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Charlotte Mason's ideas are too important not to be understood and implemented in the 21st century, but her Victorian style of writing sometimes prevents parents from attempting to read her books. This is an imperfect attempt to make Charlotte's words accessible to modern parents. You may read these, print them out, share them with your local study group--but they are copyrighted to me, so please don't post or publish them without asking.
~L. N. Laurio

Preventing Religious Doubt

Volume 1, Home Education, pg 38

A Person who Lives Ethically May Be More Successful than a Religious Person

It is really pitiful that many people who pride themselves on not knowing God live purer lives with less character flaws and selfishness than many professing Christians! Our children won't be able to escape notice of that fact and we will need to be prepared with some explanation of that phenomena. If the secular person they see should happen to be a beloved, respected person in their lives, it will speak more to them than years of doctrinal teaching. The biggest threat to religion isn't all the wickedness around us, but good that comes from a source refusing to acknowledge God.


Volume 1, Home Education, pg 39-41

Some Christians Don't Live as They Should

Sometimes the gift of eternal life is so wonderful that a Christian doesn't seek for anything else. He breathes in deeply, enjoying the freshness of his new spiritual life--but he breathes in the spiritual laws only, completely missing the laws of nature and almost treating them with contempt, or resisting them as belonging to the secular world [an example might be Christians who avoid any music that isn't hymns because it's secular.].

Such a person might care nothing for the wonderful way in which he was created, or how the brain works, or the subtle ways that the mind develops in accordance with natural laws. They think that these earthly matters are worthy only of the attention of nonbelievers, as if it somehow dishonors God to focus on the way He displays His character in the laws of this world. They refuse to have anything to do with any laws except the blatantly religious ones. Meanwhile, the secular person seeking to discover how the world operates most efficiently finds that things work better when he adheres to certain natural laws--physically, mentally, morally; in fact, all of the various facets of God's interests except the spiritual one. Don't forget that, although Esau gave away his spiritual birthright, the inheritance he did receive was also a blessing of God. When secular people heed God's natural laws and Christians don't, is it any wonder that the children of Christians ask, 'Why does it seem like non-believers are better off than we are?'

Parents Must Familiarize Themselves with the Principles of Physiology and Moral Laws

Christians parents shouldn't set up their children to have to face this difficulty. They have no right to pray that their children would be honest and have integrity while neglecting the principles and scientific details that go into teaching and training children to be honest and have integrity. These principles and scientific details are just as divine as God's spiritual Laws. The principles and laws of the natural world won't help us enter into a true knowledge of God Himself, which takes priority over anything else and makes life worth living. But these natural and scientific laws play a part in the education of all persons, and parents may not neglect them without paying the price. In these volumes, I will attempt to roughly lay out a method of education that adheres to divine natural laws and thus will result in divine blessings and success. Anything I can offer in this short guide will be imperfect and incomplete, but I hope it will be enough to get thoughtful parents focused on the proper lines of thinking in regards to the education of their children.


Volume 1, Home Education, pg 347-348

When and the How to Teach About God

The next thing the mother needs to consider is when and how to teach her children about God. It's better for her instruction to be rare and therefore more esteemed, than to be so frequent that children tune it out. It would be better for a child to get no religious teaching at all than to hear it so often that he gets tired of it and the mere mention of anything religious turns him off.


Volume 1, Home Education, pg 350

The very essence of Christianity is personal loyalty. We are passionately loyal to our wonderful Master. Some people have tried to lay foundations of regeneration, sacraments, justification, works, faith, or the Bible. These may be necessary to salvation, but if they're over-emphasized, they can become a religion about Christ, but without Christ. A time of sifting has come in our day. Many thinkers claim to know nothing about our religious systems. They declare that all of our orthodox beliefs aren't knowable. Maybe this happens because they think so much about salvation that they've forgotten Who saved them. But no one who has ever truly known Him can forget Him.


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 41-43

How to Fortify Children Against Doubt

How do we fortify our children against the doubts that fill the air? That's a worrisome question. We have three options. We can teach them in the same old way that we ourselves were taught and let them take their chances when it's their time. Or we can try to deal with each of the difficult issues and doubts that have come up and that they're likely to face in the future by offering them Christian dogma and 'proofs.' Or we can give them such a clear hold on vital truth, and such a thorough perspective of current issues that they'll land on the safe side of whatever controversies they come up against. They'll recognize truth in whatever new light it's presented in, and they'll be safeguarded against mortal error.

Of The Three Options, the First is Unfair

The first option (teach them in the same old way that we ourselves were taught and let them take their chances) is unfair to our youth. When the attack comes, they'll find themselves at a disadvantage. They'll have no response. Their confidence will be shaken, and they'll conclude that none of the truth they learned is useful as a defense. If it was, wouldn't they have been taught how to use it? They'll resent being proved wrong and being on the weaker, losing side--at least, that's how it looks to them--and being behind the times. So they'll go over to the side of the most aggressive current thinkers without a struggle.

'Evidence' is Not Proof

Now let's suppose that they've been fortified with 'Christian evidence' and defended with a wall of solid, dogmatic teaching. Religion without definite authoritative teaching degenerates into sentiment, but dogma for the sake of dogma offers no defense against the assaults of unbelief. As far as 'evidences,' the proverb, 'He who excuses himself accuses himself' [he who is most vocal about his innocence is often the most guilty] might be applied to the whole list of Christian apologists. Whatever truth we live by needs to be self-evidenced, requiring neither proof nor disproof. Children should learn Bible history with whatever light modern research can shed. But they shouldn't be taught to assume that evidences such as inscriptions on Assyrian monuments are proofs that the Bible is correct. They help to illustrate the Biblical record, but they're only supplementary proofs, nothing more or less.

The Outlook on Current Thought

How about the third option? Let's consider, first of all, the perspective of current thought. Young minds crave contemporary opinion. Young people are eager to know what to think about the serious questions regarding religion and life. They want to know what this or that influential person's opinion is. They don't confine themselves to the leading people that their parents have decided are worth listening to. On the contrary, the 'other side' of every issue is the attractive side to them, and they don't want to be out of step with cutting edge thought.


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 44-45

Knowledge is Progressive

But isn't all of this too much for children? Not at all. Every walk should excite their enthusiasm for the things of Nature, and their reverence for the scientists who study them. But every opportunity should be taken to note the progressive advances of science, and the fact that today's teaching might be tomorrow's error because new light might lead to new conclusions regarding even the facts we already know. 'Until recently, geologists used to think that; now they think this, but they may discover reasons to think something else in the future.' Children should understand that knowledge is progressive, and that the next discovery might totally change what was thought before. We're still waiting for the last word, and we'll probably be waiting for a long, long time. Science itself is a 'revelation,' although we can't always interpret what we find out. Science is a great opportunity for spiritual awareness. A person who recognizes these things can rejoice in all truth and wait for final certainty.

Children Should Learn Some Laws of Thought

There's another way that we can try to provide children with the stability of mind that comes from knowing about themselves. They should understand the laws of thought that direct their own minds while they're still young enough that it seems like they've always known it. Let them realize that, once an idea takes possession of them, it will pursue its own course. It will establish its own path in the physical tissue of the brain and draw its own chain of ideas behind it. One of the most common reasons that young people abandon what they've been taught is because thoughtful youths are shocked when they come to notice their own thoughts. They read a book or listen to a lecture, and experience what they think is 'free thought.' With fearful joy, they discover their own thoughts taking off independently from what they've heard or read, and going on and on to arrive at startling new conclusions along the same lines.


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 92-93

Parents turning their children's religious education over to Sunday Schools is as inexcusable as sending them out to eat at public soup kitchens. Those of us in England aren't guilty of this particular item. Here, our Sunday Schools are only used by parents who are so over-worked and uneducated that they're willing to let more educated classes of people teach their children religion. In other words, Sunday School is a necessary evil of our day in response to parents who are too over-committed and burdened to take care of their first priority. And this should be the purpose of Sunday Schools: those parents who can should teach their children at home on Sundays, and substitutes should step in on behalf of those children whose parents can't teach them.


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 96-97

Scripture is Being Discredited

The fact is, our religious life has already suffered, and sooner or later, the character of our country will suffer, because hostile critics are trying to discredit the Bible. We correctly regard the Bible as the entirety of our sacred texts. The only thing we have to teach is what's in the Bible. But we don't go to the Bible with the same confidence anymore. Our religion is fading into an emotional sentiment that's not easy to pass on to the next generation. So we wait until our children are old enough to feel those sentiments for themselves. In the meantime, we give them enough aesthetic culture to develop a need in their soul that will lead them to worship. The whole foundation of liberal religious thought is miserably shaky. No wonder so many of us hesitate to expose it to the challenge of a definite, searching young mind. We're comfortable in the flimsy house of faith we've built. It vaguely resembles the strong old home that our souls used to live in, and we cling to it with a fond attachment that the younger generation might not understand.

'Miracles Don't Happen'

So then, if our house of faith is flimsy, are we homeless? In one area we are. We're exposed and unsheltered in the area of the assumption that a brilliant novelist has stated very blatantly: 'Miracles don't happen.' The educated mind is more essentially logical than we think. If you remove the cornerstone of miracles, the whole arch of Christianity crumbles around our heads. The showy respect for the Person of Jesus, when separated from the miracles that have been deemed as mythical, turns out to be nothing more than a false sentiment for a concept made up in our own minds. Once miracles are eliminated, the whole fabric of Christianity unravels. Not only that, but what do we do with the old revelation of God as 'the Lord, a God full of compassion and gracious'? Do we say, No, we'll keep this; it's no miracle? Do we keep Christ's excellent Sermon on the Mount and allow it to claim our allegiance for Christ? No, we don't. Within that one Sermon, we learn to pray, to consider the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, and to remember that the very hairs of our head are numbered. This embodies the doctrine of personal dealing, God's specific providence, which is the very essence of miracles. If 'miracles don't happen,' then it's foolish and presumptuous to pray and expect some faint disturbance of the course of events that are fixed in place by natural law. An educated mind is severely logical, although a deliberate effort can prevent us from following our conclusions to the bitter end. Without miracles, what's left? A God who can't possibly have personal dealings with you or me. After all, such dealings would be a miracle. What's left is a world of events so determined and certain that prayer becomes blasphemous. How can we dare approach the Highest with requests that would be impossible for Him to grant, if the nature of the world is so fixed?


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 104

The Bible is Classic Literature

It's surprising that so few educationalists realize that the Bible isn't one single book. It's a collection of classic literature with lots of beauty and fascination. Even apart from its Divine authority and religious lessons, apart from everything we understand as 'revelation,' the Bible is as educationally useful as the classics of ancient Greece and Rome. It has poetry with rhythm that can soothe even a disillusioned mind so that it can't enjoy any other kind of poetry. It has general, straightforward history and includes instances of God dealing slowly and surely with nations completely fairly, and illustrations of national sins and national repentance. Students recognize the brotherhood of man and solidarity of the race from Biblical history in a way they don't from any other history. And they recognize what we might call the individual character of nations. Of all the philosophies that have been presented, the philosophy in the Bible is the only one that's adequate for interpreting the meaning of life. We haven't even mentioned the Bible's main purpose: teaching religion and revealing God to man. I'll make one more point. All the combined literature of the world totally fails to give us a system of ethics, using precepts, examples, motives and authority, as complete as the Bible, which is our common inheritance.


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 127

As we've said before, parents and teachers are only allowed to play a minor role in the great work of education after all. You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. In the same way, you can bring the most suitable ideas to the mind of a child, but you have no way of knowing which he'll take to, and which he'll reject. And it's a good thing for us that a child's individuality is protected by this safeguard that's within each of them. Our job is to make sure that his educational plate is always refilled with appropriate and inspiring ideas. Once we've done our job, we need to leave it to the child's mental appetite to take what it needs, and how much it needs. But we need to watch out for one thing. The least sign of fullness, especially when we're talking about moral and religious ideas, should be taken as a serious warning. If we persist at that point, we may spoil the child's appetite forever, and he may never willing sit down to that particular dish again.


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 213

Moral teaching should be as simple, direct and definite as intellectual lessons. It should be presented with religious authority and inspired by religious impulses, but not limited to the Scriptural mandate or Biblical penalties against lying.


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 243

If a person refuses even a hint of doubtful thoughts about his mother or father, or his child or spouse, can he do any less for God, who is more than any of those, and who is the Lord of his very heart? Every time a question intrudes to cast doubt on God's truth, that person will remember that 'loyalty forbids' such thoughts.

A Safeguard Against 'Honest Doubt'

What about when others you respect ask questions and tell you about their 'honest doubt'?

Now that you know where their doubt originated, you can take it for what it's worth. It began with a suggestion, and once that suggestion was entertained in that person's mind, it was naturally compelled to reach its logical conclusion to the bitter end. Jesus, who didn't need anyone to tell Him about people, since He knew what was inside them, said, 'Be careful that you don't enter into temptation.'


Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 285

The Christian Religion is Very Objective

By its very nature, Christianity is objective. It offers a Divine Person Who is the Desire of the World for us to worship, reverence, serve, adore and delight in. Simplicity, happiness and a broadened heart result from a heart being outpoured onto something that is completely worthy. But we mistake what we really need, we're preoccupied with our own falls and our own repentance, and our many states of consciousness. We seem to think that our religion is more subjective than objective. But it's the opposite. Our religion is objective first, and if we still have any time or care to think about ourselves, it's partly subjective after that.


Volume 3, School Education, pg 42-43

Children Should Form Their Own Opinions

We only have room to mention one more area where we should practice 'masterly inactivity.' There are compelling issues being discussed these days, controversial opinions burning in people's minds--issues of religion, politics, science, literature, art, every kind of social project, and we all tend to have strong opinions. A person who hasn't kept abreast of the latest evolution of thought in the world about these matters should be ashamed of himself. It's our responsibility to form opinions carefully, and to hold them loyally unless facts persuade us to change our mind. But we have no right to pass these opinions on to our children. It's so easy to make strong partisan followers of our children, at least children who appear to be loyal. But with every action comes an equal and opposite reaction, and the swinging of the pendulum will probably carry our children to the totally opposite opinion of ours. The mother of the Newmans [Cardinal John Henry Newman and atheist Charles Robert Newman] was a devoted evangelical. When they were children, she passed her ready-made opinions over to her sons. Maybe she thought that the ideas they received from her on the matter was their own reasoned opinion. But when they were out from under her domineering influence, one allied himself with the Catholic Church in Rome, and another refused to have any restriction on his freedom to think and do what he wanted, so he chose to create his own creed, which was a rejection of God altogether. Perhaps this religious mother would have saved herself some grief if she had given her children the living principles of Christianity, which aren't matters of opinion. Then she could have let them accept her particular denomination as children without requiring that they believe that her evangelical opinion was the only real way of salvation.


Volume 3, School Education, pg 138-39

Questions on People's Minds

But there are questions on everyone's minds about the authenticity of Scripture and things like that. We're all pretty much at the mercy of words. So-called 'higher criticism' finds a lot to criticize and question about the verbal accuracy of Scripture passages, which gives us a vague idea that God's authority itself is in doubt. Part of the PNEU's work is to encourage and strengthen parents by comforting them with a sense that God's authority is behind theirs, always supporting them in their role as authority over their families. Another notion people are talking about is against the principle of authority itself, favoring greater respect for individual personality and the right of each individual to develop and evolve according to his own unique character. But the truth is, authority isn't adverse to individual development unless it's a morally wrong kind of development.


Volume 3, School Education, pg 90

Sentiment is Not the Same as Duty

But duty and sentiment are two different things. Sentiment is optional. Young people grow up thinking that belief in God, fear of God and love for God is an option. They don't learn that these are things that must be done. There's no free choice about loving and serving God, that's their duty. Loving God with their whole heart, mind, soul and strength is what they owe to God, but that's rarely taught or understood properly these days. Even if we have tender religious sentiments, our doctrines are often vague and lax. Children even of kind, religious parents grow up without having an intimate, always open, always friendly, continual communicative relationship with Almighty God. That relationship is the very fulfillment of life. Whoever has it, has eternal life. Whoever doesn't have that relationship is ice-cold and dead in their heart, like Coleridge's 'lovely Lady Geraldine,' no matter how much they strive for success in all their other relationships.


Volume 3, School Education, pg 132

Virtues that Children Should be Trained to Have

One more thing: parents should make it a point to have a clear idea of what kind of virtues they want their children to have. Impartiality, backbone, moderation, patience, humility, courage, generosity--in fact, the whole range of virtues would be an interesting subject for thinking about, teaching and finding illustrative examples. But I'd like to offer a word of caution. A child's whole concept of religion is 'being good.' He needs to know that 'being good' isn't his whole responsibility towards God, although it is a big part of it. A love relationship with God and being of service are also his duty. He owes that to God as a child owes love and service to his father, and as a subject owes it to his King. That's more than just 'being good,' although 'being good' also makes God pleased with His children.


Volume 3, School Education, pg 138-139

Questions on People's Minds

But there are questions on everyone's minds about the authenticity of Scripture and things like that. We're all pretty much at the mercy of words. So-called 'higher criticism' finds a lot to criticize and question about the verbal accuracy of Scripture passages, which gives us a vague idea that God's authority itself is in doubt. Part of the PNEU's work is to encourage and strengthen parents by comforting them with a sense that God's authority is behind theirs, always supporting them in their role as authority over their families. Another notion people are talking about is against the principle of authority itself, favoring greater respect for individual personality and the right of each individual to develop and evolve according to his own unique character. But the truth is, authority isn't adverse to individual development unless it's a morally wrong kind of development.


Volume 3, School Education, pg 144-147

Inspiring Ideas of Religious Life

Now we come to the most important aspect of our subject--the inspiring ideas we'd like to give children about the things in a life devoted to God. We sometimes tend to leave this to chance. But when we consider how vitalizing an idea can be, and how one single idea can change the course of a whole life, we realize how important it is to carefully consider which ideas of spiritual things are the most suitable for children, and how they can best be presented to seem inviting. It's sad that so many children's first concept of God as toddlers is of a Being who's always watching for them to be naughty so He can punish them. We may never know how much this kind of concept can alienate children's hearts. Another danger is that spiritual things can be made too familiar and worn out until the name of God is used without reverence. Or, children might get the notion that God's blessed name exists to serve them and what they can get from God, instead of them existing to serve God.

The Fatherhood of God

Perhaps the best concept to introduce children to first is that God is a kind Father and they live and move and exist within His divine loving arms. If children are allowed to grow up with this joyful assurance, then being unfaithful to this, the closest of all relationships, would be as shameful to them as it was to the Church during the medieval era.

Christ as King

The next concept, the kingship of Christ, will inspire them to do the right thing and will rouse children's eager loyalty, since we all know that children naturally bestow heroic devotion on anyone they find who's heroic. Perhaps we don't take advantage of this human tendency of hero-worship as much as we could in teaching religion. We tend to make our religious goals subjective [focused on what it will do for me] instead of objective [focused on God]. We're tempted to think of Christianity as a 'plan of salvation' designed and carried out for our individual benefit. But the very essence of Christianity is passionate devotion to a Person who's worthy of adoration.

Our Savior

Even when we recognize this, we can still fall into the trap of adopting a rose-water kind of treatment with children. Unfortunately for us, very few adults have as keen a sense of sin as a child of six or seven who has done something wrong. Many naughty, angry, sulky and hardened young offenders are that way simply because they don't have a personal understanding that there's a Savior of this world who has immediate forgiveness and ready love for them. But even in this respect, children's thoughts need to be focused outside of themselves, on Jesus the Savior, rather than their own personal feelings about the Savior.

The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

I have space to mention one more obvious Christian truth. Most Christian parents teach their children to recognize the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. They elaborate on the concept expressed in this poem:

'Enable with Your constant light
The dullness of our blinded sight.'

'Anoint and cheer our dirty face
With the abundance of Your grace.'

It would be good if we could prevent our children from having the concept that there's some kind of a separation between sacred things and so-called secular things. We should help them to recognize that all 'sound learning,' even if it isn't designated as 'religious instruction,' comes under the jurisdiction of God, the Holy Sprit, who is the supreme teacher of all mankind.

Parents and teachers will be able to think of lots of other inspiring ideas that are more valuable than any I could suggest--for instance, teaching, reading and meditating on any of the sections of the Lord's Prayer or the Apostles' Creed, or any of the Duties Towards God in the [Anglican] Catechism. Anyone who accepts the Old and New Testaments should find that worthwhile.

I haven't mentioned everything that's necessary to bring up children 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,' but I've discussed a few of the principles that seem essential to me, although I've done it very inadequately.


Volume 3, School Education, pg 155-157

Science: The Approved Teaching of Our Day

I think that the PNEU has the leaven that can leaven the whole lump of dough. Let's determine to work with a purpose and passion. Let's restore to the world that great scheme of unity in life that produced such great men and great works in the past, and let's enrich that with current knowledge. We don't need to be afraid that the kinds of ideas that will help education will oppose science. Many of us feel, for good reason, that science is the new teaching that's being emphasized in our age. That makes some people very happy. They see it as a sign that moral and religious struggles are about to be eliminated from life, and then life, for better or worse, will run along an easy inevitable path. Others are confused and are desperately looking for a middle ground where science and religion can be reconciled. Still others take refuge by rejecting the theory of evolution and all that goes with it. They hope to cling to religion by interpreting it more and more narrowly. Whichever group we fall into, we probably err by not having enough faith.

First of all, let's be convinced that, for a believer, science and religion can't possibly be at odds. Once we're assured of this, we might be able to see scientific evolution as a process of revelation that's brought about in every case as far as I know by a process described by Coleridge: 'Ideas about nature were given to men who were selected by a divine power even higher than nature herself. These ideas suddenly unfold in a prophetic kind of succession, these systematic views were destined to produce the most important revolutions in the state of man.' Huxley says that biology is useful because it 'helps to give the right ideas in this world. After all, this world is absolutely governed by ideas--and very often, by the wildest and most hypothetical ideas.' He goes on, 'people who refuse to go beyond the fact rarely get as far as the fact. Anyone who knows the history of science knows that almost every advance has been made by the anticipation of nature--in other words, by the invention of hypothesis.' Surely men of science will find the unifying principle they seek that Coleridge spoke of. If they did, then they would be able to distinguish themselves, not just as the proclaimers of truth that they're ready to take a stand for, but as servants of God who prepared themselves to receive revelation from God, who is the Truth.

Evolution is the Master-thought of the Age

Few of us can forget the mental image that Carlyle described of the Tiers etat [French commonality; the French nobles refused to treat their concerns seriously and this was a cause of the French Revolution of 1789] waiting for organization. 'Wise as serpents, harmless as doves. What a spectacle for France! Six hundred inhuman people who are needed to bring it back to life and save it, sit on their long benches, desperately wishing for life.' Coleridge wrote just as accurately about botany, although not as vividly. He said that botany, as it existed in his day, was waiting for a unifying idea that would organize it. He wrote, 'What is Botany right now? Not much more than an enormous collection of names, a huge catalog, meticulously arranged. Every year and every month, more names are added in various categories, and each has its own filing method and reference system. It's the innocent diversion, healthy hobby and impressive collection of amateurs. Botany still doesn't have the kind of energy and devotion that true philosophers would give it.' Our generation has been given the key word to interpret life, both animal and plant, but we don't know what to do with it.

For Ages, People Have Looked for a Unifying Principle

The human mind finds a great deal of rest and satisfaction in the concept of evolution. But we shouldn't forget that, for three thousand years, thinkers have been busy trying to explain the world with a single principle that would also explain Reason and the human soul. Herakleitos and the men of his time thought that they had found the answer when they said that 'the true Being is forever changing.' They thought that 'the universal change and evolving of things' explained it perfectly. Demokritos and the men of his age thought they had solved the riddle when they said, 'nothing exists except atoms moving around in space.' Many times since then, with each world-changing discovery, science has declared, 'I've solved the mystery!' when it's found a principle that seems to explain all things and eliminate the existence of personality.


Volume 3, School Education, pg 235

Religion

In teaching Religion, the Bible is without question what we need to rely on because it's the great storehouse of spiritual truth and moral impressions. In fact, a child could receive a pretty generous education from reading nothing but the Bible because the Bible contains such great literature within itself.

At one time, the 'National Schools' educated their students on the Bible, which is one of the three great collections of ancient classical literature. Ever since miscellaneous 'Readers' have replaced the Bible, there's been some decline in both character and intelligence in our nation. It's not possible or even desirable to revert back to what they used to do, but we should make sure that children get as much intellectual, moral and religious nourishment from their books as they did when their lessons were constructed entirely from the story of Joseph in Genesis to the letters of St. Paul.


Volume 4, Ourselves, pg 80-81 (Book II)

Theology

Theology, divinity, knowledge of God, or whatever we call it, is an area that needs the control of an educated conscience more than any other. We tend to think as children do--that God requires us to be good, and punishes us when we're bad, and that's all we need to know about religion. We totally neglect one fact that Jesus Himself confirmed--that God is 'eternal life.'

Maybe it's because the word 'eternal' brings to mind the far-off future, which is something we don't like to think too much about. We don't understand that eternity has already started--it includes future, past and present. Life--full, rich, abundant life--means knowing God now. Without that knowledge of God, we can't experience any free, joyful activity. We can't have the fulfilled glow of feelings, happy living free from worry, eyes that are alert to appreciate all beauty, a heart that's open to all goodness, a responsive mind, tender heart, and aspiring soul. All of these help to make a complete, full life experience. Most people have poor, crippled lives. They survive as if they were dragging their limbs around because they're dead and useless, just a burden to carry around. They don't even realize that their minds are dull and their hearts are heavy because they don't have the knowledge of God that is life itself.

The Divine Method

We tend to believe that knowledge about spiritual things comes by feelings. We're critical of ourselves if we don't feel as much emotion as we think we should. Yet if we examine the teachings of Christ, we find very little about feelings, and a lot about knowing. Jesus's teachings appeal to the intelligence, not emotional sentiment. 'He never spoke to them without using parables.' Why not? So that 'even though they heard, they wouldn't really hear, and even though they saw, they wouldn't really see, therefore they wouldn't understand.'

That method goes against every normal method of teaching. Generally, teachers work hard to make sure that even the slowest student clearly understands what he's saying. And we get impatient or annoyed at a poem or allegory that isn't obvious at first glance. In other words, we've decided that the responsibility for learning should all be on the teacher and none on the student.

But whatever comes too easy is soon lost--easy come, easy go. Knowledge is only retained if we invest some mental labor of our own. Especially when it comes to knowing about our religion, we need to read and mentally digest. We only grow on what we take in and assimilate so that it becomes a part of us. Jesus knew this. That's why He never gave easy sayings to teach people. Even His disciples didn't understand. Let's put ourselves in their shoes and listen to the Master's 'hard' teachings--hard intellectually as well as morally--and see what we'd get from them at the first hearing. Paul's detailed, involved arguments are much plainer. Even the vague prophecies of the Old Testament, or the Apocalypse itself, are easier to understand--at least, the parts that God has allowed to be revealed--than the 'simple' sayings of Christ. But this just proves the value of our Lord's way of teaching us that life comes of knowledge, the knowledge of God.

The Bible Contains a Revelation of God

Where should we look for our knowledge of God? After all, we can only think if we have material to give us food for thought. Our first and last resource is the Bible, which is God's revelation to us. Knowledge of God only comes by revelation. We can only know God as He declares and shows Himself to us. That doesn't mean that there aren't 'few, feeble and faint' rays of revelation in eastern books that some people consider holy. That's to be expected, because God is the God of all people. He doesn't leave Himself without a witness anywhere. But those dim, weak rays aren't the knowledge that leads to God, not even by those who have those rays. They aren't looking for knowledge of God; they don't even realize that such a thing exists. Those people will just have to live in spiritual darkness, like they have since the beginning. They'll have to live there until they receive the light.


Volume 4, Ourselves, pg 175-176 (Book II)

Even we common people who aren't kings, poets or scholars are eager and content while we're pursuing, but we know that once we have attained our goal, whether it's position, power, love or money, that old insatiable hunger will be upon us again. We'll want something more, but we don't know what!

St. Augustine knew what our hunger was for. He said that the Soul of man was made for God and would never be satisfied until it found Him. But our religious thinking has become so poor and ordinary, so self-concerned, that we interpret St. Augustine's words to mean that we won't be satisfied until we find everything good that we attach to the concept of salvation. We deceive and belittle ourselves with this idea because it's not anything for ourselves that we crave. The dry breadcrumbs we throw to our Souls in the form of one success or another don't quench our hunger.

'I want, I'm made for, I must have a God.' Within us, we have an infinite capacity for love, loyalty and service. But we're hindered and stopped everywhere we turn by imitation in whatever it is we love and serve. Only to God can we give everything we have, and only He can give us the love we really need. The love He gives us is like the air--it's something we live in, and without it, we gasp for breath and die. Who else, except God, who made heaven and earth, holds the key to all knowledge? Where else, except in God who has all the power, can we find the secret of dominion? Our need and search for goodness and beauty are frustrated by one thing, disappointed somewhere else because it's only in God that we can find the whole. The Soul was made for God, and God is what the Soul needs in the same way that an eye was made for light and light is what the eye needs. When we see that the Souls of even the poorest and most uneducated people have a capacity for God and can't be content without Him, can we honestly believe that man is a finite being? But even words themselves are frustrating. We're not even totally sure what we mean by finite and infinite.

We like to say that there's no royal road to learning. But the highest thing that man can attain is available and approachable to even the simple and needy. It can be reached by a path that any traveler, no matter how foolish, can't miss. In that very fact, we see a glimpse of the infinite that we hunger for. It seems strange to our finite understanding that everything we need is offered and attainable even to the simplest and the lowest people!


Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 149-150

In a home, children are living in natural conditions and they each develop along their own individual lines. But in a school, you need to have an enthusiasm, you need to strike a note that will touch and vibrate the heart of each student in order to have the common feeling that's necessary for there to be life. Loyalty will do it--chivalrous loyalty to each other, to the school, to their homes, to those in authority, and, highest of all, the loyalty of serving as a Christian. I'm not sure how to do that yet, but when a person has a determined purpose, he finds ways. And if that loyalty doesn't allow any dishonoring thoughts? What if a passion of loyal service burned in some of the students' hearts and affected all of the students to a greater or lesser degree. Would criticism be banned as disloyal? Does that mean that the students will be going out into the world totally ignorant about the questions that prick so many hearts, and that they'll be staggered when they face evidence and opinions for the first time that are opposite to their old thoughts? No, but I wish I could do for them what a great teacher did for me and others. It's hard to put it into words, but somehow, a person ends up on the other side of current controversial issues. They're very interesting, but not urgently vital. To compare more minor things with more important things, it's like a famous woman's husband listening to discussions about his wife's works or published letters. Are they hers or not? Do they really tell facts about her life, or are they just fabrications? Are the opinions that her characters espouse really what she believes? It's quite interesting and amusing to hear what everyone says about it, but it's different for him. He knows what the rest of them have to make guesses about. Anyway, that's not a vital issue--what really matters is her and the relationship between the two of them. And that's even more true about our comprehension of the Highest God, and our understanding of the supreme relationship between Him and ourselves. If we can reveal to youths a vision of God's infinite Beauty, and expose their hearts to the attraction of His irresistible Kindness, and let them know this about their intimate knowledge, that,

'God's thoughts are broader than man's mind can measure,
And God's eternal heart is wonderfully kind,'

then all other knowledge and relationships and facts of life will take care of themselves. This is the only way that it's possible to live joyfully, purposefully and diligently. Without this, there's nothing but madness, or a foolish mime acting out foolishly in front of the eternal truths. Yet we have students who are brought up with religion and turn out indifferent, or even bad. That can happen when they have the outward visible signs without having the thing they're signifying inside them. Of all the useless sawdust there is, this kind is the driest. No soul, once it's laid open to the touch of God's kindness, can go away and forget it. A willful, stubborn soul might go away, but it feels compelled to come back. Well, anyway--it's one thing to see what needs to be done. It's another thing entirely to figure out how to do it. At any rate, once a person understands these things, he needs to go cautiously and wait for more enlightenment.


Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 210-212

First of all, 'every word of God' is the diet of the spiritual life, and those words speak to us more clearly during moments that we set apart for collecting ourselves, reading and praying. In children, these moments tend to be elusive and rushed. It's a good idea to plan the free time they need right into their schedule, perhaps a quiet twenty minutes every evening. And that time should be scheduled when it's not too late because the sleepy time at the very end of the day isn't a good time for the day's most serious matter. I've seen it work well where children have the habit of disappearing for a little while in the early evening before the night's fun or work, when their minds are still alert.

Remember, the Christian life is supposed to be a progressive life. A child shouldn't feel that his spiritual life is like a door on hinges, swinging back and forth over the same thing. New and specific goals, thoughts and things to pray for should be presented weekly, so that 'something ventured, something done' might give him courage. Or, if failures are discouraging him, it might inspire him with the hope of success. Even people who aren't members of the [Anglican] Church of England will find some help in that church's Sunday Collects, Epistles and Gospels. They give youths specific subjects to reflect on every week. It's unrealistic to think that anyone could ever live up to all there is in those weekly readings in their lifetime, but it's nice for students who are still at the beginning of their Christian journey to have the peaceful sense of being led step by step towards spiritual progress. I don't mean that this should replace wider Bible reading. But it could be used to give a specific focus for reflection and prayer each week, along with other prayers and prayer needs that come up in the course of their week. Bringing these readings and their related scripture passages home will provide opportunities for a few sincere discussions that won't be forgotten any time soon. This in itself is useful, because it can be difficult to bring up the most important topics with the people we live with, especially when they're youths.

Just one more thing. When it comes to how to spend Sundays with the family, don't let children feel confined by narrow, old traditions. Let them know the basic principle that what's right on Saturday doesn't become wrong on Sunday, but it isn't always the best thing. It's special for Sunday to have its own restful activities, and we should be as reluctant to give them up for the grind of everyday tasks or common entertainments as a student would be to give up his two-week break for more school lessons. Even selfish interests like health, comfort and convenience aren't worth sacrificing the physical, mental and spiritual rest that Sunday's change of thought and activity brings.

Once the principle of Sunday-keeping is understood, make it something pleasant. Let Sunday be an enjoyable day, with everyone in their best mood and using their gentlest manners. Set aside all worries and anxieties for the sake of the children. 'Vain deluding mirth' might not be acceptable, but there should still be light hearts and good-natured conversation.

Sunday should have its own special activities and entertainments. Reading aloud from the same book for an hour every Sunday, using a powerful, interesting text can make the afternoon refreshing. Whatever book is selected should give the family members some pleasant intellectual stimulus to chew on.

A little bit of poetry should be fit in, since there's time to digest it on Sunday. Religious poets like George Herbert, Vaughan and Keble are good, but don't neglect any poet who nourishes the heart with wise thoughts and who doesn't disturb the day's peaceful atmosphere with too much stir of life and passion. The whole point of Sunday's readings and activities is to keep the heart peaceful and the mind alert, receptive and open to any holy impression that might come from heaven, whether it comes while outside walking in the fields, or sitting inside by the fire. Sundays aren't for us to spend striving and working to get close to God in church or at home. It's okay for us to rest physically and spiritually, as long as we don't let ourselves get too distracted to be open to divine influences that come in unexpected ways. This is the attitude we need to keep in mind as we select storybooks to read on Sunday. Any pure, thoughtful character study or sincere biography will help to lift our thoughts towards God, even if His name isn't mentioned anywhere in the book. But tales full of gossipy affairs and the whirl of society, or passionate romances, are unfit for Sunday reading.

It's not a good idea to give children twaddly, 'too good to be true' stories. They'll come to detest these books, and then they'll blame the weakness of these kinds of books on Christianity. Music is a great way to make Sundays pleasant, but, in the same way, music that's associated with passion and tension should be avoided. It shouldn't be difficult to find something suitable, since the greatest works of the best composers were written for the church.

'A broad-minded soul produces broad-minded things' is a safe guideline to follow once the principle of Sunday rest's meaning and purpose is recognized. I'm spending more time on this subject because the issue of how to spend Sundays will come up for discussion between parents and their growing children.


Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 340-343

In our own times there's an unfortunate tendency to undervalue knowledge, yet knowledge is the main aspect of education. Bible knowledge in particular is disregarded for several reasons. A practical utilitarian person asks, 'What value is there in teaching a child the mythological stories of the earlier books, and the insignificant histories of the unimportant nation of Israel in the later books?' while religious parents tend to pick and choose only the portions of the Bible that they think will inspire religious sentiment in their children. In these days we also have the added issue of higher criticism and its attacks. We wonder how safe it is to offer Biblical knowledge to a child when we haven't heard the final result of critical challenges yet, and our child may later hear everything we've ever taught him refuted point by point. If only we could know how this kind of knowledge affects a child. If only we could know how a clever child's own critical intellect probes scripture all by itself, and if we could only know what's left for the child to hold onto after his own skepticism has toyed with the Biblical text.

Goethe tells us all these things in Aus Meinem Leben. ['From My Life,' i.e., his autobiography]. He gives us all of the most trivial details of his own Bible studies, tells us what his attitude was as he approached these studies, and how, little by little, his knowledge of the Bible became the most precious of all his intellectual treasures. Here's how it came about. When he was nine or ten, he was bewildered with the several languages that his father expected him to keep up with, so, as we've just read, he came up with the idea of starting a family journal with pretend siblings writing their portions in the language of the country they were supposedly living in. He had some knowledge of Juden-Deutsch [spoken by Jewish Germans, something like Yiddish], so one of the siblings was going to correspond in that language.

This clever idea, like all ideas, led to more ideas, producing after its own kind, so to speak. His analytical mind found the Juden-Deutsch language to be fragmentary and inadequate. So he had to add Hebrew to the list of languages he was learning. His father was able to get him lessons from Dr. Albrecht, the Rector [chaplain] of the classical preparatory school. This Rector seems to have had an original mind, playful and satirical. The people in the little town didn't understand him very well. Naturally, he got along well with the young genius he was going to teach.

The Hebrew lessons were undoubtedly a pleasure for both teacher and student. The impressions that the Hebrew Scriptures [Old Testament] made on Goethe are particularly interesting to us today, at a time when the issue of teaching Old Testament history is so often debated. Young Goethe was already able to read the Greek New Testament, and seems to have followed along at church from the New Testament in the original language as they were read aloud during services. But a boy with his brilliant mind, with its tendency towards both logic and science, found plenty of discrepancies in Scripture. 'I had already noticed the contradictions between tradition and actual and possible, and I had confounded all of my tutors with questions about the sun standing still for the Gibeonites, and the moon also standing still in the valley of Ajalon [both in Joshua 10], as well as other improbabilities and inconsistencies. All of these questions were stirred up again because, in learning Hebrew, I worked entirely from the Old Testament, not in Luther's translation, but using the interlinear version with Sebastian Schmid's translation printed under the text. My father had gotten it for me. Reading, translating, grammar, copying and repeating words usually took less than half an hour, and, with the time we had left, I'd immediately begin to attack the meaning of the passage I had just worked with as well as discrepancies that I remembered in later books, even though we were still working in Genesis. At first, the good old man tried to discourage me from asking these questions by coughing and laughing, but after a while, he started to find my questions amusing. His coughs seemed to hint that he just might submit to answering them, so I was persistent, although I was more interested in stating my doubts than in having them answered. I became even more lively and bolder, and his behavior seemed to be encouraging me. But I never could get anything out of him except an occasional laugh that shook him, and the comment, 'you foolish rascal!''

All the same, his teacher was aware of the difficulties that young Goethe was having, and was willing to help him in the best way there is. He referred him to a great English Commentary in his collection that tried to interpret difficult passages in a thoughtful, sensible way. The divine scholars who translated it into German had actually improved the original! They cited different opinions and interpretations and then adopted a view that preserved the dignity of the Bible, making the basis for Christianity evident, but making allowances for human understanding. From now on, when young Goethe brought up his doubts and questions at the end of the lessons, his teacher would refer him to the Commentary. Goethe would take one of the volumes of the book and read while the teacher read his own book of Lucian. When Goethe would ask any more questions, the teacher would just chuckle in his peculiar laugh. 'During the long summer days, he would let me sit as long as I could read, often alone. Later he started letting me take individual volumes home with me.'

It would be nice to know more about these Commentaries that satisfied such a keen young mind. At any rate, we can recommend and imitate Dr. Albrecht's wisdom. Of all the different ways of finding truth, discussion is probably the most futile because the person making the accusation is intent on justifying his own doubts, not on having them answered. Their individual will unconsciously adopts a combative attitude, and cherishes the doubt as a cause to be defended and fought for. As we know, Reason is ready to provide arguments to support any position that we take up. But if youths are given a good book dealing with the questions they've brought up, and given time to digest it at their own pace without discussion or comment from us, and according to their own level of sincerity and intelligence, then they'll be more open to conviction. The silence and chuckling of this wise teacher are worth remembering when we're shocked by the daring declarations of the young skeptics we know. Also, his wise passiveness put a solution into the hands of the young questioner without making any attempt to convince him.


Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 379

This religious mother did another great injury to her son. Yes, she taught him religion, but the religion she taught him was all sentiment, no duty. Little Arthur [Pendennis] loved the sound of the church bells on Sunday mornings, the echo of hymns and choruses, as much as he loved to watch the sunset from the lawn. He also learned to love sacred poems and songs from his mother as a little boy. He was exposed to all holy associations. But his mother neglected to teach him his duty towards God. This is where many kind-hearted mothers fail. They're so anxious to present the beauty of holiness and the love of the heavenly Father. She herself loves the sentiment of religion so much that the 'stern Daughter of God's voice [whose name is Duty]' whose command is the only one that humans are able to obey in the face of resistance, isn't allowed to speak to her child. Religion and serving God are presented as matters that a child can choose if he likes, or not, but never as something that he has to do, or as the only duty in the world that he can't choose not to fulfill. Parents are in a unique position as having the opportunity to expose their children to the concept of duty. If they let the opportunity pass, it's useless to make up for it with religious feelings, sentiments and emotions. Such things are passing phases. They aren't any part of the tie that binds us to God.


Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, pg 132-133

Children should learn that unstable, untamed people are not controlled by their will. They're ruled by their impulses and passions. At the same time, a person can be calm and controlled by their will, yet have unworthy or evil ends. Or they might have a worthy goal beyond themselves, but get there through disgraceful means. A simple, conformed will, what Jesus calls 'a single eye,' seems to be the one thing we need to live right and serve others faithfully. And having a strong, focused will requires some goal outside of itself, whether good or bad. A child who understands this isn't going to accept self-culture as the ideal, or wonder if eastern religions have something to offer him, and will involve himself with the problem Browning raises in The Statue and the Bust. Little by little, the student will come to understand that, as kings have a duty to rule their kingdoms, all men have a duty to use their will to control their own inner kingdoms. A king is not a king unless he rules, and a man is less than a man if he doesn't use his will for a good purpose. It's a fact of life that the will, like most other things, has its ebbs and flows when it feels strong or falters. One of the secrets of life is discovering how to survive the times when the will is weak without compromising one's integrity.


Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, pg 149-150

If we want our children not to get confused by all the trends and thoughts about religion, then we need to help them understand exactly what religion is. In What Religion Is, Bernard Bosanquet wrote:

'Will religion guarantee me happiness? Generally, we have to say, no. If we become a Christian just to attain personal happiness then we definitely won't find happiness.'

Here is a final and clear answer to the psuedo-Christianity that's offered so often to hesitating souls. It promises physical comfort, no more sorrow or anxiety, replacement of what's been lost, even going so far as to offer reuniting with loved ones who have died. We might call on mediums, go to séances, visit faith healers and put our faith in some man who only wants to manipulate us. We don't worry about sin or feel remorse for our past. We might live detestable lives, yet be satisfied and content with ourselves, totally oblivious to the anxiety and struggle of those around us. We think that we can will away sin, sorrow, worry and suffering through faith. In other words, we think that Christianity will guarantee us personal happiness. We use religion to make ourselves immune to every distress and misery of life, and we believe that this wonderful immunity is within the power of our own will. 'The only person who matters in my Christianity is me, and the only purpose for religion is to keep me from any physical or mental discomfort and keep me floating in some cloud of undisturbed Nirvana.' Is that what Christianity is? We must agree with Professor Bosanquet: absolutely NOT! Real Christianity isn't about me, and any religion that does these things is idolatry, self-worship, concerned with nobody but myself.

To continue our quote:

'If religion doesn't guarantee my happiness, then what does it do? We value religion as being good and great, but if it doesn't do anything for me, then why should it be anything to me? But the answer changes if you word the question just a bit differently and ask, 'does it make my life more worth living?' And the answer to this is, 'It's the only thing that makes life worth living at all!'