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Table of contents
- Introduction
- The Christian Philosophy of Education
- Christian Education
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This goal of godliness presupposes the experience of regeneration. As education in general begins with physical birth, Christian education proper begins with spiritual rebirth, when the life of God is communicated to the soul. To say that Christian education proper begins with the new birth is not, however, to say that it is pointless before regeneration. The student can be provided with necessary awarenesses of God and responses to His Word so that when the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin he will readily and with full understanding accept Christ as his Savior.
This growth, like regeneration, is made possible by divine grace Titus 2: His full conformity to the image of God in Christ—his Christlikeness—is the goal of Christian education Rom. He must be properly qualified and motivated if he is to perform his cooperative role. Without a regenerated, willing student, Christian education cannot carry out its purpose. In the Scriptures God has commanded two institutions to educate: As an extension of either or both of these institutions, the Christian school has a biblical mandate to educate.
The Bible makes clear that education is to begin in the home Gen. It makes parents responsible for their children and charges them with an educational task. The New Testament indicates that the responsibilities of the church include edification as well as evangelism Matt. The scriptural representation of the church as a body—an organism that grows and matures—implies a teaching function for this institution. Also, the recognition of the gift of teaching by the New Testament Rom. Christians have a biblical mandate to educate in their homes and in their churches. In order to reinforce the educational ministries of these institutions or to protect their min- istries from secular interference, Christian parents or church members, acting either individually or in concert, may elect to form a Christian school.
In doing so, they are acting from religious conviction. To deny them their choice of means in carrying out the biblical mandate of Christian education is to deny them the exercise of their religious convictions. It follows that the education of children is the prerogative not of the state but of the parents or church members. Allowing the state to dictate the standards and procedures of Christian education jeopardizes the ability of parents and church members to exercise their educational prerogative, to perform their responsibility to God for the education of their children.
The subjection of the Christian school to the control of the state or of any other secular agency is, in effect, the subjection of the Christian homes and churches to secular domination. The work of the Christian school is an extension of the Christian educational ministries of the Christian home and the church.
Its purpose, therefore, is the development of the student in the image of God. This purpose determines both the content and the means of instruction. How perfectly David must have understood that the education of the child of God must include both the knowledge of God and the preparation for exercising that knowledge in service.
Accordingly, in Christian education students are taught to know God and to imitate Him in His character and in His works. The whole body of Christian educational theory rests on the recognition that all truth is of God. He is the God of truth Ps. No concept can be true that conflicts with the statements of the Scriptures. Conversely, no untruth is a legitimate support of divine revelation or has any place in the ministry of spiritual truth. A reverence for the God of truth compels a conscientious regard for accuracy in all areas of factual investigation and reporting.
Since it is the purpose of Christian education to develop redeemed man in the image of God, Christian educators must point students to the original of this image, God Himself. Of these, the more fully revealing of God is His Word; and, therefore, the Bible is the center of the Christian school curriculum. The Bible is not only the most important subject matter but also the source of the principles determining the other subject matters and the way in which they are taught.
The presentation of biblical truth is thus not confined to a single segment of the curriculum—the study of the Bible—but is diffused throughout the teaching of all subjects. The Scriptures possess this privileged status in the curriculum, for they are the primary means of conveying the knowledge of God.
Introduction
This knowledge of God implies more than just knowledge about God. Certainly an acquaintance with the facts about God in the written revelation is important. But the knowledge of God that is unique to Christian education is a per- sonal knowledge that begins with repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and develops through obedience to and communion with God. To know God is to be born into the family of God and to live in fellowship with Him 1 John 5: It follows that without a student body composed mainly of students possessing this personal knowledge of God, no school can legitimately be regarded as a Christian educational institution.
Though the Word of God is the main source of the knowledge of God, both factual and personal, and therefore deserves precedence, the works of God are also an important part of the Christian school curriculum.
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The creation reveals the Creator, and that which reveals God is a proper study for man. It is for this reason that the Christian school gives emphasis to the humanities: The natural sciences are not disregarded. In the curriculum of the Christian school, the voice of creation joins with that of the written revelation in praise of the glory and goodness of God.
In endeavoring to fulfill the purpose of Christian education—the development of Christlikeness in redeemed man—the Christian school teaches, as a consequence of the knowledge of God, the imitation of God. Students learn of God so that they may imitate Him. In following God they imitate both His nature and His works.
God commands His people to imitate His holiness: The fruit of the Spirit Gal. Academic subjects—whether in the humanities or in the natural sciences, whether general or strictly vocational—are studied not as ends in themselves but as means of improving the student as a servant of God.
Such instruction includes not only mental but also physical training: The student learns that bodies must not be abused or neglected but be de- veloped and disciplined for the service of God and presented to Him for His use and His glory Rom. One of these powers is creativity. Human beings have been given the ability to create in imitation of God. The Christian school is concerned with the improvement of his tastes. In the Christian school the manner, no less than the matter, of its teaching must be consistent with the purpose of Christian education: The educational procedures and vehicles of Christian education in the Christian school must follow biblical example and norms.
A method is, of course, a means to an end, not an end in itself. Methods are chosen for their power and efficiency in ac- complishing designated goals. Christian methodology naturally rejects any method contrary to the principles of Scripture. The Christian educator finds biblical warrant for a wide diversity of educational methods. In His teaching, Christ, the Master Teacher, used an amazing variety of methods and materials.
In the Old Testament God taught man through a diversity of means. In the Garden of Eden, He used a tree to teach Adam. The entire tabernacle was a prophetic object lesson, setting forth the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. Biblical methods as a rule require some effort on the part of the student, though the effort need not be tedious. The parables, for example, required a mental searching on the part of the disciples before their truths were fully revealed.
That which is learned at the cost of effort is not soon forgotten, and God delights in blessing those who are zealous for the knowledge of Him. Using a variant form of the Dictator Game involving allocation of stickers, rather than money , Decety et al.
Furthermore, despite the fact that children from religious families are expected to learn more about their religion as they age, older children from religious households in this study behaved more selfishly than younger children from religious households. Given these results, it may be more accurate to claim that religion seems to make people more prosocial in some instances, and more antisocial in others. Given the heterogeneity of specific beliefs across varying religious traditions, we should also expect to see variation in the effects of religious primes across religious traditions Galen, ; also see Aveyard, If one religion claims that stealing from the wealthy is acceptable, and another dogmatically declares that theft is never acceptable, would a religious prime affect people from these two religions identically in a scenario which involved stealing from the wealthy to aid the poor?
While there is certainly a vast body of literature exploring what the differences may be between religious and less or non- religious people around the world in terms of prosocial attitudes and behaviors, such findings provide very limited insight into why such differences are often observed. If there is a link between religious belief and prosociality, then there must be an underlying reason for this. Religious texts certainly do promote prosociality though they certainly also promote some antisocial attitudes and behaviors; e.
What is it about our religious traditions that makes them so morally persuasive? Numerous hypotheses have been proposed to explain the apparent link between religious beliefs and prosociality. There are numerous studies demonstrating that being watched — or believing you are being watched — increases the likelihood of prosocial behaviors e. If moral transgressions are observed, the observers may inform others, which could damage the reputation of the transgressor Piazza and Bering, ; Shariff et al. According to the SMH, belief in such agents motivates religious people to behave prosocially Boyer, ; Gervais and Norenzayan, Proponents of the SPH argue that large-scale human cooperation e.
If invisible, morally interested supernatural agents exist, they could be watching us at any time without our awareness. If these agents are able to punish transgressors in this life or the next, it would be unwise to transgress, and on this basis, religious belief may promote prosociality Johnson, Unlike the SMH which pertains to reputation-management and social awareness , the SPH posits that the monitoring of supernatural agents will be particularly effective in promoting prosociality if those agents have the power to punish transgressors on earth e.
The SMH and SPH are not mutually exclusive, as reputation management and fear of punishment could concomitantly promote prosociality. Nor are these hypotheses the only possibilities. There are also hypotheses that are not centerd on the monitoring, generosity or punishments of supernatural agents. This account may explain why religious prosociality has commonly been found only to extend to religious in-group members see Galen, Ultimately, prosocial behavior stems from multiple factors Shariff et al.
The empirical literature provides particular support for the SMH and SPH, and limited support our literature search only located one such study: Harrell, for the SRH. This evidence will be explored below. No darkness will cover their faces, nor humiliation. This is not to suggest that reward-anticipation and punishment-avoidance can completely account for why more and less or non- religious people differ in terms of prosociality see above.
The argument here is simply that reward-anticipation and fear of punishment form part of the overall picture, as to why religious people and less or non- religious people differ in terms of prosocial attitudes and behaviors, and recent findings in the literature e. The public statements of many popular religious apologists demonstrate the pervasiveness of this theme of moral reciprocity in religion. Here is another example which conspicuously links religious morality to the anchor of eternity:.
It must be noted that religions vary in their precepts and injunctions greatly. Though not the focus of this paper, many Eastern religious systems e. Hence, it is likely that the promise of good karma and the threat of bad karma would promote moral behavior. Just as believing that immoral people are reincarnated as cockroaches would provide a powerful incentive for moral behavior. Indeed, Johnson , p. That is, karma is a matter of absolute cause and effect, whereby moral actions lead to more positive outcomes, and negative actions lead to negative outcomes.
Karma is not controlled by the whims of a forgiving and merciful deity; it is essentially a kind of supernaturalistic cause and effect.
The Christian Philosophy of Education
There is a vast body of literature exploring the effects of implicit and explicit religious primes on prosociality Shariff et al. However, one problem with the priming literature has been that the different primes being used, while all similar in that they are linked to religion e. The notion that related, but distinct, religious primes can have markedly different effects on prosocial behaviors and attitudes is supported by recent findings. Harrell found that reward-related secular e. It seems plausible and likely that this effect occurred because the reward-related primes stimulated reward-anticipation in participants.
Christian Education
Indeed, Pichon et al. However, many of the positive religious words in Pichon et al.
Furthermore, all words used as primes by Harrell had been rated as being equally positive in a preliminary study; hence, it is more likely that the effects observed were due to reward-related content in primes, and were not due to positive content 2. Divine punishment primes have also been found to have a positive impact on prosociality. Participants who were primed with traditional beliefs and references to supernatural punishment such punishments feature prominently in many traditional African belief systems; Hadnes and Schumacher, behaved more prosocially in the Trust Game see Berg et al.
These results suggest that fear of divine punishment can motivate prosocial behavior. These effects were found regardless of whether participants rated the attributes of God before or after completing the quiz task, eliminating the possibility that ratings of God i. Taken together, these findings suggest that reward-anticipation and fear of punishment play roles in motivating the prosocial attitudes and behaviors of religious people.
As was noted above, categorising primes is a difficult task, as there is likely to be considerable conceptual overlap e.
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Notably, Ritter and Preston demonstrated that people distinguish between words referring to religious agents, religious institutions e. Aside from the more direct investigations of the effects of divine-reward and divine punishment on prosocial behaviors, there are other findings worth citing which may add more indirect support for this notion. Possibly there is an element of reciprocity here, whereby religious people expect God to give them good fortunes, in return for moral behavior for a more expansive account of the idea of reciprocity in relationships with supernatural beings, see Boyer, Given that most religions warn of punishments for immoral behavior, it is unsurprising that participants were less willing to take immoral risks, and this makes sense in light of the SPH.
These data converge to lend support to the SPH and also to the notion that divine rewards might also be influential in the promotion of prosociality the SRH. However, more work should be done to further investigate these hypotheses, using both behavioral and neuroimaging methods. Although there are numerous studies a on links between prosocial behaviors and religion and b how divine rewards and punishments may partly account for why religious people behave more prosocially than less or non- religious people, to our knowledge, there is a lack of studies empirically linking these two streams.
Furthermore, interpreting findings from some priming studies can be difficult e. Here, we suggest potential psychological experiments, spanning vastly different methodologies, to probe the relationships between prosociality and divine rewards and punishments. Firstly, as was suggested by van Elk et al. To reduce publication bias, van Elk et al.
The emphasis should always be on testing hypotheses, not on confirming them. Religions vary considerably in their moral precepts and injunctions, and this should translate into differences in prosocial attitudes and behaviors. This can only be tested through studies utilizing sufficiently large samples, and sufficiently diverse samples, to allow for viable intergroup comparisons.
Future researchers should compare the effects of divine reward and punishment primes to discern which form of divine recompense is more influential when it comes to prosocial behavior. Many in the field have predicted that punishment-related religious primes would be more effective in promoting prosociality, as punishments are generally more effective than rewards in promoting prosociality Johnson, ; Johnson and Bering, ; Shariff, However, this has not been empirically tested with regard to religious primes.
Researchers could also examine whether divine reward and punishment primes promote prosociality through distinct avenues. If priming participants with both kinds of concept produces a greater effect on prosociality, then this would suggest that rewards and punishments influence prosociality via distinct mechanisms. Future work should also investigate whether divine punishment primes cause fear.
This can be accomplished by measuring Galvanic Skin Response GSR , which is defined as a change in the electrical conductivity of the skin i. This would provide further evidence for the notion that distinct kinds of religious primes have distinct effects Preston and Ritter, By using neuroimaging techniques, we can examine patterns of neural activation during the priming process.
If reward-related religious primes truly are promoting prosociality via the avenue of reward-anticipation, then one would predict that participants exposed to such primes would show increased activation in the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex, brain areas that have been repeatedly shown to be activated in response to reward Olds and Milner, ; Young et al. If punishment-related religious primes are promoting prosociality by making people fear divine punishment, one would predict increased activity in the amygdala, a brain region that has repeatedly been shown to activate in response to punishment LeDoux, ; Orsini and Maren, ; Moustafa et al.
If the expected findings are obtained, this would provide neural evidence in support of current interpretations of the priming data. However, if the expected findings were not obtained, then perhaps we would need to re-evaluate how religious primes are being categorized e. Or perhaps null findings may reflect more on the shortcomings of particular priming paradigms.
While subliminal primes have been found to be effective in eliciting subcortical neural activity, subliminal lexical primes e. It is also worth noting that implicit priming has not always proven effective in producing effects detectable by fMRI. Though null effects are still meaningful, such findings in fMRI studies do not constitute definitive proof that primes failed to produce effects. At best, we could only conclude that if there actually was an effect, it was not detectable using fMRI technology Powers and Heatherton, , which is still a valuable insight.
The explosion of studies exploring possible links between religion and prosociality has given rise to a plethora of interesting hypotheses and controversies. Some means by which these controversies could possibly be addressed have been outlined e. If religion truly does promote prosociality, then there must be reasons for this. However, there is much work that needs to be done.
These confirmatory findings should be accepted tentatively until largescale — preferably pre-registered — replications have been conducted. If these findings are replicated, future researchers should conduct experiments e. These insights may contribute to an overall picture of how and why reward-related and punishment-related religious primes influence prosocial behavior, if indeed they do.
All authors listed, have made substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Prosociality has largely been broken down into two distinct constructs: Prosocial attitudes are those which reflect a desire and willingness to help others.
For clarity and consistency, this paper tends to refer to prosociality, instead of morality.
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Non-punishing primes did not significantly increase prosocial intentions. These findings contrast with the findings of Pichon et al. This should be considered when interpreting their results. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Front Psychol v. Published online Aug 3. This article was submitted to Cognition, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Received May 21; Accepted Jul The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.
No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Abstract A common finding across many cultures has been that religious people behave more prosocially than less or non- religious people.