Organization and administration of religious education;

Contents

chapter page

Editor's Introduction 7

Author's Preface 9

Author's Preface

Whatever we would have in our national life we must first put into our program of education. This fundamental principle is universally accepted as applied to civic, moral, and vocational life. It is no less valid as applied to religious life. We are now coming to recognize this application, and the result is widespread interest in the organization and administration of programs of religious education which will provide adequate religious instruction for American children and youth.

This volume undertakes to deal with some of the chief factors involved in the organization and administration of religious education programs. No claim is made either of completeness or finality. All the author has attempted to do is to treat in as much detail as the limits of the volume will permit, the fundamental principles of educational organization and administration as applied to the particular problem in hand.

It seems obvious that the only way to secure the proper functioning of the religious motive in education is to use effectively the educational method in religion. The various problems dealt with in the book have therefore been treated from the educational point of view.

The following are some of the fundamental assumptions which have been made:

1. That religious instruction should be regarded as an integral part of the education of every child.

2. That religious education, like all other kinds, can

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

be carried on successfully only under certain specified conditions as to aims, curriculum, method, teaching force, and supervision.

3. That these conditions cannot be secured unless schools are properly organized and intelligently administered.

4. That religious education should be regarded as a community enterprise in the sense that everybody in the community seeking the welfare of its childhood and youth ought to be interested in their proper religious nurture and training.

5. That the churches of the community constitute the chief agencies for providing adequate religious instruction.

6. That public-school experience may be made a valuable asset in our attempt to reorganize religious education. Two reasons for this assumption are apparent : ( I ) There are certain fundamental principles involved in the successful organization and administration of educational programs of all kinds; and (2) the public schools have worked out a successful technique which, if properly adapted, will be found extremely useful in the field of religious education.

A large share of attention, relatively, has been devoted to three topics, namely, the aims of religious education; selection, training, and supervision of teachers ; and the administrative management of pupils.

Two outstanding purposes are conceived for religious instruction: (i) To assist the public school in achieving its aims; and (2) to achieve certain aims peculiar to the functions of religion. This point of view led the author to consider the aims of education as a whole, of which religious instruction is a necessary, vital, and integral part.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The relatively large portion of the book devoted to teachers and pupils seems justified on the ground of the great importance of these factors in any fruitful discussion of educational organization and administration.

One of the great advances made in modern education is the introduction of the scientific method in dealing with pupils. No less marked has been the emphasis upon the importance of trained teachers, proper standards for use in their selection, and a scientific technique for their supervision. Those who work in the field of religious education will find this experience of public-school administrators and teachers a fruitful source of information and encouragement.

Evanston, Illinois. J. E. S.

Chapter I The Church As An Instrument Of Social Service

What part is the church to play in the great task of social progress? This question is in the minds of a multitude not only within the church but without it as well. That there is general expectation that it will play a larger part than at present is apparent. The church is making extensive plans manifested by increasingly larger budgets and the setting up of administrative machinery through which it hopes to render a more significant service. Outside the immediate leadership of the church many are hoping that it will come into a more definite position of influence in the solution of our great social problems. An increasing number of people are looking to the church for leadership with clearly defined goals and wisely selected means for reaching them.

This evidence that the leadership of the church is conscious of larger responsibility is extremely encouraging. The fact that its constituency is ready to respond to a competent leadership is equally significant. Lying back of these more objective manifestations of responsibility and expectation is something even more significant. This more significant thing consists of definite questions concerning the what and the how of the program of the church. People are insistingly asking, What contribution can the church make? and How docs it propose to make it? In what terms is the task of the church conceived ? What are the objectives being set up? What are the plans and programs proposed ? These are vital questions, and upon the answers will depend the success or failure of the enterprises of the church. The purpose of the present chapter is to direct attention to these questions.

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE CHURCH

A clear determination of the functions of the church in modern society lies at the heart of intelligent answers to the questions suggested above. The mere fact that its activities are being multiplied or that some of these activities are becoming intensified or enlarged does not in itself mean that its power in modern society is being increased and well directed. It is only when its objectives are clearly determined and means to attain these objectives wisely selected that its activities can be properly evaluated. What are the new demands, or age-long demands with new meanings and new emphases, being made upon the church ? This question can be best answered by directing our inquiry to religion itself.

Religion conceived in sodal tenns. — Religion is being conceived largely in social terms. The emotional and intellectual factors are no less important than they have always been, but they are being called upon more and more to express themselves in concrete social situations where wrongs are to be righted, justice secured, and righteousness promoted. A church which boasts of its intellectual freedom is only displaying its institutional vanity unless this freedom is directed toward the functioning of truth in social relationships. Likewise a church which assumes authority to deny its membership intellectual freedom and conceives its chief function to be the preservation of an ancient faith, must assume the responsibility of making this faith a great propulsive force directed toward social righteousness. The church which stresses the importance of emotional fervor manifests only its stupidity, unless this becomes a power directed toward bringing in the kingdom of God on earth. And, finally, any church, to whatever type it may belong, that finds its chief concern in establishing and maintaining institutional machinery has failed to sense the modern demands upon the Christian religion.

Religion and life. — That vital religion has not and is not now dominating the life of great masses of individuals and of nations is perfectly apparent. And by vital religion is meant, religion as defined in the life and teachings of Jesus. What are the essential facts of Jesus' life and what did he really teach? Fortunately, men the world over are seriously and insistently asking this question as they have not done before. But they are not stopping here in their questionings. How can religion thus defined and conceived be made to function more effectively in the lives of individuals? What does it have to offer in the solution of modern social, political, and economic problems? The primary function of the church is to answer these questions. If it fails at this point, it will ignominiously fail as an instrument of social service.

The social task. — The great world task is social betterment. Men and women in increasing numbers are becoming conscious of the fundamental meaning and nature of this task. This explains in part at least why there is such widespread dissatisfaction with the present performance of institutions, including the church, through which the process of social regeneration must be carried forward. They recognize that the things in which they have placed their faith and upon which they have built their hopes have in and of themselves failed to create a satisfactory social order. Solemn treaties have become mere "scraps of paper/* laws are openly violated, and agreements ruthlessly broken. International agreements, peace conferences, constitutions, statute laws, supposedly accepted political and economic principles have all failed to prevent war and to curb greed and selfishness. They have failed to function properly in individual and corporate life and to control class hatred and strife. Even education itself, upon which we had come to place chief reliance, has shared in the common failure to secure the new social order.

There must be something more fundamental and powerful than these things, vital and indispensable as they all are. Hence the questionings of men concerning the values in religion and their challenge to the church.

Relation of the church to the task. — The substance of the answer to the question concerning the function of the church has already been implied. It is to interpret truly and adequately the life and teachings of Jesus, cause his ideals and motives to dominate in the lives of individuals, and to make effective the functioning of these ideals and motives in all social relationships. The latter includes God as well as men. In the mind of Jesus the fatherhood of God was inseparable from the brotherhood of man. Fellowship with God and men — all men — was the final terms in which Jesus conceived religion. His dual command was to love God and one's neighbors, and he declared that the

i6 supreme evidence of this love is found in service to one's fellows.

The forms which this answer takes are extremely important. It must be stated in terms that will enlist the interest, command the confidence, and justify the hopes of all those to whom the church would minister. Three things, at least, insistently demand attention.

1. The church, if it would get a hearing from modern men, must think and speak in a modern language.^ They are not thinking or evaluating life and conduct in terms of mediaeval theology. They are thinking and evaluating in terms of present-day life. Biology and psychology have revealed and are continuing to reveal facts about human life which have not only great scientific interest but tremendous religious import. Sociology has for its field social relationships, and its contributions have great value for the modern church. Men as never before are thinking in social as well as scientific terms. The thought of our age can be interpreted adequately only in an appropriate terminology. Sin and salvation, redemption and righteousness, saved and lost must be interpreted in a language that falls on understanding ears. Men both in their individual capacities and in their social relationships of all sorts need to be called to repentance in a tongue they will understand. Jesus spoke in a language familiar to his hearers. Will the church in a larger measure than it is now doing follow the example? An affirmative answer is already assured.

2. The church must have a thoroughly modernized system of truth. ^ To abandon archaic language and to modify the form in which truth is stated does not

iTittle, Ernest P., What Must the Church Do to Be Saved f pp. 13-14. *Ibid., pp. X4-22.

make it necessary to dispense with formulated truth which we are accustomed to call theology. It does mean, however, that this truth when so formulated must square at every point with the established and generally accepted facts of modern life. Any assumption presupposing that religious truth, unlike all other kinds of truth, is capable of no development or expansion is unwarranted. If a growing, developing, outreaching world is to be undergirded, motivated, and directed by a religion, that religion must be one whose body of truth is of the same dynamic sort. Old forms may have to be discarded not only to permit the introduction of new truth, but also to make possible the functioning of the old. Biblical scholarship, scientific research, and sociological endeavor are making constant contributions of inestimable value.

The attitude of the church as a whole toward this problem of social regeneration is encouraging. Multitudes of forward-looking men and women realize the great value that these contributions have for the work of the church. They know full well that the church cannot negate or even ignore the intellectual stimulus furnished by modern scholarship. Its message is already taking such form as to stimulate thought on religious themes and to give men and women an intellectual life within the church.

3. Religious truth must enter more largely into and become an integral part of the whole body of truth. This means first of all that the church must deal with all truth as it relates to modern life. It must not only recognize and accept it from whatever source it may come, but must make it minister to the spiritual needs of all classes and conditions of men. Its mission is not only to teach but to interpret. The former function is naturally limited in its scope. Other agencies share in the responsibility. The latter rightfully conceived has no limitations except those belonging to truth itself. In its more inclusive ministry it should give the Christian interpretation to all truth. It is only thus that the Chrisian ideal can be made to function in the thought and conduct of men.

This is an enormous task confronting the church. The field of science alone presents a great body of truth, yet largely untouched by the church in its ministry of interpretation. Human nature as revealed by biology and psychology calls for explanation in terms of its spiritual meaning and significance. Social relationships have become so complex that a body of knowledge and experiences is being formulated, dealing with these in a constructive way. Men and women are attempting to think in terms of these relationships in a degree they have never attempted before. All this vast complex of knowledge and experience with which men are attempting to deal calls for interpretations in terms of the life and teachings of Jesus. A Christianized social order must first of all exist in the personal ideals and aspiration of those who are to bring it about It must first animate the thought of a generation before it can become a reality in its social relationships.

In this relation the church not only has responsibility in the present but for the future. Those who are now in our public schools and higher institutions of learning are acquiring knowledge and experience of one kind and another which will determine in large measure their thought, life, and conduct when they assume the responsibility of adult membership in society. What is the church doing to help interpret the facts being learned and the experience acquired ?

If the study of science is leading to materialism whose fault is it? If a knowledge of the facts or fancies of psychology leads to belief in the ouija board, who is to blame? If a knowledge of and experience in the social life of our times results in theories destructive to the stability of any properly conceived social order, what is the remedy? And, finally, if God is being forgotten and Christ rejected — in short, if a knowledge of and vital experience in religion is not a part of all knowledge and experience, what is the reason therefor? A vitally religious life means an interpretation of all phases of knowledge and experience in terms of a vital religion. It is the supreme function of the church to furnish this interpretation.

THE PROGRAM OF THE CHURCH

A modern program commensurate with the task of the church is imperative. By program is not meant merely a statement of large objectives to be reached. The adding of one million or five millions to the membership of the church is a worthy objective, assuming that this number is thereby added to the Kingdom. Raising funds aggregating millions or hundreds of millions to be used for worthy purposes is a laudable enterprise. Building up organizations anticipating the use of large numbers of consecrated men and women to carry forward the work of the church is commendable. The federation of the churches is one of the most hopeful signs of the times. But none of these in and of themselves or all taken together constitute a program. It is not meant to imply that programs are not being worked out and formulated. The purpose is, rather, to point out the extreme importance of the fact that the value of the answer which the church makes to the present challenge depends in the last analysis upon its detailed program of service.

Appeal of a program. — The program is the matter in which people are primarily interested. They want to know not only the details concerning what is to be done but also how it is to be done. Any proposition, therefore, which is presented in the form of a program having in it the promise of being effective makes a successful appeal. Neither the bigness of an undertaking nor difficulties to be surmounted deters men and women of our generation. The thing that does fail to arouse interest and enlist support is hazy ill-defined objectives and ineffective means of accomplishment.

People of our time and country do not lack faith. They are not afraid to venture forth on great enterprises. If many seem to lack religious faith, it is not improbable that it is because they have not been challenged. If the church would enlist the faith of men by directing that great propulsive force of life toward religious ends, it can do so only by furnishing a program whose objectives appeal to their imagination and the means of accomplishment to their judgment.

Formulation of a program. — The formulation of a program must first of all take into account what needs to be done, which the church cooperating with other institutions or acting upon its own initiative can do effectively. Stated briefly, social reconstruction is the inclusive objective toward which we are striving. But this means also individual reconstruction. A new social order is conditioned upon the cooperation of individuals who have both the disposition and ability to secure and maintain it. Any program set up by the church which does not recognize this as the fundamental task, in the sense that first things must come first, will not get very far. What, then, in detail are the objectives and methods of the program?

I. The program must include provisions for enriching and vitalizing the lives of individuals. The chief function of the church is to aid people in attaining to Christian standards of personal life and character. At the present time it is not doing this effectively. Multitudes are not touched directly by its influence. This is attested by the fact that more than half our population has no membership in the church and does not participate in its activities. More than this, approximately three- fourths of the children and youth are not enrolled in Sunday schools or other schools of religious instruction. Added to this is another fiact, namely, that many who are nominally within the church either because of lack of disposition or ability or both are not promoting the new social order. Still further, the children and youth who are enrolled in the schools are not receiving instruction adequate in amount or sufficiently vital in character. This is not meant to express lack of appreciation of what the Sunday school is accomplishing. Neither is it intended as any reflection upon the good work being done by multitudes of officers and teachers. We might just as well face the facts, however, that the means of religious instruction now available are wholly inadequate to meet the imperative needs of our time. More will be said concerning this point in a subsequent chapter.

The immediate question is concerned with the program of the church for vitalizing and making more effective the lives of individuals. It must undergird life with religious motives and ideals in a much more compelling way than it is now doing. That it must continue to burn in the hearts of men and women the story of the prodigal son and thereby win them back to decency and God is entirely obvious. Its program must continue to include means and methods to regenerate life that has lost its vital contact with spiritual forces. But not less — aye, more — imperative is it that the church generate life — that it construct as well as reconstruct. The task of saving men when lost is a significant one; that of gripping life before it has become sin-stained and broken is both more significant and more fruitful. This should be conceived as the supreme task of the church. The final test of the efficiency of the program is found at this point. It must substitute knowledge for ignorance and make that knowledge a dynamic force in the formative periods of life. Attitudes, interests, and ideals of some kind are formed early in life. As these relate to religious life and experience, their inculcation, growth, and development must be one of the great objectives of the program of the church.

2. Any effective program will train for social service in far larger measure than is now being done. The ennobling and vitalizing of the lives of individuals has been pointed out as the supreme function of the church. A program which stops or even halts here will fail to meet the demands made upon it. It must also include provision for training men and women in various lines of social service and for directing them in this service. It must continue to train for the preaching ministry and more adequately than it is now doing. The supply in this field is wholly inadequate to the demand. Not only this but the stress and strain brought on by the demands of modern life reveals that many now in the ministry are illy trained for the task. Some indeed do not seem to sense in an adequate way either the extent or character of the task. Whatever the percentage of ill-trained ministers may be, it is large enough to demand that the program for the training of the ministry be more vitally and intelligently conceived.

When we turn to other fields of religious service comparatively few competent workers are found. What is more to the point in this connection is that the present program for training such workers is extremely meager. There are, to be sure, special schools maintained for missionary and other fields of social service. But these schools are for the most part meagerly supported, some of them poorly equipped, and the attendance distressingly small.

LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESENT VOLUME

The limitations of the present treatment makes impossible a discussion of the entire program of the church. It includes reclamation of life that has lost its spiritual contacts. Great emphasis has been placed upon this, and rightly so. Its program of relief to those in need has been greatly extended in recent years. The ministry of the church to the hungry and sick and others unfortunately situated must be continued and enlarged. It is not, however, within our province to consider these forms of its ministry. The educational function of the church is the only one that engages our attention in the present relation. The problem presented by the needs of both individuals and society is of such magnitude and difficulty that it requires extended treatment. The purpose of the following chapters is to treat the problem in such detail as the limits of the volume will allow.

Chapter II The Educational Function Of The Church

The importance of the educational function of the church has been implied in the preceding chapter. In any fruitful discussion of the need for a clearly defined program of the church education must of necessity have a conspicuous place. The purpose of the present chapter is to make explicit and to discuss in some detail the opportunity and responsibility of the church in relation to education.

PRESENT EMPHASIS UPON EDUCATION

Education is being relied upon as never before as a means of securing individual efficiency and social betterment. As a people we have committed our destiny to education in a remarkable and hitherto unparalleled degree. We are educating for citizenship, for vocations, for avocations, and these types of education are being differentiated and worked out more and more in detail. The principle which we have adopted is in effect as follows : Determine what children should hecome in personal characteristics and in social dispositions and abilities and then educate for the accomplishment of these things. The state has fully committed itself to this principle.

Extension of public education. — The increased and constantly increasing extension of public education is a matter of great significance. Multiplication of schools, their more efficient organization and administration, the extension and enrichment of curricula, compulsory attendance — these are some of the objective evidences of the extreme importance we are attaching to public education. And in this effort we are not seeking to secure merely general intelligence. The ends sought are specific and clearly defined. Dependence is no longer being placed upon mere ''discipline'* of mental powers or upon a general "culture" consisting of a knowledge of a multitude of things. Health, the right use of leisure time, vocational and civic efficiency are some of the things being sought through knowledge bearing directly upon them. But we are not stopping here. This knowledge when acquired must be made to function by means of motives which have their sources in proper attitudes, ideals, interests, and appreciations. In short, the inclusive goal set up is the ability to live rightly through knowledge plus the disposition so to live through right motives. This goal is wholly worthy and its achievement imperative. But the public school is now falling short and will continue to fall short of accomplishment in considerable degree because an absolutely essential type of knowledge is excluded from its curriculum and the inculcation of the deepest and most compelling motives in human life is neglected. Specific instruction in religion is given no place in the public-school program. This is a fatal defect and must in some way receive far more attention than it is receiving at the present.

INTERRELATION OF RELIGION AND EDUCATION

No argument is needed to establish the fact that religion and education are mutually dependent. Looking at the matter historically, the above statement is thoroughly established. The history of both the church and the state bears abundant evidence. It is not the purpose here, however, to go into the history of the matter, but, rather, to point out that the religious element is necessarily excluded from the great program of public education in this country, and further, to show that this program must be supplemented by a program of religious education far more effective than exists at the present and to suggest how such a program can be supplied.

Separation of chtirch and state. — It is a matter of common knowledge that the growth and final consummation of the separation of church and state has resulted in the entire elimination of the religious element from public education. This does not mean that the public school is either in intent or practice irreligious. The teachers themselves constitute a refutation of any charge of this kind. No single group of social workers outside the ministry itself includes among its members a higher percentage of men and women thoroughly devoted to the Christian ideal than do the public-school teachers of America. The personal factor is also reen forced by an avowed attempt through the curriculum, general exercises, and other activities to give moral and ethical instruction of high order.

The influence of both personality and instruction, however, is falling short of accomplishing in an adequate way even ethical and moral ends desired. Wholesale charges of immorality in the public schools sometimes indulged in are unjustified. On the other hand, their failure to grip the lives of children and youth in a compelling way and to motivate conduct adequately is, unfortunately, abundantly attested. This failure should not be charged chiefly to their inefficiency as educational agencies of the state, but rather to the limitations under which, of necessity, they carry on their work. They are nonreligious and cannot undergird life with religious ideals and motives.

Evidence of lack of religious element. — The absence of the religious element in the public schools is shown in two ways :

1. Religious instruction in general is prohibited in any tax-supported institution by constitutional provision, legislative enactment, or court decision. In some States even the reading of the Bible in the public schools is absolutely prohibited. In others perfunctory reading of the Scriptures is permitted, but no one acquainted with the facts will claim that such reading, where practiced, constitutes an effective means of religious teaching. No other form of religious instruction, if, indeed, this perfunctory reading may be called such, is contemplated or permitted.

2. An examination of the subjects and subject-matter taught in the public schools reveals clearly the absence of religious teaching. This fact becomes even more apparent when a comparison with the curricula of the earHer schools is made. One does not have to go back very far to find textbooks which reveal that one of the distinct purposes was to teach religion. The New England Primer, Noah Webster's Spelling Book, and other texts in use bear evidence to the above statement. Some of the earlier high schools offered Christian Evidences and Butler's Analogy as subjects of instruction. The middle of the nineteenth century approximately marks the passing of these and similar subjects, and the public schools became wholly secular so far as their curricula are concerned.