Jonathan Mueller on Faith, Dialectic, and the Education That Endures (Part 1) | The Furrows

Send us Fan MailJonathan Mueller grew up at the intersection of classical homeschooling and community college, encountering Plato in ninth grade and the Tao Te Ching at seventeen—two texts that cracked open the difference between a conception of God and the eternal thing itself.In part one of this two-part conversation, Jonathan traces a winding path through dialectic and doubt, a year of construction work and wanderlust, and three months teaching English to atheist teenagers in Czech Republic. Along the way, the conversation circles one persistent question: what kind of education can't be taken away from you?What's in This Episode:How Jonathan's homeschool foundation and a ninth-grade encounter with Plato's Euthyphro first opened him to the thrill of dialecticWhat the Tao Te Ching taught a seventeen-year-old about the difference between talking about God and the eternal God himselfThe tension between building faith and testing it—and why classical education treats truth as a tuning fork rather than a fragile inheritanceJonathan's year of construction and waiting tables before heading to Czech Republic, where teaching English to atheist teenagers rekindled his desire to share the faithHow George MacDonald's Phantastes, Plato's Phaedo, and a "concentration camp education" philosophy shape Jonathan's vision for what education should do for the soulChapters:00:00: Welcome and Introduction01:10: Jonathan's Background and Classical Formation03:50: The Euthyphro and the Thrill of Dialectic08:44: The Tao Te Ching and Rethinking God20:38: Building Faith vs. Testing Faith37:47: Foundations for Children—Memory, Story, and Song42:33: Working Construction and Heading to Czech Republic47:50: Encountering Atheism in Prague51:37: Phantastes and "Good Is Always Coming"55:17: Discovering Torrey Honors CollegeResources Mentioned:Torrey Honors Institute at Biola UniversityArcadia EducationClassical Learning TestHosted by Ryan Klopak (Arcadia Education) and Alex Julian (CLT). The Furrows podcast features leaders in classical education who have been transformed by classical education.Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios