need for a culture in which that beauty is recognized and cultivated. This book sketches a vision of Medieval Protestantism, covering such diverse topics as creeds, poetry, history, the church, feasting, and storytelling as they are to be found in the Christian faith alone.

Published almost twenty years ago, Douglas Wilson’s Case for Classical Christian Education is a call for parents and educators to do more than just teach kids how to read or to do math and science. Instead, parents and teachers need to educate children’s minds, hearts, and imaginations.

Both homeschooling parents and Christians seeking to build schools will find a lot of guidance from this book. Wilson explains the benefits of an education that is both distinctively classical and distinctively Christian, and explains what such an education might look like. He also draws on years of educating and pastoring to talk about how parents and teachers can manage schools well and train their children’s hearts. Education is not just preparing kids for the job market, but should be about instilling discipline, character, and love for God and the world He has made.

Douglas Wilson has been the pastor for Christ Church for over forty years and is a father of three and grandfather of seventeen. He has helped found many educational institutions such as New Saint Andrews College, Logos School, and Greyfriars Hall. His book Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning helped launch the Classical Christian Education movement, including the Association of Classical Christian Schools which now has over a hundred Christian schools across the country.

In the Garden of Eden, there was only one "No." Everything else was "Yes."

In this short book on Christian childrearing, Douglas Wilson points out that we have a Father who delights in us and makes it easy for us to love and obey him. If that is the kind of Father we have, shouldn't we earthly parents do the same? Wilson explains how parents should not just try to get their kids to obey a set of rules or to make their house so fun that following the rules is always easy. Instead, he calls for parents to instill in their kids a love for God and His standards that will serve them well all their days.

This book also features an appendix in which Doug and his wife Nancy answer various parents' questions about various applications of the principles discussed in this book.

This book is published by Canon Press. At Canon Press, we’re gospel outfitters: no matter who you are or what you do, you’re called to be increasing in Biblical faithfulness. That’s because Jesus’s death and resurrection changed everything: All of Christ, for all of life, for all the world.

As the wisest man said, “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works” (Eccl. 9:7).

We believe reformation and revival start from faith in the Lord with joyful obedience to the Bible, and that is what makes everyday tasks significant and transforms culture. Because of these beliefs, we offer books on Christian living, encouragement, contentment, raising kids, healthy marriages, educational choices, classical education, homeschooling, politics, government, feminism, identity, manhood, womanhood, singleness, virtue, and so much more.