Christian Education and Culture - Religion - http://maxpages.com/democracy/Education_and

"Therefore every scribe which is instructed into the Kingdom of Heaven it is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth for out of his treasure things new and old."(Matt. 14:52 KJV)

Education is for man an important tool in his life upon the earth. During his life he acquires knowledge to accomplish the professional or non-professional goals. Our social standards are often measured by the education one has. The accessibility to employment, education, depends upon education. As much as the human society evaluates, the education becomes more and more a central factor. In an era of information, education is essential for the proper social communication. The advancement of science and its applications makes necessary to have the notions to make use of things that science brings into our life. How diverse is our life today comparing with the past. The simple life that man was used to, seems no longer acceptable in our modern society.

What is education, and how do we acquire it? Is based on learning and wisdom, and is since the existence of man. To know is primordial to man since his creation. He was given the privilege to know God and. Also he was in his freedom allowed to chose between right and wrong, having placed in the Garden of Eden the tree of the knowledge of "good and evil"(Gen. 2:9). From this tree, man was given the commandment "not to eat", if not he would die. From any other tree, "that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life.."(Gen. 2:9) he could eat freely. In this commandment man transgressed before God because he did eat, with the serpent's cooperation, and he lost his place from the Garden of Eden.

For the Christians, education has threefold meaning. One in the literal sense, the acquisition of the knowledge of this world, the knowledge about God, and the knowledge of God, the personal experience of God. The knowledge of God is the most important. Even the unlearned can have it:"I thank Thee, o Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast heed these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto the babes."(Matt.11:25). The icons are the books of the unlearned.

The learning that we acquire on this life it is perfected in the life after death in communion with God. In learning, we need wisdom. The Apostle James write in his Epistle: "If any of you lack of wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to him."(James 1:5), "For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.."(Prov. 2:6),"..to the acknowledgement of the mysteries of God, and of the Father and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge(Col. 2:2-3).

Wisdom is a great treasure for the man. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that geteth understanding."(Prov. 3:13)."Wisdom is better than rubies, and all things that may be desired are not to be compared to it."(Prov. 8:11).

In the Christian wisdom, the simple is closer to the knowledge of the things of God. The Beatitudes say: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."(Matt. 5:3).

Christian education requires good deeds, the application of the knowledge of the faith into the everyday life: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?..as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."(James 2:14, 26);"Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works of meekness of wisdom."(James 3:13), " Even so faith, if it hath no work, is dead, being alone."(James 2:17). "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him."(Col. 2:6); "Not everyone that say unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.."(Matt. 7:21).

We are asked to be aware of the false teaching: "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines."(Heb. 13:9). And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with entangling words."(Col. 2:4). The false teaching refers to the knowledge of God of course, and that are the philosophies of this world. The search for God, man being in error, led him to create different philosophical thoughts about God. This knowledge is accomplished only by the descending of God to bring that knowledge of Him to us. This is the incarnation of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the same purpose we are in need to be told of the true knowledge: "And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the Prophet Isaiah, and said: do you understand what you read?(Acts. 8:30).

Christian education has an important place among other disciplines because every man has the right and the need to know God, which is essential for his existence, from early times of his life. The longing for God is innate in man. To this, we should create the necessary conditions for its actualization.

Christian culture has its source in the Holy Scriptures, bringing the tradition and the life of the Gospel to the people that choose to live by it. For countries with long Christian tradition, the Christian culture has become integral part of the people's expression, the ethos of the nation.

Christian culture is the expression of the Gospel and of the Christian faith in the intellectual thought, in its artistic manifestation(poetry, art, music), in the social organization(ethic, moral), in the historical vision(political organization, kind of state).

The Church is the living guardian of the living Christian Tradition. The Church, having the obligation towards the Early Church, to give to its members the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Church should reach its members through education in her midst as well as through the public educational institutions. All the knowledge comes from God, and the knowledge of Him is the most important.

The Christian culture gives identity to a human community, through the fidelity for the origins and the openness towards the future. She appears from the meeting of the Gospel, which is transmitted, and the forms of expression of the society. She takes the form of a spiritual patrimony, metaphoric and historic in the same time, around which it is defined the identity and the continuity of a family, of a person, a community, of a nation.

The Christian culture is not a goal in itself. Is the work of all the Christians, but not for an institution and its interests, but for Jesus Christ and his mission into the world. She is an instrument of search and discovery of the truth, of the one and universal Truth, in each historical era. The option for the truth and love is fundamental to the Christian culture, which shapes the society. Therefore, the Christian culture has a symbolic value for all, and not an elitist goal.

The Christian culture affirms above anything the historical connection between the divine and the human, and is the echo, the interpretation of this historical connection. She believes in the transcendence of God, the source of the existence and of ethics. She confesses that the divine has entered the history that is about a revealed transcendence, incarnated.

The Christian culture recognizes the consistence and the value of creation, of the human, of the matter, and its finality is the transfiguration of the world. The Christian revelation does not reveal corrupt the matter, nor affect the natural and human produces. The Creation, the environment, makes a whole and is the milieu in which the man develops. That means that man "sanctifies the place", imprinting with his imagination and

STEFAN CRISBASAN

webmaster@stefanc.findhere.com

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Page Updated Fri Apr 2, 1999 8:59am EST