Issues in Developing Integral and Authentic Christian Schooling

Association of Christian Schools in Korea

Wesley Wentworth, September 2012
A discussion needs to be had as to what constitutes a school and what might allow it to be called a Christian school, Marxist school or a Public school based on a clear statement of their educational philosophy and mission. We as Christians could do well to understand Dabney and Wilson’s comment (2012):
“Every line of true knowledge must find its completeness as it converges on God, just as every beam of daylight leads the eye to the sun. (p.17)” The Christian educator’s job is not to require the students to spend all their time gazing at the sun. Rather, we want them to examine everything else in the light the sun provides.

Notes for Issues in Developing Integral and Authentic Christian Schooling
Note 1 Marsden CREATION
The affirmation that God is the creator of heaven and earth. This claim of Christianity and kindred religions has momentous scholarly implications. In fact, one way to describe the history of modern Western thought is as a rejection of the doctrine of creation and its systematic exclusion as a consideration in academic study, outside of theology itself. Even scholars who do believe in creation are expected to act, as Peter Berger has put it, on the basis of "methodological atheism."
Many people think of this as applying primarily to the natural sciences, where it does indeed have bearing on larger speculations, but it actually has far more pervasive implications in the humanities and the social sciences. Methodological atheism in these fields means that humans and their cultures have to be regarded as nothing more than the products of natural processes. With God eliminated a priori, there is no other approach that makes sense.
If Christian scholars who believe in creation begin to question this arbitrary dogma that scholars must view humans as no more than products of purely natural forces, it will have far-reaching implications in the humanities, the social sciences, and in the study of religion itself. Much of the difference will appear in critiques of prevailing naturalistic first principles. An impressive example of such Christian scholarship is John Milbank's Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason, a work that challenges the fundamental assumption of the social sciences and much of religious studies. The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship by George M. Marsden, Oxford University Press, 1997, pp84.

창조
지금까지 제시한 대부분의 예는 하나님이 천지의 창조주라는 주장과 연관성을 가지고 있다. 기독교 및 그와 유사한 종교에서 제기되는 이런 주장은 학문적으로 중요한 의미를 지닌다. 사실상 현대 서양 사상사를 저술하는 한 가지 방법은 창조 교리를 배척하고, 창조 교리가 신학 외에는 학문 연구의 대상이 되지 못하도록 체계적으로 배제시키는 것이다. 피터 버거(Peter Beger)가 지적했듯이, 창조를 믿는 학자들조차도 ‘방법론적 무신론’을 바탕으로 행동하도록 기대되고 있다.
많은 사람은 주로 자연 과학에 그것이 적용된다고 생각하고 있다. 그러나 그것이 자연 과학 분야의 폭넓은 사색에 영향을 미치고 있지만, 실상은 인문학과 사회 과학 분야에서 훨씬 폭넓은 의미를 지닌다. 분야들에서 방법론적으로 무신론을 채택하면, 인간과 인간의 문화란 단지 자연 과정의 산물이라는 결론이 나온다. 하나님이 선럼적으로 배제되고 나면, 의미를 부여하는 다른 접근법은 다 없어지는 것이다. 인간을 순수한 자연적 힘의 산물이라고만 보아야 한다는 이런 주장은 자의적이고 독단적이다. 만약 창조를 믿는 그리스도인 학자들이 이런 주장에 대해 질문을 던지기 시작한다면, 그것은 인문학, 사회 과학 그리고 종교 연구 자체에도 큰 의미가 있을 것이다. 널리 퍼진 자연주의의 제1원리에 관한 비판에 많은 차이가 생겨날 것이다. 그러한 기독교적 학문의 인상적인 예는 존 밀뱅크(John Milbank)의 「신학과 사회적 이론: 세속 이성을 넘어」(Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason)에서 볼 수 있다. 이 저술은 사회 과학 및 상당수의 종교학이 전제로 삼는 주장에 도전하는 내용을 담고 있다. Page 126 조지 마스덴, 기독교적 학문 연구 @ 현대 학문 세계, IVP 2000

Note 2 VanBrummelen Walking With God in the Classroom, Gods Laws pp7 1st Edition
Christian teaching and learning aims to discover God’s laws and apply them in obedient response to God. They may involve the law of gravity and wind resistance in building a model airplane. It may mean using the laws of language effectively in composing a short story. Students may investigated how God’s laws of justice and righteousness apply to economic life, or what God’s law of love and faithfulness implies for personal relationships and marriage. What must undergird our whole program is that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all reality and the norms for human life (Pr 3:19-20; Job 38-41)Walking With God In The Classroom, Alta Vista College Press, First Edition 1992헤로 반 브루멜른, 교실에서 하나님과 동행하십니까?, IVP 1996

Note 3 Edlin Chapter 1 and Greene
Richard J. Edlin, The Cause of Christian Education, National Institute for Christian Education Australia 1999 리처드 애들린, 기독교 교육의 기초, 그리심, 2004Albert E. Greene Jr., Reclaiming The Future Of Christian Education: A Transforming Vision, ACSI 1998 알버트 그린, 기독교 세계관으로 가르치기, CUP 2000

Note 4 VanBrummelen Steppingstones
Worldview Questions for Curriculum Planning 교육과정 기획을 위한 세계관 질문들(Steppingstones to Curriculum p.64-65) 헤로 반 브루멜른, 기독교적 교육과정 디딤돌, IVP 2006
다음은 네 가지 기본적인 세계관 질문이다. 괄호 안에 있는 것은 이와 관련된 성경적 개념이다.
ㆍ나는 누구이며 어디에 있는가? 인간의 본질, 사명, 그리고 목적은 무엇인가? 내가 살고 있 는 세상과 우주의 본질은 무엇인가? [창조]
ㆍ무엇이 잘못되었는가? 개인적으로나 사회적으로 우리는 왜 완전에 훨씬 미치지 못하고 타 락하였는가? 고통과 악은 어디서 유래하는가? [타락]
ㆍ치유책은 무엇인가? 우리는 인간의 곤경에 대한 해답을 어디서 발견하는가? [우리가 회복 을 향해 일하는 것을 가능케 하는 구속]
ㆍ미래를 유지해 주는 것은 무엇인가? 우리는 어디서 희망을 발견하는가? [새 하늘과 새 땅 에서의 완성](Walsh and Middleton, 1984, 35)
여러 교육과정 주제들을 계획하기 위해서 우리는 이 질문들을 다음과 같이 바꾸어 표현할 수 있다.
1. 우리가 탐구하고자 하는 창조 세계 혹은 문화의 특정 영역에 대한 하나님의 의도는 무엇인가?
2. 인간의 불순종과 죄의 결과로 인해 이러한 목적은 어떻게 왜곡되었는가? 하나님의 본래 의도에서 인간은 어떻게 이탈하였는가?
3. 하나님은 우리가 어떻게 응답하기를 원하시는가? 그리스도의 구속 사역을 통해서, 우리가 세상을 향해 본래 하나님이 의도하신 사랑, 의, 정의를 최소한 부분적으로라도 회복할 수 있는 방법이 있는가?
4. 학생들이 기독교적 삶의 방식을 더욱 깊이 이해하고, 경험하고, 또 그것에 헌신케 하기 위해서 우리는 어떻게 도울 수 있는가? 수많은 문제와 논쟁에 직면하고 있음에도 불구하고 우리는 어떻게 학생들에게 희망과 힘과 용기를 심어 줄 수 있는가?(Blomberg, 1991, 9)

Worldview Questions for Curriculum Planning
Here are four basic worldview questions with the related biblical concepts enclosed in brackets:
Who and where am I? What are the nature, task and purpose of human beings? What is the nature of the world and universe I live in? [creation]
What has gone wrong? Why do we personally and as a society fall far short of perfection? Where do pain and evil come from? [fall]
What is the remedy? Where do we find answers to the human plight? [redemption that enables us to work toward restoration]
What does the future hold? Where do we find our hope? [fulfillment in a new heaven and a new earth] (adapted from Walsh and Middleton, 1984, p. 35)
For planning many curriculum topics, we can rephrase these questions as shown below:
What is God's intention for the particular area of creation or culture that we will investigate?
How has this purpose been distorted by the effects of human disobedience and sin? How have humans deviated from God's original intent? (Law/will)
How does God want us to respond? Are there ways in which we can, through Christ's work of redemption, restore, at least in part, the love, righteousness and justice God intended for the world?
How can we help our students develop a deeper understanding of, experience in, and commitment to a Christian way of life? How can we instill them with a sense of hope, strength and courage despite the many problems and struggles we face? (revised from Blomberg 1991, p. 9)

Resource List
Education
1. Richard J. Edlin, The Cause of Christian Education, National Institute for Christian Education Australia 1999 리처드 애들린, 기독교 교육의 기초, 그리심, 2004
2. Albert E. Greene Jr., Reclaiming The Future Of Christian Education: A Transforming Vision, ACSI 1998 알버트 그린, 기독교 세계관으로 가르치기, CUP 2000
3. Harro Van Brummelen, Steppingstones to Curriculum: A Biblical Path, 2nd Edition ACSI 2002 헤로 반 브루멜른, 기독교적 교육과정 디딤돌, IVP 2006
4. Harro Van Brummelen, Walking With God In The Classroom, 3rd Edition, Purposeful Design, 2009 헤로 반 브루멜른, 교실에서 하나님과 동행하십니까?, IVP 2014
5. So Jong Hwa, Dreaming to be a Good Teacher : A Teacher’s Long Struggle to Teach Christianly, Korea IVP 2014, 소종화, 좋은 교사를 꿈꾸다, IVP, 2014
6. John Van Dyke, Letters to Lisa: Conversations with a Christian Teacher, Dordt Press 1997. 존 반 다이크, 기독교적 가르침, 그게 뭔가요? –리자에게 쓴 편지. 교육과학사 2012.

Worldview / Biblical Story
1. Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained, 2nd Edition Eerdmans 2005알버트 월터스, 창조 타락 구속, IVP 2007
2. Craig G. Bartholomew & Goheen, Michael W. : The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story, Baker Academic 2004 성경은 드라마다, 크레이그 바르톨로뮤, 마이클 고힌 지음/ 김명희 옮김/ IVP(2009)
3. Craig G. Bartholomew & Goheen, Michael W. : Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview, Baker Academic 2008세계관은 이야기다/ 크레이그 바르톨로뮤, 마이클 고힌 지음/ 윤종석 옮김/ IVP(2011)
4. Brian J. Walsh, J. Richard Middleton, The Transforming Vision, IVP리차드 미들톤 브라이안 왈쉬 공저, 그리스도인의 비전, IVP
5. Paul Marshall with Lela Gilbert, Heaven Is Not My Home, Word Publishing폴 마샬, 천국만이 내 집은 아닙니다, IVP
6. Kuk-Won Shin, The Spectacles of Nicodemus: A Story of the Christian Worldview, IVP 신국원, 니고데모의 안경, IVP 2005

A Student's Calling
"We study in order to understand God's good creation and the ways sin has distorted it so that, in Christ's power, we may bring healing to persons and the created order and, as God's image-bearers, exercise responsible authority in our task of cultivating conserving and developing the creation to the end that all people and all things may joyfully acknowledge and serve their creator and true king." Cambridge School in Dallas, Texas

학생의 소명
1. “The educational task of school can be stated as a place students learn about the world and there nature and task in it expressed as a story of the world. All subjects taught assume or presuppose an answer to these basic areas which are not derived from science but from a comprehensive framework of basic beliefs about the nature of the world and persons in it. This comes from a communities’ worldview or worldviews which are based most basically on belief in a god, gods or no god or somewhere in-between. In other words all learning is based on some kind of religious beliefs or faith. There is noneutrality. Education provides a view of the nature of the world implicitly or explicitly. Most Mission schools may be explicit about God in chapel and bible class but in the rest of what is taught in the classroom, be implicitly godless as in secular public schools. I’m assuming that the teaching and learning that takes place in the classroom is primarily what schooling is about. The basic question is where is God and a Christian worldview in the school? if you remove chapel, bible class, and the chaplain? Or if you assume that God doesn’t exist will it make any difference in how class content is taught? 2. All education is religious at its foundation with beliefs ranging from the material world is all that there is, the most common assumption, to belief in a personal creator God. Most often there is a mixture of belief as teachers have not thought about the worldview from which they are teaching.. The normal mixture in mission schools being God is in the bible class and chapel and absent explicitly or implicitly in any integral and significant way from the content taught in the classroom. 3. This fundamental problem arises from dualism in the church of a sacred secular divide etc. and is reinforced by a failure to teach the whole story of the bible beginning with creation. The story of the bible which can be outlined in short form as Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New creation. What is omitted is the first step of Creation which provides the foundation for all that follows. The problem can be illustrated as follows. To affirm with understanding that " I believe in God the Father Almighty creator of heaven and earth" is a radical statement which challenges Enlightenment modernism from the West which dominates the world of education worldwide and indoctrinates children in the belief that God is irrelevant for most of life. Note 1 Marsden Applying the christian belief in a personal creator means something like the following. When a student or teacher walks into the classroom, they are learning about the norms and laws that structure all that is studied and which are dependant moment by moment on the upholding word/power of the Triune God (Hebrews 1:3). Note 2 VanBrummelen Also note that the bible presents Jesus as Creator and Lord before his saving work. The world is His and his inheritance. Col.1:15-17 The biblical story is not first about us but about God and his creation of which we are a part . Also it should be noted that God is speaking to persons through the created order and that sense is being suppressed by the materialist worldview. Look carefully at Romans 1:18 -25. That God is speaking through what is studied has tremendous implications for what goes on in the classroom. Note 3 Edlin Chapter 1 and Greene
5. The second problem area in the church and schools is a lack of teaching about what is the purpose of persons in this world. Or who are you as a human being? Are persons created so that they can spend eternity floating around in space as an angelic Choir escaping from the corruption in this world. No! This is Platonized Christianity. Genuine, vibrant, culture-engaging Christianity is that which looks forward to the resurrection of the body in a renewed creation under the full authority of Jesus Christ the Lord being what we were created to be. Foundational to this is that we were created with a task and that is to rule over and develop the creation as God's representatives i.e. God’s Image bearers. We are God’s Kings/ regents in the world under King Jesus. Our meaning and task in this world is cultural care and development to the Glory of God. Genesis 1 and 2, Psalm 8. Note: education in its basic form is about the transmission of culture which is not limited to the school but involves home, media and other associations etc. Foundational to education is the Cultural or Creation Mandate in Genesis. 1:26-28.
6. Central to God’s plan for the world following after the Fall is the Good News of the Kingdom of God come in Jesus Christ the Lord and coming at his return. It’s not the church. The church is the community of the King proclaiming the good news of Christ and educating people for worship and service in the Kingdom of God. The school in its education sphere is under the Kingdom of God and not the church. They are spheres along side each other to educate students for kingdom service in all areas of life engaging the false gods of consumerism, status and security etc, in a Confucian Modernist culture. They both witness to the rule of Christ (Kingdom of God) over all sphere of life including business, government, family etc.
7. Most important, and based on the preceding principles, is the necessity that all teachers in schools that are centered in the Gospel of the Kingdom must be educated and re-educated to think and teach about all of life (subjects) in terms of the lordship of Christ. This will demand that all teacher education begin by continually reviewing and deepening the implications of the biblical story of Creation, (See above), Fall, Redemption and New Creation. See Note 4 VanBrummelen Steppingstones. Schools will have to provide the needed education (i.e ongoing teacher professional development) with significant funds budgeted for that purpose. Included will need to be a clearly defined teacher education curriculum with expected outcome. All lectures must include modeling of what is taught and practice by attendees. Teachers will have to demonstrate their understanding in actual classroom practice under the guidance of mentors and fellow teachers. Note, textbooks and other resources don’t teach, only Christian teachers teach. Teachers need to be provided with the best Christian thinking available and work together in developing materials. And because they also shape the life of the school, such training activities must be a requirement for all board members and be open to parents as well. This work must be budgeted and funded! Accepting regular teacher training with accountability in practice must be a condition of employment. The quality and effectiveness of a school is dependent on teacher communities, vision and practice. All of the above needs to be done cooperatively in schools and among schools. All resources, in-service work and practice need to be shared on websites. Kingdom education requires cooperation not competition.
8. Note! The purpose of Christian schooling is not evangelism but to educate students who will understand and experience the gracious rule of God in all that is learned and goes on in the school and will be countercultural agents of change as they follow Christ in all areas of life. Since a Christian school is a place where God and Christ are taught in an integral way by the Spirit as the source of all that is learned, challenging students to be steward of their learning in service to and love of God and neighbor non Christian students inevitably will be challenged to believe and adopt a vibrant personal faith commitment to Jesus Christ. That is to say, the challenge in a real Christian school, to be a disciple of Christ through all that is learned, cannot help but be evangelistic to those who are not Christians, and a vital faith encouragement to those who already are Christians. Evangelism may be a by-product but not the goal of Christian schooling. The goal of Christian schooling is responsive and responsible disciples of Christ in all areas of life. See Matthew 28:18 -20 VanBrummelen. Note: Public schools are educating students into a modernist and materialist religion or worldview, thus actively marginalizing other religious views such as Christianity to the periphery of education and life. In general this is done based on the assumption that what is taught in the curriculum is neutral which is false. The Christian school must be a place where student have a choice between worldviews based on the fact that God has created us with choice. If that is not followed we will become like public schools with little real freedom to choose.
Summing up. The need is to be clear about what Christian schooling is and its foundation in a Christian and biblical worldview. Also how this equips students to confront the world and be salt and light in a society driven by a contemporary modernist Confucian worldview. In the Christian school, we need to understand that our purpose is to assist parents in educating students to be culture formers and transformers under the rule of Christ and God. “The Kingdom of God”
This requires a high level of continual funding for teacher education, skill development and curriculum work in general. It also means helping church pastors to abandon the myth of neutrality and its associated lie of dualism which is resulting in many contemporary young people fleeing churches as irrelevancies in modern life. This does not mean that Christian schools eliminate the content required by the government but that they teach it in a radically different worldview framework. Classrooms will have to be open with constant coaching carried out by master teachers and informed leadership. Structure will need to be in place for evaluating student progress independent of government testing and entrance into prestigious universities. Also a framework /matrix needs to be developed for evaluating schools based on a Christian worldview such as has been done by the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), Christian Schools International (CSI) , Global Accrediting Association (GAA) and others.

See Notes below.
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Dr. Richard Edlin for editing help and Ahn, Kyung Sang for translation.

문의

Issues in Developing Integral and Authentic Christian Schooling: 뉴스