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A History of Religious Educators Elmer L Liberty University DigitalCommons@Liberty University Books The orkW s of Elmer Towns 1975 A History of Religious Educators Elmer L. Towns Liberty University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/towns_books Recommended Citation Towns, Elmer L., "A History of Religious Educators" (1975). Books. Paper 24. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/towns_books/24 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The orkW s of Elmer Towns at DigitalCommons@Liberty University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Books by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Liberty University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Contents Contributors Preface Part One A.D. 1-500 1 Jesus / Donald Guthrie 2 Paul / Richard N. Longenecker 3 Augustine / Howard Grimes Part Two A.D. 500-1500 4 Columba / John Woodbridge 5 Thomas Aquinas / Joan Ellen Duval 6 Geert Groote / Julia S. Henkel Part Three A.D. 1500-1750 7 Erasmus / Robert Ulich 8 Martin Luther / Harold J. Grimm 9 Huldreich Zwingli / H. Wayne Pipkin 10 Ignatius of Loyola / George E. Ganss 11 Philip Melanchthon / Carl S. Meyer 12 John Knox / Marshall Coleman Dendy 13 John Calvin / Elmer L. Towns 14 John Amos Comenius / W. Warren Filkin, Jr. 15 August Hermann Francke / Kenneth 0. Gangel 16 Nikolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf / T. F. Kinloch Part Four A.D. 1750-1900 17 John Wesley / Elmer L. Towns 18 Robert Raikes / Elmer L. Towns 19 Johann H. Pestalozzi / Gerald Lee Gutek 20 Johann Friedrich Herbart / Abraham Friesen 21 Thomas Arnold / William R. Feyerharm 22 John Henry Newman / Bernard Ramm 23 Horace Bushnell / Elmer L. Towns 24 Abraham Kuyper / John H. Kromminga 25 William James / James Merritt 26 John Dewey / David H. Roper Index of Persons Contributors Marshall Coleman Dendy (M.A., University of Tennessee), Retired Executive Secretary of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church, U.S. Joan Allen Duval (Ph.D., Catholic University of America), Chief, Early Childhood Branch, Division of School Programs, Bureau of Educational Personnel Development, United States Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare William R. Feyerharm (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin), Assistant Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois W. Warren Filkin, Jr. (Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), Professor Emeritus of Christian Education, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Abraham Friesen (Ph.D., Stanford University), Assistant Professor of Renaissance and Reformation History, University of California (Santa Barbara) Kenneth O. Ganget (Ph.D., University of Missouri), President, Miami Christian College George E. Ganss, S.J. (Ph.D., St. Louis University), Professor Emeritus of Spirituality, School of Divinity, St. Louis University Lewis Howard Grimes (Ph.D., Columbia University) Professor of Christian Education, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University Harold J. Grimm (Ph.D., Ohio State University), Professor Emeritus of History, Ohio State University Gerald Lee Gutek (Ph.D., University of Illinois), Professor of History and of Foundations of Education, Loyola University (Chicago) Donald Guthrie (Ph.D., University of London), Registrar for Advanced Studies and Senior Lecturer in New Testament, London Bible College Julia S. Henkel (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh), Professor of Christian Education, Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary T. F. Kinloch (M.A.), died 1953. John H. Kromminga (Th.D., Princeton Theological Seminary), President and Professor of Historical Theology, Calvin Theological Seminary Richard N. Longenecker (Ph.D., Edinburgh University), Professor of New Testament, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto James Merritt (Ed.D., Harvard University), Professor of Education, Northern Illinois University Carl S. Meyer (Ph.D., University of Chicago), died 1972. Formerly Graduate Professor of Church History, Concordia Theological Seminary (St. Louis) H. Wayne Pipkin (Ph.D., Hartford Seminary Foundation), Assistant Professor of Religion, Baylor University Bernard L. Ramm (Ph.D., University of Southern California), Professor of Theology, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary David H. Roper (Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary), Director, Discovery Center, Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, California Elmer L. Towns (Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary), Director, Sunday School Research Institute; and Executive Vice President, Baptist University of America Robert Ulich (Dr.Phil., University of Leipzig), James Bryant Conant Professor of Education, Emeritus, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University John D. Woodbridge (D.T.C., University of Toulouse), Associate Professor of Church History, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Preface 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- 500 Education 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.
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