Pursuing Excellence for the Glory of God

Toward a Biblical Philosophy of Christian School Education

Keith A. Currivean

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781666723441, 9781666720082
• eBook ISBN: 9781666720099
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

What is education? How and why do educators do what we do? And, in what way can and ought education be distinctively Christian? These are a few of the probing questions for which this book seeks answers. Among other contributions, Currivean's book explores a biblical philosophy of Christian education with unprecedented breadth and depth. To accomplish this objective, it considers what education is (chapter 1), what philosophy of education is (chapter 2), and what the ultimate goal of education is (chapter 3). Additionally, this book provides a never-before, Christian overview of twelve philosophies of education (chapters 4-15). Each of those chapters provides an introduction of a particular philosophy of education and some of that philosophy's exemplars. Each of those chapters also contributes a constructive, Christian critique. Chapter 16 highlights a biblical philosophy of Christian education--featuring some people, some principles, and some priorities for a biblical philosophy of Christian education, viz. pursuing excellence for the glory of God.

Chapter 1

What Is Education?

Etymological considerations

The English term education comes from the Latin term educere. Educere consists of the prefix e which conveys out and the phoneme ducere which connotes to lead. Educere, therefore, denotes leading forth or drawing out. In English to educate, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is to bring up persons from childhood, as to form their habits, manners, intellectual, and physical aptitudes. More philosophically stated, educing entails the following aspects:

1.The eliciting (extracting, drawing out) of a point or an idea by analysis or inference.

2.The direct inference of a particular from particulars.

3.The argument from particulars.

4.The drawing out (or actualization) of a substantial form.18

As one scholar summarizes, “Educing is leading forth—a leading forth of the human spirit into the widest range of its potentialities.”19

Within education and the philosophy of education, several other terms emerge in significance, as well. Methodology, for example, comes from meta and odos, which together connote a path ahead, a chasing after something, a movement toward. Thus, the notion of methodology within the context of education includes the body or system of postulates, procedures, and paths pursuant of educational ends, aims, goals, and objectives.

Ancients and contemporaries alike have utilized methods and have cast terms to attempt to capture the essence of education, its philosophy, and the methods entailed within approaches to education and its philosophy.

Much of what we inherit within the scope of a biblical philosophy of Christian school education we glean extensively from two ancient cultures, viz. Israel and Greece. “Two words define the cultures of Israel and Greece—words that are intrinsically pedagogical, words that made these cultures into educational enterprises: torah and paideia. These words are the antecedents of a Christian theology of education, and they are imbedded in it.”20

Paideia (Plato applied this term to Socrates) was the nurture, upbringing, and disciplining of the child, pais. According to Werner Jaeger, paideia was the central idea of Greek culture, designating “the formative process of the human personality. Paideia involved not only the systematic and consciously sought development of individuals, but likewise the cultivation of the people as a whole.”21

Torah included information in the everyday speech of the ancient Israelites. It connoted and conveyed instruction given by parents to their children to teach them matters of learning and living.22 Torah was not primarily an intellectual activity but rather was particularly for the ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: What Is Education?
• Chapter 2: Toward a Definition of the Philosophy of Education
• Chapter 3: Toward a Biblical Philosophy of Christian School Education
• Chapter 4: Toward a Christian Understanding of Idealism
• Chapter 5: Toward a Christian Understanding of Realism
• Chapter 6: Toward a Christian Understanding of Scholasticism
• Chapter 7: Toward a Christian Understanding of Continentalism
• Chapter 8: Toward a Christian Understanding of Romanticism
• Chapter 9: Toward a Christian Understanding of Existentialism
• Chapter 10: Toward a Christian Understanding of Pragmatism
• Chapter 11: Toward a Christian Understanding of Social Reconstructionism
• Chapter 12: Toward a Christian Understanding of Behaviorism
• Chapter 13: Toward a Christian Understanding of Developmentalism
• Chapter 14: Toward a Christian Understanding of Essentialism
• Chapter 15: Toward a Christian Understanding of Perennialism
• Chapter 16: Toward a Biblical Philosophy of Christian School Education
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Appendix 3
• Appendix 4
• Appendix 5
• Appendix 6
• Bibliography