|
Sermon preached at
The American College Chapel
On November 2, 2003
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION – GROWING IN WISDOM AND STATURE
We are all involved in Christian education, some directly, some indirectly.
Is there anything unique about Christian higher education? Does any common characteristic show through? Does the visitor to a campus notice it? Can the observer find it in the classrooms? Does it show up in our hostels and cafeterias? Most important, does the graduate carry it away in the form of lifestyle and vocation?
Today's system of higher education in Christian institutions has become increasingly secularized, in contrast to its early roots. All around us a pervasive lack of the influence of scriptural standards is evident. There is taking place what one noted sociologist described as a "Christian drift." Elizabeth Elliot, noted author and missionary, has recently discussed the current epidemic of promiscuity on Christian college campuses. Samuel Shoemaker, a remarkable Christian leader of the 1950's, known for his vitality and perceptions of life, has his words etched into stone at the Frick Fine Arts Building at the University of Pittsburgh:
Our universities are places of learning which will prove to be blind guides unless they lead those insecure seeking young people, not alone to knowledge and the beginning of wisdom but to the source of all wisdom. That which needs to be known most is how to live and how to live with others.
In a competitive society, how can the Christian college be committed to excellence and be distinctively Christian?
One of the themes for this Sunday according to the calendar of the Church is Christian education – Growing in wisdom and stature.
We know that there is a very close relationship between the Christian faith and education. In many places in the Bible we read of the importance of teaching, instruction and guidance. Psalm 32 verse 8 reads “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go; I will guide you with my eye.” In Luke chapter 2 verse 52 we read, “ And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” Jesus was called a ‘rabbi’, meaning ‘teacher.’ Initially Jesus must have been an ardent learner for Luke chapter 2 verse 46 says that he was sitting in the midst of teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.
The roots of this close relationship between Christianity and education lie deep in Jewish faith and culture. The child has always been of paramount importance in Judaism. Jesus certainly taught the value of children, in his kindly treatment of them as well as in his instruction regarding them.
The place of learning was exclusively the home in the earliest period, and the tutors were the parents; and teaching in the home continued to play as important part in the whole of the biblical period. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 9 reads ‘ only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren.’
As it developed the synagogue became the place of instruction. In fact the synagogue’s purpose was primarily instructional and only then devotional. The synagogue ministry of Jesus consisted in ‘teaching’. The Temple porticoes too, proved very useful for rabbis, and Jesus too did much of his teaching there. I quote Matthew chapter 26 verse 55, ‘ I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize me’.
By the first century B.C., the time of the two famous rabbis, Hillel and Shammai, the eminent rabbis had their own schools for higher learning. From the time of the synagogues the scripture became the sole authority for both belief and daily conduct. Education, then, was and remained religious and ethical, with proverbs 1:7 , ‘ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ as its motto.
Jewish education’s whole function was to make the Jew holy, and separate from his neighbors, and to transform the religious into the practical.
In the infant Christian church child and parent were told how to behave towards one another. I quote Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4, ‘ And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.’
This is the legacy we Christians inherit with regard to education.
Coming to our times and our country in particular, we all know that the advent of the Christian missionaries from the West and the establishment of the British Raj led to several revolutionary changes of far reaching consequences, one of those being the educational endeavors of the missionaries. The Christian missionaries helped the spread of education to every nook and corner of the country.
The framework of Varnashrama Dharma had been greatly shaken by the impact of the western culture and thought. Missionary education became the most important instrument for social change in India.
Eminent historians like R. C. Majumdar, K. K. Datta and V. N. Datta concur with this view saying: If we have to choose one single factor which helped more than others in bringing about the great transformation in India in the nineteenth century, we can without any hesitation point to the English higher education.
On their arrival, the British found culture and social institutions to be in a state of decadence. They found themselves in an educational vacuum. Learning and enlightenment were more or less nonexistent, and the people were steeped in ignorance, conservatism and superstition.
The British government and great English philanthropist such as Charles Grant, Wilberforce and Edmund Burke supported the cause of Indian education. Well, for the British government, spending for education of the natives was also a good investment.
Though the missionaries were guided by religious motives in their educational activities, they nevertheless spent their talents and energy, time and money unsparingly for the regeneration of India. In this matter let us not forget the contribution of American missionaries. Our college itself is a great witness to the contribution of missionaries of America to the cause of education in this part of India.
English education affected the thoughts and lives of the students and through them their families and eventually society at large. Missionary educationists like Dr. William Miller of the Madras Christian College considered the leavening of society with Christian thought and ideals and values perhaps the more important than the conversion of few caste Hindus. The effect of education on the converts from the depressed classes was very great indeed. To many untouchables, the poorest of the poor, the cross became a symbol of self-reliance. It has been observed by many scholars of history that every reform has sprung directly or indirectly from Christian teaching and examples. Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Keshub Chandra Sen are notable examples.
We still have the responsibility to carry on the educational task for the good of our country. Our country faces many challenges. People many times feel that they are let down, exploited or even betrayed by their own leaders. The young look with uncertainty towards the future. The youth are plagued with the attitude of cynicism, doubt and despair. There is a general unrest in our campuses. Rampant corruption, lack of social concern, anarchy and indiscipline, which are all so pervasive today, are an indication of the lack of proper education. The society is relatively more careful while recruiting an airhostess but not equally careful while recruiting a teacher.
As people involved in Christian education, what is our response to this need of the hour? As followers of Christ, who is our model for an ideal teacher, what is our philosophy of education? As Christian teachers, what is our mission? The purpose of education is not simply to teach the three ‘R’s (reading, Writing and Arithmetic) but also to enable the individual to develop his own potential and to develop a strong individual character. A nation is what its people are. It is not so much the natural resources of a country as its people, which make it great. Take, for example, countries like Germany and Japan, which have hardly any natural resources at their command. Both of them were ravaged by wars. Yet they are on top of the world today because of their people.
Our college calendar on the very first page gives a statement of the object of the college. It reads, “ The object of the college is to give students of all creeds a liberal Christian higher education, to train them in the service of God and people and to do such other things as are in harmony with that object” A well thought out statement. Carefully worded too. It takes into account the pluralistic context of our society. It states the goal also. The goal being service of God and man.
What is our conception of a Christian college? There can be a minimalist conception: “ A Christian college or University is an educational institution which is supported financially and in other important ways by Christians.”
In the light of the objective of our college I don’t think we can stop with this minimal conception. We must move on to a minimalist – plus conception of a Christian college.
A Christian college must be essentially Christian – not merely church related. We must provide a Christian environment. By ‘Christian environment’ I mean what Dr. Radhakrishnan in his autobiography wrote, an environment where the unseen reality was a living presence. Dr. Radhakrishnan had all his education in Christian schools and colleges.
Christian education is education that is grounded and guided by Christian values and imparted from a Christian point of view. By the word ‘Christian’ I do not mean merely pertaining to the Christian religion. By ‘Christian’ I mean pertaining to the spirit that was in Christ, which is the universal Word of God. The universal intelligence – the Greek nous. It is the logos mentioned in the first chapter of the gospel according to St. John. The Christian belief is that the logos or the Word that was God manifested itself in all its fullness in the man Jesus. The same divine wisdom manifested itself in various measures in the minds of all great thinkers. Justin, the philosopher, has dared to call the great Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as ‘Christians before Christ’. The Bible exhorts us to posses the mind of Christ. This is what I mean by the word ‘Christian.’ Having the mind of Christ.
As a Christian college, it is our responsibility to impart a Christian perspective of life that is both noble and sacrificial. We have to build attitudes and beliefs that provide a person a frame of reference and the direction for ‘seeing’ what and how things are and how they ought to be.
As Christian educators we have a taproot and body to which we belong.
Our task is to recover and articulate the Christian vision. The vision can be none other than the vision of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is life in a community. There is a pain that permeates our educational system and environment. It is a pain of disconnection. Wherever we go, we meet faculty who feel disconnected from their colleagues, from their students, and from their own hearts. Most of us go into teaching, not for fame or fortune but because of a passion to connect. We feel deep kinship with some subject; we want to bring students into that relationship, to link them with a knowledge that is so life-giving to us; we want to work in communities with colleagues who share our values and our vocation. But when institutional conditions create more combat than community, when the life of the mind alienates more than it connects, the heart goes out of things, and there is little left to sustain us. In the midst of such pain, the spiritual traditions offer hope that is hard to find elsewhere. Spirituality alone is ultimately concerned with getting us reconnected. Spirituality is built on the great truth that beneath the broken surface of our lives there remains ‘a hidden wholeness’
Christian education is to reach out to that spirituality of wholeness, of connectedness, which is the essence of the kingdom of God. If unity is not the essence of the kingdom of God I wonder what else could be. Such a Christian spirituality of unity will have at its base truth, love, acceptance, forgiveness and service. This is specifically the point where faith meets learning.
Integration of faith and learning is then a significant aspect of Christian education. Christian education is a spiritual journey. Yes, it is a journey from ignorance to knowledge. But it is also a journey from unbelief to faith - Faith in the values that could sustain human life in a community of free individuals.
At this crucial moment our task is to revision education as a community enterprise from the foundations up – in our images of reality, in our modes of knowing, in our ways of teaching and learning. Such a revisioning would result in a deeply ethical education, an education that would help students develop the capacity for connectedness that is at the heart of an ethical life.
Such an education would root ethics itself in its true and only ground, in the spiritual insight that beyond the broken surface of our lives there is a “hidden wholeness” on which all life depends. In such an education, intellect and spirit would be one, teachers and learners and subjects would be in vital community with one another, and a world in need of healing would be well served. That, finally, is the reason why the spirituality of education deserves and demands our attention. This takes us back to the words of king Solomon, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” Christian Education in a nut-shell.
* * * *
Hymns: 81 - Through All the Changing Scenes of life
93 - Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah
245 - Gracious Spirit, Dwell with me
397 - Lord, Speak to me, that I may Speak