Christianity and its Impact on Education and Intellectual Development
The current view held towards Christianity by the west is not usually one of appreciation. Much of this is driven by a post-modern, empirical skepticism. Believing that faith as a pillar of society is best left in the past, this common viewpoint believes the new pillars of society should be based upon reason and the tangible. Essentially, faith and Christianity are things of the past. Holding no foundational or transcendent value for culture in America or the west. The ironic situation these post-modern empiricists find themselves in is quite vexing (Empiricism is the philosophical system believing what can be known as true only originates from what can be experienced or ascertained through sensory experience). Claiming to stand upon a foundation of reason, knowledge, and education, these wayward thinkers have forgotten who built the foundation of education and intellectuality upon which they promulgate their negative views of Christianity.
Christianity has had a long and impactful history on education and intellectual foundations in the western world. In America, for example, the most prestigious of educational institutions were founded for and by Christians. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth – all can trace their founding to Christianity and a desire to spread the Gospel. It is worth noting, that the skeptics of Christianity would probably react to the Christian origins of these Ivy League Universities by saying something like, “Good that these universities realized the foolishness of organized religion! Ivy League Schools may have been ‘founded’ by religious nut jobs, but they had the good sense to turn reasonable long ago. Religion is a lie”. Here, a little critical thinking can really cut to the core of Christian impact on education/intellectual development. Granted, yes, those universities have long since become secular in nature and have little in common with orthodox Christianity. However, the point is not that Christianity has lost its hold in higher education, it is deeper than that. Christianity once offered both America and the west the framework from which educational and intellectual pursuits could flourish. Without Christianity, education would have been like a vine without lattice work to climb. Christianity offered the lattice work, the foundational framework if you will, with which education and intellectual development was able to flourish. To show just how intertwined education and Christianity were in colonial America, a statement from the Harvard rules and principles upon its founding, “Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, John 17:3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him….Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of the language, and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths, as his tutor shall require, according to his ability; seeing the entrance of the word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple”.131
Obviously, higher education institutions no longer resemble anything remotely close to Harvard in 1646. Burke and Segall explain, despite a shift, Christianity and education in the U.S. are inextricably linked:
“it is difficult—perhaps impossible—to separate religion from schooling. After all, European schools, which have served as the forbearers of American education, originated, during the Middle Ages, within and by the church and, as divinity schools…. While such a vision, enhanced in the US by early European-American settlers’ perceptions of the role of education as serving primarily religious purposes, has been largely abandoned in modern America, traces of its legacy may be harder to abandon, especially in a nation where a majority of citizens still declare themselves Christian, if not through a religious identification then as a cultural one”132
The argument for Christian foundational importance to education does not, however, exist contingent on whether these institutions are still practicing in an orthodox Christian manner (We know almost none still do). The argument exists along these lines, instead: education, intellectual development, would have never existed without the physical and intellectual infrastructure which Christianity provided. The impact of Christianity upon education and intellectual development upon the American and European settings will be the goal of this chapter.
The American Context
If the question is “How has Christianity impacted education”, it must be reordered to something more like, “In what ways had Christianity impacted education”. Martin Marty and Jonathan Moore explain: “We Americans are … taught to think of American society as a secular one in which religion does not count for much, and our educational system is organized in such a way that religious concerns often receive little attention. But if you think for a moment, you may realize that a better question is, where does religion not come into all this? You will not get very far into any educational issues without somehow bumping into religious themes”.133 It is obvious that current public educational systems in America are separated from any official establishment with religion. Many court cases have made that abundantly clear, and it has been the normative Protestant belief, especially within the Baptist tradition to support separation of Church and state. To show that education and Christianity are indeed separated, Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968), the SCOTUS struck down an Arkansas law which criminalized teaching evolution in public schools. The court decided the Arkansas law to be unconstitutional. It was affecting or bringing about a religious belief in a public school system – an establishment of religion and violation of the establishment clause in the first amendment. This is but one example, but many others exist showing the separation of religion from public education.
It is not the purpose of this chapter to change the public opinion on church and state interactions within the education system. That is already settled by cases like Epperson v. Arkansas. Regardless of official interaction between education and religion, especially in the American context, the connection between Christianity and education goes much deeper than opinions on curriculum by Christian and non-Christian. Christianity may be absent from the American educational system in any official means, that does not mean Christianity is not existing as a foundational part of the educational process in the United States.. Specifically, what has Christianity offered the American experience of education?
The common school movement championed by Horace Mann in the mid-19th century was not the beginning of a call to compulsory or community wide education. The common school movement certainly evolved further then Protestants had imagined under Mann. Mann pushed for a free, universal, and public institution which would serve as the means for educating the youth of America. While the call for education never reached quite this level of complexity and social involvement by Protestants, the call still went forth and pre-dated secular attempts to educate in America.
The Protestants of the Colonies and later United States were keen to call for a system of publicly available education. In a world where illiteracy ran quite rampant, Christianity offered a system of education meant to bolster literacy and ultimately – Bible reading. The Bible, after all, is the foundation of Christian and Protestant thought/practice. While secularists may frown upon the Protestant reasoning for why education was made available, they should proceed carefully, as they are reaping the societal benefits made available by Protestant literacy practices. Martin Luther, famous for his role in the Protestant Reformation, had this to say about compulsory education, “I maintain that the civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school…if the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle…how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school, because in this case we are warring with the devil”.134 What can be taken away from Luther’s statement is this: A patently protestant movement, initiated by Luther and others, served to bring about a recognition of the importance of educating the youth. Just several years later, Philipp Melanchthon and Luther put the Saxony School Plan into effect, a plan to educate the youth on Luther’s Protestant views. In 1559 Duke Christopher put into effect the first compulsory attendance system, being enforced by fines. This system grew in prevalence until in 1717, Prussia became the first to install a national system of compulsory schooling.135 Luther initiated it, Prussia (Later to become Germany) furthered it, and the Protestants in America would further education in their own manner.
In the colony of Massachusetts, Puritans passed laws in 1642 and 1647 which established elementary and grammar schools for the specific purpose of building the Christian faith and literacy.136 Not only was the Protestant approach in America codified early by the Massachusetts colony, but success was also soon to follow. By the middle of the 18th century literacy in New England was to reach nearly 85% among men and 59% among women.137 These numbers dwarfed even the most developed of European countries, compared to a 40% literacy rate among men in Britain and a 29% literacy rate among men in France. The ignition of this literacy flame had all begun with Protestant Christians desire to see the Bible read and understood. By the close of the American Revolution (1765-1783), education and literacy in the thirteen colonies “was more accessible….than in any nation of Western Europe”.138 A 1647 law the Old Deluder Satan Act, laid the groundwork for the concept of public education in America, specifically mandating community schooling. The intention of the law was clear, to thwart, “Ye old deluder, Satan” in his quest “to keepe men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures”. In support of this religious goal, this new law required that every town of fifty or more families to hire and employ a teacher who could educate the children in both reading and writing. If a town possessed more than one-hundred families, it was required to support a grammar school which could launch a potential educational career at Harvard.139 Protestant Christians in Massachusetts had established a system of education that led to widespread literacy and education in their state, a pattern also seen in the other colonies
It was not only the Massachusetts colony that set out to strengthen literacy and education in the new world. Connecticut was not far behind Massachusetts in bringing about a community focus on education. In 1650, the first educational law or policy was established with the Connecticut Code of 1650. The law established two primary principles seen in most compulsory education laws: 1) That the state should compel parents to have their children educated. 2) Money raised in a public manner through taxes to be used as the means for public education. The law was also religious in nature, requiring that catechism be taught in these fledgling Connecticut schools.140 A foundation of education from which America is still reaping benefits. Perhaps secularists of the day ought to be a little more careful in attacking a Christian religious tradition. Especially when the very foundation (academia) from which they attack, was built by those which they attack.
One specific example of curriculum which entrenched a solidly Christian pattern of thinking in colonial America’s youth: The New-England Primer. It was popularly referred to as “the little Bible of New England”, of which an estimated 6-8 million copies had been sold by 1830. Originally coming into existence around 1688 by the hand of Benjamin Harris. It became the foundational educational textbook which would inform the minds, morality, and patterns of thinking amongst the youth of colonial America prior to and after the American Revolution. The New-England Primer taught the ABC’s; reading was combined with a catechism which served a two-fold purpose; learning to read, but also establishing foundational Biblical concepts in the minds of children. It is no coincidence that this book came into existence, Luther and others had worked to make the Bible available to the common person. The Puritan’s in New England did not waste the sacrifice of the reformers in making Scripture available to all. They appreciated that sacrifice by creating a book that largely existed to educate youth to read and understand the Bible. One example of the Biblical influence of this reader is obvious in its attempt to teach the letter A, “In Adam’s fall / We sinned all”. A strongly Puritan and Calvinistic approach to the topic of original sin. The following prayer should appear familiar to most, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take”. This common prayer is almost universally recognized by Americans, and it was this children’s reader which established it in the minds of so many even 340 years later. The prevalence of that prayer serves as an illustration of the greater cultural significance found in the New England Primer. Not just a children’s book, but an informer of values and morality for generations. The Christian foundation of the primer influenced the minds of many, and Christianity’s positive impact only grew as the popularity of the New England Primer did.141
Christians offered to America three important advancements. 1) The higher education foundation now firmly cemented as key part of our society. Not only did Christians found the first and most prestigious of higher education institutions (Harvard, Yale, etc), they also built a system in which higher education and learning was deemed highly important. Being even more successful in establishing widespread educational success then was found in their European counterparts. 2) The establishment of compulsory education and high rates of literacy. These goals were reached with such a level of success that it cannot be denied that these early Puritans have much to do with the success of education across American history. The foundational educational importance laid by the early Puritan’s in places such as Massachusetts and Connecticut is unmatched in significance. 3) Curriculum propagated in the early colonial period, like the New England Primer, informed the values and beliefs of whole generations. If a country were to be judged by how successfully the youth were educated, and then how successful those youth became later in life, it would be hard to deny the success of colonial America’s most important educational book. Regard some of those who were educated by this book: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, etc. Many of the founding fathers would have interacted at length with the New England Primer. It served to inoculate Christian ideals and morality in the hearts and mind of perhaps the most important generation – the generation of the founders. The significance of a group, ideal, or belief system is often judged according to how successful said group was. The founders were undeniably important and successful in their mission. At least some of that success should be measured out to the higher education, community driven education, and curricular benefits of the New England Primer. Christianity should be appreciated and the foundation it laid for educational success and advancements should not be understated within the American context.
The Wider European Context
In the American context, the examples of Christian influence were much more concrete and evident. The European examples will require a little more parsing out, at least the examples that will be investigated in this section. Monastic life in Europe stood as both a conduit for education and thought to travel, but also created the infrastructure of religious orders within Christianity that propagated men of intellect and thought. The higher education institutions seen throughout the world originate from the monastic life of Christendom. Libraries, an obvious conduit that learning and intellectual development traveled, existed within the walls of religious monasteries. It is from these educational/religious cloisters that important patterns of educational pedagogy arose.
The effects of past European monasteries on the current educational system go much deeper than serving as a conduit of educational transit through which libraries and intellectual thought travelled. The very patterns of time and order seen within the modern classroom have close parallels to the monasteries of the medieval period. Consider Burke and Segall, who make a connection between the control of the physical body seen in monasteries and the control of the student’s body in the education system:
It is informed what it can and cannot adorn. It is required to move from room to room through narrow corridors, made to sit behind desks, and required, regardless of weather, to exit the building during recess. Its bodily functions are regulated—one needs a teacher’s permission to go to the bathroom. It is regulated as to when to learn and when to play (and a confusion of the two is often reason for punishment), when to move around and when to sit still. It is made to line up and follow, to be silent, compliant, and, most of all, obedient.143
Claiming a connection between the Christian monasteries of the past and schools in the present may seem a tenuous connection, but the case is strengthened. Foucault believes the modern educational systems regimented order comparable to the discipline found within the monasteries of Europe from the past.144 The management of the unruly children is, according to Foucault, connected to the church and monasteries. The discipline seen within the church setting, lines of pews facing an altar where knowledge is dispensed – to Foucault, mirrors the desk arrangement of many classrooms.
The connection is much deeper than just an order of seating and bodily discipline. Jenks makes a link to the regimentation of time. This time regimentation becomes more then just order, but a rhythm of functioning and performing duties, educational tasks, etc. These monks squarely cordoned off in a system of copying and documenting were celled off (In classrooms) and timed (Class bells):
The strict model was no doubt suggested by the monastic communities. It soon spread. Its three great methods—establish rhythms, impose particular occupations, regulate the cycle of repetition—were soon to be found in schools, workshops, and hospitals. The new disciplines had no difficulty in taking up their place in the old forms; the schools and poorhouses extended the life and the regularity of the monastic communities to which they were often attached.145
The ritual of monastic and religious life closely mirrors that which is seen throughout the educational process. Specifically in a regimented manner which revolved around a time segment (7 period class day, moving from one class to next, is the connection between monastic timing and the modern school). The monasteries of Europe offered a system of order, discipline, and education – and as compulsory education became the norm, it assimilated the processes made available to it by monastic life:
It is thus possible to see the role of clergy into which teachers have so easily stepped. That is, all that remains of monasticism characterized in schooling today: the need to discipline bodies along a timetable, the desire for submission to a single entity of power at the head of a cellular building, and ultimately the requirement that students confess in order to be saved. All this probably further influences the lives of our students than mandatory prayer ever.146
The connections between monastic life in European monasteries educational processes in the modern context are undeniably similar. What is the significance of the cellular/classroom connection, the discipline of the body, a centralized authority, the rhythm and time regimentation similarities of these two institutions? The implicit connection between the two is obvious, showing just how stratified into modern society Christianity has become. Even the most secular section of modern society, the public education system, borrows heavily from the Christian monastic tradition. Christianity is baked into the western context, and whether one believes the monastic/educational connection a positive or negative, it undoubtedly intertwined itself into the educational context in the west. The monastery proposed a pattern of learning to the modern educational system and has evolved out of the medieval monastery.
While the discussion of life in the monastery and its connection may be too abstract for some, Dr. Horst Feldman, a professor at the University of Bath, conducted unique research on Protestant educational influences on the current educational environment around the world. Feldman collected data from 147 countries, developing and fully developed countries; he specifically looks at what these Protestant influences have done in the period from 1975-2010. The paper also attempts to, “econometrically studies the influence of Protestantism, particularly its historical legacy, on contemporary schooling”.147 The Year 1900 is significant in the analysis of Feldman, the year for which data is available (1900). According to Feldman, the data comes from the World Christian Database. Combining censuses, estimates, and surveys, the database is the sole source available to determine religious adherence for a large number of countries. Thus, giving a broad pool from which to collect data and more accurately determine the effect of Protestantism and Christianity on education in a global context. Feldman is clear to point out that historical Protestantism, being integral to many countries past development, influences modern schooling whereas modern Protestantism has little effect on schooling.
The data collected by Feldman to determine the effectiveness of protestant Christianity found, “By and large, countries with higher Protestant population shares in 1900 tended to have higher secondary enrollment rates over 1975-2010, both among the group of boys and girls combined as well as among each of the two genders”.148 The data showed that countries with higher Protestant influence led to higher school enrollment rates. Feldman also illuminates that the Nordic countries have the highest Protestant historical population and the highest current enrollment rates.149 Below, the effect of several religious groups is measured against Christianity revolving around data points collected by Feldman from 1975-2010.
Feldman states, “This study is the first to show that the historically positive effect of Protestantism on schooling is still noticeable today. It also shows that this is not only the case in a few traditionally Protestant countries. Rather the historically positive effect of Protestantism on schooling is a global phenomenon”.150
Briefly mentioned earlier in this chapter, Protestants in America aided in the growth of higher education, bringing into existence amongst the most prestigious of American universities. The higher education institutions grew from the foundations of learning that emanated from the Roman Catholic Church. Without the influence of Christianity, higher education in Europe would have never flourished. The University of Paris, Cambridge, and Oxford all must claim a linked heritage to the Church. These 3 institutions were all highly religious in nature. University of Paris existed under the authority of the city’s bishop. Cambridge and Oxford existed under similar relationships to the clergy. The church has skin in the game, so to speak, as these universities assisted in streamlining and normalizing doctrines and teachings of the church.151 Almost every university or college founded in either the U.S. or Europe until the middle of the 19th century were brought into existence by some branch of the Christian church.
The University of Bologna was founded in 1088, Oxford shortly followed in 1096. When the end of the 14th century arrived, 34 different universities had spread across the face of Europe. In 1500, a total of 66 universities now existed with none residing outside the boundaries of the European continent.152 Europe, the stronghold of Christianity, not coincidentally, was also the hot bed of higher education. The connection between the existence of Christianity as a foundational piece of culture is strongly connected to the existence of higher education. The formation and proliferation of higher education in Europe…..actually, around the world, can thank Protestant and Catholic Influences for its existence and significance.
The University as it developed in the Middle Ages was a new concept, foreign to the learned world. There had not been an institution like it in either Greece or Rome (those two often identified as important intellectual cultures). The higher education universities common place to many today possess: faculties, examinations, degrees, different courses of study and a myriad of distinctive markers. These markers of higher education all have trickled down through history from the Catholic founded and influenced institutions. The papacy was vital in the proliferation and recognition of higher education. The Pope would often grant a charter, a right to operate, showing how important the Catholic Church was – a university usually needed the Church’s blessing to confer degrees, an early version of modern accrediting agencies. For example, in 1254, Pope Innocent IV recognized Oxford University to be worthy of official status. When a university possessed the recognition of the Church, the degree conferred by that university possessed validity across the whole of Christendom. 81 universities existed by the commencement of the Reformation. 33 held a papal charter, 15 a royal, 20 held both and 13 held none.
One specific example of the Church’s impact on higher education, outside of the accrediting function discussed in the last paragraph, revolved around the conferral of masters degrees. If one claimed this title at one of the earliest of universities (Paris, Bologna, etc.) it would grant them the right to teach at any other university without examination. jus ubique docendi, is the term used for this universal right to have “master” conferred, as well as the ability to teach at other universities without examination. Pope Gregory IX, wished to raise the status of his papal approved University of Toulouse, founded in 1229. In an attempt to do that in 1233, he under-cut the previous privilege of the more prestigious universities by issuing a papal bull which allowed Masters of Toulouse to be granted the right of jus ubique docendi. This privilege and standard set by the pope is significant for two reasons: 1) It established a universal standard of mastery and teaching ability within European higher education. 2) It assured that students would receive a quality education from intellectually adept teachers.153
The Papacies of the period often acted in the best interests of the universities. Pope Honorius III (1216-27) took up the case and side of teachers at Bologna in 1220, securing privilege and personal liberties. A chancellor of Paris and the bishop continued a pattern of encroachment into the autonomy of the university, Pope Gregory IX issues a bull Parens Scientarum. The significance of this papal bull declared that The University of Paris the right to self-autonomy, allowing it to make its own decisions on curriculum. The significance of this proclamation by Gregory cannot be understated. It established a pattern of self-autonomy in the mission of education and intellectual development that would impact the western conception of higher education for centuries to come.
Other advancements within individual disciplines of learning were present during this period, thanks to the Roman Catholic Church’s oversight of the university. Law, philosophy, medicine and other disciplines flourished during this period. Many of the classic works from the ancient world had been lost and forgotten to Europe. Some of these included advancements in geometry, logic, the philosophy and ethics of Aristotle and medical learning of Galen. Legal studies took a huge step forward when sections of Emperor Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis were rediscovered. This was a collection of Roman laws which advanced the codification and advancement of law in Europe.154 Historian Edward Grant defines the significance of the developments related to the university, “a gift from the Latin Middle Ages to the modern world…though it is a gift that may never be acknowledged. Perhaps it will always retain the status it has had for the past four centuries as the best-kept secret of Western civilization”.155
The Church’s interest and development in learning should not be something the modern world finds surprising. It was the only institution which showed an interest in lasting and consistent intellectual development. Whether it be in the American context; ranging from the significance of a Puritan textbook, to the formation of American Universities – Christianity jumped society forward intellectually. The European setting shows much the same effect, whether it be in the connection to monastic life or to the Roman Catholic Church’s involvement in the formation of higher learning. The world has much to thank the Christianity for – furthering education can be added to that list.
131. Founding of Harvard College, America, 1646. Quoted at BYU: Educational and Leadership Foundations. https://education.byu.edu/edlf/archives/prophets/founding_fathers.html
132. Kevin J. Burke & Avner Segall (2011): Christianity and its legacy in education, Journal of Curriculum Studies, DOI:10.1080/00220272.2011.590232. Pg.
133. Martin E. Marty and Jonathan Moore; Education, Religion and the Common Good: Advancing a Distinctly American Conversation about Religion’s Role in our Shared Life. Jon Wiley and Son’s, 2000. Pg. 23.
134. Rothbard, Murray. Education: Free and Compulsory. Auburn: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1999. Pg. 20.
135. Ibid, 20-25.
136. Elias, John. A History of Christian Education: Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Perspectives. Malabar, Florida. Krieger Publishing Company, 2002.
137. Reich, Jerome. Colonial America, 6th edition. Routledge, 2010.
138. Reich, 215.
139. Ye Old Deluder Satan Act, 1647. From: The Laws and liberties of Massachusetts, Reprinted from the Copy of the 1648 Edition in the Henry E. Huntington Library, with an introduction by Max Farrand. Harvard University Press, 1929.
140. Connecticut Code of 1650. https://www.cga.ct.gov/PS98/rpt%5Colr%5Chtm/98-R-1361.htm#:~:text=COMPULSORY%20SCHOOLING,-Before%201650%2C%20schools&text=The%20first%20general%20educational%20policy,control%20children%20to%20educate%20them.
141. The New England Primer, https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/nep/1777/
142. Burke and Segall, 5.
143. Ibid, 19.
144. Foucault, M. Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Translated by D. Bouchard and S. Simon Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977.
145. Jenks, C. The Pacing and Timing of Children’s Bodies. In V. Hultqvist and V. Dahlberg (eds), Governing the Child in the New Millennium London: Routledge Falmer, 2001. Pg, 68–84.
146. Burke and Segall, 20.
147. Feldman, Horst. Still Influential: The Protestant Emphasis on Schooling. Journal of Comparative Sociology, (Volume 17, Issue 5, pages 641–678). 2018. Pg. 642.
148. Feldman, 654.
149. Ibid, 654.
150. Ibid, 658.
151. Bebbinton, D.W. Christian Higher Education in Europe: A Historical analysis. Christian Higher Education, 10:1, 10-24, DOI: 10.1080/15363750903526969
152. Hilde de Ridder-Symoens. A History if the University in Europe. Vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pg. 57, 62-65.
153. Woods, Thomas E. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Regnery Publishing, 2017. Pg. 47-67.
154. Ibid, 47-67.
155. Grant, Edward. God and Reason in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. 2009. Pg. 354.
Chandler Fayard 