Abstract

The claim that God is Love implies that a dimension of otherness or plurality exists in the Godhead and supports a Trinitarian notion of the divine. The doctrine of the Trinity, in turn, grounds a relational understanding of human personhood, a notion of the human person as relationally constituted—a notion of the human person as a lover. Educators should take seriously the nature of students as lovers by helping to direct their students’ loves towards the right end. This will entail recovering a sense that the object of study in each discipline is enchanted. In other words, the particular facet of reality being explored in a given academic field was created by the Logos who is Love, and therefore it is not neutral but has a purpose and a given meaning—and perhaps even beauty—that is worthy of appreciation. Given the nature of human personhood, such learning—understood as the shaping of loves—will take place in the context of relationships. I argue that educational institutions that identify as Christian are most effective when serving as communities of enchanted learning. Moreover, such learning can be truly integrated and coherent if it is ordered towards the ultimate source of beauty, wonder and unity-in-diversity: The Trinity.