Life As Faith And Learning
“Education is truly Christian only where there is the integration of faith and learning.” This is a statement frequently heard in Christian education circles today. Although most often used in connection with the Christian school, it is equally applicable to church education.
Faith and learning are integrated when one’s faith and his view of the learner, the subject matter, the role of the teacher, and the application of the subject matter to a life situation are all brought together into a harmonious whole. Almost with one voice Christian educators agree that this must be done. But the question is, How do you do it?
The integration of faith and learning was the concern of Lois LeBar in her book Education that Is Christian (Revell), originally published in 1958 and recently revised and updated. LeBar, a long-time leader in the field of Christian education, raised the question: “Why should Christians borrow a system of education from the secular world? Why should we not derive from God’s revelation our own philosophy?” LeBar’s approach to working out a Christian philosophy of education was more theological, however, than philosophical. While she acknowledged that the Bible was not written as a textbook on education, she did contend that “the believer who seeks ‘buried educational treasure’ will be richly rewarded.” “These treasures,” she said, “are not grouped by categories and openly displayed for the casual observer, but are ‘hidden’ for the earnest seeker who is willing to dig for them.”
LeBar’s method of “digging” for “buried educational treasure” was to examine the teaching ministry of Christ, being careful to note such things as the Master Teacher’s approach to the learner, his use of method, and his application of the lesson. She concluded that the Christian educator who follows the pattern of Christ should begin with pupils where they are with their felt needs, help them find the biblical answer, and encourage them to put the truth into practice. The Christian community owes a great debt of gratitude to Dr. LeBar for her significant contribution to the field of Christian education in general and to the ongoing discussion of the problem of integrating faith and learning in particular.
As a Christian philosopher, George R. Knight, an associate professor at Andrews University where he teaches philosophy and history of education, takes a philosophical approach to the problem of integrating faith and learning. His book, Philosophy and Education—an Introduction in Christian Perspective (Andrews), is based on the assumption “that philosophic beliefs provide the basic boundaries for preferred educational practices for any group in society.”
Knight surveys the relationship between education and various humanistic philosophies, including both traditional and modern schools of thought. He believes that while there is value in each of these philosophies, the Christian is not uncritically to accept a world-and-life view that may have philosophic roots incompatible with Scripture.
Neither is eclecticism the way for the Christian, according to Knight. As tantalizing as it may be, the practice of selecting the best insights from each of the philosophies that men have adhered to historically is fraught with danger. “The effect of such a method,” says Knight, “is to develop a patchwork quilt rather than a seamless tapestry.” Eclecticism is not only internally inconsistent, but it also has elements that are irreconcilable with biblical Christianity. It is incumbent upon the Christian educator to develop a personal world-and-life view that will provide a basis for interpreting all reality, including educational theory and practice. “Christian education that is Christian in fact, rather than merely in word,” Knight maintains, “must view the nature and potential of the student, the role of the teacher, the content of the curriculum, the methodological emphasis … in the light of its philosophic undergirding.”
Knight’s excellent survey of the relation of education and philosophy deserves serious consideration as a textbook in educational philosophy.
Ronald P. Chadwick, professor of Christian education at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary, writes from the standpoint of biblical theology about the problem of integrating faith and learning. In his book, Teaching and Learning—an Integrated Approach to Christian Education (Revell), he asserts that world views are chosen rather than demonstrated. The world view of his choice is what he calls a “Word-centered world view.”
It logically follows from Chadwick’s world view that the Christian educator needs to develop expertise in the area of biblical theology as well as in the discipline he proposes to teach. In this way the teacher is better able to relate concepts from his discipline to complementary concepts derived from Scripture. For example, the psychological concept that each person has worth should be related to the biblical concept that God created each man in his own image. This combination of ideas results in an expanded concept that God has made each person, and each person has eternal worth. The integration process, however, is not complete until the expanded concept is applied to life. “Truth with truth and Truth/truth with life,” Chadwick would say.
The integration of faith and learning is not something artificial or contrived. Its application to all of life is the very essence of the Christian faith. The subject under discussion is not the exclusive property of the philosopher, the theologian, or even the professional educator. It is also for the lay teacher in the Sunday school.
How do we integrate faith and learning? The question is still not fully resolved. LeBar, Knight, and Chadwick, each in his or her own way, has made a contribution. But they would be the first to say that much remains to be done. Certainly an ongoing dialogue on this topic among Christian educators would be an invaluable help to all concerned.
Reviewed by Norman Harper, dean of the Graduate School of Education, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi.
A New Ethic Of Commitment
New Rules: Searching for Self-Fulfillment in a World Turned Upside Down, by Daniel Yankelovich (Random House, 1981, 278 pp., $15.95), is reviewed by Reed Jolley, pastor of Santa Barbara Community Church, Santa Barbara, California.
As we enter the eighth decade of the twentieth century, even the casual observer of Western culture will notice that changes in our values, mores, and goals are taking place. Historically, work has been viewed as a means of survival; marriage was to last until death; and leisure was the dividend of retirement. Recently, however, these norms have come to be seriously scrutinized, if not outwardly rejected, by vast numbers of Americans. It is these trends that Daniel Yankelovich examines in his latest book.
Before the late 1960s, Americans embraced a “giving/getting compact” that often required thorough self-abnegation. The individual would give hard work, loyalty, and steadfastness in hopes of receiving a rewarding family life, a devoted spouse, and an ever-increasing standard of living. Yankelovich argues that this unspoken ethic of self-denial shaped American society in the post-World War II period.
At present we are witnessing a shift in our traditional values. Having grown wary of the demands of self-sacrifice, our society is opting instead for immediate fulfillment of the self and its needs. Yankelovich points out that in addition to the demands of material well-being, we now demand such nebulous intangibles as “creativity, leisure, autonomy, pleasure, participation, community adventure, vitality and stimulation.” The quest for self-fulfillment has ushered in a new ethic that is rapidly replacing the old ethic of the giving/getting compact. Yankelovich writes, “In their extreme form, the new rules simply turn the old ones on their head, and in place of the old self-denial ethic we find people who refuse to deny anything to themselves—not out of bottomless appetite, but on the strange moral principle that ‘I have a duty to myself.’ ” The author does not denounce this new orientation as a “new narcissism,” yet he is skeptical regarding the viability of a self-centered ethos.
Yankelovich questions the premise of what he calls “humanist psychology” that places the “self” at the center of the universe. This thinking, which grew out of the writings of A. A. Maslow, Carl Rogers, Eric Fromm, and others, sees emotional cravings as sacred objects. To deny oneself the satisfaction of these cravings is a crime against nature. The author stands on the sidelines of the “me decade” asking what one does with the self once it is “fulfilled.” Instead of being a freeway to the kingdom, the new quest is a solipsistic cul-de-sac. “In looking to their own needs for fulfillment, they are caught in a debilitating contradiction: their goal is to expand their lives by reaching beyond the self, but the strategy they employ results in contradicting their lives, drawing them inward toward an ever-narrowing closed off ‘I’.”
The new consciousness is scrutinized on another front in that it is “the psychology of affluence.” Previous generations understood the “good life” as a reward for hard work and self denial. The “post-war baby boom” generation understand affluence as an inalienable right. Since primary needs will undoubtedly be met (food, shelter, economic security), this generation concentrates on pursuing the higher-order needs of the spirit. Yankelovich is critical at this point, arguing that we have turned a corner in our American economic history. Because of the rising cost of energy, the wealth of our country has declined and will continue to do so. In 1973 America paid $4 billion for imported oil. In 1980 our bill rose to $90 billion. The author sees this trend (among others) as a portent pointing to a reduction in our standard of living. The necessities of paying the rent and putting food on the table will take precedence over the quest for self-fulfillment.
In his conclusion, Yankelovich briefly recommends a compromise between the old giving/getting ethic and the new quest to fulfill the self. An ethic of “commitment” is what is needed in the last quarter of the twentieth century. A viable social ethic will ask individuals to curb certain desires to produce a better society. The word “commitment” shifts the focus away from the self (either self-denial or self-fulfillment) toward the world. If the “commitment” is to virtually anything other than the “self,” positive results will follow. The author writes, “The Christian injunction that to find one’s self one must first lose one’s self contains an essential truth any seeker of self-fulfillment needs to grasp.”
New Rules is essential reading for pastors, Christian leaders, and laypersons who want to understand current trends in American thought. Yankelovich brings over 30 years of sociological research to his perceptive and thoroughly documented study. He combines both case studies and nationwide surveys to analyze trends in our culture.
Obviously, Yankelovich’s “ethic of commitment” falls short of the Christian’s mandate to “seek first the kingdom of God,” but the similarities are clearly discernible. The Christian community in America, which is becoming increasingly self-centered and “me” oriented, could profit from the insights of this adroit critic of our times.
Brightening Up Dull Churches
Church Alive!: A Fresh Look at Church Growth, by Peter Cotterell (IVP-UK, 1981, 127 pp., £1.50), is reviewed by Peter W. Spellman, a group leader in Salem Community Church, Salem, Massachusetts.
What can another book on church growth contribute to an already saturated discussion? The answer is clarity and caution. Peter Cotterell, director of overseas studies at London Bible College, pulls the formal discussion down from the theoretical skies and presents it vividly and freshly for consideration.
Cotterell has written his book for those whose church experience has been relentlessly “dull, lifeless and empty” and want to do something about it. His burning passion is to bring such churches back to life, and his conviction is that church-growth principles, prayerfully and thoughtfully applied, can give direction to this task.
In eight witty and well-crafted chapters, Cotterell treats such topics as the various types of church growth, mobilizing spiritual gifts, seeking out those most responsive to the gospel, crossing cultural (and subcultural) barriers, keeping in touch with the findings of the social sciences, setting goals, and discipling new converts. Somehow he covers these diverse themes in 127 pages without them ever seeming crowded or cluttered.
Church Alive! is designed for use in study groups. It is supremely a church book. To this end Cotterell includes a “Now What Do We Do?” section after each chapter to offer creative, practical applications of the chapter’s content. For example, he not only intones the importance of statistics, but he shows the reader how he can use them to discern important trends in his own community.
The book also enjoins caution. In a helpful appendix, Cotterell evaluates some of the more questionable features of the church-growth movement: the homogeneous unit concept, the “seven vital signs” of a growing church, and the Engel Scale. He finds each wanting in one way or another and does not believe them vital to a thriving church-growth program.
Foundationally, Cotterell believes the primary task of the church is evangelism, with worship and community second. This order leads to ongoing growth. I am, however, acquainted with a church whose primary purpose is worship and community with evangelism an important second, but which has nevertheless increased numerically by 400 percent in three years. I think the question of primary church purpose is one for review.
Church Alive! was written by a churchman for church people. Its brevity, lucid style, and practical concerns make it an eminent contribution to the church-growth movement, worthy of both pastors’ and laypersons’ attention.
Where Is The Light In The Darkness?
The Books of Lights, by Chaim Potok (Knopf, 1981, 416 pp., $13.95), is reviewed by Ronnie Collier Stevens, pastor of Faith Evangelical Bible Church, Newport, North Carolina.
Chaim Potok is an author whose questions seem more relevant than the answers of other writers, although he insists on exploring the wisdom of Judaism after rejecting Israel’s raison d’être—for example, that she be a light to the nations through her Messiah. Because of his non-Christian presuppositions, his questions must remain perpetual enigmas. Having removed the signposts and exits from the maze of man’s existence, Potok proceeds to show the reader the terrible splendors of the maze itself.
In The Books of Lights, Potok regains the strength that waned in his last novel, In the Beginning. In this, his fifth work of fiction, he expounds the familiar themes. His characters are always Jewish, always Orthodox (or from Orthodox families), and always precocious.
Gershon Loran is a young rabbi who has been pressured into the army chaplaincy in postwar Korea. He is a devotee of the Kabbalah, the great compendium of Jewish mysticism. Just as complex as the Kabbalah is Gershon’s seminary roommate and subsequent colleague in the chaplaincy, Arthur Leiden. The book focuses on the human and theological riddles Gershon encounters in his friend and his religion.
Artistically, Potok is a novelist at the summit of his powers. His prose has always been luminous without being didactic, his characters more real than the people we actually meet. In this new work he adds comic dialogue and the exposition of dreams and visions to his already extensive repertoire, but Potok has again presented us with the tragically enchanting vagaries of a messianic religion with no Messiah.
There is a passage in the Kabbalah describing the ascent from one luminary to another, each so much more bright and powerful that the former seems dark in comparison. So must these lesser lights of Potok’s fiction seem dark when compared with that “true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
Briefly Noted
Basically Biographical. Very often the best way to learn is by looking at ideas incarnate, both good and bad. The following collection shows this well.
Banner of Truth has again made available J. C. Ryle’s stirring Five English Reformers. Peter Martyr Vermigli and Italian Reform (distributor: Humanities Press), edited by J. C. McLelland, is a scholarly work on an important thinker. Robert G. Tuttle’s John Wesley: His Life and Theology (Zondervan) can be obtained in a new paperback printing.
Volume I of Saint Therese of Lisieux: General Correspondence (Inst. of Carmelite Studies), translated by John Clarke, is a welcome piece; there is much to learn in it. Much of a different sort can be learned from The Life and Times of Grigori Rasputin (Coward, McCann and Geoghegan), by Alex DeJonge.
Several significant Roman Catholic works have appeared. George Tyrrell: In Search of Catholicism (Patmos), by D. G. Schultenover, goes a long way toward explaining this complicated man in a scholarly, one might almost say definitive, fashion. An American Experience of God (Paulist), by John Farina, looks at the spirituality of Isaac Hecker, the founder of the Paulist order. Padre Pio: The True Story (Our Sunday Visitor), by C. Bernard Ruffin, is a challenging story about a modern mystic. Monsignor Ligutti: The Pope’s County Agent (Univ. Press of America), by Raymond C. Miller, concerns a saint of a more practical sort. Georges Bernanos (distributor, Humanities Press), by John E. Cooke, is a well-done, scholarly work.
The National Mass Media Gold Brotherhood Award was given to My Brother, Bernhard (Intergroup Center Press), by Elsa Olson-Buckner. It recounts the significance of Bernhard Olson’s untiring efforts at interfaith understanding through the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
Two interesting works on A. W. Pink are now available: The Life of Arthur W. Pink (Banner of Truth), by Iain H. Murray, which is well done, but tends to excuse Pink’s irritable disposition; and Arthur W. Pink: Born to Write (Richbarry Press, Box 302, Columbia, S.C.), by Richard P. Belcher; it is less authoritative, but more balanced.
P. T. Forsyth (Pickwick), by Donald G. Miller, Browne Barr, and Robert S. Paul, is a valuable look at the man and the message and also contains the full text of Forsyth’s Positive Preaching and Modern Mind and a valuable Forsyth bibliography. Adventurer in Archaeology (St. Martin’s), by Jacquetta Hawkes, is a fascinating look at Mortimer Wheeler, that strange and delightful digger into the past.
Two popular preachers are remembered in: Preacher of the People: S. G. Shetler (1871–1942), by Sanford G. Shetler (Herald Press), and Smith Wigglesworth Remembered (Harrison House), by W. Hacking. Gustavo Gutierrez (John Knox), by Robert McAffee Brown, introduces the life and thought of this well-known liberation theologian. In Hugh Miller: Outrage and Order (Mainstream, Edinburgh), George Rosie offers a biography and selected writings of a brilliant but enigmatic Scotsman who achieved fame as geologist, poet, essayist, naturalist, paleontologist, and churchman. Also from Scotland is the Fasti (St. Andrews Press), edited by D. F. M. Macdonald, a record of Church of Scotland ministers between the years 1955 and 1975, giving an account of their families, careers, and writings.
A very nice biography of Belfast Union College’s professor of church history is Henry Cooke (Christian Journals, distributed through 760 Somerset Street W., Ottawa, Ont., Can.), by Finlay Holmes.
