Looking for a Good Book?

By Mrs Ruby Holland

Posted on 13 May 2010

A Selection of Readings in Christian Education

This month sees a selection of books which help to stir our thinking in the area of educational philosophy, a necessity if we aspire to good practice.

All Truth is God's Truth

Arthur F. Holmes. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Mich, 1977

How easily an important statement becomes a cliché, and a misunderstood and misapplied one at that! Holmes may have coined a cliché, but this book is far from being one. Holmes has been recognised as one of the most influential Christian philosophers of recent times. This is his classic on a basic issue in Christian epistemology. 'But if all truth is ultimately one coherent whole, then an education that is concerned with the truth will impart a vision of the whole and some understanding of how within that whole my particular field depends on and contributes to its neighbours. The Christian especially will seek this in his own learning and will want to impart it to others through his own teaching.' The style is simple and straight‑forward, the issues relevant for Christian teachers seeking to apply their faith to their teaching.

Teaching for Commitment

Liberal Education, Indoctrination and Christian Nurture. Elmer J. Thiessen, McGill‑Queens Uni. Press, Montreal, 1993

Just what is the difference between our older and more established Anglican schools and the newer low-fee schools? Is it just money and age? Could both of those factors have led to differing, even opposing educational philosophies and if so, is there no chance for a rapprochement? Can the Matthew Arnold grammar school model ever unite in educational philosophy and practice with a 21^st Century incarnation of education? Indeed how can one accommodate Christian nurture within a system of thought which places a premium on autonomy, rationality and critical analysis? I believe that Elmer J. Thiessen provides a secure and scholarly bridge for us. In ‘Teaching for Commitment' he argues for the validity of the concept of liberal education, claiming that it originated in Christian thought in the Middle Ages as a Christian appropriation of a classic education. Both Luther and G.K. Chesterton are quoted in support of this claim. But Thiessen is chiefly concerned with the limits of liberal concepts that are often used to damn schools with a faith basis. His analysis is brilliantly and extensively drawn so that we are left with no doubt that nurture is an inextricable component of all the concepts as rightly understood. One is left with an affirmation of what we might term a modified grammar school model that promotes a high academic standard but which acknowledges the need to nurture students in the faith as modelled by our newer low-fee schools. Unity of purpose is possible in Thiessen's analysis and it can only serve to strengthen the educational mission of Anglican schools.

A Christian Vision for State Education

Reflections on the Theology of Education. T. Cooling, SPCK, London, 1994

Do you struggle to maintain the lines of communication with teenagers as they develop in autonomy and general maturity? Despite its title, this book has broad application to both state and independent education where students who are not at all supportive of a Christian ethos abound. Trevor Cooling and his wife, Margaret, appear to be two of the most creative and influential writers in the field of religious education in Britain today. Certainly their 1997 visit to the Anglican Diocese of Sydney marked the beginning of a fruitful partnership, still active today. Cooling writes historically of the polarisation in Britain between Christian commitment and education, of the values vacuum advocated in the past as a desirable context for education and of the challenges to normative Christianity posed by multiculturalism and pluralism. But most useful of all aspects of the book is his argument against an indoctrination approach to schooling which seeks to tribalise students. He argues for a robust education that helps students engage with the "bafflement" of hard questions rather than seeking to close down their search with authoritarian, self‑assured answers. A helpful and thoughtful text for those involved in Anglican schools or in SRE for teenagers.