Eric Metaxas, Stephen Blackwood

Eric Metaxas and Stephen Blackwood: Can Classical Learning Save the Modern University?

What is education truly for? In this episode of Socrates in the Studio, host Eric Metaxas sits down with Stephen Blackwood—founding president of Ralston College, distinguished scholar, and champion of classical education—to explore why so many young people today are searching for meaning in an age of uncertainty. Reflecting on his journey to establish a new kind of college, Blackwood makes the case for an education that forms character as much as intellect and revives the timeless pursuit of truth, wisdom, and beauty.

They dive into Blackwood’s work on The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, the philosopher who penned one of history’s most influential books while imprisoned on the eve of the fall of the Roman Empire. A bestseller for centuries and often considered the original self-help book, Boethius’s masterpiece wrestles with questions that remain as urgent today as they were fifteen hundred years ago: Is there an order beneath the world’s apparent chaos? Can we find meaning in suffering? And what can the wisdom of the past teach us about navigating the crises of the present?