Etymology and enthusiasm

My daughters had College Sunday today, a service of celebration and thanksgiving in the company of their teachers, family and "House" at School. It was a happy and inspiring occasion, a lovely combination of drama, music, singing and worship. During the homily the Chaplain spoke of enthusiasm for life and mentioned the Greek based etymology of the word enthusiasm, being "en theo" and meaning "in God." It was one of those moments of great clarity when meaning meets understanding.

I am a great believer in foundations, especially in respect to education, whether it being the study of Greek and Latin, Chaucer and Shakespeare to understand the depth and beauty of our language, the proper study of history to contextualize the understanding of our present or the understanding of religion that underpins our Judeo-Christian society; whether we wrap ourselves in atheistic or agnostic secularism or in quiet belief or overt evangelism matters not. I find myself sadly lacking in many of these areas but hopefully that recognition is leading me to seek to fill in some of the gaps.

Recent reading has begun to open the doors of my understanding on the great depth of wisdom of the likes of John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith and many many others. These great thinkers have done so much to shape our understanding of freedom and democracy, the right to property and the right to freedom of association and speech but few of us know it. And most of us don't even know where our views, beliefs and personal ethos come from or perhaps like myself have only the scantest knowledge and briefest of learning in this area. The challenge is now to do something about it.

Best regards, Jonathan.