Tag: Christian Education

Truth and Poetry

October 2, 2018 / Trent / 2 Comments

Photo by Patrick Brinksma on Unsplash

The first discussion we have in the English 12 Poetry Unit is about truth.

Too many people consider poetry to be something that exists on a continuum between fluff and falsehood. This drives us Humanities types batty. Many hold to the mistaken idea that a thing is true if it is factual. And thus, since poetry isn’t usually factual, it isn’t usually true.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Just because poetry isn’t factual does not mean poetry isn’t true.” quote=”Just because poetry isn’t factual does not mean poetry isn’t true.”]

Whoa-ness of Eagles

Perrine’s Literature, a textbook we used to use, talks about the difference between encyclopedic facts of eagles with Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Eagle” to make the point that poetry offers a different experience than do facts.

A lot more can be made of this comparison.

I have my students collect a bunch of facts about bald eagles and we fill a whiteboard with them. Here’s a sample of what they find:

The female bald eagle is 35 to 37 inches, slightly larger than the male.
Wingspan ranges from 72 to 90 inches.
Bald eagles can fly to an altitude of 10,000 feet. During level flight, they can achieve speeds of about 48 to 55 km per hour.
The beak, talons, and feathers are made of keratin.
Bald eagles have 7,000 feathers.
Wild bald eagles may live as long as thirty years.
Lifting power is about 4 pounds.
All eagles are renowned for their excellent eyesight.
Once paired, bald eagles remain together until one dies.
Bald eagles lay from one to three eggs at a time.

These items gleaned from online encyclopedias are factual and they are true.

Then we look at Tennyson’s poem.

THE EAGLE

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

In this simple, six-line poem, Tennyson attempts to communicate that eagles are, in a word, awesome. But awesome doesn’t really capture it, nor does formidable or magnificent.

When I was 8 or so, I went with my class to a bird sanctuary. After viewing crows, seagulls and owls recovering from various injuries, I came face-to-face with a bald eagle—close up! It looked at me, and then looked away. I was awed by his size, his talons, his beak, his eyes—I remember my reaction; I whispered, “Whoa!”

Tennyson attempts to communicate the “whoa-ness” of eagles.

Beyond the facts

We fill another whiteboard with notes about of Tennyson’s poem, unpacking the figurative language, sound devices, imagery, and allusions. In the words and between the lines of this poem, readers experience the power and strength of this majestic bird as it is metaphorically compared to a wise and solitary king whose power is absolute.

I ask my students which is truer—the list of facts on the first whiteboard or the poem that we’ve annotated on the second. Many, perhaps most, confidently say the list of facts is “truer.” Some are uncertain. Eventually, someone calls out, “both are true but in different ways.”

There we go!

“The Eagle” communicates a truth about eagles that go beyond the encyclopedic facts. A truth that is best communicated with poetry. Our culture has been resistant to this broader understanding of truth for a long time, to its detriment.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”How much of the Bible becomes inaccessible when we reduce truth to fact? #Bible #truth #biblicaltruth #biblicalinterpretation #hermeneutics” quote=”How much of the Bible becomes inaccessible when we reduce truth to fact?”]

Things get even more interesting when I suggest, in line with C. S. Lewis in Abolition of Man, that “whoa-ness” is a quality inherent to the eagle, and not just a description of my subjective reaction to it. I’ll spare you the details, but this is often an enlightening discussion.

The next poem we look at is A. E. Houseman’s “Is My Team Ploughing,” a conversation between a dead man and his still-living friend. I ask my class, is this a true poem? This time, less than half say, “No.” Some are still uncertain.

But many, reflecting on the central idea of the poem, declare it to be true.

Conversation with a Textbook

November 1, 2013 / Trent / 2 Comments

I recently sat down with the new edition of Pathways: Civilizations Through Time, a Social Studies textbook used in grade 8 classes in Canada. As I read the foundational materials in the beginning section, I found myself in conversation with the text. This is that conversation:

Me: I wanted to talk to you a little about the section called “Religion and Civilizations.” It must be a little dicey to talk about religion in a way that is acceptable for use in schools. I mean, there’s going to be a wide range of religious beliefs in the classrooms where you are read. You are supposed to remain neutral on this sort of thing. How do you frame religion in relation to your overall topic, civilizations?

Pathways: “Religion is an important aspect of civilization. In many civilizations, both in the past and in the present, religious beliefs are one way a civilization defines and describes itself. Religion also influences people’s values and actions.”

Me: So it’s important for us to learn about religions.

Pathways: “Learning about different religions allows us to understand the civilizations to which these religions belonged.”

Me: That shouldn’t upset too many people, but as a religious person myself, I must admit that I’m a little leery about the idea of looking at religion just to understand a civilization. I mean religion is pretty important to people. But I guess you’re limited in how much you can say about religion and still maintain your neutrality. Tell me, what is your view on why we have religions in the first place?

Pathways: “Human beings have always asked what we call ‘big questions.’ You have probably asked them, too.”

Me: What do you mean by “big questions”?

Pathways: What happens to me after I die? What is the difference between right and wrong? Why am I here? Why do bad things happen? How was all this created?

Me: Wow, those are big questions. They are important questions too, we should be answering them.

Pathways: “Human beings like to have answers to their questions.

Me: They “like” to have answers to their questions? Maybe if the question is “When’s dinner?” Aren’t these questions a little weightier than that? Wouldn’t it be accurate to say that human beings need to answer these questions? I mean, the answers will change everything. How can we not answer them? Don’t you think that these questions and the answers to them are hugely important? It seems like they might be the most important questions we can ask?

Pathways: Having answers make us feel more secure.

Me: That’s it? Security? You realize people aren’t wrestling with the big questions because they are on a quest for security, right. It’s a search for meaning and purpose. Any security, if it’s gained at all, is just a by-product of the search for big answers to the big questions. How do you answer the big questions?

Pathways: “[T]hese big questions cannot be answered the same way ordinary questions can be.”

Me: Ordinary questions? What do you mean by “ordinary”?

Pathways: “For example, science tells us that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. This is based upon creating a hypothesis and then using experiments to discover if our original ideas were correct.

Me: So by ordinary, you mean questions that result in answers that you can prove using the scientific method. You are right. The answers to the big questions can’t be proven like H20 questions.

Pathways: With religion, people have to accept answers that are based on non-scientific evidence. “

Me: Yes, they do. But that’s not really a problem with the questions, is it? The problem is with the method. Your scientific evidence is limited—it’s limited to physical things, and event that happen in the realm of physical things. Religions are looking for answers that go beyond material. You can’t get very far studying the stars with a dissection tray and a microscope. These are the wrong tools. Science is the wrong tool to determine the meaning of life. Or do you think that science is the only legitimate tool in the search for any truth? All truth?

. . . Where were we? Oh yes, you said that ordinary questions are the ones for which the answers are based on science, and the answers to big questions are non-scientific. Are you implying that the answers to big questions are not as good as ordinary ones? Like they are sorta just made up?

Pathways: “In effect, [people] have to accept them based on their beliefs (faith).”

Me: Well, that’s not entirely true, it is? Even though the answers might be non-scientific, that doesn’t mean they are non-rational. Sure, there is an element of faith, but there is also a significant element of reason involved in religion. I mean it’s reasonable to conclude that there is a god, or gods, behind the creation of the universe. Just like it’s reasonable to conclude that there isn’t.

But there’s another thing about your word choice: I noticed you consistently use the term “us” when speaking of knowing scientifically and the word “people” when speaking about believing? I thought it was interesting how you distance yourself, and, consequently, your young readers from the act believing.

I’m beginning to be a little suspect of your neutrality.

But let’s move on. Why do we have so many different religions?

Pathways: “Different Faiths, Different Answers”

Me: Could you elaborate?

Pathways: “There are many religions in the world, and each one has different answers to the big questions.”

Me: Which one is right?

Pathways: “Which one is right? No one religion has the ‘right’ answers, because the big questions have no scientifically provable answers.”

Me: Did I hear you right? You didn’t say that “You can’t know who is right”; you said “you can’t be right if the answers aren’t scientifically provable. That doesn’t make any sense—it’s not logical. If there is a right answer, but it can’t be proven to be right, isn’t it right anyway?

. . . All religions answer the questions differently, so on one question some religion must be closer than others—that’s logical, isn’t it? If one religion teaches you love your enemies and another teaches eat your enemies, they can’t both be equally true. They say opposite things. The only way they can be equal true, is if they are equally false.

. . . I think I understand your problem. You actually believe that something isn’t true unless it is proven scientifically, but you can only believe that if you believethat reality is only physical things and physical events.Are you saying that reality is nothing but physical or material?

Be careful. However you answer, you will be making a scientifically unprovable claim in response to a big question.

That’s OK, you don’t have to answer. You already did anyway. You’re as bad as religious people.

You realize that you are not nearly as neutral as you think. Whether we like it or not, we all answer big questions.

My concern is for the students who might read this section, especially those who don’t have teachers who can guide them through your non-scientific beliefs. What do you say to a grade 8 student who is thinking about the big questions? You aren’t really going to be allowed to discourage participation in religion.

Pathways: In Canada today, there are many different religions. If you were looking for a religion to belong to, you could find out what different religions say about the big questions. Then you could choose the religion with the answers you are most comfortable with, or that fit best with what you already think.

Me: At least you are consistent. Since they are all equally false, it doesn’t matter what religion you pick, or the criteria by which you pick it. I understand that you think you are being equally fair to all religions, but you actually being equally unfair.

People are looking for truth and meaning, and they believe they can find it. So, we can’t just shop for a religion like we do for shoes and pick the pair that fits. If truth and meaning exist, we will conform to it, not it to us.

How do you suggest we deal with people who have a different religion?

Pathways: “Even if you had a different religion than your friends, that probably would not matter too much. If fact, you could probably learn something from each other.”

Me: I thought you would say that. It’s fine to have a religious belief but don’t take it too seriously. I suppose that’s your picture of religious tolerance.

I think that the only way to have true tolerance is to take each other’s beliefs very seriously—even yours. Wouldn’t the picture of tolerance be a materialist, such as yourself, talking with a Christian and a Muslim over a good cup of coffee. And listening. And disagreeing, but enjoying the company, the conversation, and the coffee all the while respecting the sincerity of each other’s beliefs? Wouldn’t this be a better picture to present to grade 8 students?

For that to happen, you’d have to step down from your position as final arbiter of truth and admit that your just like the rest of us. Trying to understand the world around you. Having faith in the idea that there isn’t something up there.

Unless we all take this posture, nobody is going to learn anything from anybody.

Legalize Hit Men?

October 24, 2013 / Trent / 8 Comments

crystal710 / Pixabay

I observed an English class at my school reading the recent post by Betsy Childs entitled “Why We Should Legalize Murder for Hire.”

Some were horrified at first at the suggestion that “hit men [could] provide a valuable service to society” by helping women deal with “unwanted marriages,” but they quickly understood they were dealing with satire. Their appreciation of the author’s wit was evidenced by the readers’ giggles and parenthetic comments.

Students see that the author is building a parallel between killing one’s spouse and killing one’s unborn child.

The students commended the cleverness of Childs’ analogy when she says that “matrimony severely curtails a woman’s freedom” and that “the better course is to avoid unwanted marriage in the first place,” and “it is her marriage; only she can decide when it must end” . . .

One student pointed out that Childs correlates adoption to divorce when she says the latter “may be an attractive alternative to murder” but “some woman do not have the emotional and financial resources to go through a divorce.”

The students’ initial reaction to this article was positive.

Critical Thinking and Discernment

Teacher: How would you take this if you were pro-choice?

Student: I’d be mad.

It wasn’t very long and one student used the word “fallacy.”

The students continued to ask each other questions:

Stacked evidence?

Not quite.

Faulty analogy?

Yeah, that fits.

(Faulty analogy: an argument is based on misleading, superficial, or implausible comparisons.)

The students suggested that this argument is only effective if someone accepts that premise that a fetus was comparable to a husband. Someone who is pro-choice would not accept the premise. They concluded that if your audience was pro-life, Childs’ argument was effective, but if it was pro-choice the argument would be ineffective.

Who is the audience?

Since this article was posted on The Gospel Coalition website, one can assume that the audience was conservative to moderate Christians. The effect of the article was to reinforce the views of the audience. In other words, it was preaching to the choir.

What’s the point of writing this if your audience already agrees?

It was observed that the only effect of the article was to reinforce the view of those who agree that our society “celebrates [the murder of] family members”. Several students pointed out that this, in itself, is not wrong, but because the tone was mocking this article would simultaneously alienate opponents and inflame the passions of supporters.

Was this the purpose of the article?

Students wondered, if you get the two sides all riled up you can’t get anywhere.

How can Christians write about this issue that promotes dialogue?

A Christian Worldview?

September 14, 2013 / Trent / 0 Comments

msandersmusic / Pixabay

The term “Christian worldview” is often used, but not always understood.

Too often, people think that if you simply believe the Bible, oppose abortion and avoid R-rated movies you have a Christian worldview.

OK, this is a bit of a caricature, but my point is, Christians often have a far too superficial understanding of worldview.

Even Nancy Pearcy’s book Total Truth, which is a book about worldview, begins with the story of Sarah, a Christian woman who works as a counselor in a Planned Parenthood Clinic. Pearcy explains this incongruity:

Sarah’s story illustrates how even sincere believers may find themselves drawn into a secular worldview–while remaining orthodox in their theological beliefs (32).

Although Sarah’s story may illustrate what Pearcy says it does, it does not help readers to understand the depth at which we hold worldviews–Christian, Secular or whatever.

The Depth of Worldview

Here’s an illustration that I think better illustrates how deeply worldviews are held and the conflict between a Christian and a “Secular” worldview.

I’m teaching Grade 9 Humanities this year so I started reading the textbook. I think it’s a standard textbook for Social Studies across the province. I didn’t get beyond the first page and I knew that this year I would be teaching a lot of worldview in my class. Two sentences in the introduction to the first chapter entitled “The Early Modern Age” grabbed my attention.

They present a worldview that is completely contrary to a Biblical one.

Here’s the first sentence:

Sometime around the year 1500, Europe began to experience profound changes in its political, religious, social, economic and intellectual life. As a result of these changes, European history began to enter a new era–the Early Modern Age.

This is the second:

All civilizations experience a kind of evolutionary change in their histories.

The significant word here is “evolutionary.” The popular use of the term “evolutionary” connotes a positive change. The Free Online Dictionary captures the developmental aspect of the word when it defines evolutionary as “A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.”

Together these sentences suggest that humanity is moving toward a better world and that the Early-Modern Age was a significant step in that direction. Many people in our culture accept this without batting an eye. This is their worldview. And it’s held far more deeply than the idea that reproductive freedom is good or bad or whatever.

It is true that there were a lot of changes going on in Europe around the year 1500. It is also true that some things have improved over the last 500 years–transportation, for example, is much faster than it used to be. But is it true to say that our civilization has improved just because some aspects of it has?

A survey of the last hundred years–with two World Wars, one Great Depression, the nuclear arms race, ecological disasters, new and deadly diseases–provides a lot of evidence to the contradict the idea that things are getting better.

So why does the textbook make this claim?

They make it because it is true within a certain story.

Grand Stories–Metanarratives

No claim (or “fact,” thing, event, person) means anything until we place it into a story. This is why human beings always tell stories — we are always seeking meaning.

All stories, whether myths or movies, share some common elements. They always have a protagonist, a person who strives for some goal. This quest drives the story toward a meaningful end. Stories also have conflict because there are always antagonists, that is, a person (or people or a force) that impedes the protagonist in the fulfillment of his or her purpose.

Two stories concern us here: the so-called “secular” story and the Christian story.

The Secular Story

In the secular story, the dominant myth in our culture, the protagonist, humanity, is on a long quest for autonomy (freedom from authority). The antagonists in the secular story oppose human freedom. These are monarchs, God and the church, communism, fascism, socialism, tradition and social conventions. Many of these villains and monsters have been vanquished and only a few remain.

Because my grade 9 Social Studies textbook has placed the events following 1500 into this Secular story, it can claim that we have experienced evolutionary change in our history.

This is the dominant story in our culture, but it isn’t the only one.

The Christian Story

The Christian story says that humanity will find fulfillment only in the presence of the loving God who made him. Sin and Satan, the antagonists, thwart humanity at every turn, but the hero of the story has come to find us and will bring us home (actually, bring home here). This is the meaningful end of the Christian story.

When you consider civilization from this story, change has not been evolutionary–civilization has not improved because we have come no closer to dealing with our basic problem. Freedom, according to this story, is a good thing, but Sin causes us to make GOOD things into ultimate things. This inversion is, in essence, to make Freedom, into a god, a false god, an idol. Freedom is a good thing, but it is not the ultimate thing.

Textbooks and Stories

The secular story, or worldview, is foundational to my entire grade 9 social studies textbook and most of the other textbooks used in schools all over North America.

And it’s not just textbooks; it’s the worldview upon which the whole curriculum is built. And it’s not just in schools, this story is reinforced by popular culture. We are inundated with this story, and it is a powerful story.

When we consider the people who have fallen away from the church, I don’t doubt that many they left to seek autonomy–they wanted to do what they wanted to do and not have anyone or anything restrict their freedom. This is not necessarily a choice freely made, but one that makes sense because of warming toward the secular story.

One’s position on abortion is not a worldview–worldview runs much deeper–but your position on the issue of abortion is dictated by your worldview. So will be your position on other issues that are, at their core, about human freedom.

I’m still using that textbook though, because discerning worldviews is one of the objectives of this and every other class taught at my school. I worry for the Christian kids who aren’t in a school that is deliberate about exposing the competing stories in our culture. And I also worry about the kids who are, because the secular story seems so true, because we are immersed in it.

I take more than a little comfort in the fact that none of the competing stories ring so true as the one where sin is the antagonist and the end is being reunited with the One who gave us every good thing–including Freedom.

Why Christian Education? (Part 3): Three More Objections to Christian Schools

July 27, 2012 / Trent / 0 Comments

There are a few other objections to Christian education that I wanted to address directly. The first is that Christian schools shelter children from the real world. The second is that the Bible calls us to be salt and light to the world, and by sending children to a Christian school, we are, in effect, hiding our light under a bushel. And third, Christian education is too expensive.

Christian schools shelter students from the “real” world.

This is an objection that comes from the assumption that all Christian schools are as Niebuhr’s Christ against Culture stance. Hopefully, the awareness of the other two has taken care of this objection, but I will offer one more word.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Do Christian Schools needlessly shelter students from the *real world*? #ChristianEducation #ChristianSchools” quote=”Do Christian Schools needlessly shelter students from the *real world*?”]

First of all, it is not even possible to shelter students from sin. Sin lives in the Christian school when the first person unlocks the door in the morning. So we have to deal with idolatry and selfishness and gossip and bullying and theft just like every school does. The difference in the Christian school is that it brings the Word of God to every situation in the lives of the children. We don’t just “explore, evaluate, and experience” sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, but “all of life under God.”

The selection of teaching materials and library books, etc. is not based on the protection of our students from the evil in the world, although age appropriateness is one of the criteria. These resources are selected for their usefulness to explore as well as discern the world. We don’t shy away from issues around sexuality, violence, justice, nor do we avoid non-Christian thinkers and authors, filmmakers, or artists.

In Christian schools, we hold up culture to the light of faith. To do this, we have to engage culture. Our work is not characterized by isolation, but inoculation.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”In Christian schools, we hold up culture to the light of faith. To do this, we have to engage culture. Our work is not characterized by isolation, but inoculation. #ChristianEducation #ChristianSchools” quote=”In Christian schools, we hold up culture to the light of faith. To do this, we have to engage culture. Our work is not characterized by isolation, but inoculation. “]

Christians are called to be salt and light

A second objection to Christian education is that Christians are called to be salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16), and by sending our children to a public school we are fulfilling this mandate.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Is the mandate to be salt and light in the world and argument for or against Christian Schools? #ChristianEducation #ChristianSchools” quote=”Is the mandate to be salt and light in the world and argument for or against Christian Schools? “]

I agree that Christians ought to “let [their] light shine before men,” but this injunction is meant for Christians, not the children of Christians. I would also suggest that even if a child is a Christian, to be salt and light requires some wisdom and spiritual maturity.

Further, the command to be salt and light in the world is not just an injunction for the individual Christian. Christ gives us a metaphor; we are to be a light, “like a city on a hill.” A city is a community–we are to set up communities of faith that will be salt and light in the world.

North Americans, including North American Christians, are tremendously individualistic. We tacitly interpret our world through an individualistic lens. We naturally read the “salt and light” injunction individualistically. This is one of the very idols that a good Christian education attempts to reveal and combat. The Christian school is salt and light in the world as a community.

We have something to share regarding teaching practices, employee relations, special education and learning assistance, recycling, bullying, assessment, supervision of teachers and students, etc. We have something to share because what we believe about Jesus Christ is true, not just for Christians, but for everyone and everything. So, we collectively witness to all those involved in education.

Christian School staff are involved in many professional groups relating to their specific field within education. Our schools are also visited frequently by teachers and principals, special education and learning assistance teachers and coordinators, coaches, counselors, government inspectors, and elected officials. Further, our students are involved in their communities. We are being salt and light in the broader community, as a community.

I am not saying that Christian teachers ought to be teaching only in Christian schools, as a matter of fact, this is a vital place where the light of the gospel needs to be reflected. I also want to be clear that I am not saying that sending one’s children to the public school is the wrong thing to do. I have heard many stories of Christian children being a blessing in their local schools. What I do want to claim is that the salt and light argument ought not to be understood as a Biblical injunction to send Christian children to a public school.

CHRISTAN SCHOOLS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE

A third objection is that Christian Education is too expensive. I agree that it is expensive—especially where the schools receive no government grants and the full cost falls to parents. In general, though, I would say that there are many things we can do without, or delay, that are less important than an education that reinforces a transformational and integrative view of life.

I see this in our school community. For many, the family summer vacation is camping at the local provincial/state park. The cars that drop off the kids at school in the morning are often older than 10 years. It helps that Christian education is a community project in that the older generations continue to support the school which helps keep costs down. Also, local church congregations and the school itself may have programs available to help cover the costs of tuition for those who can’t afford it.

I wouldn’t be honest if I said that any school executes this model of Christian Education perfectly because it’s very difficult and we suffer from all those human limitations. Also, it’s hard to discern the degree to which our collective view of the world is acculturated; it’s easier to swim with the cultural current than against it, and to constantly evaluate every part of life through the interpretive lens of the Gospel is hard work.

There are many things to talk about – How we celebrate the graduation of our students in a way that reflects Christ’s Lordship? How do we create meaningful interaction between students of different ages and between students and older generations? We also need to continually talk about technology, which is always changing. There are many more.

It is most effective, and most fun, when we engage in the process of discerning and shaping our culture in a community, that includes students. I also find it a tremendous blessing to work with others that have a clear focus—to be faithful, discerning, obedient and creative servants of God and of neighbour, and stewards of His creation.

Why Christian Education? (Part 1): Three Different Types of Christian Schools

July 15, 2012 / Trent / 1 Comment

Photo by Daniel Watson on Unsplash

I was at a church service some months back and a guest pastor was, in essence, exhorting the congregation to get out of their Christian ghetto and do some good for the world. He has a point, of course. It’s easy to live in the suburbs and surround ourselves with other Christians who indulge in the same flavour of the faith that we do.

I agreed with the guest pastor completely until he suggested that this meant getting children out of Christian schools. I was taken aback when some in the audience responded with applause and cheering. Maybe I am a little sensitive, but I thought I heard some vindication in their applause.

As someone who has dedicated over 30 years to the furthering of Christian education, I was saddened as I drove home, first, because there seems to be a passionate opposition to Christian education in at least part of the congregation, but more so, because the minister’s comments were based on a complete misunderstanding of Christian Education as I experience it every day.

Many sincere Christian parents send their children to the local public school. This may be because there is no local Christian school, or because of financial constraints. These can be difficult barriers.

There are other reasons given for the renunciation of Christian Education. There are some, like the guest pastor, that believe the children of Christian parents are to be salt and light in the world. Other more philosophical types have told me that they wish to avoid a sacred/secular dualism. Against these positions, I would like to push back and assert that the school that best addresses these concerns is the Christian school. I don’t mean just any Christian school, however. There are different kinds and I’m not ready to defend all of them with equal fervor.

There are many reasons parents send their children to a Christian school and behind these reasons is often a particular view of culture and the Christian’s relationship to it. The various views of the relationship between Christ and culture will produce different types of Christian schools. In his book Christ and Culture, H. Richard Niebuhr describes several Christian responses to culture. These responses are useful for distinguishing different types of schools.

Different Types of Christan Schools

Christ Against Culture

One group of Christian school advocates sees an antithetical relationship between the culture and those who proclaim Jesus as Lord. Niebuhr calls this stance, Christ against Culture. Adherents of this view believe that to be loyal to Christ one must reject culture.

Niebuhr identifies several problems with this stance. The first is that separation from the world isn’t really possible. Secondly, this view seems to presuppose that sin lies in culture and that by avoiding culture, one can avoid sin. A final problem is that, at its root, the Christ against Culture model seems to suggest that Christ has little or nothing to do with culture—that the material world of which culture is a part, is at odds with the spiritual world, ruled by God.

It is not difficult to understand why adherents of this view of culture would seek a separate Christian education for their children. The public school, like culture as a whole, would be seen to contain much that is in opposition to the ways of God. The purpose of the Christian school, then, would be to further the separation of the Christian community from the culture as a whole.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Some Christian schools pull out of culture which they see as evil. This stance overemphasizes the fall and fails to see the creational goodness in culture. #ChristianEducation #ChristianSchools” quote=”Some Christian schools pull out of culture which they see as evil. This stance overemphasizes the fall and fails to see the creational goodness in culture. “]

Christ with Culture, Christ of culture, or Christ Above Culture

Not all Christians frame the relationship between Christ and culture as an either/or proposition. Many see much good in culture that may, or even ought to, be embraced. Some of these views can give rise to the second type of Christian school. In these schools, because of a positive attitude toward culture, there is little reason for the curriculum to be much different than that of the local public school.

It is a Christian school because various devotional practices have been added to the schedule. These would be things like devotions at the beginning the day, weekly chapels involving corporate worship, religious instruction and prayer, and Bible or religious education classes. We might think of the Christian aspects of this sort of school as the creamy icing spread over the already pretty decent cake that is the standard curriculum taught in the public school.

This view of the relationship between Christ and culture is perhaps at the root of many sincere Christian parents sending their children to a public school. What the child learns at school may be considered as, at worst, philosophically neutral and the religious instruction and devotional activities that occur in the home and at church are considered adequate for the spiritual nurturing of the child.

Where the first anti-culture view underemphasizes the good in creation, the critique of this pro-culture view is that it under-emphasizes the extent to which sin has distorted God’s good creation—including culture. The failure to appreciate the extent of sin’s corrupting effects often results in a corresponding failure to appreciate the scope of Christ’s redemption.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Some Christian schools maintain an open stance toward culture which they see as neutral. This stance overemphasizes the creational goodness and fails to appreciate the effects of the Fall in culture. #ChristianEducation #ChristianSchools” quote=”Some Christian schools maintain an open stance toward culture which they see as neutral. This stance overemphasizes the creational goodness and fails to appreciate the effects of the Fall in culture.”]

Christ Transforming Culture

There is a third type of Christian school, one that is unlike the Christ against Culture model in that it has a far more hopeful view of culture. It is unlike the second in that it places greater emphasis on the depth and breadth of the effects of sin. The view of culture from which this school arises is what Niebuhr calls the Christ transforming Culture model.

Adherents of this third type of Christian school recognize three fundamental truths. First, that culture is a manifestation of God’s good creation and a product of human creativity and community. Second, that sin distorts every part of this good creation, including human culture. Thus, there is nothing created, that was not created good, but there is nothing that has not been distorted by the Fall. A third truth is that Christ is the redeemer of all that God created. This process began with his death and resurrection, and continues, even now, by the work of his Spirit in and through his people.

The task of the Christian, then, is to explore what it means to live faithfully. This means that we strive to shape God’s world by enhancing and celebrating the creational goodness and also discerning the presence of sin and working to reduce its effects. The role of the Christian, then, is to take care of the environment, feed the hungry and take care of the sick. It also means to be involved in culture as movie-makers, lawyers, florists, plumbers and union leaders that bless our neighbours. It means being available if God chooses to work through our meager efforts and transform our local communities, or even the world.

The work of Redemption is Christ’s, but we are invited to participate in it. Rikk Watts of Regent College in Vancouver once left me with this analogy: We are called to imitate Jesus, like a child who enthusiastically pushes his plastic lawnmower behind his dad when he’s mowing the lawn. “Look Mom! We’re mowing the lawn!”

What kind of Christian School arises from this worldview? It would not disengage from culture for that would be a failure to recognize the essential goodness of the creation found in it, but neither would it indiscriminately embrace the culture, for to do so is a failure to appreciate the distorting effects of sin that is present in all aspects of life. This Christian school would explore all aspects of creation, including culture, and celebrate the creational goodness that we find there, but it would also train students to discern evil, not just “out there”—where it certainly is, but also inside our most intimate circles and within ourselves.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Not all Christian schools are the same. Some exist to escape the evils of the world. Others simply add a Christian veneer to a *neutral* curriculum. Others accept Christ as Lord of all aspects of school life. #ChristianEducation #ChristianSchools” quote=”Not all Christian schools are the same. Some exist to escape the evils of the world. Others simply add a Christian veneer to a *neutral* curriculum. Still others accept Christ as Lord of all aspects of school life. “]

Holistic Christian Education

It’s not just daily devotions, weekly chapels and Bible classes that make a Christian school. Neither is the Christian content in the curriculum the full picture. All aspects of the school fall under the Lordship of Christ: our understanding and use of technology, our approach to learning assistance and special education, the way discipline is carried out, how budgets are finalized and decisions about the programs we offer.

Human experience in this world cannot simply be divided up between good and evil where we, as Hamlet says, “Throw away the worser part of it, and live the purer with the other half.” Nor can we live as if Christ is something we can add to the surface of culture like icing on a cake. Rather, Christ’s Lordship is at the core of every aspect of life—and this would include the way we educate our children.

Rather than isolating children, as the guest pastor supposed, a Christian education is about preparing students to meaningfully engage the world with a full understanding of the gospel.

Read: Why Christian Education? (Part 2): Three Objections to Christian School