Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

Every time our book club meets, we choose a book and reject several others. This one ended up on the rejection pile. It's too bad.

Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien is magical in the best sense of the word. 

From 1920 - 1943, Tolkien's children would receive beautifully illustrated letters from Father Christmas, updating them on his adventures at the North Pole, with commentary by his hapless assistant, North Polar Bear (N.P.B.). 

Father Christmas (or F.C. as he begins to refer to himself) delights to receive letters from the children, although as the years go on and the children grow, he receives fewer and fewer. His first letter is addressed to 3-year-old John, and his last to 14-year-old Priscilla. 

We see the children grow up and go off to (presumably boarding) school. We get hints of the magic fading and the very real longing of F.C. to keep the story going. 

In fact, as the letters progress, the letters get longer, the pictures get more detailed, the number of characters grow, and the adventures pick up right where they left off the year before. By the end, when F.C. signs off for what he knows to be the last time, our heart breaks. He, N.P.B., his secretary Ilbereth, the N.P.B.'s nephews Paksu and Valkotukka who came to visit and never left, the red gnomes, the reindeer, the snow people, the elves, and all the others that inhabit that world will continue on, as they always have: the presents, the shortages, the mishaps, the miscommunications, the warfare, the parties, the joys, the fears. But the children are simply too old. They are no longer interested. The Letters From Father Christmas cease because the letters from John, Michael, Chris, and Priscilla have ceased. 

What a wonderful gift that his children and descendants preserved the letters, envelopes, and drawings and published them for the rest of us to delight in. 

A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig

Our book club chose a light-hearted winter/Christmas read after a couple of heavy endeavors: A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig. It's a children's tale of the way in which Santa Clause becomes, well, Santa Clause. 

We begin with a boy named Nikolas, who was born on Christmas, and so is nicknamed "Christmas."

His mom is dead, having defended him from a bear in the frozen lands in which he lives. His father is off on a journey to discover if Elfhelm, the home of the legendary elves, actually exists. And Nikolas is stuck at home with his awful Aunt Carlotta. Eventually, Nikolas takes off with his trusty mouse, Miika, to find his dad.

Each adventure gets Nikolas closer to being the Father Christmas we know today. He finds and befriends a reindeer, they are revived from near death by the elusive elves using magic, which gives them magical abilities, he must escape from a prison through a too tiny and too high chimney (magic), he and his reindeer friend, Blitzen, fly (magic) off to find his father, he welcomed into the elven community, but must adopt the title of the elders, "Father." Because of his glorious reign and genuine desire to do good, he no longer ages and gives himself the moniker, Father Christmas.

His transformation is complete. 

The book was an easy read, as expected. Nikolas encounters some truly horrific situations. But it's predictable and didn't really add anything to the Santa story we all know. I guess I was hoping for something more clever than... magic. 

Oh well. 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is a magical realism novel about a childless couple, Jack and Mabel, homesteading in 1920s Alaska who build a snow child that mysteriously comes to life as a wild girl named Faina. The book explores themes of love, loss, isolation, and the boundary between myth and reality. Inspired by Russian folklore, the story follows the couple as they form a bond with the ethereal Faina, who appears and disappears with the seasons, forcing them to confront their grief and find hope in the harsh Alaskan wilderness. (AI)

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Cary Christian is doing a faculty book club in order to acquaint our staff with what and how we teach. Our latest read is Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.

I read this book as a child and found it magical. I read it again to our children and loved it just as much. I will say the ending it heart-rending, however.

But this time, although I expected the same magic, I didn't feel it. 

I hate to say it, but maybe I'm too old...?

It's hard for me to try to suspend disbelief and imagine non-humans as sentient. I love Toy Story, but it only works if the toys are alive in Andy's imagination. If they are truly sentient, the ramifications are too horrifying to contemplate.

I wanted Wilbur and Charlotte and Templeton to be alive in Fern's imagination. But not only does the book disallow that entirely, Fern loses interest in the whole animal world when she meets a boy! 

I realize it's a children's story exploring themes of friendship and sacrifice. White nicely contrasts Templeton, who never learns to look beyond his own selfish appetites, and Charlotte, who sacrifices all for Wilbur. The pig, himself, grows a bit as he realizes he just might be who Charlotte has always seen him as. All very human. But if real for a single moment, I am a mass murderer of hundreds of other Charlottes found lurking in my home. 

I hate to be a spoiler of magic, but I just couldn't feel it this time. 

The Feast by Margaret Kennedy

We read The Feast by Margaret Kennedy for our Book Club. I'm really glad we did. 

It takes place in an isolated bed and breakfast in Cornwall, England, in 1947. World War II has just ended, but the world is not back to normal yet. A few families have gathered to escape that world for a few short summer weeks. By the end, they will have bonded in a way they never thought possible. 

Early in the book it is revealed that a landslide has buried the seaside hotel, killing seven guests. The story unfolds as the survivors recount the week leading up to the disaster. We know it is coming, we just don't know when or to whom.

Yet as the book goes along, the reader finds she is rooting for some to make it, and cringing to think there are some that don't deserve to. 

By the end, we find that Kennedy chose wisely.

The best part of reading this book came during our discussion. Apparently we had all missed the introduction that stated, "The Feast situates the age-old questions of sin, retribution and salvation against a specific post-war context of shortages and squabbling, and this is what gives the novel such immediacy and texture. Pride, gluttony, covetousness, lechery, wrath, envy and sloth are well in evidence at the Pendizack Hotel" (p. IX). I think we all assumed those sins would be evident. We completely missed Kennedy's ingenious ability to embody each sin a particular character. We all gasped with the realization.

It's a clever, enjoyable read. The twist is worth the price alone.

Beauty for Truth's Sake by Stratford Caldecott

A fellow teacher recommended Beauty for Truth's Sake by Stratford Caldecott, stating that it had a great impact upon her. Since I greatly respect her, I figured her recommendation was as good a reason as any to buy it and read it. 

I had to read it twice. 

It's very dense. Even the title, Beauty for Truth's Sake, is enigmatic. What does that even mean? Even after reading the book twice, I'm still not sure that I can explain it. 

Caldecott is making the case for re-enchanting education. He believes we went wrong when we separated Faith and Reason. 

He begins with a discussion of the trivium, grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy, which together compose the seven liberal arts. As understood by the ancients, it was the study of these things that would lead a student to the ultimate good, which was the study of God. In this world, faith and reason worked together to free the student up for that most good, true, and beautiful. "The assumption of this system of education was that by learning to understand the harmonies of the cosmos, our minds would be raised toward God, in whom we could find the unity from which all these harmonies derive: Dante's 'love that moves the sun and the other stars.'" (53) But western civilization long ago lost the connection between faith and reason and so God and the study of theology became worthless pursuits. 

By losing sight of the purpose of education according to Plato, we have lost sight of our very humanity. Plato describes the power of learning on the soul: "the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming to that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good." (22) Knowledge, then, is its own end. It is be valued because it leads us to beauty. And truth resides in beauty. John Newman states, "I have said that all branches of knowledge are connected together, because the subject matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself as being the acts and work of the Creator." (29) True beauty is the harmony found in the universe. To miss or denigrate beauty is to lose both truth and goodness as well. And all beauty is found in acknowledging the Creator.

Caldecott then discusses the poetic imagination and our need to awaken it. This means understanding how the medievals saw at the world. Theirs was a cosmos infused with divine symbolism. "Everything that exists, in whatever mode, having its principle in the Divine Intellect, translates or represents that principle in its own manner according to its own order of existence; and thus, from one order to another, all things are linked and correspond with each other so that they join together in a universal and total harmony which is like a reflection of the Divine Unity itself." (48) It was this elimination of the symbolic and poetic understanding that caused the great divorce between science and religion and art from science.

The author then goes onto discuss how the ancients imbued that first of the quadrivium, arithmetic and numbers, with symbolism. He starts with mathematics and shows how numbers pointed the mind of man to God. It begins with 1 - the ultimate symbol of unity that exists in God, himself. Then 2, which clearly delineates the symbiosis of the Father and the Son. But it is 3 that completes the picture of the Trinity and the love that flows between Father and Son. Caldecott spends quite a bit of time on more number symbolism, including the "golden ratio," and the ways the medieval world used number theory to point the people to the truth of God. 

From arithmetic, he moves to the next topic of the quadrivium, geometry. Specifically he shows how circles and other geometric shapes point to the unity of the Trinity. Not only do circles and triangles capture the beauty of the godhead, but proportion as well. Caldecott states, "A single relationship unites the Father to Christ, Christ to his disciples. Christ is the proportional mean between God and the saints." (81) He even relates pi, and its unending string of numbers, to the infinite love of God for his creation. If the Holy Spirit is the circle connecting the two points of Father and Son, then his measure is πd, an infinite number times the distance between Father and Son. We reside in the middle of that circle!

Next in the quadrivium is music and to this Caldecott turns. According to the ancients, the universe is singing! And "to understand the universe is to appreciate its music, the harmonies between its parts, the rhythm of if movement, and the proportion of its elements." (94) This music becomes physically manifest in architecture as well. Unfortunately, we have lost sight of the verticality seen in medieval architecture, with its intentional pointing to God. We have focused on the horizontal, that is man to man and to his environment. Even the tallest skyscrapers are simply horizontal buildings stacked upon each other. He calls for an architecture based on verticality, permanence, and iconography. Not only buildings, but the natural world is singing. "The animals, plants, and minerals, the stars and elements, were universally thought to 'praise' their maker, either simply by their very existence, or when called upon to do so by man (who gives them a voice they do not possess in themselves)." (107)

This universal singing leads naturally to astronomy, the fourth branch of the quadrivium. C.S. Lewis brilliantly reminds us that "The music which is too familiar to be heard enfolds us day and night in all ages." (110) We live in an enchanted creation and we miss it because it is all too familiar. Unfortunately early astronomers missed the mark in their insistence on an earth-centered system, and so lost some credibility. The problem was that the astronomers so believed in the mythical symbolism of creation that they worked backward from that presupposition. Rather than let the actual data guide them and then discover the beauty, they tried to impose their own vision of the beautiful, distorting what God had actually designed. In attempting to "save appearance" they created increasingly complicated descriptions of what was actually a beautiful system: the sun at the center (light) and the elliptical orbits of planets which contain two centers, just as we orbit our lives around the visible and the invisible God. Much beauty exists in the truth of the created order. The ancient astronomers lacked the faith to wait for that beauty to be revealed. 

The final subject of astronomy should lead most naturally to the study of God, but in our secular and disenchanted world, we have become buffered selves, disengaged from the world. "Without those ties, without that embeddedness, nature was drained of grace, and our connection to the transcendent God became less a matter of imagination or intellect or feeling than of sheer willpower." (124) To re-enchant the universe, we must return to revelation and worship. If we define "liturgy" as "a formal ritual enacted by those who understand themselves to be participating in an action with the divine..." (Wikipedia), then liturgy may be our salvation.

Can we see liturgy itself, then, as the "lost key" to humane education that we have been searching for in this book; that is, to the reintegration of all things, all subjects, in a vision of sacred order? Would a renewed appreciation of liturgy help to anchor theories about number and symbolism and quality more profoundly in real life, enabling us to introduce some much needed harmony into our own souls too? (126)

Caldecott reminds us that all societies are religious societies and all contain a creation story, a doctrine of the end times, and a liturgy or set of rituals to organize time and space. Ours has moved away from true religion to a secular and God-denying counterfeit religion. We must therefore start with remembering. We were created by God and that knowledge should evoke in us gratitude. That gratitude should turn into worship. This, then, should engender an appreciation of the seven liberal arts as a way to give ontological depth to our universe and point to a harmony that harmonizes our souls with the soul of the Creator. Modernity rejects this vertical dimension and so leads to a fragmented and dissipated self. It is the very definition of hell. The man whose soul seeks to harmonize itself with its creator flies on wings of both reason and faith, all bound up in love. Reason will lead to faith as beauty is revealed and faith will naturally engage in reason to reveal more beauty. It is, as Dante tells us, love that moves it all. 

The Good Teacher by Christopher Perrin and Carrie Eben

The book, The Good Teacher by Christopher Perrin and Carrie Eben appeared on my radar, and I decided to give it a try. I knew it contained all the familiar tropes common to Classical Education: festina lente, multum non multa, etc., and as such, I expected to learn very little new material. I guess I hoped it would validate and reinforce what I was already doing. In a way, I suppose that was true, however, not before it absolutely kicked me in my teacher behind.

Let's begin with this summary of each principle given in the back of the book. After each, I will offer an evaluation of myself based on how I am doing on that particular principle.

The Goal of All Education:

Wisdom and Virtue

By employing the following principles, teachers will naturally cultivate virtue and wisdom in the lives of their students.

1. Festina Lente, Make Haste Slowly

It is better to master each step rather than to rush through content; the quickest way forward is to ensure that you take the time needed for mastery. To make haste slowly is to set a pace that is fitting for the time that is available and that ensures students master what you teach them.

Right away, the very definition of the principle had me crying for mercy. It's true that I try to cram as much in as possible. I DEFINITELY don't "take time for mastery." Ouch. The authors claim, "To 'go forward' without mastering the skill... is to go backward and do great harm" (p. 21). So yeah... They add, "Festina lent allows the time needed for students to love something well" (p. 30). I completely failed the assessment given at the end. 

Action Steps:

• Focus on mastery, not "covering material."
• Ask students to repeat major lesson principles several times throughout the lesson.
• Leave room for student questions and unforeseen learning curveballs.
• Resist being flustered or rushed by all I feel I have to accomplish in a day or week.
• Do not give into pressure to finish the curriculum.
• Privilege the students' needs over the curriculum
• Cut down on the activities and objectives per lesson, focussing on one idea or skill.

2. Multum Non Multa, Much Not Many

It is better to master a few things than to cursorily cover much content that will be forgotten; it is better to study fewer things but study them well; it is better to deeply understand a single book than to superficially read several books that will not be loved nor remembered; it is better to study deeply the truly best things available than to divide attention and comprehension among several good things.

Once again, the very definition got me. Since this one is similar to the last, of course I was going to be brought face-to-face with my failure! This one can be described with the words "savor, linger, attend, and ponder" (p. 36). They remind me that I must "be selective and only teach what is necessary for the student to learn well" (p. 36). They emphatically state that doing too much simply CANNOT be done! "If we overwhelm the students with too much of a good thing, we will do mare harm than good and even ruin their taste for something beautiful" (p.37). Double ouch! 

Action Steps:

• Only include one objective, "truth," or logos per lesson.
• Teach a few things deeply rather than cover a multitude.
• Make clear to students that mastery of a skill or idea increases the joy or love of learning for this particular concept.
• Remember that love and mastery leads to further learning. Frustration and "covering" do not.
• Resist becoming impatient or intimidated with the depth of conversation or time on a particular idea or skill.
• Do NOT feel overwhelmed by what needs to be covered. 

3. Repetition Mater Memoriae, Repetition is the Mother of Memory

Revisiting and reviewing are not rote learning but rather deepening love, affection, and understanding of something true, good, and beautiful. It is like kissing the photo of a beloved person. Important skill, ideas, facts, persons, stories, and books should be revisited in regular and fresh ways that deepen understanding, retention, and delight.

The authors make an interesting claim concerning repetition. I find it boring and unnecessary, while they state that ideas the students love will be a joy to review. In addition, "educators helps stop the leaks by repeating things worth remembering" (p. 60). Like the last two, in my haste to "get through" the material, I definitely neglect repetition and review. 

Action Steps:

• Regularly review and repeat information through having students summarize and explain what we have covered.
• Consider games, songs, and chants to help review.
• Resist the fallacy of too much knowledge which assumes the students "get it" without first ensuring that they, in fact, do "get it."

4. Songs, Chants, and Jingles

We sing when we love, and we remember what we love and sing. Children (up to about age twelve) enjoy singing and chanting ideas and facts that they have come to know and treasure. Regular singing and chanting delight students, employing their bodies, voices, sight, and hearing; deepening learning; and making it permanent.

The authors make clear that this is mostly a lower grade principle, but it definitely has application even to the oldest students. And I agree. I do this, in a sense in the daily Catechism. It's a daily chant of the most important information. And since it's done daily, it incorporates the need for repetition! But I could stand to include songs a bit more. 

Action Steps:

• Offer patriotic songs in the place of the prayer each day after the Catechism. 
• Do not let my own lack of singing ability thwart my attempts to inculcate song in our day. 

5. Wonder and Curiosity

Wonder is an astonishing encounter with reality that sparks love and study. Curiosity is a disposition that seeks to explore, investigate, and learn. Sometimes a spirit of curiosity leads a student to an encounter of wonder; sometimes an encounter of wonder further cultivates a spirit of curiosity.

When a student has been captivated by something true, good, and beautiful, the most engaged form of learning begins because the student has become enchanted with an earnest desire to know and becomes his own teacher—he becomes an intellectually honest person. This wonder is modeled by teachers; students are inspired and imitate their teachers.

The authors remind us that "when our palpable ignorance is combined with a longing to know, we are ready to be educated--we have become a student" (p. 99). Each lessons needs to start with something to spark the wonder and curiosity of the students. This could include a question or at least an objective for the day so the student can begin to wonder at the answer. The teacher, however, should not be too quick to answer her own question: "The good teacher will neither tell students what they are to see nor explain matters before the students even raise question. She will work to place wonders before them; they will gaze, awaken, and wonder. They they will ask questions with anticipation and even hunger" (p. 101). At the same time, the teacher must resolve the questions with knowledge. Land the plane. 

Action Steps:

• Avoid a hurried or over-planned lesson which leaves no time for wonder. 
• Begin each lesson with an objective and/or a question to spark wonder and a recognition of a gap in knowledge. Ask myself, "How can I engage students' wonder before the lesson?"

6. Scholé and Contemplation

We long for a place, without distraction and noise, to study and contemplate with our friends. Scholé provides the atmosphere, the set-apart, sacred space and time that enable students to see together. Wonder certainly stimulates contemplation, but scholé provides the conditions for it to continue and spread

Once again, I recognize myself when the authors claim that many teachers "are often busy, distracted, and anxious--doing good things while neglecting what is best" (p. 130). They recommend a sabbath-like rhythm of allowing for approximately 1/7th of the lesson to involve contemplation. It must be strategically planned and integrated so that contemplation and active learning go hand-in-hand. 

Action Steps:

• Provide time for relaxed discussion and contemplation during class.
• Allow students to "play" as a part of the learning process.
• Do not sacrifice contemplation in order to "get more done." 
• Allow for quiet space and do not fill it with the sound of my own voice!

7. Embodied Learning -- Liturgical and Poetic Learning

Because humans are bodies as well as souls, creating academic, sensory, and bodily rhythms modulates and deepens learning. Students as bodies learn through all five senses; embodied learning honors learning through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and hands. Students will desire to be in harmony with the world's beauty when they experience embodied rhythms, practices, liturgies, and routines. 

Because humans are bodies as well as souls, one way we know reality is through a sensory, participatory bodily engagement with the world, which evokes awe, delight, and sometimes even fear.

Liturgies are "any communal activity that is patterned, ordered, and formative" (p. 146). These are the routines that we do as a class. My Catechism is a great example of this. As we stand and recite together, we are incorporating "embodied" learning which engages both body and mind. The key word for me to remember is "formative." The liturgies must have the impact of forming the student into the virtuous person I desire. Part of this embodied learning is the decor and sounds that pervade the room. They suggest a "coffee station" for the smell alone! Cocoa in the winter and lemonade in the summer! The authors chastise us for failing to engage the whole of the student. "Our mistake is that we routinely overlook and fail to harmonize all of the senses when teaching and act as if students had one giant set of eyes, a modest set of ears, very small hands, and practically no nose or tongue" (p. 159). 

Liturgiical Action Steps:

The authors suggest a daily routine, similar to hosting a meal, that I find very helpful:

• Invitation: Establish the classroom as a welcoming space to explore the good, true, and beautiful.
• Preparation: All the work accomplished in prior lessons.
• Welcome: Build interest and expectations for the coming lesson.
• Drinks and hors d'oeuvres: Short review/contemplation.
• Seating at the table: Arrange desks in the most conducive manner.
• Prayer: Ask the Spirit of God to illuminate understanding
• Conversation: Lecture, seminar or tutorial.
• Dessert and coffee: Conclusory part that is relaxed and summative.
• Departure and good-bye: Exchange of thanksgiving and gratitude/well-wishing.

Poetical Actions Steps:

Poetic knowledge involves "showing, not telling." It incorporates all the senses. Consider projects/simulations. But not to excess. 

• Incorporate all five senses.
• Include beautiful art, music, and/or poetry in each lesson.

8. Docendo Descimus, By Teaching We learn 

Students want to teach what they have come to know, and when they do, their friends pay particular attention and are inspired to learn. Knowledge taught is twice learned. Peers can teach peers; older students can teach younger students; students when they teach become filled with greater desire to learn.

This principle reinforces the notion that students learn best when they are the teachers. I try to incorporate this in our daily discussion as well as projects. I think I'm doing ok on this! But I could be better and more intentional.

Action Steps:

The authors recommend the following structure:

1. First Little Talk: Introduction of the topic/"Entice"
2. Presentation of the Artifact: Actual lesson or artifact under consideration.
3. Narration: Students summarize and describe the lesson (repetitio mater memoriae/docendo discimus). 
4. Second Little Talk: Analyze the narration for what is missing or incomplete. Use the Common Topics:

• Relationship: Cause/effect
• Circumstance: Context
• Comparison: Compare to other lessons/artifacts
• Testimony: Credibility of the author or other author's opinions
• Definition: What is it under consideration?

    5.  Response: Student respond somehow to what they learned.

9. Optimus Magister Bonus Liber Est, The Best Teacher is a Good Book

The voices of great teachers in the good books never stop beckoning, inspiring, teaching, again and again with infinite patience. The best book is by a great author and is a book wisely selected (usually by a teacher) for a particular student at a fitting time. One who guides a student through a study of a good book is a tutor; the teacher is the author. Together the author (teacher), tutor, and student engage in a three-way conversation that educates remarkably.

According to Seneca, "You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers and digest their works if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere" (p. 213). This absolutely pierces to my soul! I am so guilty of trying to introduce so much to my students that I fear they remember, and certainly own, little of it. 

This section, however, validates my idea that reading aloud text and privileging the text is the right way to go. It also serves as a good reminder to get students using their commonplace journals. Often, in my too-stuffed lesson plans, we have no time to actually do this. I am skipping the point of the lesson. Allow them  to begin to "own" the learning by recording it!!!

Like the previous section, they recommend the use of the Common Topics to find great questions, with the addition on an "Ethic/Obligation" section asking "What should this person have done and why?" (p. 225).

Action Steps:

• Use Commonplace Journal with every reading.
• Use Common Topics for discussion questions, maybe even in reading packets/reading quizzes.

10. Conversation and Friendship

Ongoing conversation between teachers and students, and between students and fellow students, creates a friendship of the soul that gives birth to learning that is personal, mutual, delightful, and deep. In continuing exchanges over long spans of time, the teacher forms the student in his likeness. But the student too renews and refreshes the love of learning in the teacher. Academic conversation characterizes all learning; both the student and teacher seek the true, good, and beautiful together as academic friends and fellows.

C. S. Lewis starts the section with, "The schoolmaster must think about the pupil: everything he says is said to improve the boy's character or open his mind--the schoolmaster is there to make the pupil a 'good' man" (p. 236). I need to make sure that all my lesson have the virtue of the student and his character formation in mind. Even if it is just tenacity or thoroughness, all lessons must be used to further an actual good in my students. 

The section describes a "college" as a collection of learners. It asks us to invite our older students in the college that already exists in the faculty. They are to become its "junior" members. I love this idea! I think it treats our *almost* adult students with the gravitas they deserve. The classroom then becomes a place of restful and inviting conversation among *semi* equals. 

Action Steps:

Review with the class what "kills" the conversation and thus makes them ineligible for membership in the "college":

• Judgment
• Ridicule
• One person dominating
• Thinking about what to say instead of listening
• Interrupting
• Side conversations

APPENDIX

Some questions are given in the Appendix D that I think will be helpful in creating and using discussion questions from a Christian perspective.

1. Questions that reflect on God's nature and will
2. Questions that examine moral and ethical implications
3. Questions that explore human purpose and calling
4. Questions about the nature of Truth and knowledge
5. Questions that encourage humility and dependence on God
6. Questions about redemption and restoration
7. Questions that foster wonder and gratitude
8. Questions that discern spiritual growth
9. Questions that build community and mission