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Academic: Faith, hope and love keys to Christian education
10 March 2008
An Avondale College academic is challenging colleagues to preserve the essence of Christian education by "vigorously" including values of faith, hope and love in teaching.
Dr John Watts, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education, believes there is a need for a "fresh, de-familiarising" view of education in religious institutions, one based in theology and philosophy.
A number of interdependent complementary theological themes, which have implications for the theory and practice of education in Christian institutions of learning, featured as part of a paper Watts presented at the 37th International Integration of Faith and Learning Seminar, held at Avondale College, February 3-15. These themes included creation and re-creation, the garden and wilderness temptations, the imago Dei in humanity, the Exodus, Christ and the kingdom of heaven and values of the kingdom.
Watts based "Towards a theology of education: theology as under labourer to Christian education" on the following premise: unless Christian educators consciously, continuously and vigorously embed and embody their philosophy of education and their policies, procedures and practices in a rigorous and explicit theological framework suited to contemporary societies and particular faith traditions, the Christian educational enterprise will surrender itself to a surreptitious secularisation process, or simply become another spiritless ideology.
The posited theological approach implies faith and learning are integral and, therefore, integrated to a holistic understanding of the cosmos. It also implies education and, therefore, learning without faith, hope and love is empty of its essence.
"Christian education is concerned with salvation and truth," says Watts. "There can be no separation."
The seminar at which Watts presented his paper explores how to integrate the Christian worldview into the teaching practices of teachers. "It creates an environment of collegiality, of sharing successes and challenges, and a sense of collective accountability," says Dr Malcolm Coulson, vice-president for learning and teaching at Avondale.
The seminar is open only to full-time English-speaking Seventh-day Adventist educators who hold a minimum of a master's degree. Co-sponsors of the seminar are the Education Departments of the worldwide Adventist Church, the church in the South Pacific and in Australia, with additional support from The Foundation for Adventist Education.
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