About Howard Merken

A Bible school graduate, Dr. Howard Merken also holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemistry from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Texas Tech University. He and his wife Casandra published the third edition of Beyond Classical: The Next Step in Christian Education. A former science professor and a veteran of both classical and non-classical Christian school teaching, Dr. Merken is dedicated to teaching people how to use their minds for the glory of God.

A Christian Philosophy of Education

By |2018-05-21T22:37:14-05:00May 21st, 2018|Categories: Christianity, Culture, Education, Religion|

Just what is Christian education? Is it Protestant education, is it evangelical Christian education, or does it also encompass Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox viewpoints?... More than sixty years ago, A.W. Tozer wrote: There is, unfortunately, a feeling in some quarters today that there is something innately wrong about learning, and that to be spiritual [...]

The Edge of Chaos

By |2019-07-18T15:14:44-05:00January 5th, 2018|Categories: Christianity, Civil Society, Culture, Featured, History, Reason, Religion, Virtue, War|

A living system getting too close to the edge of chaos risks incoherence, but moving too far away risks rigidity, either case leading to extinction. Complex systems flourish at the edge of chaos. For the imaginative conservative, real thought, reflection, and learning often take place at the edge of chaos… Studying history teaches us not [...]

The Conservative’s Dilemma

By |2019-12-03T11:23:28-06:00December 21st, 2017|Categories: Books, Conservation, Conservatism, Environmentalism, Politics|

The imaginative conservative must not just be a person  who parrots the slogans of other conservatives without understanding the details and the truths which are often two-sided coins or even multifaceted gems. Rather, the imaginative conservative must see things from different angles, must be able to plan, must see the interactions among religion, history, philosophy, [...]

Not a Day Care… or Are We?

By |2018-02-04T23:16:43-06:00December 10th, 2017|Categories: Christianity, Education, Family, Featured|

While hall passes and tardy slips are still used in schools, violations of more important principles seldom have real consequences… Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth by Everett Piper (256 pages, Regnery Publishing, 2017) Dr. Everett Piper’s Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth[1] talks about the political correctness [...]

The Death of Theology

By |2019-03-19T11:11:38-05:00December 2nd, 2017|Categories: Christianity, Theology|

The fact is that theology—real theology, the study of God—which should be foundational in church liturgy and in far more sermons than it is today, has lost its popularity, replaced by an emphasis on evangelism... In the human quest for beauty, goodness, and truth, theology has taken a back seat. Our modern church buildings, both [...]

How Should Classical Schools Teach STEM?

By |2018-10-23T13:06:18-05:00June 23rd, 2017|Categories: Classical Education, Classical Learning, Common Core Curriculum, Education, Liberal Learning, Mathematics, Science, Technology|

Trying to put science in a classical paradigm is putting new wine into old wineskins. Modern science just does not easily fit into a classical paradigm… STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and math, is the newest acronym for what is considered a great education, and it often leads to a satisfying and financially rewarding career [...]

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