Towards a theology of education final project lisa anderson umana

TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF EDUCATION

by

Lisa Anderson-Umana

B.S., Penn State University, 1982
M.A., Wheaton College Graduate School, 1993

FINAL PROJECT

Submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
ES 9700 Theological Foundations of Christian Education, Perry Downs
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Educational Studies
at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Deerfield, Illinois
January 2012

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................ v

List of Tables ............................................................................................................... vi

Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1
Assumptions in writing my theology of education ............................... 2

Organization of my theology of education ........................................... 5

2. BOX A: HUMAN’S ULTIMATE PURPOSE ................................................. 10

To glorify God and enjoy him forever .................................................. 10

Education as a redemptive activity ....................................................... 14

3. BOX B: NATURE OF REALITY .................................................................... 15

Nature of God ....................................................................................... 16

Nature of Creation................................................................................. 17

Nature of persons .................................................................................. 19

Nature of sin .......................................................................................... 21

Nature of redemption ............................................................................ 26

Epistemology: How do we know? ........................................................ 32

Role of the Holy Spirit in education .................................................... 40

Nature of the church as an institution and as a community ................. 41

4. BOX C: AIMS OF EDUCATION ................................................................... 43

Aim: Development towards Christilikeness ....................................... 43

Nature of development ......................................................................... 45
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5. BOX D: MEANS OF EDUCATION ................................................................ 47

Internal factors in educating.................................................................. 47

External factors in educating ................................................................ 48

Priesthood of all believers ..................................................................... 48

Curriculum broadly understood ............................................................ 49

Explicit dimension-Content .................................................................. 50

Implicit dimension of curriculum ......................................................... 51

Null dimension ...................................................................................... 52

The Teacher-Incarnated dimension....................................................... 53

Student—whom is taught? .................................................................... 55

Methodology—How is it taught?.......................................................... 57

Institutional structure ............................................................................ 61

6. BOX E: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION ........................ 63

7. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 67

REFERENCE LIST ...................................................................................................... 68

v

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

1. My role as director of leadership development for CCI/LA ............................ 4

2. Frankena (1965) model of a philosophy of education ...................................... 6

3. Frankena (1965) boxes arranged in concentric circles ..................................... 6

4. A linear timeline of history ............................................................................... 12

5. Education as a redemptive activity (Downs 2011) ........................................... 14

6. Six dimensions of curriculum ........................................................................... 50

7. Three rail fence (originally Ted Ward and Sam Roven 1972).......................... 59

vi

TABLES

Table Page

1. May key for a linear timeline of history (Downs 2011) .................................. 13

2. Sin resulted in four broken relationships (Downs 2012) .................................. 25

3. Use of the prefix re-in synonyms for redemption ............................................. 28

4. Summary of General and Special revelation (Downs 2011, 2012) ................. 35

5. Aims from a Christian perspective contrasted with mis-directed aims
(Plueddemann 2007) ........................................................................................ 44

INTRODUCTION

After having spent some 30-years in cross-cultural educational ministry in

Latin America, the time has come to pause and clarify my bearings through the exercise of

writing down my theology of education. The challenge has been not to explain what I

already do in education and then try and justify it theologically, which no doubt would be

like unto the challenge preachers face in not using the Bible to proof-text their own

thoughts. This is not to say that I have not given sustained thought about why and how I

educate. During my Master’s degree in Educational Ministries at Wheaton, I took a number

of classes with Jim Plueddemann. Plueddemann (1986) calls for a similar process to

examine and renew your beliefs about Christian Education beginning with the analysis of

your presuppositions and values about education. He recognizes how difficult this is given

the fact that most educators are swamped by everyday problems, not to mention that our

presuppositions are usually below our conscious radar. To help, Plueddemann describes a

number of dominant metaphors in education to help you identify your beliefs and then he

guides you to analyze each metaphor both in light of Scripture and in light of social science

research. When I first went through that process, I discovered how I had unconsciously

adopted a number of unbiblical metaphors because I was following how I had been taught

but had never stopped to examine its philosophical underpinnings. In much the same

manner, this project has prompted me along a similar path.

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My theology informs how I teach, the manner in which I address the

students and how they address me, the methods I choose, and the way I live in general.

There must be congruency between what I believe theologically and my craft as an

educator. The occasion of writing a substantial paper on the subject has caused me to pause

long and hard to read, study, listen to others, and organize my thoughts on paper. This

process of writing has pressed me to think intentionally about what I believe theologically

and its implications for education. With this paper I am cultivating the habit of theological

reflection. “Theology is the way we construct reality since all things and all events have

their existence in relation to God. A distinctly Christian worldview demands that all areas

of life be understood through a theoretical framework” (Downs 2011, 102). Therefore, as an

educator, all my educational theory and practice should be reflected on theologically. In this

process I have discovered a number of assumptions which I hold to be true.

Assumptions in writing my theology of education

Assumption #1: The title “Toward a theology of education” depicts my

belief that forming one’s theology is a life-long process. This process should be done with

humble confidence rather than proud certainty since now “we see things imperfectly as in a

cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is

partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows

me completely” (I Cor 13:12 NLT). Even though our knowledge will never be complete

“this side of heaven,” as human beings we are intrinsically motivated to search for meaning,

to figure things out. Down through the ages, many highly qualified scholars and laypeople

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have written extensively about Christian beliefs and doctrines. Even so, no perfectly

articulated theology exists. No doubt, over time, study, experience, and input from others I

will have to retrofit my theology of education, furnishing it with new or modified beliefs

and practices that were not part of my understanding at this time. I will strive to keep an

open mind toward positive elements in other theologies.

Assumption #2: I understand this theology of education to be part of my

overarching philosophy or worldview. I understand philosophy to be an academic term

encompassing the classic categories of metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology (ethics and

aesthetics) (Knight 1989). When I speak of worldview I am using the definition created by

James Sire (2004a), “A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart,

that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions, that may be

true, partially true or false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously) about the basic

constitution of reality, and that provides that foundation on which we live and move and

have our being.” Sire recognizes that a worldview is not just expressed as set of

presuppositions, but also can be expressed in a story or meta-narrative. He also identifies

that your worldview is not just cognitive but it is how your heart is oriented and committed.

We all have a worldview, true or untrue, whether we can articulate it or not. My theology

and worldview should spring from Scripture, the final authority for the Christian.

Assumption #3: This paper articulates my aspirations but not necessarily my

achievements in education. Even though my theology is incomplete and in formation, I am

committed to act in accordance with my current understanding and strive to orient my heart

in that direction.

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Let me briefly describe the context of my practice. There are three main

components: (1) Latin America; (2) Christian Camping; (3) Leadership development and

training. I have lived in Latin America for almost 3 decades and while I reside in Honduras,

I travel and teach throughout Mexico, Central and South America. From the very beginning

and to this day, my area of service has been Christian Camping. The first five years I served

at a specific campsite outside of Mexico City, after which I began to work with Christian

Camping International, Latin America (CCI/LA), initially as director of training and now as

director of leadership development. My role can be visualized through the use of a pyramid

(Figure 1).

Figure 1: My role as director of leadership development for CCI/LA

The arrow in Figure 1 points to my current focus which is to develop a

multi-cultural team of professors who will teach IFIs—Institute for Forming Instructors.

Until now, just myself and one other North American missionary have been responsible for

teaching these seventeen-day long intensive training events. Over the last 20 years we have

held 10 of them which have formed 200 instructors in 11 countries, who in turn have taught

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600 in-depth courses which have formed 6000 camp counselors and program directors, all

volunteer leaders mostly from local churches. They, in turn, have organized camps which

have impacted for Christ the lives of some 1.2 million children and young people.

Organization of my theology of education

I have chosen to use a philosophical framework that I am familiar with and

is now an integral part of my mental framework. The categories were created by William

Frankena in 1965 for the express purpose of comparing educational philosophies. The

original intent of the author was to prompt educators to move from a solid philosophical

understanding to methodology and practice. Likewise, the thrust of this paper is to prompt

reflection on my theology so as to inform and guide my educational methodology and

practice. The use of this grid both includes and excludes what I do and what I do not

believe and allows me to visualize the connection between each of its quadrants. There are

five boxes, as outlined in the Figure 1: Frankena (1965) model of a philosophy of

education.

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Figure 2: Frankena (1965) model of a philosophy of education

Arranging the boxes in concentric circles depicts more clearly that without

the Core, Box A, the whole system collapses (Plueddemann, 1992).

Figure 3 Frankena (1965) boxes arranged in concentric circles

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The boxes will organize my theology of education. Box A will answer the

question of what is our ultimate purpose on earth, why were human beings created. Box B

will review numerous points related to the nature of reality, like the nature of God,

Creation, persons, the Fall, Redemption, the Church, and epistemology as they relate to

education. Box C outlines the specific aims of education, informed directly from the

ultimate purpose. Box D explains the practical implications of my theology as it relates to

the educational concerns of content, curriculum, student, teacher, methodology, and

institutional structure focused on accomplishing the ultimate purpose and specific aims of

education. Box D is informed as well by the nature of reality. Box E would be the practical

outworking of our theology, what someone could observe if he or she watched us teach.

The advantage of visualizing my theology in this framework is to facilitate

testing it from a philosophical point of view. It can be tested by four questions (Downs

2012): (1) Consistency (logic): Does the knowledge in one box contradict other

knowledge?, (2) Coherency: Does the content in all the boxes make sense as a whole,

relating well to my worldview?, (3) Comprehension: Does this knowledge displayed in the

boxes relate to all of the world as we know it, encompassing all experience?, (4)

Congruent: Does it match with reality, with what really is? In other words, is it liveable,

providing meaning and satisfaction to life? For instance if I say that God has made human

beings in his image and has conferred on us dignity and value, (Box B), it would be

incongruent for me to use a method of teaching that humiliates and ridicules students (Box

D). But, knowing that human beings are fallen, we do not always live according to what we

know to be true. Christians are forgiven but not yet perfected people. This does not excuse

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hypocrisy but our Biblically informed worldview makes clear that we are fallen, in need of

forgiveness and restoration (Coleman 2007). One could conceive of the need for our Boxes

D and E to grow closer and closer in alignment with what we believe in Boxes A, B and C.

The arrows in the Frankena model demonstrate how each of the quadrants is

interrelated and contiguous upon the other. Our ultimate purpose (Box A) is related to how

we view the nature of reality (Box B). Box D shows the means we use to reach our ultimate

purpose and specific educational aims (Boxes A and C) and are contingent as well on our

view of the nature of what is right and wrong (Box B). At the same time, there will be a

practical outworking of our entire theology in the context in which we live and teach (Box

E).

One caveat is in order regarding developing a theology of education as with

any discussion on philosophy or worldview. Coleman describes it well with the following

scenario:

The danger of worldview talk is that it remains just that: talk, talk, talk.
Some Christian thinkers have noted this danger. In his own inimitable style,
Søren Kierkegaard imagined this scenario. When Christians die and go to
heaven they will be confronted by two doors. One will have this sign on it,
‘Heaven.’ The other will have, ‘Lecture on Heaven.’ He thought most
Christians would go the lecture! Put another way, the trouble is that
worldview thinking can be like sharpening a knife but never cutting
anything. Coleman 2007, 23

My hope is that this analysis will sharpen my knife in order to better partner

with God in the work he has called me to south of the Rio Grande. My prayer for all who

read this paper: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,

rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing

with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive

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philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather
1
than on Christ” (Col. 2:6-8) .Through the reading of this theology of education I hope to

have clarify the basic principles of Christ and contrast a Christian worldview with some of

the hollow and deceptive principles of worldly philosophies so that you may be rooted and

built up in him, strengthened in the Christian faith and overflowing with thankfulness.

1
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise stated, are cited from
the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV). Copyright ©
1973, 1978, 1984, 2011.

BOX A: HUMAN’S ULTIMATE PURPOSE

To glorify God and enjoy him forever

What is the ultimate purpose of life? Centuries ago, in the Westminster

Catechism, a child was taught to respond to the question what is the chief end of man? with

this answer: To glorify God and enjoy him forever. My husband and I have this very

response inscribed on our dining room wall in large letters, placed there to remind our

family and all who enter our home what we believe is our raison d'être. Is 43:7 speaks of

why God created us: “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made.” John 10:10 speaks of the deep fulfillment that comes from

living life in relationship with God: “I have come that they may have life and have it

abundantly.” This ultimate purpose contrasts with the humanist purpose which could be

summarized like this: The chief end of every human being is to become self-actualized and

to create a perfect or ideal human society.

“To glorify God is a claim of exclusive loyalty; it demands that you place no

other gods before him. It asserts that there is a God who will have our devotion. It refutes

humanist autonomy (idol making) and tolerance of other gods (idol worship). The holiness

of God is a proper concern of education. The awesome, overwhelming, terror-evoking

reality of God is not instrumental. It is an end in itself. Thus the proper goal of human

existence is indeed ‘to glorify God and enjoy him forever.’ The holiness of God redefines

our life and our purposes” (Brueggemann 1982, 36).
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God’s glory has its Christian competitors. It is easy to become confused

about ultimate purpose and with good intentions place Bible knowledge, good church

programs or social justice activities in Box A. Having children memorize Bible verses can

be a means to godliness, as can be reaching out to the poor in materials goods, but in

themselves they do not automatically contribute to the glory of God. If we place anything

other than God’s glory as our ultimate purpose, they become idols. It is easy to confuse

means with ends.

Plueddemann (2007) notes that the issue of motivation plays a role in our

ultimate purpose, we can do the right things, but with the wrong motivation. Only God

discerns our heart condition, and he is concerned not only with what we do, but also with

our motives. People look on outward behavior, but God is more interested in the heart and

asks that whatever we do, we do it for his glory (1 Cor 10:31).

God’s ultimate purpose for humanity is revealed to us as we look back over

history from the beginning of time as recorded in the Bible. It is worth noting that the

meaning of history from the Christian theistic worldview is that history is compared to a

road or pathway; a meaningful sequence of events leading to the fulfillment of God’s

purposes for humanity. Titus 1:1-3 alludes to the fact that God’s purposes start before time

began and continue to be fulfilled at his appointed times. “Paul, a servant of God and an

apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads

to godliness— a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who

does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at his appointed season he brought

his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior”

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(Titus 1:1-3). History is a good source for discerning and visualizing God’s ultimate

purpose for humanity.

History is linear meaning that the actions of people—as confusing and
chaotic and ungodly as they appear—are part of a meaningful sequence that
has a beginning, a middle and an end. History is not reversible, not
repeatable, and not cyclical; history is not meaningless. History is going
somewhere, directed toward a known end. The God who knows the end from
the beginning is aware of and sovereign over the actions of humankind.
History itself is a form of revelation. History, (especially as localized in the
Jewish people) is the record of the involvement of God in human events.
History is the divine purpose of God in concrete form. An individual’s
choices have meaning to that person, to others and to God. History is the
result of those choices that, under the sovereignty of God, bring about God’s
purpose for this world. Sire 2004a, 42-43

The Judeo-Christian view of history reveals God's salvific purpose

throughout the centuries. God is an active party; he has taken the initiative and confronts

man. There is a beginning, creation, and an end, when Christ returns. It's optimistic in the

long run, but it's pessimistic in the short run, things will get worse before they get better.

(Rev 20-21). Figure 2 illustrates a linear timeline of history which serves to visualize the

ultimate purpose of education from a theological perspective.

Figure 4: A linear timeline of history

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For the purpose of explaining the illustration in Figure 3: A linear timeline

of history, a Map Key has been provided in Table1. A brief paragraph summarizing the

main point will be provided below, using Perry Down’s (2011) summary of each of the

historical landmark events or epochs. Further on in the paper, each point will be explored

more in depth.

Table 1: Map Key for a linear timeline of history (Downs 2011)

Creation The story begins with the creation narrative, affirming that all that is comes from God. There is no dualism—in
the beginning there was only God. The material world emerged from God’s creative will and activity. It was
God who created the material world and declared it good.
The Fall The peace and beauty of the original creation is quickly marred. The Bible does not tell us why God created
Satan—he simply shows up. Unlike Buddhism, which believes in a dualistic reality, Scripture presents Satan as
a created being. He is a smooth talker who attacks both God’s word (Has God really said… Gen 3:2) and God’s
willingness to act in judgment (You will not surely die… Gen 3:4). The woman believes the lie, the man joins
her in eating the forbidden fruit, and God’s Shalom is vandalized, as Plantinga (1995) describes it. The
consequences of this act are staggering. The serpent is cursed, the woman is cursed, the man is cursed, and all
of creation is cursed. Our first parents were driven from the garden, and the created order has suffered ever
since. We now live in a messy, fallen world that, while maintaining aspects of God’s original intention, has
been broken and marred by our rebellion.
Old In the Genesis 3 narrative appears the proto-evangelism, the first gospel, promising God’s redemptive action in
Testament this fallen world. The biblical narrative moves on to tell God’s redemptive activity throughout history as God
calls the world back to its original intention and condition. Through the patriarchs, the law, the nation of Israel,
and the prophets, the Old Testament tells of God’s redemptive initiative and plans for this fallen world.
The Cross The climax of the biblical drama of redemption is the cross, where Jesus offers himself as the final sacrifice to
bring about God’s redemption. Just as the implications of the fall were cosmic, so the results of the death of our
Lord are cosmic. The Apostle Paul writes, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and
through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:19-20). While God’s redemptive work includes the redemption of
human beings, it is much larger than that. It extends to the full results of the fall, redeeming all that had been
impacted by God’s curse.
The The Gospels give tantalizing insight into what the restored order will be like, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and
Gospels the blind see. Just as significantly, sinners repent and make restitution, and the people proclaim the glory and
goodness of God. We see the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom into the created order and have glimpses of what
the new order will be like.
Now and For now, we live in the now and not yet of the Kingdom of God. It is in us now as the people of God, but it is
not yet of not yet in its fullness. Hence we are taught to pray for the coming of the Kingdom in its fullness. But as we
the wait, we are invited to participate in God’s redemptive activity in the world now. We can call people to bow
Kingdom before Christ as Lord now, and we can work to return things back to their rightful owner to be used for his
of God glory. A proper view of the task and purpose of education is to understand it within the context of redemption.
God is at work in the world redemptively, and we as educators who call ourselves Christian must see our work
as a means of participation in God’s redemptive work in the world. Our work as educators must be understood
within the larger picture of God’s work in this fallen world.
Second The biblical story climaxes at the cross and culminates in the new order envisioned in Revelation 21 and 22.
Coming

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Education as a redemptive activity

In short for Box A, connecting with our ultimate purpose which is to glorify

God and enjoy him forever, the purpose of education as seen within a theological

framework and historical timeline is one of participating in God’s redemptive activity. If

someone asks me why I teach, my answer would be: To glorify God and enjoy him forever

by participating with him as an educator in his redemptive activity. Figure 3 illustrates the

place education holds from a theological perspective.

Figure 5: Education as a redemptive activity in a linear timeline of history (Downs 2011)

BOX B: THE NATURE OF REALITY

Box B in philosophical terms is metaphysical in that it explains reality,

answering the questions of what is real, what is out there, and what is it like? This section

will generally follow the timeline of history in that it contains brief descriptions of the

nature of God, Creation, Persons, Sin, and Redemption. Then I will describe the nature of

things that relate directly to educational concerns like epistemology, the Church as an

institution and community of believers, and the role of the Holy Spirit.

It should be noted that on each of these subjects entire encyclopedic volumes

have been written by scholars who possess far superior knowledge and understanding than

I. The purpose of this project is not to write down everything that is known on a given

subject but for me to demonstrate a grasp of the basic theological beliefs that I hold and

detail how they influence my practice of education. My guiding question throughout this

process has been: How do my theological beliefs matter in reference to my practice as an

educator?

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Nature of God

The nature of ultimate reality is God. God is infinite and personal (triune),

transcendent and immanent, omniscient, sovereign and good. God is infinite, meaning he is

beyond scope, beyond measure. He is, in fact, the only self-existent being: “I AM WHO I

AM” Ex 3:14.God is personal. God is not a mere force or energy. God is self-conscious, he

knows himself to be, and he thinks and acts (self-determination). God is transcendent. God

is beyond us and beyond our world. God is immanent. But not so beyond that he bears no

relation to us and our world, he is with us. God is here, everywhere. For God is not matter

like us, but Spirit. God is beyond all, yet in all and sustaining all (Heb 1:3). God is

omniscient. God is all-knowing. He is the alpha and the omega and knows the beginning

from the end (Rev 22:13). God is sovereign. God pays attention to all the actions of his

universe. Nothing is beyond God’s ultimate interest, control and authority. God is good.

This is the prime statement about God’s character. From it flows all others. God’s goodness

is expressed in two ways, through holiness and through love. Holiness is his absolute

righteousness, there is an absolute standard found in God’s character (I John 1:5). Secondly,

God is love (I John 4:16) therefore there is hope for humanity because God is love and will

not abandon his creation (Sire 2004a, 26-44).

1
I am indebted to James Sire (2004a, 2004b) for ideas on the composite I created to
describe the Natures of God, Creation, and Persons from a Christian, humanist (modern), and post-modern
worldview.

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God is triune. “Within the one essence of the Godhead we have to

distinguish three ‘persons’ who are neither three gods on the one side, not three parts or

modes of God on the other, but coequally and coeternally God” (Bromiley 1960).

Nature of Creation

God created the cosmos as a uniformity of cause and effect in an open

system. Meaning that the universe is orderly (Is. 45:18-19), there is a regularity to it and the

nature of God’s universe and God’s character are closely related. The system is open. This

means it is not programmed. God is constantly involved in the unfolding pattern of the

ongoing operation of the universe. And so are we human beings! The course of the world’s

operation is open to reordering (ie. miracles, supernatural occurrences) and we reorder it by

our continued activity after the Fall. If the universe were not orderly, our decisions would

have no effect. In contrast, a humanistic philosophy sees the natural world existing as a

uniformity of cause and effect in a closed system. The universe is not open to reordering

from the outside—either by a transcendent Being (for there is none) or, by self-transcendent

or autonomous human beings (for they are part of the uniformity). Nothing supernatural

exists, there are no such things as miracles; everything can be explained by rational

arguments (Sire 2004a, 26-44).

God is qualitatively different from the created world, God is over His

creation and the world is dependent upon God (Ps 93). God is in loving and total control of

creation. He sustains the world. “Creation was the webbing together of God, humans, and

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all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight in what the Hebrew prophets call Shalom. In

the Bible, Shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of

affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of

affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator welcomes the creatures in whom he

delights” ((Plantinga 1995, 10). Shalom, in other words, was the way things were in the

Garden of Eden, is the way things ought to be now, and will not be again until Christ

returns.

Creation mandate

Why did God make creation? For his glory and good pleasure (Eph 1:3-14).

His creation is open and dependent on him as he actively sustains it and allows human

beings to discover its order, design, and structure. The nature of what God made is that it is

good. On repeated occasions (Gen 1: 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) God’s own evaluation of what he

had created was: God saw all that he had made, and it was very good (Gen 1:31). “The

innate goodness of all God has made is inherent in its very structure. Sometimes, given the

pervasiveness of the Fall, that good structure is obscured from view for its direction has

shifted from one of goodness to evil” (Wolters 2005).

What is our role in creation? Genesis 1:28 gives human beings the creation

mandate: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the

earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every

living creature that moves on the ground.’” We are stewards of God’s creation and in this

capacity we are to know and understand what God has made, being careful not to exploit it

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for our own selfish good. We are to develop and improve it, since God said it was good, but

he did not declare it as complete, it still needs stewardship. “In the human realm men and

women become coworkers with God, as creatures made in his image they too have a kind

of lordship over the earth, we are God’s viceroys in creation (Wolters 2005, 16).

Nature of persons

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that
they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along
the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God
he created them; male and female he created them. Gen1:26-27

Human beings are created in the image of God and thus possess personality,

self-transcendence, intelligence, morality, gregariousness and creativity (Gen 1:26-27; Gen

5:3; 9:6). We are like God, made in his image, Imago Dei. We are personal because he is

personal. That is, we know ourselves to be (self-conscious), and we make decisions

uncoerced (self-determination). We are capable of acting on our own; we do not merely

react to our environment but can act according to our own character, our own nature (Sire

2004a, 26-44).

Human beings are eternal but not divine. There is life after man's physical

death and his spirit will live eternally in heaven or hell depending on whether his name is

written in the Lamb's Book of Life. “Nothing impure will ever enter it [heaven], nor will

anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in

the Lamb's book of life” (Rev 21:27). People have free will, they are not forced to obey

God. God does not control and coerce us. Pre-destination and free will are a paradox and I

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believe we must learn to live with that ambiguity. We, like the Triune God who created us

are made for community. We are finite beings, capable of knowing, but only subjectively

and in part. God has structured man to be in relationship with him, we are ordered toward

him, “we have a God-shaped void.”

When looking at the nature of persons as learners, children are neither blank

slates to write on nor empty vessels to fill. Social scientists have discovered that God has

designed human beings to have certain underlying structures and patterns of growth or

stages that are universally visible or observable. In a conversation with famed educator Ted

Ward, he compares the stage structure of persons to the framework under a bridge. The

bridge carries the load of the traffic, and the structure bears the weight. With each new

stage of growth and development the progression is similar to strengthening the buttresses

of the bridge, the buttresses are not removed and replaced, they are solidified.

In contrast, Sire (2004a, 214-241), points out a behavioristic view of human

beings believes that we are complex “machines”; personality is an interrelation of chemical

and physical properties not yet fully understood. Human beings are simply a part of the

cosmos. In the cosmos there is one substance: matter. The laws applying to matter apply to

persons, they do not transcend the universe in any way. They are however, unique among

animals because humans alone are capable of conceptual thought, employ speech, possess a

cumulative tradition (culture) and have had a unique method of evolution (Huxley 1948).

Human beings are fundamentally good if they are surrounded by the right environment.

A postmodernist would likely believe that there is no substantial self. Human

beings make themselves who they are by the languages they construct about themselves. So

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there is a shift from the (1) the “premodern” theistic notion that human beings are dignified

by being created in the image of God to (2) the “modern” notion that human beings are the

product of their DNA template, which itself is the result of unplanned evolution based on

chance mutations and the survival of the fittest, to (3) the “postmodern” notion that we are

what we describe ourselves to be. Stories give communities their cohesive character. People

believe these stories to be true, so they function in society as if they were true. Groups of

people believe the same basic story, and the result is more or less stable communities (Sire

2004a, 214-241).

Nature of sin

In the beginning all that God created was good, Adam and Eve enjoyed

sweet communion with their God and creator. Creation existed in perfect harmony between

humans, animals, and plant life. All was Shalom, the way it was supposed to be. We do not

know how long these conditions existed on earth before one fine day Adam and Eve

exercised their free will—in the wrong direction. Tempted by Satan, a former angelic being,

they rebelled against God’s command and in that precise moment, the course of history

changed forever. Gen 3:1-24 describes the entire scene, here are the first seven verses:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD
God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not
eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may
eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat
fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch
it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the
woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the
woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the
eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She

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also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the
eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so
they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

From that point on, life on earth was never the same. Our sins hide God’s

face from us (John 1:18). Everything shifted from the way God had designed and structured

it to be, to the way it is not supposed to be, to the wrong direction. Our hearts are no longer

Godward oriented, Jeremiah 17:9 describes “the heart as deceitful above all things and

beyond cure. Who can understand it?” To which God himself responds: “I the LORD

search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct,

according to what their deeds deserve” (Jer 17:10).

Sin did not just break man’s relationships but all the elements of creation

were broken, animal and plant life, and even the earth itself. Now people kill animals,

animals kill each other, and the earth produces catastrophes like earthquakes, hurricanes,

droughts, thorns and thistles. Creation itself groans under the weight of sin (Rom 8:19-22).

Sin is not just an act, it is a condition, a propensity to do wrong, a bent to not

do what we ought and to do what we ought not to do. Plantinga notes: “Sin is a religious

concept... Sin defined is an act or disposition—any thought, desire, emotion, word, or

deed—or its particular absence, that displeases God and deserves blame… It is culpable

Shalom-breaking” (1995, 13). In contrast, sin in today’s modernist and postmodernist era is

a foreign term, even offensive as it implies judgment, and would earn the retort: who are

you to judge me? People’s innate inclination to do wrong is rationalized, justified, glossed

over, covered up, and renamed: Mistake, miscalculation, mis-spoken (is that even a word?),

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moral failure, weakness, caused by low self-esteem, or due to being a victim of some social

ill.

Sin is pervasive and its very character is often hidden from view. The

following describes with more specificity the nature of sin (Plantinga 1995):

 Sin begets sin. People rarely commit single sins. Therefore, we tend to sin in clusters.
 Secrecy fertilizes evil.
 The works of sin are evident and real, but they carry no solid achievements. Nothing
about sin is its own, all it has are stolen goods. Sin has no accomplishments of its own.
It draws its life-source from what God intended to be good in creation, and perverts it,
re-directing it towards evil.
 Sin does not build Shalom, it vandalizes it. Goodness is itself; badness is only spoiled
goodness. There must be something good first before it can be spoiled. Consider the
example of someone who has marvelous gifts of leadership and persuasion, but uses
them for evil purposes.
 Sin is a parasite and must attach itself to God’s created good in order to exist. It is an
uninvited guest that keeps tapping its host for sustenance. Sin tends to kill and it
reproduces just because, like a virus, it attaches itself to the life force and dynamics of
its host.
 Evil fascinates, and makes people feel strangely drawn to pictures and accounts of sin.
 With our own sin and often others, we tend to deny, suppress, or minimize what know
we know to be true. First we deceive ourselves and then double back to convince
ourselves that we are not deceiving ourselves.

The presence of evil in creation is tri-fold, Satan, our sinful nature, and the

world under the influence and dominion of Satan. All three of these combine to hinder us

from fulfilling our ultimate purpose, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The nature of

Satan is to destroy, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they

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may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). When he lies, he speaks his native

language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Lies are a distortion of God's

truth. Satan cannot create truth, he can only distort it. With the advent of Christ, Satan is

like a wounded beast, knowing his time is limited, he is now in his death throes. “Therefore

rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because

the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows his time is short”

(Rev 12:12).

Satan and the world are like a tag team of wrestlers. The nature of the world

reflects evil because Satan rules and has power over this world. “The god of this age has

blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory

of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4). Our own sinful nature plays into this

wrestling match since as a result of the Fall there is an evil bent that hinders our spiritual

growth. We are in battle, we will suffer, and be wounded, in need of salvation, healing and

liberation from bondage.

Sin resulted in four broken relationships

Our four relationships were broken and we became alienated from God,

ourselves, others, and from the natural world. Table 2 provides a tiny sample of evidences

of our broken relationships.

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Table 2: Sin resulted in four broken relationships (Downs 2012)

With God We are no longer free in God’s presence, rather we hide from him.
We became by nature objects of wrath (Eph 2:1-3).
We worship idols rather than the Creator.
With one’s self We develop self-destructive behaviors.
We lose sight of the image of God in ourselves and hate ourselves.
We are prideful and believe we can be like God.
We give up our freedom to all types of addictions.
With others We categorize and separate from others on the basis of differences of race, gender,
age, color, size, propensities to sin.
We kill and hurt others.
We compete with others.
We lie, cheat, steal, covet.
With God’s creation We fear animals, insects, or plants.
We exploit creation with complete disregard to replenish it.
We liter, polluting the ground, air and sea.
We worship the creation, ignoring the Creator.
We misuse the land as if we own it.

It should be remembered that any discussion about sin should serve “to

renew our memory of the integrity of creation and to sharpen our eye for the beauty of

grace… To understand sin, you have to see it within the bookends of creation –and

redemption. That is why to speak of sin without grace is to minimize the resurrection of

Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, the hope of Shalom. But to speak of grace without sin is

surely no better” (Plantinga 1995, xiii, 10). Having spoken of sin, we conclude that human

beings were created good, but through the Fall the image of God became defaced, though

not so ruined as not to be capable of restoration; through the work of Christ, God redeemed

humanity and began the process of restoring people to goodness (Sire 2004a).

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Nature of redemption

The nature of redemption builds on the creation mandate in that we are to

recognize the goodness of what God originally made, how its inherent structure is good.

Then we are to identify, with eyes wide open, the pervasiveness of sin and how it has

tainted all that God called good and has pushed it in the wrong direction, disorientating it

from its original goodness. Finally, we are called to restore God’s goodness, since sin

cannot completely obscure it from view, and redeem it for God’s original intended use. Lest

we deceive ourselves into thinking this is a purely humanistic project for “do-gooders,” we

recognize this plan as conceived of and brought forth by God himself in Gen 3:15 when he

said to Satan: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your

offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” As noted in Box

A, this proto-evangelism, the first gospel, promised God’s redemptive action in this fallen

world. The sacrificial system explained and practiced throughout the Old Testament

foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The shedding of

blood in animal sacrifices provided a way for God’s People, Israel, to atone for their sins.

The climatic act of the redemption story was Christ’s birth, life, and death on

the cross. What gives us human beings the power to restore God’s goodness to his creation

is Christ himself who lives within us through his Holy Spirit. Paul describes how God’s

plan of redemption lives in us, thereby giving to us the message and ministry of

reconciliation.

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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has
gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was
reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against
them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are
therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal
through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:17-21

“God wants Shalom and will pay any price to get it back. Human sin is

stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so

ready to suffer to win its way” (Plantinga 1995, 199). Christ suffered on Golgotha and we

are called to share in his suffering as “we participate in the ongoing creational work of God,

to be God’s helper in executing to the end the blueprint for his masterpiece” (Wolters

2005, 44).

Some church traditions have conceived of redemption mostly in

individualistic terms, focusing on pietism and the individual’s personal salvation and

holiness. Others have understood redemption to be the exclusive domain of the institutional

church, claiming that the church is sacred ground and the rest of the world is secular. There

are not two realms. God created only one realm: creation. There are however, two regimes:

God and Satan. Both are battling for dominion over the whole of creation, leaving nothing

neutral or undisputed. “Nothing is neutral in the sense that sin fails to affect it or that

redemption fails to hold out the promise of deliverance. … Redemption, then is the

recovery of creational goodness through the annulment of sin and the effort toward the

progressive removal of its effects everywhere. We return to creation through the cross,

because only the atonement deals with sin and evil effectively at their root” (Wolters 2005,

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82, 83). Mark 16:15 clarifies that redemption is not just for the individual, but for the entire

community, it’s not just for the church, but for the whole world, when Jesus said to his

disciples: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (italics mine).

The use of the prefix re- on many of the words used to describe redemption

(see Table 1) denote the going back to an original state, meaning that salvation does not

bring anything new, but brings new life and vitality to what was there all along (Wolters

2005, 69).

Table 3: Use of the prefix re- in synonyms for redemption

Re-storation Re-conciliation Re-generation
Re-claimed Re-newal Re-creation
Re-instated Re-formation Re-covery

Man is in need of a Savior

Man is separated from God because of his sinful condition and his sins, only

through Jesus Christ can we be reconciled with him. “For if, when we were God's enemies,

we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Rom 5:10). Jesus answered, “I

am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

(John 14:6). “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven

given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “For the wages of sin is death, but

the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). Salvation comes by

grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “That if you confess with your mouth,

‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be

saved” (Rom 10:9). Conversion is a distinctive and life-changing experience which may

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take place at one given moment or in the case of those raised in a Christian home may come

gradually culminating with the definite realization that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior.

His desire is that all would be saved. “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,

but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Christ died for everyone. “For God so

loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not

perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The story of redemption for a 10-year boy

If I were to describe the redemption story in terms my ten-year old son

would understand, I would describe creation as a perfect world, complete harmony,

everything and everyone completely good, not a piece of junk it in. Then Satan invades the

Garden of Eden because Adam and Eve gave him permission. He is the evil usurper and the

Fall ushers in sin which ruins every single thing in creation. Nothing has escaped its stain.

However, creation still retains its God-given goodness. Sin does not belong so evil will

never be on par with good. But, clearly, creation is occupied territory by Satan and his

demons. However, God has a plan: Throughout the Old Testament God formed a people,

Israel, with the mission to bring his redemption to earth. A counter offensive is launched by

God in Jesus Christ, to reclaim His rightful domain. The King of kings lays claim to his

Kingdom through his powerful miracles, preaching, and signs of wonder. Christ establishes

a foothold in creation; a beachhead like the Allied forces did on D-Day at Normandy.

While Jesus was on earth he clearly demonstrated who the boss was. Even the evil spirits

obeyed him and acknowledged his Kingship and power. D-Day has happened, but V-Day is

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yet to come, like in WWII. We live in the times between the invasion and victory. We are

assured of victory, but still need to engage in fighting a fierce battle. The battle for creation

still has its casualties, and you will die if God does not save you. The problem is that

because Adam and Eve sinned, the whole human race got contaminated with the deadly

disease of sin. We deserve to die. God is holy. We are not. God wants you to join his army,

he has chosen you to be on his team. But the only way we can get on God’s team is if we

pair up with God’s Son, Jesus. We must become partners for life, with him being the boss.

Once you join up, it’s a pact for life. God has called you to fight this kind of spiritual battle,

you need to learn how to fight, he has given us special armor and weapons, and best of all

since we are on his team, he promises us his company, the Holy Spirit living within us.

Plus, we do not fight alone; we are part of God’s army, the church, made up of many

members, both here where we live, as well as all around the world. Remember, when God

decides its time, Jesus will come back and restore his Kingdom and renew heaven and earth

with a new city with the best of all civilization, unmarred by sin. For now, this whole time

God is holding back evil, so it does not completely take over creation, in order that as many

people as possible can be brought into his Kingdom. When Jesus returns, Satan will be cast

out and defeated forever.

Common grace

“For now, God is holding back evil.” The doctrine of common grace is the

belief that there is a non-salvific attitude of divine favor toward all human beings, a type of

divine empathy, manifested in several ways, as described by Mouw (2001).

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1. The bestowal of natural gifts, such as rain and sunshine, upon creatures in
general.

2. The restraining of evil/sin in human affairs, so that the unredeemed do not
produce all of the evil that their depraved nature might otherwise bring
about.

3. The ability of unbelievers to perform acts of civic good.

4. God’s direct sustaining, up-holding activity upon creation without which the
earth would self-destruct.

Due to common grace we can, through discernment, identify traces of the

Spirit’s work in the larger creation and in all people. We will never go anywhere where

God himself has not first been, nor will we meet anyone, whom God has not loved first and

sought after. We partner with God, playing a part of his story with his creatures and all of

creation.

Second coming-Shalom restored

There are many passages that speak of the “not yet” aspect of God’s

Kingdom, like in Rom 8:30 when Paul writes that “those he predestined, he also called;

those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” We anticipate that

glorification in the end times. Jesus, when he administered the Last Supper to his disciples

speaks about the Kingdom of God in a future sense (Mark 14:25; Luke 22:16-18). The final

episode of the now and not yet Kingdom of God promises to be a grand finale that “no eye

has seen, no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has

prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). We can only imagine what the new heavens

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and new earth will be like if we contemplate the very best that this life has to offer and then

multiply it umpteen times.

Within church traditions there are many different interpretations of the exact

timing and sequence of events regarding the end times, but one thing all Christians agree on

is that Jesus is coming back in person (John 14:3; Acts 1:11). Another aspect of Christ’s

return will be the restoration of creation into a new heaven and a new earth. We will not

return to the Garden of Eden, but Shalom will be restored in the heavenly city of New

Jerusalem. For the rest of eternity, “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of

our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Rev 11:15).

Epistemology: How do we know?

Downs (2012) rightly points out that education centers on the

epistemological question of knowing. We aim in education for students to know God and to

know the Bible, but before we can proceed with this task, we must ask how we can know

anything.

Human beings can know the world around them and God himself because

God has built into them the capacity to do so and because he takes an active role in

communicating with them. God is the all-knowing knower of all things, so we can be the

sometimes knowing knowers of some things (John 1:1-9). God’s intelligence is thus the

basis of human intelligence. Knowledge is possible because there is something to be

known—God and his creation. Knowledge is possible because there is someone to know—

the omniscient God and human beings made in his image. God has structured the cosmos so

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that it is intelligible, orderly and meaningful. By using our senses we can comprehend this

subjectively, not flawlessly, because the Fall effected creation (Sire 2004a).

General revelation and Special revelation

Truth exists and it can be known. “The fact that truth exists and we can

know it is because of God’s divine revelation, both the General revelation (creation which

‘speaks’ of the greatness of God) and His Special revelation (the Word which holds the

record of redemptive history). Psalm 19 speaks of both of these revelations. As believers,

we must value both man’s inquiry into General revelation through science and his inquiry

into theology; nevertheless, we recognize that both are prone to error” (Downs 2012). On

the basis of this doctrine of divine revelation, both General and Special revelation have a

common source (God) and he reveals truth in both modes. Downs explains the “notion of

the unity of truth which declares that ultimately all that is true fits together into a unified

whole and therefore can be known in a reliable way… Revelation is absolute, but our

understanding of it is relative” (2011, 104).

In General revelation God speaks through the created order of the universe,

Rom 1:19-20; Ps 19:1-2, which includes history as well. This knowledge is available to all

of humankind and we will be held accountable for what we do with that knowledge.

General revelation has access to our conscience, to our reason:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness
and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since
what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it
plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—
his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being

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understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Rom 1:18-20

Special revelation is God’s disclosure of himself in the Bible and in

supernatural ways, like when God appeared to Moses at the burning bush and when he gave

the Ten Commandments to Moses. Heb 1:1-3 makes it clear that Jesus Christ is God’s

ultimate Special revelation. Jesus has made God known to us in very fleshly terms (John

1:1, 14).

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times
and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the
universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation
of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had
provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in
heaven. Heb 1:1-3

Epistemologically speaking, the Bible is the quintessential source of true

knowledge, against which all other knowledge is examined and interpreted, whether that be

knowledge gained through our reason, our experiences or that of others. This Christian

epistemology is utter foolishness to a rationalist, empiricist, or intuitivist who recognize no

authoritative source of truth outside of themselves.

Table 4 provides a summary of General and Special revelation (Downs

2011, 2012).

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Table 4: Summary of General and Special Revelation (Downs 2011, 2012)

Categories General revelation Special revelation
Content Speaks generally about the existence of a Holds the record of redemptive history and
creator and something of the greatness of the the mystery of the cross which is not
creator. Includes the natural law of created possible to hear and understand from
order. looking at creation.
Audience Open to all people everywhere. Anyone can Not available to all people because it is
look at nature and see the fingerprints of the understood only by those to whom God has
Creator. given his Spirit (1 Cor 2:14)
Particulars It is because of General revelation that all The purpose of parables was to hide the
people are responsible for knowledge of God. truth. (Mark 4:9-12)
The invitation to believe is open and revealed
to all.
Inquiry Natural and social sciences, arts, humanities Theology in its many different forms is the
(since both are human are the means of disciplined inquiry disciplined means of inquiry (Biblical,
endeavors, they are Historical, Systematic, Applied, etc.)
prone to error)
Noted in Scripture Rom 1:19-20, Ps 19:1-6, Ps. 8:1-4 Heb 1:1-3, Ps 19:7-10, 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Peter
1:21

The witness of the Holy Spirit is also a means of knowing as is reason and

intuition. God gave man a rational, logical mind, and all truth being God's truth, man can

find truth in the world around him. “The Christian educator can incorporate God's truth

wherever it may be revealed in the created world in ways that reflect humanity's God-given

creativity” (Pazmiño, 1988,13).

The hiddenness and mystery of truth

Although we make disciplined inquiries into General revelation through the

sciences and into Special revelation through theology as well as “undisciplined inquiries”

through personal Bible study and life in general, since we are finite and flawed human

beings we will not achieve a full inerrant interpretation and understanding of divine

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revelation. Moreover, there is a hiddenness to our knowing of truth, much like the way we

see a round sphere, like the moon. We can only see part of it, there is another part hidden to

us. That hiddenness may be visible to others because they have a different vantage point.

This leads me to affirm the communal nature of truth, not just because others contribute

unique insights, but because God’s truth is so rich so as to need a plurality of others’

perspectives and interpretations to do it justice (Meek 2003).

The Prophet Isaiah in chapter 55:8-9 paints a picture for us to envision just

how finite our knowledge is compared to God’s, how much mystery there is to life, and

how far we are of ever understanding God’s ways and thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my

thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. As

the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my

thoughts than your thoughts.” In education, our model of knowledge has to accept mystery

and be at peace with not knowing what God is doing. Likewise, we must respectfully

hesitate or proceed with the utmost caution in trying to explain why God does what he does.

It is far safer to say: I do not know why God allowed this or that to happen, but I can speak

to you of his character, of who he is.

My own personal reflections on how I know

What starts my knowing? I believe knowing has a number of different

sources, one such source are directions, like a book that I read, a teacher I listen to, or an

expert I dialogue with. The more authoritative I consider the source to be (like Special

revelation), the more confident I feel about my knowing. In addition to receiving directions,

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a second way my knowing is “kick-started” are “trigger events.” When an unforeseen

circumstance occurs, like my mother’s death, or some dilemma disorients me, like when my

husband and I struggled with infertility. God uses these events to trigger the beginning or

the continuation of an act of knowing. These trigger events usually make me realize that my

old way of thinking, of making meaning, do not work. I cannot make sense of my

experience, which leads me to another source of knowing which is my lived experience.

While this may sound quite “post-modern,” my own reactions, feelings, intuition, and

imagination can serve as a guiding force to knowing, or at least can give me clues.

Clues are important to my acts of knowing because God made us with an

innate desire to make sense of our world. All I am living, hearing, experiencing, reading,

receiving through directions, or trying to figure out are not isolated pieces of information,

they are clues. If each clue were a dot, I find myself going through the process of

connecting the dots to make a pattern. Over a sustained period of time, suddenly or

progressively, I will “get it.” The best analogy I have read about this “getting it” compared

it to focusing on a “three-dimensional magic eye” (Meek 2003). Magic eyes are those

pictures that you have to stare at for a while until you finally focus in on the image within

the image (like the dolphin within the blur of what looks like a jumble of dots). Some

people are very adept at doing that; others of us take a while to finally focus. I see myself,

over the years, getting better and better at focusing.

What does it take to focus? To finally bring the initially unseen object into

focus takes the integration of active and skilled human efforts. Skills are required like

critical thinking, reflection in action, and a commitment to act on what I know, even though

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I am not 100% certain (Brookfield 1987). I have had to learn to identify and challenge my

own assumptions, beliefs, values, and biases in light of Scripture as well as what others say

and believe. I have to hold onto the focal pattern, if I look away, I can quickly lose sight of

the image, likewise, to really know more, I have to sustain my focus over time.

I have seen evidence of this in my own life with the death of my mother

when she was 60 years of age. After she died, I distinctly remember focusing on this

discovery: “Things don’t always turn out the way you think they should or planned.” I had

grown up believing that for us as Christians, if we lived the way the Bible taught us, things

would work out well. When my mother got sick, we prayed, we believed in faith God

would heal her of cancer, but he chose not to even though my mother was a very godly

woman. That trigger event, as I grappled with its implications, reflected on it with others,

and talked to God about it, brought into focus that simple truth. It wasn’t until years later,

when my husband and I struggled with infertility that I discovered a partner truth pattern:

Indeed, things don’t always turn out the way you think they should or planned; but, God

always has our best in mind. Knowing that truth, my husband and I acted accordingly, we

held a private campfire ceremony where we conscientiously relinquished our natural desires

for biological children (which we had written down) and offered them up to the Lord as a

burnt sacrifice. We committed to embracing God’s best for our lives, with joy and hope for

the future, knowing we were surrounded by a noble cloud of witnesses who had also not

received on earth the promise that was given to them (Heb 11). (Side note: God, in his

sovereignty, miraculously enabled me to get pregnant—twice—in spite of a medical

condition that completely precluded it! God gave us two miracle children!)

39

So, in summary, I know because of the authority of the source itself, because

of my own personal experience sustained over a period of time, because of the experience

and reasoning of others whom I trust, and because the knowledge has been tested with my

own God-given reason in action and found to be tried and true. I believe acts of knowing

involve both cognition and action, the Bible says you cannot know apart from doing, lest

you deceive yourself (James 1:22-25).

To contrast my Christian theistic epistemology with the perspectives of a

rationalist, empiricist and postmodernist, I have drawn from Sire’s book, The universe next

door: A basic worldview catalog (2004a, 214-241). Within the worldview of rationalism or

empiricism, one would believe that human reason is how human beings know anything.

One needs only accept what is based on facts and observation and on the assured results of

scientific investigation or scholarship. Human beings have the power to reason and think

rationally. Individuals have the power and autonomy to define themselves. Man creates his

own destiny. A postmodernist might counter that we do not “know”, we “construct”

meaning. Knowledge is not discovered because it does not exist and even if it does, it is a

mystery. Truth is a human construct; it is not something external to us, outside of us,

derived from a God (who does not exist). To claim to have truth applicable to everyone else

is to risk an imperialistic intolerance towards others. Human beings can have meaning, for

all one’s stories are more or less meaningful but one cannot have truth. Nothing one thinks

can be checked against reality. Apart from human’s linguistic systems, no one can know

anything. All language is a human construct; it does not determine the “truthfulness” of the

language, only the usefulness. Example: Truth is whatever we can get our colleagues (our

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community) to agree to. If we can get them to use our language, then—like the “strong

poets” Moses, Jesus, Plato, Freud—our story is as true as any story will ever get. No one’s

story is truer than anyone else’s story. Does your story work? That is, does it satisfy the

teller? Does it get you what you want—say a sense of belonging, a peace with yourself, a

hope for the future, a way to order your life? It’s all one can ask, so says postmodernism.

Role of Holy Spirit in education

“Education is grounded in the pedagogical efficacy of the Holy Spirit,

although human teachers (and parents) play a crucial role. The Spirit works as the inner

teacher who invites, persuades, and (trans)forms us but does not coerce or control us”

(Hodgson 1999, 30). Hodgson clarifies how God teaches through educing or leading forth

the human spirit, drawing out our intrinsic capabilities, how education is really growth in

wisdom which is evoked by God’s wisdom, and how God himself is our teacher. The early

church fathers, Origen, Gregory, Augustine, Aquinas, and others, saw the Holy Spirit as the

wise educator, the Inner School Master, the interpreter of God’s Word. Hodgson quotes

Aquinas: “God alone teaches interiorly and principally while humans teach man exteriorly

and secondarily” (Hodgson 1999, 60). This quote elevates the Holy Spirit to his proper

place and places us human being in our rightful place. Before I teach, I would always pray

for the Holy Spirit to illuminate the students, but often it was a perfunctory prayer, with me

asking for the Holy Spirit’s help, as if I was the Master Teacher! I understand that human

teachers do not displace the Holy Spirit, but rather work through him, since only the Holy

Spirit can penetrate minds and hearts. It today’s overlapping ages of modernity and

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postmodernity, it well to remember Calvin’s insight that the “illumination of the Holy

Spirit replaces the inner light of reason.” Teachers would teach to no effect were it not for

the inner Schoolmaster—God’s teaching is foolishness to us unless it is spiritually

discerned (1 Cor 2:6-16)., Being immersed in the waters of humanism, I confess to having

attributed to myself as a teacher, a far greater role than deserved! I recognize my finiteness

as a human teacher, and utter dependence on God to illuminate the minds of the students.

Nature of the church as an institution and as a community

The Church universal, meaning down through the ages and all around the

world, serves as a type of school, the school of the Holy Spirit. Hodgson rightly points out

that a “certain structuring or ordering of the work of the Holy Spirit is required to resist the

claim of anyone—fanatics, tyrants, psychopaths, televangelists, white supremacists,

ordinary citizens—to be inspired by the Spirit and to speak on behalf of God” (1999, 33).

The Church structures and organizes the accumulated knowledge of God gathered down

through the ages into coherent doctrine and orthodoxy. This “school” has persons appointed

to specific offices: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher, as Eph 4:11-13 informs

us.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors
and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of
Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole
measure of the fullness of Christ. Eph 4:11-13

This “school” is the Body of Christ and as a community forms a powerful

role in education. “The church—the people of God—is essential to the gospel. Jesus, the

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head of the church, made provision for the communication of the good news to many

different cultures in the succeeding centuries by forming a community to be bearer of this

good news. The identity of that community is formed by its mission—its being sent by

Jesus—to make known the good news of the Kingdom” (Wolters 2005, 122). God’s plan is

that the church both communicate and embody the good news, giving the world a live,

three-dimensional picture of his Kingdom. Acts 2:42-47 paints a vivid picture of how the

early church embodied this good news. Our mission is to do Christ's work; the church is the

locus or place of these eschatological realities. It is the place where Jer 31:31-34 and Is 9:7

take place, we are justified, being sanctified, the Spirit is present, and social justice is in

part reflected. The Church is God's instrument to continue Christ's work. We are to be

Christ's representatives in this world, we are his hands to reach out to touch hurting people,

we are his feet to take the gospel to those who have not heard the Good News. “I tell you

the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even

greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). The church is to

reflect what heaven is going to be like.

The concept of community within a Western individualistic society is

difficult to grasp. The Epistles strive to convey the communitarian nature of church with the

use of the phrase “one another.” These are just a few references: 1 Cor 12:25, 16:10; Gal

5:13, 6:2; Eph 2:18, 4:2, 4:25, 5:20-21… The message of redemption in the individual is

evidenced in the community through other-centered love and care for “one another.” Other

concepts related to the church include the fact that she is the Bride of Christ (Rev 21:9) ,

she is a Body, made of many parts (1 Cor 12:27).

BOX C: AIMS OF EDUCATION

What are the specific aims of education? For many, education aims to dump

content on the students or tell them what they need to know in the most time-efficient way.

Some educators may see their aim on more pragmatic grounds like teaching certain skills,

helping their students get jobs, or be more marketable. I believe, as noted in Box A, that

education is a redemptive activity in the now and not yet Kingdom of God.

Every act in the name of education could be used by God to provide
redemption in the sense of restoring Shalom, and restoring things back to
how they ought to be for both the learner and the larger community. Like
Jesus, our teaching should grow out of special motive that seeks the good of
the other and the glory of God. It should be understand as a means by which
God’s grace might be realized better by the learner because we teach with
the vision of the Kingdom informing both our activity and our content.
Downs 2011, 111

Aim: Development towards Christlikeness

Being that our ultimate purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, the

one who lived on earth and brought him the greatest glory was his son, thus the aim of

education to promote development towards Christlikeness. We want to promote the kind of

growth that will enable us to glorify him the most. “Dear friends, now we are children of

God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he

appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2). Paul speaks of his

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efforts to see Christ formed in the believers, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the

pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19; Eph 4:13).

The greatest need of the human race is to regain the completeness of the
image of God which was lost in the Fall. The reason we are not able to
glorify God in all that we think and do is because we have been children of
the Devil. Christ died and rose again in order for us to be restored. We must
be born again into God's family. Then we need to grow more and more into
the likeness of Christ. This is the aim of Christian education -- to be born
into God's family and to mature toward the likeness of Christ. Our aim is to
promote natural and supernatural growth. Yet, we know that we shall not be
like Him until we see Him as He is. In some sense, then, we can never fully
achieve the aim of Christian education this side of heaven. Plueddemann
2007, 3

This aim contrasts greatly with a more humanistic aim of education which

believes in human reason and effort to find its way toward the truth and perfection with no

outside help needed. Table 5 contains a number of aims contrasted with mis-directed aims.

Table 5 Aims from a Christian perspective contrasted with mis-directed aims (Plueddemann 2007)

Aims of development from a Christian perspective Mis-directed aims of development
Growth is an inner, active and continuous process toward becoming all Growth is aimed at outward behavioral character traits that
God created us to become (imago dei). To be sure, outward behavior must are pre-determined and measureable and quantifiable. This
change as we become more Christ-like. But such behavior is an indication aim results in measuring religious behavior or religiosity
of heart development, and is not an aim. When the indicator, or outward rather than inner "heart development.” People with polite
behavior becomes an aim, we are really teaching people to become character traits are not necessarily godly people.
pharisaical.
Aims are not end points, but directions. We can never check off the list of Development is aimed at educational activity since we are
the fruit of the Spirit as something finally accomplished. We can never able to observe and quantify activity, and since we feel our
fully say we have accomplished love, so now it is time for us to get to aims must be measurable; our unconscious aim becomes
work on joy, and next year peace, and maybe before I die I'll get to self- educational activity. Outward behavior is not a guarantee
control. Growth in grace is never fully achieved in this life, but it does of inner spiritual growth. Some of the most evil people
give us an aim or a direction. Faith, hope and love do not evidence throughout history have been knowledgeable of the Bible.
themselves in pre-determined and fully predicted behaviors. Our aim must Satan probably would have no trouble getting a perfect
be to promote a process rather than to predict a product. That process is score on our Bible diagnostic exams.
growth -- both natural and spiritual growth.
Although Bible knowledge is important. Lois LeBar (1989) taught that the Bible knowledge produces automatic growth in godliness,
Bible is a means for promoting growth and is not an end. Our greatest so Bible memorization is the aim of Christian Education
danger in Christian education is that we make the means the end. The and is achieved by offering prizes and rewards.
result will be merely external or "outer" development.
The aim of the teacher, then, is to stimulate conditions and processes A different extreme is to say aims are not necessary at all.
which are most likely to foster the process of growth. Some say we should just teach the Bible and let the Holy
Spirit determine aims for the learner. Yet Scripture does
give us aims.

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Nature of development

What might that development look like through the lifespan of a person?

Social scientists like Piaget (1936, 1963), Kohlberg (1968), Selman (2003), Flavell (1968),

Fowler (1995), Erikson (1959) and others have studied General revelation and discovered

that God has designed human beings to have certain underlying structures and patterns of

growth or stages that are universally visible or observable (although they may not

acknowledge God). Plueddemann (2004) describes the nature of growth and development.

• While most human development is slow and almost imperceptible there are
many suggestions of growth spurts and radical changes in the process.
• The butterfly develops in stages from the egg to caterpillar to butterfly. The
human body grows in spurts and progresses from infancy to puberty to
adulthood.
• The human brain develops in spurts or stages (Sousa 2005) which coincide
with the stages Piaget observed in cognitive development.
• Anthropologists observe stages of growth of individuals in every culture
from infancy, childhood, early adulthood later adulthood.
• Social development takes place in stages from being ego-centric to peer-
centric.
• Theologians look at least three stages of spiritual development: justification,
sanctification and glorification. Each stage is qualitatively different than the
previous stage (an ever-present theological debate centers around the
possibility of stages of sanctification.)
• Cognitive development takes place in stages from intuitive, to contextual
reasoning to abstract reasoning.
• The development of reasoning about moral issues moves from an ego-centric
perspectivism to an theo-centricism perspectivism to a universalizing
perspective.
• It is possible that faith, or reasoning about why we believe things also moves
through stages of egocentricism to ethnocentricism to a Theocentrism.

Social scientists have discovered the very structures God has forged into

human beings from their creation. The doctrine of creation reveals that all human beings are

created with the potential of growth and development so therefore the Holy Spirit can work

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through the very structures he designed. For example: Disequilibrating experiences or

trigger events, allowed or engineered by the Holy Spirit can be the means by which

development is promoted. Another example of how the Holy Spirit may work is by

bringing people into our lives who have the exact gift mix we may need at a given time,

gifted people who God uses to prompt us to grow.

Development, spoken in theological terms, is the process of sanctification

(1 Thess 4:3). Wolters (2005) defines this process whereby the Holy Spirit, in and through

the people of God, purifies creation from sin on the basis of Christ’s atonement and victory.

Jesus describes the process in Matt 12:33: “He told them still another parable: ‘The

kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of

flour until it worked all through the dough.’ ” The gospel is a leavening influence in human

life wherever it is lived. An influence that slowly but steadily brings change from the inside

out. Development aimed at becoming conformed to the image of Christ, is also called

discipleship. You would anticipate seeing inward growth evidenced in outward

reconciliation in all four relationships, starting with salvation with God and obedience to

the Great Commandment to love God with all your heart and mind and strength. Then,

reconciliation may be seen in deepening your identify in Christ, as well as reconciling with

others and fulfillment of the Great Commandment to love others as you love yourself.

Redemption would likely include reaching out to others through the Great Commission as

would care for creation and society at large.

BOX D: MEANS OF EDUCATION

Box D explains the means to achieve the aim of education (Box C) in light

of the ultimate purpose (Box A) and informed by the nature of reality (Box B). Expressed

in other words, how would I promote development towards Christlikeness, which would

glorify God and enable people to enjoy him forever given their Imago Dei, their sinfulness,

and the need for Christ’s redemption?

Internal factors in educating

How do our educational efforts aid in that process, given their external

nature? Education involves both internal and external factors. We start by recognizing the

efficacy of the internal factors. The author and finisher of our faith is Jesus Christ, it is he

who will complete the very work he has started (Phil 1:6). The Holy Spirit, who lives

within each believer, is the ultimate teacher, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the

Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I

have said to you” John 14:26. Another internal factor we must be aware of is our creational

structure, how God made us. We have what it takes to grow, we are made to mature, grow

and develop, and it is natural. However, because of our sinful nature, our growth is mis-

directed, and in need of Christ’s redemptive power and grace to become re-directed. One

more internal factor is what goes on inside the learner. Education is not something you do

to someone. The learner participates, for good or for bad, in the process. The educational
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process is an inner, active, continuous and disciplined process, filled with ups and downs,

based on certain underlying structures and observable patterns of growth or stages.

External factors in educating

Confident that those internal factors are at work and do not depend on us

exclusively, we can focus on the external factors.

Priesthood of all believers

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special
possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of
darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you
are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have
received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10

The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers helps us remember that we are

chosen and set apart; that because of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice we have direct access to

God’s presence, needing no intermediaries; Martin Luther stated that no matter one’s

vocation (shoemaker, smith, or farmer) we were all worthy of being priests, no job was

more “sacred” or held more status than another. Related to the realm of education, as

human teachers, we are not alone; we belong to a community of believers, each of whom

has been gifted for the building up the Body, what I am unable to accomplish, God will

provide someone else in the Body to do (Eph 4:12).

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