26. Chapter 26: The Significance Of Jesus In Educational History

Chapter 26 The Significance Of JesusInEducational History At the end of a study like this, dealing with Jesus as the Great Teacher, some of you would like to know how the historians of education, whose business it is to record systematically past educational events of worth-while significance and so to make possible the understanding of the present educational situation in the light of the past, have presented Jesus.

Monroe’s ‘‘Text-Book in the History of Education” N.Y., 1905, 772 pp., omits all reference to Hebrew and Jewish education and to Jesus. The same author’s “Brief Course in the History of Education,” N.Y., 1907, 409 pp., devotes nearly two pages to “Jewish Education,” but omits any treatment of Jesus. Each of these volumes, however, treats “Early Christian Education.”

Duggan’s “Student’s Text-Book in the History of Education,” N.Y., 1916, 398 pp., devotes one chapter each to “Jewish Education” and “Early Christian Education,” but gives no account of Jesus.

Davidson’s “History of Education,” N.Y., 1900, 292 pp., treats “Judaea” and “The Christian ‘Catechetical’ School of Alexandria,” but omits Jesus.

Compayre’s “History of Pedagogy,” translated from the French, published in Boston, 1885, 598 pp., devotes three pages to “The Early Christians” and contains the single and questionable statement about Jesus: “The doctrine of Christ was at first a reaction of free will and of personal dignity against the despotism of the state” (p. 61).

Regener’s “Geschichte der Padagogik” Langensalza, 1898, 222 pp., includes the Greeks and Romans, but not the Jews and Christians.

Cubberley’s very complete “Syllabus of Lectures on the History of Education,” second edition, N.Y., 1904, 361 pp., devotes a chapter each to “Early Hebrew Education” and “Early Christian Education,” but does not mention Jesus.

Aspinwall’s “Outlines of the History of Education,” N.Y., 1912, 195 pp., treats “Hebrew” and “Early Christian” education, but not Jesus.

Taylor’s “Syllabus of the History of Education,” Boston, 1909, 147 pp., contains the single entry: “Educational bearings of Christ’s doctrines” (p. 31).

Graves’s “History of Education before the Middle Ages,” N.Y., 1909, 304 pp., devotes a chapter each to “Israel and Judaea” and “Early Christianity,” but gives no account of Jesus. The same author’s “Student’s History of Education,” N.Y., 1915, 453 pp., contains accounts of Jewish and Christian education, but nothing of Jesus.

However, in 1919, under the revival of interest in what Jesus really taught, due to the World War, there appeared Dean Graves’s book: “What Did Jesus Teach?” (N.Y.), 195 pp. The author says: “The book is simply the product of a History of Education man, describing a well-known road, when viewed from his own angle.” The book contains an outline of the content of the teaching of Jesus, with one chapter devoted to his methods. But not even so has the author yet placed Jesus in educational history.

One may properly wonder why the record given above is as it is. Why do these histories of education, like the inn at Bethlehem, have “no room” for him? One can only conjecture the answer. It is not through the failure to recognize the importance of Christianity in the world, but the failure to sense the significance of Jesus as a teacher among the teachers of the world. This failure may in part be due to the obscuring of the historic figure of Jesus as teacher by theological interpretations, and the real difficulty of discovering and presenting the great Prophet-Teacher of Nazareth. And also those who are interested in education have not known about Jesus, and those interested in Jesus have not known about education. But the story is different in the case of the four following books:

Painter’s “History of Education,” N.Y., 1894, 343 pp., built mainly on Schmidt’s “Geschichte der Padagogik,” devotes four pages to “The Founder of Christianity.” He says:

“Leaving out of account Christ’s divine nature, before which we bow as a mystery, we may trace, as in the case of other men, those influences which contributed to his intellectual and spiritual development” (p. 83).

“Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed—to say nothing of Greek and Roman sages—are not worthy to be compared with Christ” (p. 84). The lessons in method he gives us, according to Painter, are sympathy, adaptation to the capacity of his hearers, use of outward circumstance, expectation only of a gradual development, insisting only on practical and fundamental truths. From Paroz this author quotes: “Jesus Christ, in founding a new religion, has laid the foundations of a new education in the bosom of humanity,” and from Karl Schmidt: “By word and deed in and with his whole life Christ is the teacher and educator of mankind.”

Among the influences of Christianity on education Painter notes the removal of “the fetters of national limits and prejudices,” the attachment of due importance to the individual, sweeping away false distinctions of class and caste, abolishing slavery, overthrowing the oppressions of society, elevating marriage into a divine rite, and regarding children as the gift of God.

Seeley’s “History of Education,” N.Y., Third Revised Edition, 1914, 376 pp., devotes five pages to “The Great Teacher,” considering his life, character, and work as a teacher.

“The spirit of Christianity has led to the founding of hospitals, asylums, and institutions of mercy everywhere; to the establishment of schools and colleges; to the universal spread of education; to the uplifting of the individual; to the furtherance of human brotherhood; and to the fostering of peace among men and nations” (p. 100).

Among the important characteristics of Jesus’ method Seeley notes: (1) “It was suited to his hearers”; (2) “full of illustrations”; (3) “simple and yet logical”; (4) “drawn from nature”; (5) “it elevated the truth, and sought to enforce it”; and (6) “it was earnest and full of sympathy.” He loved little children. “Every one of the principles above stated is essential to the teacher, and these principles contain the sum and substance of all true pedagogy” (p. 104).

McCormick’s “History of Education,” Washington, 1915, 401 pp., gives three pages to “The Teaching of Christ.” He says:

“The study of His life and work from the educational viewpoint is of great historical and practical value” (p. 66).

“There is noticeable in the method employed by our Lord a twofold adjustment to the needs and conditions of the time. First, the general adaptation of sublime and abstract truths to the capacity of the human intelligence; second, the particular application of these truths to individual instances. . . . Finally, our Lord was the living model of His teaching. . . . Furthermore, our Lord insured the everlasting teaching of His doctrine by making His Church a teaching body under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth” (pp. 68, 69).

Boyer’s “History of Education,” N.Y., 1919, pp. 461, devotes eleven pages to “Christ.” The education of Jesus is traced to the schooling of the synagogue, the yearly festivals, his intimate contact with nature and man, and to the Holy Scriptures. “Jesus became the one incomparable teacher of all ages” (p. 103).

“The immeasurable dignity and worth which these two Christian doctrines [the brotherhood and immortality of man] give to individuality illumine, as if in letters of gold, the function of education as adjustment to life itself— life now and life hereafter.”

“The distinguishing obligations of Christian education” are considered under the following topics: Nationality, caste, slavery, women, and children.

“The Methods of Christ” are treated under the three heads: Insight, sympathy, and skill.

Speaking for ourselves now, what place in educational history shall we assign to Jesus? A question of this kind requires an objective answer, based on fact, not personal loyalty or opinion. The “World Almanac” for 1920 distributes the religious membership of the world as follows:

[BibleSupport.com Editor’s Note: These figures are obviously outdated. Consult thisWikipedia articlefor current figures.] The “Christians” include Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Protestants, 288,000,000, 121,000,000, and 167,000,000 respectively. All together the Christians are over one-third the population of the earth and surpass their nearest competitor by about eighty per cent. The teachings of Jesus affect today nearly twice as many persons as those of any other teacher. As a simple quantitative fact, Jesus is today the world’s greatest teacher.

If we think of quality instead of quantity, and judge teachers and teachings by the fruits of their followers, we note that the two continents leading the world’s civilization are Europe and America, and these are, nominally at least, Christian. It was the absence of real Christianity that started the World War of 1914-1918, and the presence of defensive Christianity that saved civilization. The statement that Jesus, judged by quantitative and qualitative results, is the world’s greatest teacher need not be construed as minimizing the work of Confucius, Lao-tsze, Mohammed, and Buddha. These also are world-teachers. It is, or should be, the belief of Christians that Jesus came not to destroy Moses and these others, but to fulfill them all.

Western history has not missed the point in dividing time by the birth of Christ. With him the new human era began. The history of education and of man may be written from the standpoint of the protest of the individual against conformity to social customs, as the endeavor of the individual and society to come to terms with each other. This is the standpoint of progress through individual variation. In the main society wins, and the individual loses, mayhap his life, but not until he has raised the ideals of society by so much. In Jesus we meet in both practice and theory utmost individuality combined with utmost sociality. As against institutions he stood for the man, but for man only as a servant of the higher life of society. This paradox he lived and also formulated: “He that loseth his life shall find it.” The loss of life in service is sociality, the finding it again in self-realization by service is individuality. In this solution Jesus shows himself the master of the problem of life. And the steps in our social progress are successive approximations to his solution. This solution he reached by the aid of the Hebrew prophets, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah—great individualists all, who found their lives in service of society, conceived by them as the kingdom of Jehovah. In short, we conclude that the place of Jesus in educational history is central and greatest, on the basis not of personal loyalty, but objective fact, because:

1. His followers today outnumber those of any other teacher.

2. The nations that profess his name, though following him afar off, lead the world’s civilization.

3. He lived and taught the solution of man’s greatest problem: the adjustment of the claims of the individual to those of society.

4. He taught the highest moral and spiritual truths: God is father, man is brother, the will is free, the soul is immortal, the ideal social order is to come on the earth, women and children are to be honored, the life of sacrificial love is supreme.

5. He taught these truths simply, using effectively the pedagogic arts, so that “the common people heard him gladly.” Some of these arts this book has reviewed.

6. He committed his teachings wholly to a choice few whom he trained as his witnesses.

7. He taught from the highest motives—love, sympathy, compassion, and the sense of divine mission.

8. He had the five essential qualifications of a world-teacher—namely, a world-view, knowledge of his subject matter, knowledge of his pupils, aptness at teaching, and a character worthy of imitation in all respects. He lived what he taught.

There are multitudes who are ready and willing to say with one of his most learned pupils: “We know that thou art a teacher come from God,” and with one of his most intimate followers: “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” To the student: In this chapter you have not been asked to cooperate in the search for the truth as in the preceding chapters. One reason is that the material covered is outside our text, the New Testament, and the other is that, having come with me so far, you are entitled at the end to know my thoughts not as question marks, but as affirmations. This situation, however, need not prevent our having a real discussion on the proper placing of Jesus in educational history.