A History of Christian Education

The Council of Nicea was held in order to establish the doctrines that all Christians should believe in, and from that comes the Nicean Creed, a major part of Christian Education for many decades.

A Roman theologian, Jerome was commissioned to write a Latin translation of the Bible. Known as the Hammer, he was barbaric in his verbal attacks on the allegorical method, defending rather a very literal method of reading the Bible.

"The Silver-Tongue Preacher," John Chrysotom was the first Christian educator to see the importance of teaching the youth of the Chruch, finding value in storytelling and playing games, and structuring the curriculum to the proper scope and sequence of the children's growth.

A Roman citizen living in Africa, Augustine taught Rhetoric in Rome and Milan before becoming the bishop of Hippo. He was a major apologist and taught on the importance of faith, emphasizing God's sovereignty. One of the biggest teaching contributions he gave us is the Augustinian Order of Monks, from which many other Church fathers and educators would come from.

The Synod (Council) at Carthage ratifies the 27 books of the New Testament as being inspired, creating a concrete foundation for teaching to occur.

Benedict was an Italian Christian who started the Benedictine Order of Monks. Focused on living a perfect life, their everyday lives emphasized liturgical prayer, manual labor, and sharing the gospel. From him and his order comes Lectio Divina, a method of interpreting and applying the Bible, a method which is still widely used for Devotionals today.

Nicknamed the "imdomitable rhinoceros," Peter Abelard was a major player in Scholasticism. Although his father desired a military career for him, Peter Abelard used his fighting spirit in the classroom instead, using unorthodox methods of teaching and a passion for the truth to combat what he saw as an injustice in the church's disdain for those who attempted to question tradition. Rather, Abelard fought for "doubt," believing all individuals have the right to question any church belief they so desired in order to seek the truth through reason.

8 different Crusades occur during this span of almost 200 years, causing many deaths and much tension between the quickly growing religion of Islam and the Christians attempting to take back Jerusalem.

A Spaniard missionary preacher, he founded his monastic order, the Dominicans, to preach the gospel, mostly to the educated and wealthy population, stressing intellectual matters over physical labor. From this order we get Thomas Aquinas, another leader in the history of Christian Education.

Although born into a wealthy family, Francis of Assisi rejected his material wealth for a spiritual wealth and physical poverty. He started his own monastic order, the Franciscans, who ministered mostly to the weak and poor around them. One major influence of his was his favor of discipleship training for women. From his order we get such leaders as Roger Bacon and John Duns Scotus.

An Italian monk of the Benedictine order, he studied at the University of Naples before becoming a Dominican and studying at the University of Paris under teachers like Albertus Magnus. He continued Lombard and Abelard's work on giving the common Christian access to resources to answer their questions about theological topics in a time when the Catholic Church discouraged doubting.

Called the "morning star of the Reformation," Wycliffe is known for having started the first English translation for the entire Bible. This was a big step, a forerunner for the future, where the common man would be able to study the Bible for himself, but in Wycliffe's time, the Church still forbade reading the Bible in the vernacular, and thus made it a capital offense to own Wycliffe's English Bible.

Born in a peasant home, John Huss' brilliance rocketed him to being one of the best students at the University of Prague. He eventually became a priest and the daily preacher at a church in Prague, where he used his position to oppose the widespread sorruption he saw in the Catholic Church, calling for reform as well. He and his followers, the Hussites, were denounced as heretics and many, including Huss himself, were burned at the stake.

Erasmus was a reformer who advocated humanism and the education of women in both society/secular schools and Christian schools. He fought the corruption of the Catholic Church while wholeheartedly asking for unity, and opposed the division of the church by Protestants. He also advocated the teaching of original languages to students to better their understanding of and ability to interpret the Bible.

A friend of Erasmus, Thomas More wrote the Utopia, a look at an idealistic utopian society. He, like many other humanist educators, advocated education for women as well as men.

An Augustinian Monk from youth, Martin Luther taught theology at Wittenberg. He struggled with the idea that he (and everyone else) was not good enough to earn his salvation in the Roman Catholic Church, and that if we are justified by our works, then no one could possibly succeed. In 1517, he wrote his famed 95 Theses on this and other things he saw the Catholic Church had corrupted.
His teaching focused on many of the points he highlighted in his 95 Theses, including justification by faith, supremacy of the scripture, and the priesthood of all believers. He believe in personal study of the scriptures in the original languages, and state-run public schools.

Loyola was injured in war, he turned to reading religious texts and became a Christian after reportedly having visions from God. In defense of the Pope, Loyola creates the Jesuits. A military-like order of Catholicism, these evangelists were trained in nurturing although strenuous schools. Their impact was large even from the start; by 1548 they had established over 160 colleges, and after only 200 years, there existed some 800 Jesuit colleges.

A close friend of Luther, Melanchthon also was a humanist educator. He too believed in the classics (Ancient Greek and Roman literature), and stressed their importance, as well as the importance of humanist methodology in schools. He helped introduce Christian humanism to Christian universities.

A Jesuit, Francis Xavier used this ideology of teaching through a caring but zealous method helped in his desire to convert the Moors, as well as his travels to India and Japan.

A lawyer turned reformist, John Calvin was another very gifted individual. He refind Augustine's theologies on sovereignty and predestination, creating what is today called Calvinism. In 1536, Calvin wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion, a systematic theology book that vigorously attacked the theology of the Roman Catholic Church, and because of the power of the RCC, had to run away to Geneva to escape them. While there, he writes a commentary on the entire Bible.
A big difference between Calvin and Luther was Luther's humanistic teaching philosophy, while Calvin stressed the teacher's role in learning, and encouraged the use of strong corporal punishment.

This document, written by Martin Luther, outlined many of the corruptions he saw in the Roman Catholic Church. Like many other Protestants, he was not looking for a split from the RCC, but rather a reformation to the original New Testament Church model.

The Council of Trent was the Roman Catholic Church's rebuttal to the Reformation, attempting to establish and solidify the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.

An English Philosopher, Bacon was a major proponent of he inductive method, and wanted students to learn the meaning of the material ad its use in the world as opposed to just the meaning of words themselves. Although his teaching was focused more on the scientific and natural world, Bacon was a devout Christian and sought these methods to be used in the Church.

The King James Version, or Authorized Version, of the Bible is published, becoming the groundwork for many modern translations.

This religious movement of mass evangelism and revival started in Europe, but soon reached the American colonies.

The first Christian radio broadcast is delivered in Pittsburgh, allowing Christian Education to reach a wider audience.