The Transcendentals
By Alex Wolf | For On Mission
This article was previously published in Momentum magazine in their Winter 2025 issue.
“Late have I loved thee, O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new. Late have I loved thee!” (1) These words of St. Augustine describe how God Himself (in this case, referred to as Beauty) has always been, and is continually being made known to those who seek Him. We as Christians know that God is eternally unchanging, but continually desires for all people to know and love Him throughout the ages. Teaching this fact is the fundamental mission of Catholic education.
All things that exist participate in God’s divinity, and thus exhibit what are known as the transcendentals. These are truth, goodness, and beauty. God is the perfection of all of these, and thus can be actually referred to as Truth, Goodness, or Beauty. Have you ever noticed that when you see a sunset, you do not say “look, it’s beauty!” Rather, you would say “look, it’s beautiful.” This is why St. Augustine refers to God as Beauty, as He is Beauty itself.
But what would happen if we tried to understand a transcendental without understanding God and the deposit of our Catholic faith? What would happen if we disconnect the transcendentals from their fixed nature, and tried to re-invent them? Ultimately, there would be much confusion, as there would be no proper lens for viewing reality. If everything had to be invented for the first time, there could be no real truth, beauty, or goodness. Relativism would become the law of the land.
In some ways, this is where we find ourselves in today’s American culture. Particularly in contemporary education, there is a certain fascination with doing only what is new, and discarding that which is ancient. Predictably, this has created widespread confusion and disorder among the young generations of both educators and students alike. This confusion has reached such a peak that schools are teaching children to question something as fundamental as their God-given biological sex. It is therefore no surprise that schools across the country have continued to see a decline in enrollment, as many parents, seeing this lack of fundamental truth (sometimes even in our Catholic schools) have fled to homeschooling. In fact, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education has found that homeschooling rates rose in 48 out of the 50 states in the U.S. during the 2023-2024 year, and show no signs of slowing down (2).
This confusion has also led to a significant desire among parents seeking schools that teach traditional Catholic morals and offer rich intellectual formation. In response, a marked resurgence of Catholic classical education is underway. Several Diocesan Catholic schools across the U.S. have reformed themselves to adopt the classical model, and other lay organizations such the Chesterton Schools Network are seeing substantial growth. Through the study of great academic traditions, in the form of curriculum and teaching methods handed down to us through Western civilization, Catholic classical schools accomplish the fundamental, yet simple purpose of Catholic education-to better know, glorify, and ultimately enjoy the truth, beauty, and goodness of God. In doing so, one becomes joyfully Catholic, and as Catholic educators we ought to strongly desire this for our students.
Broken down even further, if we ask ourselves the question “what is the purpose of education?”, the famous Greek philosopher Plato gives us the answer. In his Republic, Plato said that the purpose of education is simply to “teach us to love what is beautiful.” Although Plato lived before the time of Christ, he still understood that education needs to be rooted in that which is constant: truth, goodness, and beauty. It needs to be remembered that all human beings have an inherent and significant desire for God himself, a desire that can never be erased — no matter how much the evil one tries. They ultimately crave what is true, good and beautiful.
Now, if we consider where mainstream education has gone in the U.S., we can see why things have become so wildly confused. The United States Department of Education states the following as their current mission statement: “Our mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access (3).” Although this statement highlights some important qualities (academic excellence, equal access, etc), it fundamentally misses the very core of education. It ignores the fact that truth, goodness, and beauty are in fact universal, and necessary to have any kind of education. Without these transcendentals to act as the root of all subjects, students will leave the classroom perhaps more confused than when they entered.
St. John Paul II reminds us that, “The greatest challenge to Catholic education in the United States today, and the greatest contribution that authentically Catholic education can make to American culture, is to restore to that culture the conviction that human beings can grasp the truth of things, and in grasping the truth can know their duties to God, to themselves, and their neighbors (4).” He wrote these words in 1998, already observing that our culture was slipping away from seeking transcendentals.
As Catholic schools we simply cannot forget that Truth is a real person; it is Jesus Himself. We cannot ignore the fact that God is Beauty, and not merely what we want it to be. We cannot dismiss the fact that God is complete Goodness, and that our understanding of goodness needs to come from Him, not our own desires. If we are not rooted in our Catholic tradition, and ultimately in God Himself, only confusion and relativism will remain.
In essence, like St. Augustine, we need to discover Him who is “ever ancient, ever new,” and allow ourselves to be transformed by this. It is only through this encounter (and teaching about this encounter) with God that our Catholic schools will be able to continue their great mission. Today this mission is more important than ever, as our world is perhaps more confused than it has ever been.
Footnotes:
1. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions
2. Watson, Angela. “Homeschool Growth 2023-2024,” last update September, 2024. https://education.jhu.edu/edpolicy/policy-research-initiatives/homeschool-hub/homeschool-growth-2023-2024
3. “About Us,” The U.S. Department of Education, accessed 10/16/24. https://www.ed.gov/about
4. John Paul II, Address of the Holy Father to the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Regions of Chicago, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee (USA), Vatican Website, May 30, 1998, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1998/may/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19980530_ad-limina-usa-vi.html
Alex Wolf is the Head of Upper School at St. Ignatius Catholic School in Kaukauna.