July 1928
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the children what they ought to be in the kingdom of God, and insure the strength of our national life. Here, then, lie at once the great opportunity and grave responsibility' of schools of Christian education. They will prepare a company of men and women for the doing of a work than which there is none more vital and more important in the interest of the church, of the nation, and of the race. May there rest upon all such work the blessing of the God who is bound up with the race in its procreative activities; who demands fellowship with Himself in all its training; and who, in Grace, has provided,all that is necessary for the overcoming of evil and the realization of good.
of Christianity. Sooner or later the neglect of such in struction in the schools of the nation will issue in the loosening of the moral standards of the nation. If we are going to train our children in the arts and sciences and all the things which, after all, are the tran sient opinions of the passing hour, and neglect the eternal verities, we are going to leave behind us when we pass on into the larger life, a race which will forget and deny the very moral influences which have made us great. If this be true concerning our children, then the duty of Christian people is, so far as in them lies, in every way to attempt to provide that all the children of the nation have education and instruction which shall be according to the divine standards. In such provisions we shall make
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Christian Education and Modern C ivilization B y J. M. P rice , A .M ., T h .D. Director School Religious Education, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
The question that naturally arises, is, Why this change in emphasis? Are there good and sufficient reasons for it? Is it a cooling-off process, a damper on evangelism? Or is it really giving fresh reality to religion and a new effectiveness to religious teaching ? Does it rest on good and sufficient foundations ? C onvictions U nderlying I t The first is that our present-day civilization is awry. It may not be more so than at other times. But even a casual observer can see that at many places it is seriously out of joint. Present-day youth may not be worse than their forefathers were, but they do face problems not confronted before. The increased range of knowledge, laxity in moral standards, and commercialized amuse ments make a tremendous strain on the powers of self-con trol. The ideal of companionate marriage and the free dom of divorce mean that in another half century, like the past two decades, divorces will balance marriages, and the home be undermined. The coming of good roads, auto mobiles and congestion in cities, together with the natural tendency to wrong, has brought a situation relative to crime never faced before. The attitude of organized labor and capital is far from the Christian ideal, and the power wielded is fraught with serious danger. Civilization is much awry. The second conviction is that our supreme need is a moral and religious one. We have stressed comforts, ease and material prosperity until the world never saw so many fine homes, beautiful automobiles, and good roads. But these instead of bringing a finer quality of life have had a tendency to satisfy people on the plane of the physical. We have sought knowledge until the masses of people were never so informed about the affairs of life, but this has proven inadequate as a dynamic. Our supreme need is in the realm of ideals, objectives and motives. Only such can lift us. “Our civilization can not survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually,” said Mr. Wilson. And President Coolidge has well said, “We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We
|HAT place should religious education fill in modern civilization? This is an exceedingly important question. It calls for a study both of the nature and needs of religious education and of the problems and processes of modern civilization. Even then we shall not be able to see it fully as it is to be, but perhaps we may catch a glimpse of its coming greatness. At the one-hundredth anniversary of Yale Divinity School, Dr. Luther A. Weigle said that just as the nine teenth century had gone down in Christian history for its emphasis on foreign missions, so the twentieth would be known because of its development in religious education. Progress thus far seems to justify the prediction. And apparently we are just in the beginning, for on every hand, there are evidences of a changing ideal and method. In the past we thought largely in terms of the cam paign, the mass meeting and inspiration as the means of kingdom activity. Adults rather than young people were appealed to, and immediate above ultimate results were sought. For example, in soul-winning the norm was the annual two-weeks revival with intensive efforts. - In rais ing money, likewise, the method was mainly the drive or occasional collection, with sometimes much group pressure; A similar method was followed in decision for life work, the occasion usually being worked up to at the close of a revival or convention. Recently, however, a change of emphasis has come; more stress is put on ideals and convictions than emotions, on individuals than group response, and on permanent than temporary results. In other words, childhood and youth and the teaching and training ideal have shifted to the center of the scene. For example, in soul-winning there is an increasing effort toward every-Sunday evan gelism adapted to the seasons of the soul and a growing life. In stewardship the emphasis is on regular, systematic and proportionate giving, usually through the Sunday school and as a means of character development. In find ing one’s life work the tendency is toward personal guid ance in a rational choice based on enlightenment as to the needs of the fields and qualifications required.
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