Reformed Education: How do you teach Jesus in Calculus?



"Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."

This is the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and I want to address the first portion of the answer in regards to education, something near and dear to my heart. Hopefully nothing radical will be seen here, but I think we need to re-envision our understanding of Christianity in the West in order to bring Christ back to his central place in our lives. So this is a first step in imaging what this might look like in practise.

Before the pragmatics we need to get a overall goal of education. In the Reformed tradition this can be nothing other than to bring glory to God.

"On the Reformed basis man from the beginning knew the goal of his life. God made all the facts that surrounded him. God made man in his own image. There was thus no fact within or outside of man which was not fully revelational of God. The nature or essence of every created fact lies in its function in the process of the divine self-revelation to man."

"The Reformed Faith frankly begins with the presupposition of the absolute truth of the Christian position. It is this that the teacher tells the pupil. As he has learned that the goal of human life can be known only from the authoritative revelation of God, so he knows that the criterion by which man must live can be found only in this revelation too."
- from Cornelius Van Til, Reformed View of Education

The goal of education, as in all else, is to reveal God to man and to bring glory to God by allowing man to recognize and acknowledge him. This means that there is absolutely no point in learning something which does not bring glory to God. Now defining what brings glory to God is obviously contentious and tricky, since it is to the glory of God to revel in man's abilities - so long as this reveling is given thanks to God for his creation. The ultimate point that needs to be kept in mind is the lack of neutrality in the world - nothing is neutral in God's kingdom, either it is serving him or not. It has been, in my view, thus a severe shortcoming of the standard educational theory which tries to keep God out of the classroom in one way or another. This leads to a generation of students who feel no need whatsoever for God, or only feel the need for him in certain "spiritual" areas of life. This must run counter to Christian teaching that God is sovereign over all life and there is nothing in creation that does not relate semi-directly back to him.

At this point the issue of public vs. private schools needs to be addressed. Living in the West where we value freedom of mind and conscience, it is an absolute no-starter to try and impliment any return of a Christian perspective within public schools. This is unfortunate, but if we are to avoid a total Christian state which forces all to believe (no matter how much we assert that it is for the best - which it is!) then the answer to education in the Christian perspective must be the private schools. I wish this were not so, but we do live in a world where many do not believe and we are not called to force others, but rather persuade them by the inherent wonder and truthfulness and everything else of the Christian message and life-system. Thus the private schools serve a evangelistic function as well, but from here on out it is important to notice that my comments must be restricted to private schools. (Being a Christian teacher in a public school is an entirely different issue, one which I find terribly difficult)

So our schools (private) are made to bring glory to God in all learning. This means that at some level every single subject must lead and reveal God's total rulership over this world. This is true in math as much as it is in biology, psychology, and english. Each will have a different way of playing out this mission, but the goal is the same: bring glory to the Triune God who rules and works in this world. I really think this is a key point: learning is absolutely useless unless it brings glory to God; unless the motivation for teaching something is to bring about a "revelation of God" there is no real reason for doing it.

But this does not mean all we teach is religion nor does it mean that everything taught (including exponential mathematical functions) is "directly" related back to God (say by a reference to Ephesians or something). This is to appreciate the difference between Scripture and the revelation of God. Although Scripture is the sure and true revelation of our Lord and Redeemer, he makes himself known in so many diverse ways - thus the doctrine of common grace in the Reformed tradition. Even the Scripture must have a goal in mind. There is no point to the question "What does this text mean?" unless you have in mind what the overall aim of interpreting Scripture (and life) is: to know God and our place within his universe. The text can mean any sort of thing but this is absolutely useless unless we all agree that we are trying to interpret the text for the purpose of knowing God better through this form of revelation. The same is true for his other works, say in science and mathematics and the humanities. We need education to stress the means element towards tne ends given us in creation: to know and glorify God. This does not mean that the "means" are unimportant and can be discarded; we would never say that about Scripture, why then about mathematics or any other subject? But the goal must never be lost in the means, as I feel it has in educational theory.

On a secular level this has been stressed by the fact that education is not just about learning facts but developing a person. Education is personal and therefore the idea of Matrix-like learnign via plug is repugnant because we all agree that education is about personal formation and growth as much as it is (or more) than about learning a specific subject. But as Christians we can go a step further and talk about the reason for this formation or the goal of it: to know ourselves and thus to know God, and in knowing God to then know ourselves and the world we live in (John Calvin, Institutes I.i.1). Formation is for the whole person to relate to God and thus better to his or her neighbour; we fulfill God's commandments by learning more about our world.

This is to say that we do not stop teaching calculus or modern physics or any other subject in particular, but that we aim that teaching explicitly at the larger goal of personal formation into the kingdom of God. In fact, if we do not make this aim of learning explicit in our classes, we are selling a lie to the students because we know that God is the author and sustainer of all sciences and subjects, and that the whole world is designed to bring glory to him and his Son, through the illumination of our minds among other things by the Holy Spirit. On the ground then I still teach integration by parts in calculus class, but I do so to explain the wonders of (1) creation in mathematical formulation, (2) the wonders of the human mind in reasonability and intellecutal assent, and (3) the wonder of God's thoughts through the mathematical principles. We are called to "think God's thoughts after him (Herman Bavinck)" and this is not done by arrogant humans but by people who believe in a God who reveals himself to us through diverse means and wishes for us to know him and thus ourselves and our world. It goes without saying that the final say on our view of him is governed by his Scriptural revelation, but we all know that is not a science book and so other education comes in to work within the Scriptural framework to seek God out where he is to be found. The principle of common grace comes in again for in seeking him we believe that we will find him, not because he is hiding, but because he is revealing himself to those who look with the eyes of faith, or as Calvin was found of saying, "the spectacles of Scripture."

The principle of education than is the seeking of a revealing God in all of creation, with the result of finding him, no matter how tentatively we frame that finding, bringing praise and glory to him in his revelation. We can "grieve the Spirit" in many different ways, and not revealing God is the main sin of education which a Christian understanding seeks to correct. Soli Deo Gloria!

The Reformed Faith and Starbucks



Rick Warren will soon be on Starbucks coffee cups!

"As for the Sudan, I completely agree with you that we haven't had to go to the firing line for our faith lately. What should we do about that?" - Charles

This comment is only the latest to spur me on towards thinking about how American/Western Christians deal with the differences of life experience compared to African Christians. My struggle: getting whole milk instead of skim milk in my extra-grande-cupalicious-mocha-frappucinno-light. Their struggle: getting shot in the head while taking care of children. Does anyone else see a disconnect? Didn't Jesus say we would encounter persecution for our faith? Is Starbucks really the agent of that persecution? I doubt it.

So the question becomes "What do we do about it as good evangelicals in this situation?" I think the obvious answer which keeps coming up in most circles is to become a missionary so that you get shot in the head. The down side to this is that not many people really want (feel called?) to this from America, so instead we just feel guilty about going to Starbucks or whatever other Christian/Capitalist venture we support. I think both these solutions are really Satanic tricks to be honest and I have been struggling to find a good alternative that fits with God's personal call on my life (and others by extension) and the overall Biblical message of cosmic redemption. So this will be a short exposition on some conclusions I have come to and maybe a practical application or two. Yeah right.

I think the main problem in the West which leads into this mission/guilt complex is that we don't correctly understand our situation in the world. For some reason we (I) think that the West is as Jesus as it is going to get and this produces the uncomfortable position of not wanting to go on to something else (like Africa, which doesn't have Crispy Creme or Jesus). But this is absolutely false! I think in many ways American (and the West) is in worse shape as compared to Africa on the kingdom of God front. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that marytrs in Africa should be happy to be there as opposed to being stuck in a stipmall, but what I am saying is that Christianity and everything else is clear cut in Africa in many ways it is not in America, or at least this is what I hear from missionaries who have worked there. And that is what I think the majority of evangelican Christians in America are probably called to: get America to love Jesus. Seriously! I am not going to cart out the "back in the good old days" slogan appealing to Leave It to Beaver or any other sureal impression of America; that is not necessary. One only has to look around and think about our culture and it is immeadiately obvious that Jesus is not done with us yet so we shouldn't be resting on our laurels.

What then should America look like? Let me quote a bit from Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch prime minister who made a valiant effort at bringing a Western country under Christ:

"One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. And sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me. It is this: That in spite of all worldly opposition, God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God."

Wow. Just re-read that passage about his driving goal and passion in life. Amazing. It is the "pseudo-Christian" attitude of seperation of Church and everything which has gotten us into so much trouble in the States, I think. We evangelicals have been afraid to stand up for the "holy ordinances" of Christ and have settled for more meager results. But that is not the vision of the Scriptures nor is it the vision of the Reformed Faith which finds a creed in another one of Kuyper's statements:

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"

The Reformed Tradition, especially as seen through Kuyper, Dooyeweerd, and Van Til, gives us the necessary tools with which to make this nation and world God's kingdom. In this all embracing view there is no seperate space for anything but the Lordship of Christ. This whole progamme rests on the foundational principle that life and everything in it is not for man but for God alone. Listen to Cornelius Van Til:

"It is the Bible alone that speaks of such a God. And the Bible speaks of his absolute authority. This God always speaks with authority. This God of the Bible, who speaks authoritatively through his Word, is the presupposition of the intelligibility of human experience. He is recognixed in the Reformed Faith as the final reference point for all human predication. In this respect the Reformed Faith really stands squarely opposed to all forms of non-Christian thinking. Non-Christian thinking takes man as the final reference point in predication. It places man where the Reformed Faith recognizes God."

Now I am well aware that these all embracing claims will sound quite outdated and outlandish to "postmodern" ears which hate anything that smacks of totality, but I really think we need to get over the metanarrative phobia. The insight of recent philosophy is important and crucial to tear down man made structures of thought and imperialism; but if those places are not filled with the Sovereign God's imperialistic vision of the kingdom of God, we are really left with nothing but a jumbled mess. So I acknowledge the need to be careful with totalitarian language while at the same time being willing to concede that the Covenant LORD might actually have an overall plan which He is working in redemption history with us as key players in the effort.

So the question becomes: "What does this Reformed position look like on the ground?" Due to length of article I will have to leave some implications I have come up with until next post (particularly in what I see my calling to be: education. The "Christ in Math class" will be addressed!), which is good because I think this total vision of Christ's Lordship over all needs to seep into our Western minds. But as one quick implication, I think it means we need to read our Bibles (especially the OT) while sipping on our extra-mocha-grande-cupalicious-frappucinno with skim or whole milk.