Dr. Garrett League

Biography

Garrett League obtained his doctorate in biology from Vanderbilt and conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell, where he helped teach and or design a number of courses. His research has focused on entomology (the study of insects) and infectious diseases. He has been a member of the Entomological Society of America, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the American Society of Parasitologists, and Sigma Xi.

Garrett also earned degrees in biology from Baylor, where he studied developmental genetics, and Texas Christian, where he studied biology, art, and art history.

In addition to science and art, Garrett has a lifelong love for the Bible, as well as an admiration for Renaissance men like Johannes Kepler whose deep faith and broad expertise seamlessly bridged the sciences and the humanities.

You can find his writings, including his personal newsletter Pen & Spear, at the League of Believers (garrettpleague.substack.com), an online ministry dedicated to repentance and renewal in the American Church.

Born and raised in Southern California, he and his wife now homeschool their three young children outside of Fort Worth, Texas.

Teaching Philosophy

To adapt a famous line attributed to Thomas Edison, "Teaching is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." Perspiration and inspiration, sweat and Spirit—these are the indispensable marks of teaching that makes a lifelong, and indeed an eternal, difference.

I pour my heart, mind, and soul into teaching preparation, immersing myself in the subject matter until I can no longer keep it to myself (Jeremiah 20:9): "Your message burns in my heart and bones, and I cannot keep silent." This work takes up most of my time and energy, and while there is sweat on the brow by the end of it, I count it a blessing, rather than a curse (Genesis 3:17–19). I expect my students to join me in these joyful labors, learning to embrace the plowing, sowing, and watering of learning, namely, the reading, writing, recitation, etc., so that God can give the increase of knowledge—especially the knowledge of Himself (Proverbs 9:10; 1 Corinthians 3:6).

In teaching, my goal is to convert this preparatory work into spiritual fuel for setting hearts and minds ablaze with enthusiasm for the manifold witnesses to God in scripture, science, and the other liberal arts (Luke 24:32): "Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the scriptures?" This is the work of the Spirit in our lives (1 Corinthians 2:14), and it is only this kind of inward soul combustion, fueled by discoveries that steal our breath, widen our eyes, and bring chills to our skin, that can propel us into lives of spirited growth as disciples, that is, "learners," of Christ. Education by the Spirit and for the spirit helps us avoid the stagnation of "ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7). Head knowledge is necessary, but insufficient—alone, it merely puffs us up while tearing others down, but coupled with a heart filled with love, it humbles us while building others up (1 Corinthians 8:1).

Although moments of true enlightenment and revelation in learning may seem few and far between, they are truly life-changing (Ephesians 1:17, 18), treasures worth digging for like hopeless prospectors, and selling all to obtain once discovered (Matthew 13:44–46). "Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her" (Proverbs 8:10, 11). Transformative instruction of the sort I have been describing, the kind that not only makes us better men and women but new creatures altogether, is epitomized, at least in my mind, by the two great mentors that a young lad named Jack Lewis (later known to his readers as C. S. Lewis) first encountered at age 16.

First, the imposing William T. Kirkpatrick, aka, the "Great Knock," whose tutelage was logical and devastating, bold and bracing, inspiring and unsparing. This is the sweat, the bone-stiffening, muscle-building labor that yields the great reward (Proverbs 14:23; 1 Corinthians 3:8; Colossians 3:23, 24).

Second, the romantic poet and minister George MacDonald, whom Lewis fittingly describes meeting in heaven in his "imaginative supposal" The Great Divorce: "I tried, trembling, to tell this man all that his writings had done for me. I tried to tell how a certain frosty afternoon at Leatherhead Station when I first bought a copy of Phantastes had been to me what the first sight of Beatrice had been to Dante: Here begins the New Life."

I want to be this sort of mentor and guide for my students. I want them to remember where they were, and what the weather was like, on the day when the truths we explore together first landed on them with full force, like the train that struck Lewis’ soul that day at the railway station in Surrey, propelling it upwards into heaven.

The science fiction writer Ray Bradbury once said that we must preach, rather than merely teach, science, and indeed we must, for the world that we inhabit is a cathedral designed to draw us up into the worship of its divine Architect and Builder—God (Hebrews 3:3, 11:10). I see my role in teaching students as that of a minister laboring to keep the fire of the knowledge of God burning in my life (1 Thessalonians 5:19) so that I may in turn fan into flame the sparks of learning I see in others (2 Timothy 1:6).

This is the legacy of Classical Christian Education, of the old paths and the good way (Jeremiah 6:16). As Thomas More famously stated "tradition is the handing down of the flame and not the worshipping of ashes." I pray my life’s efforts as an educator help to pass this bright and burning torch along, not only to my students, but to all who worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

Statement of Faith

I believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible, and inerrant word of God—as a biologist, I bow the knee to the truth of scripture and happily conduct all of my science education safely within its spacious, liberating confines (Psalm 18:30; Proverbs 30:5, 6; Galatians 5:1).

I believe God created the entire cosmos and all its inhabitants out of nothing in the span of a single work week consisting of six solar days roughly six millennia ago (Genesis 1, 5, etc.; Exodus 20:11; Psalm 33:6–9; Hebrews 11:3).

I believe that through man’s sin, the “very good” creation was subjected to futility, decay, and above all, death (Genesis 1–3; Romans 5:12, 8:20–22).

I believe the gospel, or “good news,” of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1–8) is the only hope of salvation and renewal for the fallen creation (Acts 4:12; Revelation 21:1–5).

My church tradition is broadly evangelical, with an appreciation for, and indebtedness to, the Protestant Reformation. That said, just as Kepler’s approach to Classical Christian Education “strives to glean the best of Western liberal education in every epoch,” so too my approach to the historic Christian faith seeks to honor the best insights of God’s people from every age and orthodox tradition of Church history. Thus, my admiration for the Early Church Fathers and Medieval theologians does not preclude my incorporating the best insights of modern Baptist and Methodist doctrine into my thinking and practice.

I have had the privilege of serving, since 2022, a small group of believers that meets as a home church near Fort Worth, Texas. From this gathering was launched in 2023 the League of Believers, an online writing ministry addressing the most pressing issues impacting the American Church and its public witness today. For more on this ministry, for which I serve as writer, editor, and moderator, please visit our website (garrettpleague.substack.com) and subscribe to our free newsletter.