Christopher Benson | Humanities, Bible & Rhetoric

First Year at ACA: 2021

With 15 years of teaching experience, Christopher Benson regards a vocation in classical Christian education as a way of obeying the Lord's exhortation to strangers in a strange land: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). He contends that an apprenticeship in beauty, truth, and goodness blesses the public square.

An ancient poet and modern poet inspire Christopher’s philosophy of education. “Poets wish either to profit or to delight; or to deliver at once both the pleasures and the necessaries of life” (Horace, Ars Poetica). “[A poem] begins in delight and ends in wisdom” (Robert Frost, “The Figure a Poem Makes”). Wisdom and delight are the essential ingredients, he believes, to a transformative education. 

Christopher earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Wheaton College, a M.A. in Print Journalism from the University of Missouri, and a M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John's College. His published writing has appeared in a variety of outlets, including Christianity Today, First Things, The New Criterion, Image, The Weekly Standard, and Books & Culture. Outside of school, he reads, cooks, skis, hikes, and travels.