phying American education generally for two generations, particularly at the higher levels. After reading this volume through, one comes to feel that the greatest threat to American democracy is not juvenile delinquency, the underworld crime syn dicates, an alien political “ ism” , or even war—deplorable as these things are—but rather the growing secularist spirit of our age which has robbed American youth of its spiritual heritage during the impressionable years of high school and college. The secularist who rejects all religious systems and forms of worship and con cerns himself only with the materialistic questions and needs of the present life is all too often represented by the teacher or professor who stands before the high school or college class and subtilely interlards his lectures with his free-thinking philosophy. The Stony Brook headmaster ably points out that under the influence of secularism, public education in America seems moving to a negation of the prin ciple that moral behavior is rooted in religion. “ It is no secret that, in the name of democracy, religion has been bowed out of the American public school room,” Dr. Gaebelein writes. “ To all in tents and purposes God has been re moved from the educational experience of the majority of our youth. The time for warning is past; so far as the philosophy of public education goes, sec ular naturalism is in the saddle.” Within the scope of the twelve chap ters which comprise the book, the author deals with every phase of this tragic situation. He goes much further, how ever, and offers a positive program for evangelical Christians to follow in at tacking the pernicious evil of secularism in its many forms. He shows the rele vance and necessity for Christian educa tion at this mid-century point; he dis cusses basic standards for a Christian educational institution; he makes a frank appraisal of religion and the public school; he stresses the crying need for independent Christian schools at all levels—elementary, secondary and col lege ; the educational responsibility of both church and home in the child’s life; the Bible institute and Bible college as a growing force in American education; and the great unfinished tasks which beckon and challenge Christian educa tion in the future. Against the pagan, anti-Christian sec- ularistic spirit which pervades modern education in America, Dr. Gaebelein shows clearly the full assurance and wisdom of a thoroughly Christian faith and outlook, and the true education which stems from it. Every Christian parent will feel heartened over the bold and unequivocal stand which the Stony Brook headmaster takes for evangelical Christianity, for the truth of man’s lost estate and need of a Saviour, and all the other cardinal points of our faith which have as their basis the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
One o f the really illuminating chap ters of this volume is the sixth, bearing the title: “The Strategic Place of the Christian College.” Universities and col leges are here to stay, and forth from their gates each year come the leaders of the world of tomorrow. “ Never in the three centuries of the American col lege has there been more doubt about the meaning and content of higher edu cation than now,” Dr. Gaebelein sadly writes. He deplores the fact that evan gelicals as a whole have failed to make their voices heard in national circles of higher education and warns in this con nection: “ The time has come for evan gelicals to stop berating those who dis agree with them and awake to pressing realities.” “ All things considered, what counts most in making a college Christian is the loyalty of its administration, fac ulty, and student body to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” writes the Stony Brook headmaster. “Whatever its church alle giance, the evangelical college finds in the Word of God, both written and in carnate, the dynamic center of its life and work.” Dr. Gaebelein sees five cardinal func tions which Christian higher education as a whole should fulfill: (1) It should provide balanced programs of liberal and professional education that are Biblically centered and are designed to prepare selected young people for leadership, either as full-time Christian workers or as consecrated members of various pro fessions and occupations; (2) It should supply general education and different types of vocational training in a dis tinctive Christian setting to young people from Christian homes who are unsuited to liberal arts or professional training; but who would benefit from at least two years of post-secondary education; (3) It should “foster scientific and creative study in major areas of scholarly endeavor with the special aim of relating to the Christian faith the findings of this study, producing books and articles that will make the results of Christian scholarship more widely known” ; (4) It should afford systematic instruction in Christian learning to adults through evening and extension courses and through special institutes, workshops, and conferences; and (5) It should give counsel and support to com munity, regional, national, and world wide agencies committed to the extension of the gospel of Christ. Chapter seven deals with the “ new and distinctive form of education” that has been developed in America since the 1880’s—the Bible institutes and Bible colleges, dotting the country from coast to coast and enrolling over 25,000 stu dents. Dr. Gaebelein calls these schools “ a decisive force for evangelicalism.” Mission fields are manned by hundreds of Bible school graduates and a sizable proportion of Christian work in America itself is carried on by those who received their basic training in Bible institutes. (Continued on Page 31) T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
THE CRISIS IN MODERN AMERICAN EDUCATION By Cedric A. Larson (An article-review of CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN A DEMOCRACY— the Report of the N.A.E. Committee on the Philosophy and Practice of Christian Education, by Frank E. Gaebelein, Litt.D., headmaster, The Stony Brook School. New York, N. Y., 305 pages. Oxford University Press. Cloth. Price $U.OO) T HIS long-awaited book is indeed a landmark in the history of evan closest possible prayerful study by every thoughtful Christian. It is actu ally the product of several years of labor by the Commission on Educational In stitutions of the National Association of Evangelicals. Ten noted educators comprised the Commission: Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein, Dr. Robert L. Cook, Dr. Ruth E. Eckert, Mark Fakkema, Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, Dr. Harold L. Kuhn, Dr. Leslie R. Marston, Dr. Stephen W. Paine, Dr. Safara A. Witmer and Dr. Enoch R. Dyrness. These ten Christian scholars and edu cators pooled their efforts, suggestions and criticisms to the central problems of Christian education for more than three years. Out of this has come Dr. Gaebelein’s challenging volume, the usu fruct of this collaboration, in the arrest ing and robust style that marks the ten other books from the pen of the Stony Brook headmaster. At no time in the twentieth century could the appearance of this particular volume have been more propitious, than at present. It deals a body blow to secu larists and secularism—that creeping paralysis which has slowly been atro- Page Twenty
gelical Christianity, and deserves the
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