ENGL 102Lecture Notes: Lesson 3The Importance of the Study of Literature to the Christian 1. Church history provides much evidence for an antipathy and hostility on the part of Christians toward literature. 0. The early Church 0. Tertullian 0. Augustine 0. The Puritans 1. Richard Baxter 1. Cotton Mather 1. Charles Spurgeon 0. Contemporary examples: 2. Bible institutes 2. Drug rehabilitation centers 1. Secular antipathy is also now growing against the study of literature. 1. The apotheosis (i.e., raising to the level of a god) of technology 1. The drift of liberal arts institutions toward vocational education 1. Economic pressures on the humanities (i.e., the argument of utilitarianism) 1. The drift toward an illiterate society 1. Arguments can be raised, however, in favor of the study of literature as a legitimate Christian pursuit. 2. A rescue from the trap of mindless amusement 2. A wealth of insight into the plight of our world and the needs of our contemporaries 2. A hermeneutic aid to Bible study (N.B.—Christianity is a book religion. The Bible is a work of literature, and an understanding of literature increases our understanding of Scripture.) 2. A sharpening of our own theological focus 3. F. Scott Fitzgerald 3. D. H. Lawrence 3. G. B. Shaw Page 1 of 2 ENGL 102Lecture Notes: Lesson 2A Balanced Use of Educational Media I. The medium of television has inundated American culture. A. From age five to age eighteen, an American child has viewed over 15,000 hours of television. B. Once movie attendance and listening to radios and stereos is factored in, the exposure hours to electronic media easily reaches 20,000 hours. C. This is at least double the amount of time which a child spends with school and homework. II. There are some important differences between electronic curriculum and traditional classroom/printed curriculum. A. The most obvious differences involve setting: 1. In a classroom, content is more important than attention via entertainment; with television, the converse is true. 2. A classroom, mirroring life itself, is a “penalty-laden curriculum”; television is not. 3. Television has the advantage of continuousness and imminence. 4. Commercial television’s learning modules are extremely short. 5. Classroom curriculum is community centered; television curriculum tends to reinforce what Christopher Lasch has labeled “cultural narcissism.” B. The most important difference is that the two curricula use different alphabets. 1. The traditional classroom uses language—a “digital” code of information. 2. Television uses pictures—an “analogic” code of information. C. The traditional curriculum stresses cause-and-effect, linear history; television curriculum stresses the non sequitur. D. Traditional and television curricula also present differing templates of authority/authoritarian structures. ENGL 102Lecture Notes: Lesson 1 A Christian Holistic Approach to the Study of Literature I. There .

1. ENGL 102Lecture Notes: Lesson 3The Importance of the Study
of Literature to the Christian
1. Church history provides much evidence for an antipathy and
hostility on the
part of Christians toward literature.
0. The early Church
0. Tertullian
0. Augustine
0. The Puritans
1. Richard Baxter
1. Cotton Mather
1. Charles Spurgeon
0. Contemporary examples:
2. Bible institutes
2. Drug rehabilitation centers
1. Secular antipathy is also now growing against the study of
literature.
1. The apotheosis (i.e., raising to the level of a god) of
technology
1. The drift of liberal arts institutions toward vocational
education

2. 1. Economic pressures on the humanities (i.e., the argument of
utilitarianism)
1. The drift toward an illiterate society
1. Arguments can be raised, however, in favor of the study of
literature as a legitimate Christian pursuit.
2. A rescue from the trap of mindless amusement
2. A wealth of insight into the plight of our world and the needs
of our
contemporaries
2. A hermeneutic aid to Bible study (N.B.—Christianity is a
book religion. The Bible is a work of literature, and an
understanding of literature increases our understanding of
Scripture.)
2. A sharpening of our own theological focus
3. F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. D. H. Lawrence
3. G. B. Shaw
Page 1 of 2
ENGL 102Lecture Notes: Lesson 2A Balanced Use of
Educational Media
I. The medium of television has inundated American culture.

3. A. From age five to age eighteen, an American child has viewed
over 15,000 hours of television.
B. Once movie attendance and listening to radios and stereos is
factored in, the exposure hours to electronic media easily
reaches 20,000 hours.
C. This is at least double the amount of time which a child
spends with school and homework.
II. There are some important differences between electronic
curriculum and
traditional classroom/printed curriculum.
A. The most obvious differences involve setting:
1. In a classroom, content is more important than attention via
entertainment; with television, the converse is true.
2. A classroom, mirroring life itself, is a “penalty-laden
curriculum”; television is not.
3. Television has the advantage of continuousness and
imminence.
4. Commercial television’s learning modules are extremely
short.
5. Classroom curriculum is community centered; television
curriculum tends to reinforce what Christopher Lasch has
labeled “cultural narcissism.”
B. The most important difference is that the two curricula use
different alphabets.
1. The traditional classroom uses language—a “digital” code of
information.

4. 2. Television uses pictures—an “analogic” code of information.
C. The traditional curriculum stresses cause-and-effect, linear
history; television
curriculum stresses the non sequitur.
D. Traditional and television curricula also present differing
templates of authority/authoritarian structures.
ENGL 102Lecture Notes: Lesson 1
A Christian Holistic Approach to
the Study of Literature
I. There are three primary considerations to keep before us
regarding the nature of this course.
A. God has constructed the mind in such a way that it controls
what comes in as well as what goes out.
B. While learning is a result of good study, it is more a result of
good thought processing.
C. The job of the Christian educator is not to force the student
into the assimilation of x amount of sterile facts; rather, the
teacher should stimulate thinking—thinking that is designed for
life.
II. Much of the emphasis in education now, however, is upon
the parts that make up life.
A. Within these fragments of history, the humanities, the
sciences, etc., the emphasis is upon quantity: the number of
pages covered and the amount of facts assimilated.
B. When life is dissected into sterile components, it dies.

5. III. History does provide examples of education which were
holistic, interdisciplinary, and designed for life.
A. One clear example is Jewish education under the Old
Testament economy:
1. In Jewish education, a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy was
considered a man.
2. His school was conducted six days a week, twelve hours per
day, and about one half of the day was spent in practical
application of the Pentateuch.
3. The overall purpose and objective of this school was life as a
whole with an emphasis upon character building.
B. Another clear example is found in the teachings of Jesus
Christ.