by John W. Alexander

What should an educator seek to achieve? What should a school try to accomplish? By what criteria should a college (or high school or grade school or any other educational institution) be evaluated? The answers to these questions depend on the purposes chosen. The first order of business for a school is to construct clear statements of its purposes. Purposes will unify faculties, give prospective students a picture of what they can expect, and provide taxpayers and donors with at least some idea of why they should designate funds for support.

Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). The overriding purpose of a Christian educator (and of a Christian school) is to help people gladly obey the Lord Jesus Christ "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). All truth is God's truth. We study his truth as revealed in Scripture. We study his truth as discernible through research and study in all the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. We enjoy his truths as available though the arts.

We research, study and interact not only to learn and to enjoy learning but also to obey — gladly responding in obedience to Christ through those actions which truth and his truths indicate. Within such a single overriding purpose may I suggest several purposes of a more specific nature — aspirations worth aiming to fulfill, criteria by which a school, teacher and pupil can be evaluated.

To help a person learn to think: to construct good questions, to formulate true answers, to observe carefully, to analyze, to remember, to recall useful information, to employ imagination creatively and constructively, to associate ideas. Secular education can help a person partially fulfill this purpose, but only a disciple of Christ enjoys the power of the Holy Spirit to stimulate his thinking.

To help a person understand himself as an individual. Good education will help him answer such questions as: Who am I? What am I like? How did I get that way? Why am I that way? What are the consequences of my having those attributes and doing those deeds? Where have I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Secular education can assist a person in partially answering those questions, but only Christian education based squarely on sound, biblical grounding can help him or her formulate well-rounded answers to basic questions of self-understanding — and the associated attribute of a healthy self-image.

To help a person understand the society of which he or she is a part. This applies to micro- and macro-social groupings as well as all in between. It involves relationships with parents, spouse, children, classmates, roommates, neighbors. It concerns neighborhoods, wards, cities, counties, states and nations. It includes the world itself — four billion fellow citizens. What is society like? How did it get that way? Why is it that way? What are the consequences of its being that way? Again, secular education provides several insights into this realm of knowledge. However, well-rounded Christian education provides better insights by indicating the importance of society-controlling forces which secular education denies.

To help a person understand the environment in which she or he as an individual and society as groups live. The environment is the sum total of nature apart from ourselves: atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, soil and landscape, sky and skyscape, animal and plant life, and water in all its forms. What are the characteristics of the environment? How did it get that way? Why? So what? How are all the parts interrelated? Once again secular education can shed light into vast realms of truths in natural science, but biblical Christian education provides fuller answers, indicating the purposes of creation, why it is flawed and how it will be changed.

To help a person enjoy that understanding. There ought to be a genuine delight in learning and increasing one's understanding (assuming of course that one is motivated by valid reasons for getting an education). A sobering observation about so much education today is that so few people seem to be deriving much genuine pleasure from intellectual experiences. Here again there are advantages to Christian education in which students (whether teacher or pupil) can share their joy with God himself, the one who thought of all those truths in the first place and who delights to receive praise from his children who, through learning, are able "to think God's thoughts after him."

To help a person make wise decisions. Unfortunately, it is possible to possess a vast data base, to understand complex relationships and to enjoy the experience — but be unable to make wise decisions based upon those resources. Education ought to help us. We face enormous problems today, as individuals and groups, from person-to-person relationships to group-to-group relationships, national and international. Education should help us answer, What problems do I (we) face? What are their causes? What remedial measure might solve them? How should we deal with those problems, their causes, their cures? What is the best way to organize society and help each person experience the best possible life? Without question, secular education provides help in such decision making. But scriptural Christian education provides better help for two reasons. First, it is motivated to obey God's will in executing human affairs, second, it has access to God's wisdom in knowing which decisions to make. "I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you..." (Ps. 32:8).

To help a person implement those wise decisions. It is not enough to know what I ought to do. I need help to do what I know should be done. Education should help me develop the skills and strength to carry out what wisdom decrees is the path to follow. While secular education has no place to turn for help other than human nature, Christian education introduces us to a higher source — the divine power of God himself who through the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ implants within us power from on high (Acts 1:8).

To help one earn a living. Some schools are devoted primarily to this. At the university level this purpose is often delegated to specialized colleges or schools: agriculture, engineering, business, law, medicine, education. Usually there remains one college or school which says that learning a trade is not its main purpose — the college known as Letters and Science, or Liberal Arts and Science, or Liberal Arts. More on this later. Without a doubt, many secular schools rate high when evaluated by this purpose. But here again Christian education is superior because it provides a higher motive than merely earning a living or doing a job or serving society: our work is motivated by a desire to please God who made and redeemed us. "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.... Whatever your task, work heartily as serving the Lord" (Col. 3:17, 23).

These eight purposes serve not only as aspirations we aim to achieve but also as criteria by which a school teacher or pupil can be evaluated. You might ask how your school (or your city's school system) comes out when evaluated by these purposes.

Some Propositions

We see what education should be. We also see that it is lacking in several crucial areas. What then shall we do? Here are several propositions which may be helpful to Christians (be they teachers, pastors, or parents or people with some other influence in education) seeking God's will about this situation. These propositions are broad emphases that are intended to help us correct the errors currently found in education.

First, all truth is God's truth. Every academic discipline fits somewhere within God's great mind and the reality which he has brought into existence — and which he holds together. Irrespective of the particular academic specialty in which a Christian engages, the challenge and opportunity are before him to enter courageously and with enthusiasm to adopt a Christian stance toward all intellectual endeavors. As in the broad statement of purpose I gave above, all learning and truth is in the context of our obedience to Christ. No truth is separate from or outside of our relationship with him.

Second, we are interested in educating the total person to the glory of Christ Jesus. This is the other side of my first proposition. As God reigns over all truth, so we are ruled totally by him...at least this is his intention for us. In a day when so much attention is given to specialization we reaffirm the conviction that we are to love the Lord our God with our entire self, and it is our challenge as Christians to think broadly, deeply and highly with our total mind on as many frontiers as we may each have time and talent to investigate. Admittedly there must be some specialization if we are to survive economically. And there will be some specialization if for no other reason than that the Holy Spirit gives different people different gifts. Surely these different gifts involve not only the amount of intellectual endowment but also the different styles of thinking and fields of interest that are possible. Accordingly, we are concerned not only to train people in getting certain jobs done (this is the realm of technical specialization) but also, and more important, to help them develop into full-orbed persons, attaining full potential as children of God.

Third, we recognize that the Holy Spirit is the foremost educator in charge of all ultimate education. It is our privilege and responsibility as Christian educators to respond to his teaching and to help others respond to his educating influence. "He will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13).

Fourth, in working toward the several purposes mentioned above, the questions of what, when, where and who are the basic questions of descriptive analysis, the questions of how and so what are basic to the interpretation of relationships; the question of why is the most important question of all. Understanding any aspect of truth calls for thorough investigation of the why. No matter what the field of knowledge, steady probing with the question why eventually takes us back to God. Indeed all the other questions if properly pursued are introductory to why.

Fifth, there is a difference between and yet a proper place for information transfer and research. The former involves a more experienced person helping a less experienced person acquire data. But high-quality teaching goes onward into those realms where teacher and pupil blend their efforts, both as students, to probe the unknown for answers which neither possesses. This we take to be the spirit of research. We believe the Lord delights in these two major endeavors: when qualified teachers and pupils transfer information to each other in a Christ-honoring spirit and when together they probe the unknown in an effort to discover some more of God's great reservoir of truth.

In this connection there are two extremes to avoid. One is that of information-absorption or information transfer devoid of creative thinking. The other is creative thinking (and its frequent concomitant of opinion-expressing) by a person who is too lazy or too superficial to lay a solid foundation of knowledge gleaned from lessons learned by predecessors. This is common among those guilty of disdaining the past. There needs to be a healthy blending of both study and thought. Study without thought is vain; thought without study is dangerous.

Sixth, in considering truth, there are two great realms to be distinguished: absolutes and relatives. The former consists of that knowledge in which some truths are absolutely established either by means of God's revelation directly or by means of his indirect revelation via our own research. In the realm of the absolutes there are right answers and there are wrong answers. Here it is possible to say, "I know." We should strive to know these truths and to teach them diligently to those who look to us for instruction.

The realm of the relatives is the realm of the ambiguous. This is the realm of mystery. Here we must make such admissions as "I do not know," "I think, but I am not sure." Here we should enter the realm spiritedly, investigating every component in hopes of finding new light. But even where such light is unavailable, we enter the realm of ambiguity unafraid. We refuse to concede that there is any intellectual area where Christians should fear to tread, assuming that we walk closely with the Lord Jesus, that our absolutes are firmly in place and that our minds are motivated to glorify Christ Jesus our Lord. At present this second realm contains numerous unresolved questions on which equally dedicated Christians hold opposing opinions. A well-educated Christian in this respect can cheerfully remain with the Lord Jesus and roll with the punches without losing his equilibrium regardless of the topic being probed.

There are two extremes to avoid. One says that all truth is in the realm of the absolutes and that there are no shades of gray in between. This is the mistake of some parents and teachers. This can have a devastating effect on young people who, in subsequent encounters with skeptics, agnostics, atheists and devotees of various religions, are unable to give intelligent reasons for their Christian faith, lifestyle and world/life view. The other extreme declares that there are no absolutes and that all knowledge is restricted to the zone of ambiguities. Situation ethics is one example.

As Christian educators, the challenge is to anchor firmly in place God's great absolutes (both his absolute positives and his absolute negatives) and then from these bulwark pillars to probe through the intervening zone of the ambiguous. Destroy the pillars (take away the absolutes) and the framework of reality comes tumbling down in our minds.

Seventh, these are two major styles of thinking, the categorical and the abstract. Categorical thinkers tend to be linearists or listers or splitters, showing how point after point, subpoint after subpoint, fit together in a rational sequence or arrangement. Abstract thinkers on the other hand tend to be lumpers and view all things together in terms of generalizations and impressions.

Again there are two extremes to avoid. One is to disdain the abstractors as being vague, muddled, pompous and incapable of clear thinking. The other is to disdain the categorical thinkers as being simplistic, shallow and superficial.

As Christians, we aspire to develop our abilities to think well in both styles. Here again we recognize that the Lord has endowed some individuals to think more ably in one style than the other. This means that there will be different styles of fruit emanating from the categorical thinkers and from the abstract thinkers, both equally devoted in loving the Lord Jesus with all their minds. It also means that in evangelism it may be wise to approach some persons with the style of thinking in which they function best.

Eighth, the knowledge explosion and the increasing rate in the rate of change are combining to frighten many a student. As the volume of knowledge to be known expands, the percentage which any one person can master grows steadily smaller. Overwhelmed and in the face of such futility, how can one make certain that the minute proportion which he does learn is important and that he is not missing the knowledge that matters most? This is where Christian education is critically important. If it fulfills its purpose it helps a student answer this basic question.

Lastly, there are several marks of educated people. They have a wide and deep fund of knowledge gleaned from diligent study in diverse fields of learning. This requires a substantial data base. Such people are conversant in a wide range of interests and can ask good questions in diverse fields (not just professional football or politics or some other single track). They understand relationships which are discernible between various aspects of that knowledge. They understand the significance (the meaning) of that knowledge. They make wise decisions based on their fund of acquired truth. Good education should produce some practical results; that is, in addition to the precious values of education for education's sake, there should be some impact on society. Christians who become educated should manifest a certain dimension of light in the darkness and of salt in society because they have been educated. It isn't that they are better than when they were less educated, but they should be different — if in no other way than that they now are capable of becoming more involved in solving problems of the world about them, of helping more people in need.

With Mind and Heart

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart...and mind...." Again there are some extremes on both the side of the heart and of the mind. One is adopting the attitude that the mind is corrupt, that the more we develop the intellect the less we will love the Lord with our heart, therefore, the way to maintain purity of heart is to preserve intellectual simplicity. Support is said to be found in such references as, "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom…" (1 Cor. 1:20-21).

At the other extreme is intellectual development associated with ego inflation and a drifting away from sound doctrine. Too many scholars abandon the love they had at first for the Lord and Scripture, they lose their devotion to the Person of Christ; Christianity becomes more "it" than "he"; they lower their view of Scripture; the atonement becomes an abstract concept rather than a specific deed by God in history; their hunger and thirst after righteousness gives way to a fascination for theological dialog alone; evangelistic zeal is replaced by a fascination for theological ramifications; and instead of intent to present the gospel clearly an obsession for intellectual sophistication appears.

Another pitfall is overcomplication whereby we obscure the truth by our lack of understanding or by our desire to impress. The other extreme is oversimplification whereby we settle for an elementary knowledge of God's revealed truth. This leads to failure in training people to love the Lord with the whole mind. We need to develop our minds to their highest potential while loving the Lord with full fervor. The God who created us in his own image created our intellects to be developed for his glory. As Christian educators, our aim is to be simple where simplicity is called for and to think in complex interrelationships where only these fit reality.

All of the above are errors because in each case one command of God is abandoned in favor of another. Total submission to Christ calls us to obey both. Surely there is the possibility of developing our minds to their highest potential while loving the Lord with all our hearts. If it were not possible, God would not have commanded it. The God who created us in his own image created our intellects to be developed for his glory. Failure to develop them dishonors him. But developing them to our glory instead of to his also dishonors him.

A Christian View

The Christian believes that he can fulfill the purposes of education if he builds upon a values system constructed on a particular basing point as follows:

God is the basing point. He is fact not fiction, a person not a vague summation of all goodness. He is invisible at the moment but very real. His character is all that is good and just. His actions reflect that character; he created everything and holds everything together including humanity, society and the rest of reality. There is great mystery here, so great that no human mind can comprehend more than slightly his nature, his deeds and his thinking.

God has revealed himself to us via Jesus Christ who was the visible expression of the invisible God. Jesus made the extraordinary claim that he was the way, the truth, the life — which means that our educational efforts fall short if they fail to acquaint us with him and his teachings.

God has revealed through the Bible the basic truths he wants us to know. The opportunity (and the challenge) to the Christian in education is to study the Bible well, to probe every sphere of learning for which he has capacity and time, and then to apply the truths of Scripture to those spheres of learning — and to every aspect of life.

On these three foundational convictions the Christian then builds the remaining components of his values system. In this way the Christian — believing in Jesus Christ, believing the Bible — is better qualified to understand himself as a person, to understand the society to which he belongs, to understand the environment in which life is carried on, to enjoy learning, to make wise decisions and to carry them out.

In a word, the purposes and the values of education come to focus in the Lord Jesus Christ "whom God made our wisdom" (1 Cor. 1:30). Our desire in education is "to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:2-3).

Thomas Wistar's hymn of the Christian Scholar is pertinent.

Our Father in Heaven, Creator of all,
O source of all wisdom on thee would we call;
That only can teach us and show us our need
And give to thy children true knowledge indeed.

But vain our instruction and blind must we be
Unless with our learning be knowledge of thee.
Then pour forth thy spirit and open our eyes
And fill with the knowledge that only makes wise.

From pride and presumption, O Lord, keep us free
And make our hearts humble and loyal to thee,
That living or dying in thee we may rest
And prove to the scornful thy statutes are best.*

* Thomas Wistar, "Our Father in Heaven, Creator of All," in Hymns of the Living Faith (Winona Lake, Indiana: Light and Life Press, 1951), 571.

John Alexander (1918-2002) was a professor and chair of the Geography Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was President of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship from 1964 to 1981. This essay was originally published in a longer version as a booklet by InterVarsity Press during the late 1970s and went through several reprintings. For the historically inclined who may be interested in the unexcerpted original document, please see our full-text version.

Biblical quotations in this essay are drawn from the Revised Standard Version.