Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Cor. 10.5)

Disciplines
Education
Christians should neither despair nor grow weary at the various challenges to our faith posed by this secular age. God allows these challenges – theological, moral, legal, and otherwise – in order to strengthen and bring clarity to our faith. As we engage the challenges before us, exercising the various muscles of our faith, we grow stronger in the Lord and establish footprints and benchmarks for subsequent generations to follow.

Christians have faced strong opposition at times in the past, and have prevailed when they have appealed to spiritual rather than political or pragmatic means. An excellent example of this from the early Church is described in the Spring 2016 issue of Christian Scholar’s Review. In his article, “Julian against Christian Educators,” Benjamin D. Wayman recalls the fourth century dispute between the pagan emperor Julian and Christian leaders over the curriculum of Roman schools.

Julian, who had repudiated his earlier faith in Christ, insisted on a course of study rooted in the classics of ancient Greece, with a view to returning the Empire to paganism. He insisted that only Greek classics should be taught, and that they should be represented as true and authoritative. He would not allow any Christians to teach in the schools because he believed they would undermine the imperial agenda. He was bent on stifling the growth of Christianity and restoring what he regarded as the glory of an earlier age, and he understood the importance of controlling the schools to that end.

Basil, one of the great pastors and theologians of the day, argued the Christian perspective, maintaining that Christians do not decline to teach the Greek classics, but they must teach them critically, for the purpose of preparing students to think analytically and critically, so that they would be better equipped for studying Scripture and theology. Basil knew there was much good in the works of Greek poets and philosophers, but he also understood that students would only benefit from reading them if they did so critically, and not as Julian intended.

Basil was not afraid that Christian students would be misled by the classics of Greece, as long as they read them from the perspective of their Christian worldview. He believed that the solid Christian education provided in homes and churches would prepare students to read the ancient Greeks without harm to their faith. Basil had a broad view of education, and he believed that students grounded in the Word of God could handle any form or subject of instruction.

So while Julian sought to impose a narrow curriculum and a pagan worldview devoid of Christian influence, Basil worked to strengthen the Christian education triad – home, church, and schools – and recommended a broad curriculum, confident that the truth of God would prevail.

Basil’s clear vision and careful argumentation ultimately prevailed, and set the direction for Christian learning for the next thousand years. Julian’s untimely death, four years into his reign, only hastened the collapse of his experiment in restoring paganism to the Empire. Twenty years later, the emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the only legitimate religion in the Roman world – a decision that brought its own sometimes unhappy consequences.

Dr. Wayman questions the strength of the Christian educational triad in our day. While a good many schools, colleges, and Christian universities are working toward a curriculum grounded in the Christian worldview, Christian homes and churches are not upholding their legs of the triad. Christian colleges alone cannot prepare young people to live a Christian worldview once they enter the work force. They must learn the faith at home and in church if it is to be a truly lived experience, one that can stand up to whatever opposition, obstacles, or oppression an increasingly secular age might direct our way.

Today we face a situation in which Christians are prohibited from representing their worldview through the various subjects of the school curriculum. Christian schools and colleges alone will not be sufficient to resist the secularizing influence of public primary and secondary education, and of college curricula increasingly devoted to a materialistic, pragmatic, and progressive agenda. We need educational renewal in Christian homes and churches, to supplement and strengthen what Christian schools offer, if we’re to have any hope of the Christian worldview wielding anything like the influence it did during the fourth century.

Our secular age has posed a powerful challenge to the progress of the faith. It remains to be seen whether today’s Christians will rise to the challenge and grow through it, or be overwhelmed, silenced, and set aside.

For reflection
1.  How would you describe the state of the Christian education effort in your church?

2.  Why do you think Dr. Wayman is concerned about the strength of the Christian educational triad in our day?

3.  What could your church do to strengthen the work of Christian education in the homes of your fellow church members?

Next steps: What are the goals of your church’s Christian education ministry? Ask a pastor or church leader.

Next week’s Scriptorium column begins a 22-week study of the book of Acts. For a brief video introducing the focus and direction of this study, click here.

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