Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 60:239 (Jul 1903)
Article: How Shall We Teach Religion?
Author: A. A. Berle

BSac 60:239 (July 1903) p. 422

How Shall We Teach Religion?

Rev. A. A. Berle

The present revival of interest in, and discussion of, the subject of religious education, may well be said to mark the beginning of a new epoch of Christian thought upon the question of the religious training of the young. It is epoch-making, first of all, because it points out with relentless clearness and tenacious reassertiveness the utter failure of certain scholastic programs to produce certain other religious results. It makes it evident that there is a very clear and unmistakeable difference between religious and secular education. It shows that die progressive elimination from all public educational institutions of anything like definite religions teaching has resulted in a moral and spiritual decline, which all the optimism in the world cannot gloss over. It accentuates a relation between religion and morals which many have been fond of saying did not exist, and has produced a religious situation in the land which is as bewildering as it is disheartening. Moreover, it indicates that there is no present expectation of accomplishing anything by means of a general reformatory movement among the adult population. Nobody appears to think that either the habits of thought or the practices of the generations mature enough to think for themselves will be changed. By a common consent which is rather remarkable, every one turns to the young for a new order, and seems to hope that only in the education of the youth will a change be brought about. This skepticism concerning the mature mind, and this prevail-

BSac 60:239 (July 1903) p. 423

ing unbelief in the possible reformation of the adult population, is itself one of the most significant things about the whole movement. “Educate the young,” is the universal rallying cry. “To the school and the college,” is written on ail the battle standards of the new crusade.

Coincident with this general skepticism concerning the present governing adult population in the church, and allied to it, is a prevailing feeling of the incapability of the clergy successfully to grapple with the question. The new movement generally looks not to the clergyman, but to the college professor, as its leader and inspirer. We know this is true, because the college professors tell us so, and because they alone appear to have the materials and the training by which the reform is to be successfully accomplished. The new movement is to be an educational movement. It is to have the form and the methods of education. It is to be allied pedagogicallv and psychologically with the most advanced ideas in these branches, It is to have scientific character and to be scientifically justifiable. Now the ministry, in general, is not held to be competent for this task. The present gen...