6. A Historical Survey of Christian Education (2)(2009/04/09)

This is what I reorganized from the lecture by Dr. Garry Parrett in www.biblicaltraining.org.
All rights belong to Yohan Kim. If there is any problem of copyright, please let me know.

Summary

III. Early Church

A. Worship Service - powerful teaching way

1. Public segment - open service - singing, sermon, praying

2. Private segment - closed service - family-like. being a particular community.

Having people come forward personally.

Through the all courses of the worship service, we can develop the Christian formation.

B. Catechumenate: an idea that sometimes formal, informal school of the faith.

1. Catecheo(verb) = like "teach".

sound down, reecho, oral instruction. reputition, such as being instructed by Apostle's creed. Only the teacher instructed orally, never wrote it down.

2. Catechesis

Basis training emphasizing on something ancient, not novel.

3. Catechist = the instructing people - passing on, faith training.

4. Catechumen = the instructed people

5. Catechism = 교리 문답, 교리 문답책

It took a lot of time to accept others who really want to be the saint of the Communion and believed in the salvation of Jesus to the early church because the person should be taught and transformed entirely. Not like today's some evangelical churches.

IV. Medieval Church

A. Church-State Problems - I'm already christian, why do I need to be trained?

1. Illiteracy 2. Clergy domination

B. Increasing use of visuals, icons and story.

some not biblical. Those got mixed and became confused. Dont' worship the icons.

We are using lots of visuals these days too. I'd like the way of teaching by Story about what God have done in Jesus.

C. Monasteries(수도원) - Benedictine Code

1. Work, 2. Study, 3. Prayer

V. Reformation

A. Scripture in the hands of the people

* Universal education. especially in Academy, helping sharpening their reasoning.

B. Catechesis returns C. Luther D. Calvin

VI. Puritan Model A. Centrality of preaching B. Home as a small church

VII. Sunday School(love of neighbor.)

A. Beginnings

1. 1780 - Robert Raikes, Hannah Ball 2. Mainly outreach - love of neighbor.

B. United States

1. 1785 - Lay movement, parachurch 2. Lost evangelistic focus(confession, etc)

Good thing, many great Christian leaders say we are deeply formed in a Sunday school.

C. Problems

1. Distancing of pastors from CE 2. What to teach?

Big problem. We will teach Bible, not Catechesis.(교리문답) It sounds good, but...

safe part? Bible story. but faith? not very well.

can you tell ten commandments? Apostle's Creed? and so on?

One Sentence

Teaching Christians has been changed many times according to the change of the era, but the thing we should especially maintain is teaching should be all about Christian formation and the Dr. Garry says the Catechesis is one of the best ways.

Retelling

We all have reason. It's a good way to reach God not only by experiencing God's almighty but also by reasoning with God's word. I think all teaching should be performed as based on Bible. What we should teach can be the text itself or some easy and understandable and interesting parts, stories. However, I personally think we'd rather teach the way of thinking and the canon of Bible so that the people can start to learn with the right ground of doctrine. In opinion, it must be the basis, not the truth.