Journal: Grace Journal
Volume: GJ 03:3 (Fall 1962)
Article: Towards a Christian Philosophy of Education - Part 4
Author: Frank E. Gaebelein

GJ 3:3 (Fall 62) p. 27

Towards a Christian Philosophy of Education - Part 4

Frank E. Gaebelein

IV. Christian Education in Relation to Teacher and Student

If the subject of this lecture, “Christian Education in Relation to Teacher and Student,” were to be written on a blackboard, we might indicate by arrows, pointing from the word “teacher” to the word “student” and back again, the relationship between the two not only in the give-and-take of the classroom but also in subsequent influence. For some students become teachers and they in turn influence others to take up teaching as their work.

The development of a Christian educational philosophy is not to be sought just for its own sake; we do not seek to know the truth merely for the purpose of admiring it, inspiring though such admiration may be. A philosophy of education rooted and grounded in God’s truth always entails responsibility; it never fails to carry with it the obligation to “do the truth.”1 If truth is supremely centered in a Person, even our Lord Jesus Christ, then we as persons cannot escape the fact that we must do something about it. The responsibility is one that lies close to the heart of Christian education and that differentiates it from secular education.

In 1909 Arthur James Balfour was speaking at the University of Edinburgh on “The Moral Values Which Unite the Nations.” In his address, he discussed the economic and cultural ties between people, the bond through such things as education and the personal ties of friendship. When he had finished, a Japanese student got up in the great hall of the university and said, “But, Mr. Balfour, what about Jesus Christ?” According to an American professor who was present,2 there was dead silence, as the audience recognized the justice of the rebuke. The prime minister of a great Christian nation had been discussing the ties that unite men and nations. But he had left out the one essential bond, and the rebuke had come from a student from a far off non- Christian land.

Thus it is with the difference between secular and Christian education. Secular education will not ask seriously the question, “What about Jesus Christ?” Christian education asks it and then insists upon an answer. That question has been at the heart of these lectures. Moreover, it continues to be asked of us everyday. Even though others may be silent, our Lord Himself asks it of us everyday. Even though others may be silent, our Lord Himself asks it of us. Quietly, yet inescapably, He says something like this: “What are you doing with Me and My truth—in writing your term papers, in your daily preparation, in all your other activities?” The question is being as...