An earlier article reviewed a presentation by author and social reformer Vishal Mangalwadi at the annual L’Abri Conference in February concerning the abandonment of the life of the mind by Evangelicals and the centrality of catechism to re-entering engagement with the world from a Christian world view, and educating the young.
One answer to the dissolution of Western education in our day is the “Great Books” curriculum, compiled at mid-twentieth century by philosopher and educator Mortimer Adler and the President of the University of Chicago, Robert Hutchins. But Mangalwadi said in an opening address that Great Books do not substitute for the Word of God, which is “the foundation of Western civilization.” When the Bible is removed as the overarching authority, “then you need another source of authority.” He conceded that there are many books in the Great Books curriculum “that have good wisdom, that we should listen to.” But they cannot take the place of the Bible, because the Bible is the revelation of a transcendent authority, who is God. Repentance from sin and Biblical morality infuses all of the Biblical revelation, and that addresses the perennial problem of original sin. Without this overarching doctrine, “people lose the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, and the fountain of life,” and corruption inevitably creeps into the societies people construct. Education should be all about learning God’s will and making it central in our hearts and minds. The need for repentance, salvation through Christ, and a vision for the healing of the nations, as God promised Abraham, must be central to all true education.
In another presentation, Mangalwadi outlined a program now being advanced to develop a system of education centered around the local church, using as a guide the L’Abri Fellowship’s model of engaging the world intellectually. The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to speak God’s word to “dead bones without hope” (Ezk. 37). When Ezekiel began to speak God’s word, “the dry bones became an army.” Mangalwadi asked if “there is hope for America, when the university has become its source of darkness?” He said that “the short answer is yes.” The American church has the ability to disciple the nation, he said, “even though it does not [now] have a theology of discipling nations.” Doing so, he said, “is not rocket science.”
The basic proposal is to take about 15 students and give them classes at church under what he termed “an academic pastor” (who would be basically like a L’Abri staff member), with students enrolled online “at an accredited Christian university.” With this system, “the poorest student is studying under the best professors.” Courses across the academic spectrum would be offered, not simply courses in the Bible or religion. People should understand all of life from a Biblical perspective.
The Third Education Revolution
To practically address this vision of a Christ centered education, provided by the church, Mangalwadi explained the Third Education Revolution in a subsequent presentation. This is a global movement, which includes the Truth and Transformation movement, and the Virtues Campus, which is essentially a Christian community college functioning at a local church. Currently Truth and Transformation has branches in the United States (the Revelation Movement), Canada, Germany (with branches in central Europe and Nordic Europe), Africa, and India.
The point is “to take education back from the state and restore it to the church.” It is understood as part of the church’s mission to disciple all nations. “A disciple is a learner,” Mangalwadi said. He noted that Christ’s Great Commission is to disciple nations; the focus is not on individuals. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the church fulfilled a judicial function. The bishop was the final authority. But he was commonly not an expert in law, and so the Christian universities which developed in the High Middle Ages focused on preparing lawyers to serve the bishops.
The end of the West Roman Empire in the fifth century meant the collapse of education, Mangalwadi said. Learning was preserved by Irish monks, who emigrated elsewhere in Europe, and established monasteries. He referred as well to Alcuin, the English cleric and educator who advised Charlemagne not to execute Germans who would not become Christian but emphasized education as a means of conversion instead. “People have to know the truth for them to believe.” The education occurring in monasteries and nunneries now had imperial support, and this, Mangalwadi said, was “the First Education Revolution.” Before this, only among the Jews did all children have to study and become literate. Jews continue to evince enormous cultural achievements, with many Nobel laureates.
The First Revolution climaxed in the founding of the first universities, including Bologna in Italy (Law), Montpelier in France (Medicine), and others. Universities at this time taught theology, medicine, law and philosophy. Natural philosophy developed from natural theology and philosophy, and this became science. Two books of revelation were recognized, the book of the words of God (the Bible), and the book of the works of God (nature). God was also understood to work in culture and history. Marriage, for instance, was understood to be “monogamous, permanent, stable, and exclusive.”
Until the Protestant Reformation, the pope gave charters to all universities. So the authority to provide education came from the church. Protestants held, however, that all Christians were redeemed from the kingdom of Satan to become children of God, and “to be priests and kings” in God’s kingdom. Mangalwadi said that Martin Luther emphasized the priesthood of all believers, whereas Reformed Christianity laid more emphasis on the kingship of all believers. Luther turned to the state (the princes of Germany) to protect Protestant Christians from Catholic authorities. He also turned to the state to finance the education of all children, which was nevertheless administered by elders of the Lutheran churches. The responsibility of teaching children was what Luther held in a 1530 sermon to be “seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.” This, Mangalwadi said, was the Second Education Revolution. Similarly, the Jesuits in the Catholic world accepted the idea that all children should be educated. Eastern Orthodox churches were not affected by this idea, to which Mangalwadi attributed the lagging development of the populace in Russia and Orthodox eastern Europe.
Mangalwadi said that due to the collapse of meaning and value in American universities, a Third Education Revolution is called for. It is “an attempt to mobilize resources … to create a virtual wisdom village.” It attempts to bring all knowledge under a Christian worldview. This includes science, art, philosophy, politics, etc. He noted that at the present time one cannot be an editor of Wikipedia if one believes in opposite sex only monogamy, so a Christian alternative is needed. The idea that all knowledge should be brought together and made available to everyone, originally both a Catholic idea and Protestant idea, was “taken over by the Enlightenment, but has become a source of darkness.”
The Third Education Revolution endeavors to use technology to enable churches to return to their earlier function of educating everyone (including non-believers, if they wish). He said that the equivalent of K-12 education should be free. Higher education in the Third Education Revolution would have a charge. “Academic pastors” (noted above) will give instruction in the educational program on all subjects. Many of the refugees who have come to Europe in the last few years can be discipled in this way.
The Virtues Campus
David Glesne, of the Revelation Movement, which is the American branch of Truth and Transformation movement, then discussed this vision of “church-based colleges.” He said that “for a thousand years the church was the natural habitat of education … [and] laid the foundations for Western European countries to become the most prosperous nations in the world.” Similarly, “the church in early America discipled their new land” by establishing universities. Today, the Virtues Campus is proposed as a way to bring education back to the church. He said, “it is ‘local church centered.’” This recognizes that the church is “‘the pillar and foundation of the truth’ which Christ calls to educate the nation.” The Third Education Revolution and the Virtues Campus which implements it “is a partnership between the local church and the Christian university.” Under this plan, local churches “will open up their facilities, which stand under-utilized during the week … [and] double them up as college classrooms, Monday through Friday. It will provide college courses at a discounted rate, and grant college credited courses and college credit for the courses taught on the local church campus. So juniors and seniors in high school as well as those who come with a high school diploma can enroll in a local Virtues Campus at local church and a partner university, simultaneously.”
At a participating local church Glesne proposed that 10 to 25 students will attend classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings under the tutelage “of a trained, academic pastor.” They will also take online courses from “an accredited partner university.” This would be a two-year program, leading to an associate in arts or associate in science degree from the partner university, which can then be applied to a B.A. degree. The three main components of the Virtues Campus are the local church, the academic pastor, and the partner university.
Glesne said that the local church is “the delivery system of the model.” It enables the church to teach both its own young, and people in the wider community, if they choose. “What is needed is a comfortable classroom, space with tables and chairs, Internet access, power cord, projector and screen, television sufficient for however many students they enroll. Needed above all, is pastoral and church leadership that embraces and recognizes the church’s responsibility to teach its community.”
Glesne emphasized that the church must teach God’s revelation as truth, not merely “story.” This is the only way a school can convey truth to the next generation and avoid the loss of meaning and value that has occurred in secular education. “The church must educate,” he said.
Regarding the second component of the Virtues Campus, the “academic pastor,” this can be “an ordained pastor – a pastor with a seminary degree. A qualified member of the church staff, perhaps. Not the lead pastor, not the senior pastor. He or she already has too much to do.” The academic pastor does not need to be ordained. He or she can be a church or community leader. A homeschooling mother with the right degree(s) might also qualify. The degree required will depend on the partner university. The university might require a master’s degree, or it might find a bachelor’s degree satisfactory. This academic pastor then becomes “an adjunct person” to the university’s staff. This is the “academic” side of position.
As for the pastoral side, it is used “in the Biblical sense of a shepherd.” This can include being “a personal mentor, a coach, a guide, who provides instruction, encouragement, accountability, who provides guidance, and assurance, at a time students are coming of age and making some of the most important decisions of their lives.” He or she “nurtures the mind as well as the soul of the sheep, invests in the next generation.”
Glesne said that “the vision for an academic pastor comes from the apostle Paul. Paul was not only an evangelist and a missionary but also mentor to young church leaders like Titus and Timothy, called to disciple and train believers in cities around the Mediterranean. And Paul strongly impressed upon his protegees that he was a preacher and a teacher of the truth to the gentiles. It was not an either/or, it was a both/and for Paul. The church is the pillar and foundation of the truth, (I Tim. 3:15) so academic pastors help the local church become wells of wisdom and knowledge in their communities. The central calling of a teacher, the central calling of an academic teacher is to be a teacher, a facilitator of teaching.”
As for the third element in the Virtues Campus, the partner university, this should be a Christian university that has stayed true to its charter, recognizing that some Christian universities have not stayed true, but have secularized. “The partner university gives virtue students a cost break on the tuition. In so doing, the benefits to the partner university are many. The university can gain hundreds and thousands of online students. If they’re willing to work with us, it’s a win/win financially. Students win by receiving an affordable education … [and] we also encourage our students to work part-time. We’ve had students to come through, [and] after two years, they’re debt free. And they go on … to a four-year university. Of course, the university wins by gaining online students.”
Glesne said that the American branch of Truth and Transformation has “four partner universities with whom we have Memorandums of Understanding.” As far as higher education in America is concerned today, Christians “can either curse the darkness, or we can light a candle.” But “the Third Education Revolution and the Virtues Campus is lighting a candle. It’s a mission to bless and heal the nation by serving the church, by equipping the church to marinate future leaders in truth and godly character.” Glesne maintained that 70% of Christian young people now attending college are lost to the church “across all denominations in America.” The Virtues Campus may indeed be a “David before Goliath,” but that encounter was done in faithfulness to God and was rewarded. If many churches and Christian universities take up the task of “educating and discipling” young people in their communities, there could indeed be an education revolution.
A system of church-based community colleges, aligned with doctrinally and morally sound Christian universities would be an important answer to the challenge higher education poses both to young people and academic institutions. It would provide affordable education to students, and a solid grounding in Christian faith in an increasingly hostile culture. Faith would be strengthened for those students choosing to then attend a secular or more liberal religious institution. The aligned universities gain increasingly needed students.
Required for legal Christian education is state tolerance of religious education. This has long prevailed in the United States but is under threat from the antidiscrimination regime. In the final analysis, the right to religious education rests with God’s providence, but as long as it lasts, Christians should avail themselves of the opportunity to teach Biblical doctrine openly, recognizing that it is always our duty to declare the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:17-32), and that truth has prevailed in the past against great adversity.
Comment by David on April 21, 2023 at 7:22 am
The reason public schools arose in the US was the failure of private education to reach the masses. This was due to economics and aversion to religious education. Americans were not so religious prior to the Civil War. Public schools were also thought a good way to convert Roman Catholic children and were opened with Protestant Bible reading and Protestant prayers.
‘The point is “to take education back from the state and restore it to the church.”’ Unfortunately, this has already happened in ultraorthodox Jewish communities. Boys in the academies (“yeshivas”) spend nearly all their school time studying the Talmud. English, math, science, and history are largely ignored. This is contrary to state education requirements, but these schools remain untouched because of the block voting practices of the community. The graduates of these schools cannot function outside of their communities and do not enter the professions as Jews of other groups. This is thought perfectly fine by the elders who prefer the isolation of their people.