Philosophy of Christian Education
Education is a matter of discovering what is ultimately real and learning to live in relation to it in a way that produces a life marked by meaning, freedom, and even happiness. Education presupposes truth, even in the most relativistic contexts, because teachers are concerned with correspondence between thought and reality. But from a Christian perspective, truth is not just a label applied to the successful representation of reality in thought, but comes to personify that eternal reality itself. And that personification is neither metaphorical nor abstract, but is found in the person of Jesus Christ, as he says in John 14.6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” In a similar way, a Christian teacher’s concern with the correspondence between thought and reality is not merely a concern for accurate representation, but faithful obedience. Jesus said in John 8.31-32, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” I believe this means that freedom comes through submitting yourself to reality. And since in the Christian confession Jesus is the truth and, as such, the ground of all reality, Christian education becomes a matter of discovering Jesus Christ and learning to live as his disciple. Therefore, the goal of Christian education is discipleship—my life contingent upon and finding meaning only in reference to Christ. There is no deeper foundation for valuing lifelong learning than 2 Corinthians 3.18: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.” We are not yet like him, but are progressively being shaped into his image, which is to say that we are engaged in a lifelong pursuit of truth. But Paul says that a veil must be removed from the face (v. 13), from the mind (v. 14), and from the heart (v. 15) for this shaping to take place, which happens “in Christ… whenever anyone turns to the