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Christian Nurture and Critical Openness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

John M. Hull
Affiliation:
Dept of History and Philosophy of Education, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT

Extract

The nature of Christian upbringing today needs to be redefined. There can no longer be an easy identification of Christian development with general education. Religious education within the state school systems of modern, pluralist democracies cannot be regarded as intending to nurture Christian faith. But how can Christian nurture be distinguished from good education on the one hand and indoctrination on the other?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1981

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References

page 17 note 1 Hull, John M.: ‘From Christian nurture to religious education: the British experience’. Religious Education 73 (1978), pp. 124143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 19 note 2 Dearden, R. F., Telfer, Elizabeth and Hare, R. M.: ‘Autonomy as an educational ideal’, in Brown, S. C. (ed), Philosophers discuss Education. Macmillan, 1975, pp. 342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 19 note 3 Hartshorne, Charles: The Logic of Perfection. Open Court, Illinois, 1962, pp. 119123.Google Scholar

page 21 note 4 Adam, Peter, in ‘The Child in the Church’. Churchman. 91. 4 (1977), pp. 318328Google Scholar, does not think it possible to establish a middle way between education and instruction. ‘Some kind of indoctrination is unavoidable.’ (p. 321) Adam seeks an instruction ‘which was honest and open about its presuppositions and hopes, and which allowed debate and contrary opinion.’ But nothing is said about how Christian theology might thrust instruction in such critical directions.

page 22 note 5 John M. Hull, op. cit., p. 139.

page 24 note 6 Hendry, George S.: The Westminster Confession for today. SCM Press, 1960, p. 11.Google Scholar

page 27 note 7 In spite of ihe power and beauty which they often attain, the religious novels of George McDonald yield a few illustrations of this kind of spirituality. See The Princess and the Goblin where faith is like followinga magic thread in the dark. C. S. Lewis is tempted in this direction, but usually Asian does not treat his followers in this way, because they have already established a sort of personal relation with him. There are always good reasons for what Asian does, and they are usually understood.

page 27 note 8 In his Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Sheed and Ward, 1972) Paulo Freire discusses the problem of method which faces the teacher who wants to lead oppressed illiterates to freedom, without subjecting them to another dehumanising experience. It would be interesting to consider the problems of God, in his redemptive work with man, in the light of Freire's ideal teacher.

page 28 note 9 Oman, John: Grace and Personality. 4th Ed., Cambridge University Press, 1942Google Scholar, Chap. VI, ‘Autonomy’.

page 29 note 10 Hartshorne, Charles: Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism. Connecticut, 1964, pp. 98ff.Google Scholar

page 30 note 11 See the letter published in Learning for Living 17. 2 (Winter 1977), p. 97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 31 note 12 Moller, Jens G.: ‘The beginnings of puritan covenant theology’. Journal of Ecclesiastical History 14 (1963), pp. 4667CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 33 note 13 Hull, John M.: School Worship, an Obituary. SCM Press, 1975, pp. 108109Google Scholar. The order of the points has been changed in this article.

page 34 note 14 ‘ … I have always stressed the need for some dogmatism: the dogmatic scientist has an important role to play. If we give in to criticism too easily, we shall never find out where the real power of our theories lies.’ Popper, Karl, ‘Normal science and its dangers’, in Latakos, I. and Musgrove, A. (eds), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press, 1970, p. 55.Google Scholar