In medieval literature, a hall is a place of

Light and truth

amid storms of darkness, evil, and falsehood

Our culture operates in this storm of lies. Scriptorium upholds the truth and aims to be both a haven rejecting this evil and an armory where students will be equipped to face our culture with truth, courtesy, courage, and joy.

Christ is the truth (John 14:6) and light of the world (John 8:12). The Lord as the Author of all truth and the Bible as His Word are the ultimate foundations for Scriptorium courses. While in this sense, Scriptorium is a Christian tutorial, no student or family registering for courses through Scriptorium is required to subscribe to a religious confession. Scriptorium welcomes students from any family that is seeking a high-quality classical curriculum and is in agreement with Scriptorium’s core ideas as described here and throughout the website.

Warmth, virtue, and love

among friends united in a shared endeavor

Our culture is increasingly replacing genuine fellowship with artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Scriptorium upholds face-to-face fellowship among like-minded students and families who love the core virtues of Scriptorium’s motto: veritas, pulchra, sapientia, virtus, libertas (truth, beauty, wisdom, virtue/excellence, liberty).

Splendor and beauty

—objects and ideas that awe, delight, and awaken wonder

Our culture promotes the grotesque and the obscene in the arts. Scriptorium upholds true beauty, recognizing that beauty is essential for the flourishing of the soul: it is delightful, it directs our focus to God and His amazing creation, and, as C.S. Lewis points out in his essay, “Men Without Chests”, it prompts us to have humility beneath the radiance of the sublime.

Festivity and joy

over feasts, dancing, music, and fellowship

Our culture promotes money-making and efficiency unrestrained by more human considerations. Scriptorium upholds both the serious and the festive. Festivity offers not merely a change from the ordinary but a celebration of things that are worthy and a blessing for our fellows. Folk dancing, lovely music, and delicious food take time and cost money – but they hearten and enliven us, cultivating fellowship and jollity.

Story, debate, and wisdom

—long-remembered histories, often-asked questions, ideas woven into the tapestry of our heritage and our times

Our culture despises the past. Scriptorium upholds thoughtful, truthful, bold study of history, literature, philosophy, and the arts that aims to praise the virtuous and oppose the evil without hiding the faults every human has and without ignoring the fragments of insight that even very bad men have sometimes had about human nature. This depth of consideration helps students to gain wisdom, patience, and humility.

Honor and excellence

—greatness remembered and rewarded

Our culture supports mediocrity. Scriptorium praises excellence and hard work. We celebrate real heroes like Leonidas, Patroklos, Regulus, Aeneas, Alfred the Great, Sir Gawain, the Marquis de Lafayette, Sonia Marmeladov, Admiral Stockdale, Witold Pilecki, and Arnaud Beltrame. Students are honored for improving and strengthening their writing, and many academic prizes are ready to be earned by students who go above and beyond their class assignments.

Free men and women

talking and training, loving liberty, and living in virtue

Our culture rejects the principles of the American Founding and increasingly crushes our God-given rights. Scriptorium upholds the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, press, and peaceable assembly are essential to Scriptorium’s operation.

Heroes and heroines

preparing to defeat dragons and pondering the sacrifices of soldiers, saints, and sages

Our culture assumes that college and career success are the ultimate goals of education. Scriptorium upholds the principle that the supreme purposes of education are: to point souls toward the highest truth, goodness, and beauty; and to strengthen and equip students for valiant, courageous, gracious, stalwart, truth-grounded lives. While Scriptorium would be glad to have a graduate who earned a PhD from an Ivy League and went on to win a Nobel Prize, Scriptorium would be equally delighted to have had a part in the education of a mom who loves her husband and children, reading them wonderful bed-time stories; a dad who is courageous enough to lose his job because he refuses to act unethically when required to do so by his boss; a man who gives his life in taking the Gospel to an impoverished country; a young lady who starts a business selling lovely floral arrangements or patiently teaching violin to beginners; in short, any student, with a life ordinary or extraordinary, who upholds the virtues of Scriptorium’s motto: veritas, pulchra, sapientia, virtus, libertas (truth, beauty, wisdom, virtue/excellence, liberty).

This hall is Scriptorium Hall.

Scriptorium Hall aims to provide an education that enriches the soul in these ways. If this is the kind of education you are looking for, please consider joining us!