Socrates famously exclaimed: “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” It is commonly aimed at the mind alone to the exclusion of the heart. Such a learning process is thought without passion, knowledge without virtue, and theory without praxis.

Aristotle rightly said: “Educating the mind without educating the heart is not education at all.” Rather, it is merely stuffing the person with information without igniting the flame to live with passion: it is mere reflection without reflective life. This is why Benjamin Franklin remarked: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” An effective learning process includes a component of involvement. It is all about learning by doing. Aristotle called this virtue as “practical wisdom.” It is the purest human wisdom. It gives the learner an aesthetic pleasure to reflect and heuristic power to do. Theological students sometimes wonder: What is first? Do I first learn and then involve myself in ministry or do I first get involved and then learn? The reality is: one learns as one becomes involved and one becomes involved as one learns. The process is simultaneous. Here at Australian College of Christian Studies (ACCS), we emphasise the process of learning through involvement and active involvement in the learning process: theory and praxis combined. Theory in action and action in theory.

If you are interested in this process of learning by doing, enrol for a program of study at Australian College of Christian Studies today.