Forms of Christian education
By Rod Dreher
Rawlings School of Divinity
CLED 720: Biblical & Theological Foundations of Education
Genevieve Hamer
July 9, 2022
Forms of Christian education
The Christian church created the bases of the Western system of education. From its
beginning the Christian community faced external and internal challenges to its faith, which it
met by developing and utilizing intellectual and educational resources. The response to the
external challenge of rival religions and philosophical perspectives is termed apologetics—i.e.,
the intellectual defense of the faith. Apologetic theologians from St. Justin Martyr in the 2nd
century to Paul Tillich in the 20th promoted critical dialogue between the Christian community,
the educated world, and other religions. This exchange was further encouraged by the Second
Vatican Council, Pope John Paul II, and the ecumenical movement. The internal challenges to
the Christian community were met not only by formulating the faith in creeds and dogmas but
also by passing this faith on to the next generations through education.
By the 8th and 9th centuries, cathedral schools were established to provide basic education
in Latin grammar and Christian doctrine to the clergy, and by the 11th century these schools
emerged as centres of higher learning. The school at the court of Charlemagne (which was
conducted by clergy), the medieval schools of the religious orders, cathedrals, monasteries,
convents, and churches, the flourishing schools of the Brethren of the Common Life, and the
Roman Catholic school systems that came into existence during the Counter-Reformation under
the leadership of the Jesuits and other new teaching orders contributed much to the civilization
of the West. Equally important were the schools started by the German reformers Luther,
Philipp Melanchthon, Johann Bugenhagen, John and August Hermann Francke, and the
Moravian reformers John Amos Comenius and the Graf von Zinzendorf. The church was
responsible for overseeing schools even after the Reformation. Only in the 18th century did the
school system start to separate itself from its Christian roots and fall more and more under
state control.
With the separation of church and state, both institutions have entered into tensely
manifold relationships. In some countries the state has taken over the school system and does
not allow private church schools except in a few special cases. Other countries (e.g., France)
maintain school systems basically free of religion and leave the religious instruction to the
private undertakings of the different churches. In the American Revolution the concept of the
separation of state and church was intended to free the church from all patronization by the
state and to make possible a maximum of free activity, particularly in the area of education. The
Soviet Union used its schools particularly for an anti-religious education based upon the state
philosophy of dialectical materialism, practicing the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of
anti-religious propaganda in schools, though the churches were forbidden to give any education
outside their worship services.
A second issue that results from the separation of church and state is the question of state
subsidies to private church schools. These are claimed in those countries in which the church
schools in many places take over part of the functions of the state schools (e.g., in the United
States). After the ideological positivism and the materialism of the 19th century faded away in
many areas, it was realized that religious life had an important role in the cultural development
of the West and the New World and that the exclusion of religious instruction from the
curricula of the schools indicated a lack of balance in education. In the 20th century, religion
was adopted as a subject among the humanities. State universities in the United States,
Canada, and Australia, which did not have theological faculties because of the separation of
church and state, founded departments of religion of an interdenominational nature and
included non-Christians as academic teachers of religion.
Another development in the history of Christian education was the founding of universities.
The origins of the university can be traced to the 12th century, and by the 13th century the
medieval university had reached its mature form. Universities were founded during the rest of
the Middle Ages throughout Europe and spread from there to other continents after the 16th
century. The earliest universities emerged as associations of masters or students (the Latin
universitas means “guild” or “union”) that were dedicated to the pursuit of higher learning. The
universities, which superseded the cathedral schools as centres of advanced study, came to
have a number of shared traits: the teaching methods of lecture and disputation, the extended
communal living in colleges, the periodically changing leadership of an elected dean, the inner
structure according to faculties or “nations,” and the European recognition of academic
degrees. Universities provided instruction in the liberal arts and advanced study in the
disciplines of law, medicine, and, most importantly, theology. Many of the great theologians of
the era, notably St. Thomas Aquinas, were associated with the universities.
The advent of humanism and the Reformation, as well as the reforms initiated by some
university faculty, created a new situation for all systems of education, especially the
universities. Humanists demanded plans to provide designated places for free research in
academies that were princely or private institutions and, as such, not controlled by the church.
On the other hand, Protestant states and principalities founded new universities, such as
Marburg in 1527, Königsberg in 1544, and Jena in 1558. As a counteraction, the Jesuits took
over the leadership in the older universities that had remained Roman Catholic or else founded
new ones in Europe and overseas.
In areas of missionary work, Christian education has had a twofold task. First, its function
was to lay an educational foundation for evangelization of non-Christian peoples by forming a
system of education for all levels from grammar school to university. Second, its function was to
take care of the education of European settlers. To a large extent the European colonial powers
had left the formation of an educational system in their colonies or dominions to the churches.
In the Spanish colonial regions in America, Roman Catholic universities were founded very early
(e.g., Santo Domingo in 1538, Mexico and Lima in 1551, Guatemala in 1562, and Bogotá in
1573). In China, Jesuit missionaries acted mainly as agents of European education and culture
(e.g., astronomy, mathematics, and technology) in their positions as civil servants of the court.
Since the 18th century, the activities of competing Christian denominations in mission
areas led to an intensification of the Christian system of education in Asia and Africa. Even
where the African and Asian states have their own system of schools and universities, Christian
educational institutions have performed a significant function (St. Xavier University in Mumbai
and Sophia University in Tokyo are Jesuit foundations; Dōshisha University in Kyōto is a
Japanese Presbyterian foundation).
In North America, Christian education took a different course. From the beginning, the
churches took over the creation of general educational institutions, and various denominations
did pioneer work in the field of education. In the English colonies that later became the United
States, the denominations founded theological colleges for the purpose of educating their
ministers and established universities dealing with all major disciplines, including theology,
often emphasizing a denominational slant. Harvard University was founded in 1636 and Yale
University in 1701 as Congregational establishments, and the College of William and Mary was
established in 1693 as an Anglican institution. They were followed during the 19th century by
other Protestant universities (e.g., Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas) and colleges
(e.g., Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois) and by Roman Catholic universities (e.g., the
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana) and colleges (e.g., Boston College, Chestnut
Hill, Massachusetts). In addition, many private universities were based upon a Christian idea of
education according to the wishes of their founders.
Christian education has been undertaken in a variety of forms. The system of Sunday
schools is nearly universal in all denominations. Confirmation instruction is more specialized,
serving different tasks, such as preparation of the children for confirmation, their conscious
acknowledgment of the Christian ethic, of the Christian confessions, of the meaning of the
sacraments, and of the special forms of congregational life.
