By Adi Schlebusch
Our worldview shapes our perspective on everything. If your worldview isn’t founded on the central axiom that God is both the Source and the End of reality itself (Romans 11:36), your philosophies will ultimately be inconsistent, weak and flawed. One of the spheres of life where this can perhaps most clearly be seen is the field of education. Historically, Western philosophies of education were largely rooted in the Christian worldview. For example, in contradistinction to modernist approaches to education, a classical education considers students as created beings and therefore in terms of their relationship with their Creator. As the Australian philosopher of education, JC Harris explains:
“Christian education … will not be based on the behaviorist premise that humans are mere animals who reason, but will incorporate a view of children as created in the image of God, in mind, body and spirit.”[1]
In other words, the point of reference in Christian education is always God as sovereign Creator and Ruler of the universe, not man. Whereas humanistic education, in following its rationalist and empiricist presuppositions, views the student as tabula rasa who, through the process of learning itself, provides facts with meaning, a Christian philosophy of education emphasizes the fact that the identity, character, talents and appetites of the student, as well as the facts being studied in any particular field, are always inescapably God-given. God provides reality and facts with meaning. Men only discover it in time and in the context God has purposefully placed them. In other words, facts only have meaning because God, through his sovereign predestination endows all creation with meaning and purpose. As RJ Rushdoony puts it:
"The alternative to predestination is a belief in chance, that nothing save total and absolute randomness prevails. Things are and occur without order, meaning, aim, choice, or law; all things are accidental and causal, and an undetermined probability, which is total possibility, alone exists."[2]
Behaviorism, which effectuates this complete loss of meaning, sadly forms the basis of most liberal systems of education and is the main philosophy underlying most Faculties of Education at most universities in the Western world today. Whereas the Bible teaches that we are all born in sin, the liberalism underlying behaviorism presents the student as an empty bucket or blank slate which can simply be filled with ideas and information. This view of the individual as atomized tabula rasa, purposefully separates the student from his God-given identity as part of a family and a people, which in turn reveals the inherently statist or socialist ends of liberal education. The child effectively becomes an instrument in the hands of the state. The basic identity of every child as being part of a family and that child’s calling to cultivate family life is antithetical to the government’s ends with education, namely to reshape God-given reality in its own image—hence the push for behaviorism as public universities.
It is for this very same reason that the pseudoscientific theory of evolution is so popular in public schools. In presenting humanity as the product of natural evolution, rather than occupying a special place at the top of God’s creation hierarchy by virtue of being created in the image of God, human life is robbed of all teleological significance and reduced to just another natural phenomenon. Darwinism’s reduction of the reality of human existence to nothing more than a struggle for survival directly serves Marxism’s statist ends, as it systematically harmonizes the student’s worldview with the Marxist interpretation of human reality as wholly economical: for the Marxist every aspect of human society is the product of this economic struggle for survival. Humanity as such is then conceived of in terms of the rights the sovereign state—not the sovereign God— endows upon it in this perpetual evolutionary battle for survival.
The behaviorist view also completely disregards the fact that we interpret the facts of reality not only in light of our God-given nature as human beings born into a specific family and people, but also in light of the framework provided by our worldview. Whereas liberals therefore look to education itself for salvation, i.e. overcoming ignorance as the ultimate solution to society’s problems, a Christian philosophy of education recognizes that knowledge is never neutral and can be used for either good or bad, depending on the worldview and moral disposition of the student. Whereas Behaviorism sees ignorance as the root of society’s problems and views education itself as salvific, Christianity identifies the root of the problem as sin and rightly recognizes Jesus as the Messiah.
But what difference does this make in practice? Let me explain by means of an example:
It recently came to light that for three decades, between 1978 and 2008, a group of leading German psychologists in collaboration with the local government in Berlin, purposefully placed dozens of the city’s orphans in the care of convicted male pedophiles. The rationale behind this project was the theory that exposure to the children would be good for the pedophiles’ re-integration into society and also contribute to the sexual liberation of the children themselves.[3] This horrendous theory and practice was, until very recently, advocated by some of most well-educated psychologists in the world—"experts” who have received their psychology degrees from some of the world's leading universities both in Germany and internationally.
This is but one example showing why the key to societal flourishing is not education as such, but the interpretation of facts within the context of a Biblical worldview. This worldview is the necessary precondition for the student to integrate and apply knowledge in a constructive manner—to the benefit of society and the glory of God. Truth in itself is never brute factuality or mere abstractions.
Christian education is therefore fundamentally rooted in the covenantal command of Deuteronomy 11:19, namely that the next generation is to be educated in accordance with the infallible and eternal Law of God. Finally, a true philosophy of education will by definition also be Christocentric, since it is only in Christ that any truth in any subject or field can be discovered and any facts can be rightly understood in terms of their origin, meaning and purpose. Christ is the truth (John 14:6) and He alone can liberate us from depravity, distortion, lies, ignorance, and meaninglessness (John 8:32, 36).
The author is a senior researcher at the Pactum Institute.
[1] Harris, JC. 1995. The Training of the Mind in Christian Education. In Journal of Christian Education 38(3) Septemebr 1995, p. 35.
[2] Rushdoony, RJ. Salvation and Godly Rule (Vallecito, CA: Ross House, 1983), XLVIII Predestination.
[3] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/berlin-paedophile-foster-parent-hermut-kentler-a9573026.html