1. Christian Education
in Historical
Perspective

2. Biblical beginning
A. Education in Hebrew History
• Oral and written traditions of the Hebrew people
tell of a God who called into existence, guided and
entered into covenant with a people.
• When they were brought in the land, God provided
those laws, and rituals for them to know how to
approach God, determine His will, and worship the
Holy One.
• In time of Moses, he laid out the arrangements that
governed and guided them.

3. • Priests taught the law and ministered at the altar of
sacrifice.
• Prophets discerned and spoke the Word of God,
and called the nation to repentance.
• Judges and kings ruled with a sense of stewardship
under God.
• Community life was the setting for learning.
• Processions, costumes, odors, feasting, fasting,
rites, touching objects, singing, Sabbath
observance, and the tabernacle all were part of
community life and contributed to both adult and
childhood education.

4. • The success of and need for those elementary
schools were evidenced in a Jewish ordinance of
A.D. 64, which called for elementary schools in each
district and town.
• Lewis Joseph Sherrill summarized Judaism’s
education: “The education, when complete, has its
three channels of home, synagogue, and school
system, and Judaism keeps all of these as long as is
humanly possible. But when the worst comes, it can
do without the formal schools, and it can even do
without the synagogue; for the whole religion in
essence passes from one generation to the next
through the household.”

5. B. Education and Jesus Christ
• Informal instruction in the home, community life
with its calendar of special days, visits to Jerusalem
and the Temple, the synagogue and it school in
Nazareth and learning a trade were all among his
educational experiences.
• The content of Christ’s teaching, the
communication skills he employed, and his personal
teaching characteristics have earned for him the
recognition of the world as a foremost teacher.

6. The first thousand years
A. The great advance
• The witnesses taught the gospel and interpreted
the Scriptures by studying the OT and recalling the
teachings of Jesus.
• Rank and file believers gossiped the good news and
earned the description of ‘Christians’, ‘Followers of
the way’, ‘those who have turned the world upside
down’.

7. • When the Christians assembled there was more
than one Communicator. Spiritual Music was
encouraged. Women were co-workers in gospel
work. Children were to be treated with
consideration and nursing in the Lord. Slaves and
masters were reminded that they both had a
master in heaven.
• Socialization has been a powerful method of
education in the church.
• As first generation of Christians passed on, New
Testament was left for future generations.

8. • Leaders such as Clement, Bishop of Rome; Ignatius,
bishop of Antioch; Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian,
Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Cyprian, Athanasius,
and Augustine combatted heresy, encouraged
faithfulness, and explained the faith and practices
of the church to those within and outside.
• Leadership in the early church was shared by gifted
members of the body of Christ. Members with
spiritual gifts such as prophecy, teaching, wisdom,
tongues, interpreting, healing, and helping actively
shared in the ministries of the church.

9. • Training became a mandatory activity in the early
church as great numbers of converts were attracted
to its fellowship. The courage of believers willing to
die for their faith, the moral tone of the Christian
community, the love of the brethren for each other,
the living challenge to Graeco-Roman philosophy,
and the testimony of rank and file believers, led the
Roman government to oppose, persecute, tolerate,
and eventually accept the faith of the followers of
Jesus.

10. B. The dark ages
• The growing influence of bishops brought the
church under their power.
• Instruction was replaced by ritual.
• Teaching in the church was largely done
through the ritual mass with its symbolism in
worship.

11. The second thousand years
A. Pre-reformation developments
• New monastic orders were making their
appearance
• Francis of Assisi received God’s call to preach and
live the simple life in 1209.
• Gerald Groote(1340-1384), opened his home to
seekers who shunned worldliness and sought to live
a life of devotion centered on the teaching of the
bible.

12. • Erasmus a leading humanist of the renaissance,
earnestly desired the reform of the church.
• John Wycliffe, translated the Bible into English.
• John Hus, preacher in Bohemia, was
excommunicated and burned at stake in 1415.
• Savanarola of Florence preached repentance and
transformed the city was excommunicated and later
killed in 1498.
• The reformed churches appeared simultaneously
with Lutheranism. Huldreich Zwingli and John Calvin
were early leaders.

13. B. The protestant and catholic reformations
• Martin Luther(1483-1546) as a student, he read the
Scripture, commentaries, and devotional works. On
October 31, 1517, he posted the ninety-five theses
he was prepared to debate. In them he challenged
the sale of indulgences to Germans in order to pay
for the construction of Church buildings in Rome.
His translation of the Bible helped to standardize
the German language.

14. • In the Roman Catholic aspects of the reformation,
Ignatius Loyola took a diff. approach than Luther in
his struggle for identity with God. Devoted to Rome,
he established a new monastic order.
• Francis Xavier(1506-1582), a disciple of Loyola, is
said in ten years ”to have planted the cross in fifty-
two different kingdoms, preached through nine
thousand miles of territory and baptized over one
million persons.”
• John Amos Comenius(1592-1670) a bishop among
the Moravian Brethren, contributed to the broad
movement and counseled leaders in several nations
on common schools.

15. C. Post-reformation movements
• Pietism was its most striking feature, a personal
knowledge of Christ, practical Christian living
resulting in good works, separation from
worldliness and evangelistic zeal characterized that
movement.
• Philip Jacob Spener(1635-1705) as a pastor, through
sermon and catechesis, stressed instruction. His
sermon in 1669 spoke of conducting the private
meetings for the cultivation of Holiness.
• August Herman Franke(1663-1727) came under the
influence of Spener and helped developed Halle as
a center of pietism.

16. D. Modern developments in Christian
education
• Robert Raikes(1735-1811)is regarded as the founder
of the Sunday school. Begun in Gloucester, England,
in 1780.
• The YMCA was founded in England in 1844 and
came to United States in 1851, proved to be an
effective tool for urban youth and adult evangelism.
• D.L. Moody received training as an evangelist and
administrator in this movement (YMCA)

17. • Moody developed one of the first Christian
assemblies in Northfield, Massachusetts, which in
1886 hosted a YMCA college conference that
marked the beginning of the Student Volunteer
Movement, a major force in world missions.
• In 1882, A. B. Simpson founded in New York City a
bible institute that later moved to Nyack, New York.
• Vacation Bible School, weekday Christian Education,
and club programs for children and youth
developed in the twentieth century.
• In 1903, Religious Education Association was
founded.

18. • In 1950, Division of C. E. of the National Council of
the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. was formed.
• 1943, National Association of Evangelicals was
launched.
• 1945, National Sunday School was formed
• The growth and nurture of the church requires the
tools and concepts of education as the message of
the bible is communicated through church, home
and school.