Christianity and Education -- By: Thomas A. Thomas

Journal: Grace Journal
Volume: GJ 08:1 (Winter 1967)
Article: Christianity and Education
Author: Thomas A. Thomas


Christianity and Education

Thomas A. Thomas

Associate Professor of Theology
Baptist Bible Seminary

A student generally attends a Christian college rather than a secular institution because he wants a distinctive type of education, a Christian education, that he may be prepared to serve the Lord effectively in the area to which he has been called. But the question naturally arises, what is Christian education? Is Christianity merely the frosting that covers the cake of a secular approach to education? Is an education Christian simply because the faculty and administration of the school are Christians, because classes are opened with prayer, because in classes there is no violent attack upon the principles of the Christian faith but rather a sympathy toward them, because a Christian atmosphere is maintained for the student body by such things as daily chapel services, Christian fellowship, and Christian standards of ethics? These things, although certainly very important, are simply the fruit of the fact that we are Christians; they are not the root of that which makes an education to be Christian. What, then, is that distinguishing feature which makes an education to be Christian as contrasted to any other kind of an education?

The Christian Theory of Knowledge

The Two-Realm View of Knowledge

When we speak about education we are, of course, concerned with the nature of knowledge, and how we attain it. It is quite a common approach to divide knowledge into two areas or types, secular and religious. There is one kind of knowledge that deals with reason and the things of the world, and there is another kind of knowledge that deals with faith and the things of God. One kind of knowledge maybe called philosophical, the other maybe called theological.

We see this two-fold division developed by Thomas Aquinas, the great 13th century Roman Catholic theologian. To Thomas there are two methods of arriving at truth, reason and revelation, philosophy and theology. Both are true methods of arriving at a knowledge of God. By revelation we can know more about God than we can by reason, but nevertheless, reason operating independently of revelation can lead us to the truth.

All of this is based on a Roman Catholic conception of the nature of man. For Romanism, Adam was not quite perfect when he came from the hand of the Creator. He had a definite

tendency toward evil. The power of the flesh in him was strong. And so to help him God gave him a superadded gift of original righteousness, what the Romanist calls the donum superadditum, to assist him in this struggle. However, in spite of this gift, Adam sinned. The result was that he lost this ...

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