A history of religious educators

Abstract

Historiography too often places more emphasis on events, dates, and places than on people.But people make history live.They dreamed of a better world, fought wars for their convictions, taught students, sacrificed, and died untimely deaths.Without them there is no history, nor is there a future.This volume places the primary emphasis on people, on those men who have significantly influenced the history of Christian education.It is intended to be not a history of Christian education but historical studies of the giants in that field.Those chosen for inclusion in this work either represented the educational trends of their era or initiated reforms or movements which eventually, if not immediately, affected religious education.Not all of the educators chosen were recognized widely during their lifetimes; John Amos Comenius, for example, received some recognition from his contemporaries but was almost forgotten for two centuries after his death.Now he is hailed by some as "the first modern educator."Nor were all of the educators included in this volume primarily educators; Martin Luther was first a reformer and preacher, but he did have a significant impact on the world of education.No educators more recent than John Dewey are included, in part because primary and secondary sources are readily available, and in part because their influence on religious education has yet to be determined.The editor was helped greatly in making the choices by John Warwick Montgomery, as well as by the various contributing authors.Each of the latter, incidentally, is a recognized authority on the figure about whom he writes.Most of the authors have written a dissertation or published scholarly articles or even books on their subjects.Several of the articles in this volume have already appeared in print.Each article examines the subject's educational philosophy and the ways in which lie implemented it, and each orients the reader to the original sources.Quotations from the writings of the subject of each article are, as much as possible, set off from the text through indentation.No quotations from secondary sources, on the other hand, are indented.This is a reference work for all serious students of education, theology, and Christian education.It is valuable collateral reading for undergraduate and graduate courses in church history and the history of Christian education.Two graduate assistants deserve recognition for their help: Glen Miller for his bibliographical research which served as the basis for assigning and selecting articles; and John Fischer for his help in checking the many details that naturally arise in a historical study.My thanks, too, to Mrs. Marie Chapman for reading and helping to edit the manuscript. Part One A.D. 1-500Education is integral to the life of the Christian church, just as it has been to the Hebrew nation.Every Israelite is to be instructed in the law of God, given to the nation at Mt. Sinai: "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."(Deut.6:6-9) Since the Christian church was born and nurtured in the Hebrew milieu, it is natural that the church strongly emphasize the ministry of teaching.It was the Jewish culture into which Jesus stepped and which He dominated.Concerning Him we read: ". . .seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: and he opened his mouth, and taught them" (Matt.5:1,2).When He finished, "the people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matt.7:28,29).Christ was an outstanding educator, by virtue of both His methods and His message.The apostle Paul, who claimed to have seen Jesus in the flesh (II Cor.5:16), was first an evangelist who carried the Christian message throughout Asia Minor and finally to Rome, but he was also an educator concerned about second-and third-generation Christians."The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (II Tim.2:2).Early in the third century a catechumenal system of instruction was instituted by which converts were prepared for Christian baptism in a third-year course.These schools evolved into centers for the defense of the gospel and the training of young men for the ministry.Augustine (354-430), the bishop of Hippo who greatly influenced the doctrinal development of the Western church, was also a master of catechizing, an art which he demonstrated in his book The First Catechetical Instructor and which declined after his death.Christianity began as a seemingly obscure movement, one among many in the Roman world.Its object of reverence, Jesus Christ, had been put to death by the Roman government.That same government tried first to contain Christianity and then to destroy it through severe persecution.But the faith was spread by the early Christians, who fervently evangelized and then educated the heathen.Not only did Christianity survive, but in the first half of the fourth century, it was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire.While Christianity came to be overly identified with the empire and its civilization, it survived both.In 410 the city of Rome was burned and sacked, and in 476 the last of the Roman emperors was overthrown.In 496 Clovis, King of the Franks, was baptized.Thus began the era in which the Germans were the champions of the faith in the West.The same is true of other facets of His teaching, as when He described the worthlessness of lives lived without God with such metaphors as tares (Matt.13:18ff.),dung (Luke 14:35), and rotten fish (Matt.13:47).This use of illustrations from common life-even distasteful ones-to shock people into serious thought was strongly characteristic of Jesus' ministry.As a religious teacher He is unequaled in regard to illustrations; not only did their vividness captivate His contemporaries, but many have become absorbed into modern life.For instance, such a proverb as "Do not cast your pearls before swine" (Matt.7:6) generally illustrates the folly of expecting response from a totally unsuitable source.The incongruity of linking pearls with swine is so striking that hearers cannot easily forget.The wide range of a teacher's illustrations reveals much about the teacher.In the case of Jesus it points to a mind keenly aware of its environment, a readiness to note insignificant things to illuminate profound truths.Jesus-evidently loved the countryside since He so often drew his verbal pictures from it.9 He could meaningfully use the figure of a yoke because He may have fashioned yokes in the carpenter's shop (Matt.11:29,30).He watched merchants plying their trade and used them to illuminate His teaching (Matt.13:45, 46).Similarly, He referred to fishermen and thieves.No educator can afford to ignore this method by which Jesus communicated to His contemporaries, for it is more vital than ever in an age when religion and the masses are drifting further apart.His use of parables.The parables of Jesus deserve special comment for their distinctive contribution to His teaching method.Of the many examples preserved in the Gospels, a few are so important that they occur in all the Synoptics, but the majority are related by only one evangelist, suggesting that many others were not written.Each author chose those best suited to his purpose.As a medium for teaching, the parable possesses particular adaptability.It is especially geared to minds in the habit of thinking in pictures, since it aims to present basic truth by means of a simple story.The parables of Jesus, moreover, are particularly notable for their conciseness.For instance, it would be difficult to parallel a story with so much action in so few words as the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29ff.).It is the element of conciseness in the parables which makes them memorable.10 Much discussion has ranged around their interpretation, especially in view of Jesus' enigmatic response to a question by His disciples regarding their purpose."This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."The idea that Jesus chose a method of teaching with the express purpose of preventing hearers from knowing His meaning is unthinkable.Yet He was a realist, fully alive to the difficulties of communication.The parables offered a means of capturing the imagination even when the hearers' understanding is unenlightened.Once rooted in the memory, the parable might later lead to a fuller grasp of the basic truth.Yet the parabolic form has no significance to those whose minds are already closed to the truth.9 J. M. C. Crum considered the so-called document Q to have revealed mush of Jesus' love of the countryside.The Original Jerusalem Gospel (New York: Macmillan, 1927), p. 62. 10 Cf.Matt.13:3.R. V. G. Tasker commented that, unlike the parables of other teachers, those of Jesus are inseparable from Jesus Himself."To fail to understand him is to fail to understand his parables.""Parable," in New Bible Dictionary, ed.J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), p. 934.16 On the implication of the introductory formula, "But I say to you . .."Tasker commented, "in Judaism the Law occupied by Christ Himself.""Gospel of Matthew," in New Bible Dictionary, p. 797.17 Cf.John 13:15, where Jesus called His washing the disciples' feet an example (hupodeigma).18 For a full discussion of the word gospel, see G. Griedrich, "Euangelion," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed.R. Kittel, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954), pp.718-35.19

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