THE NEW TESTAMENT
IN
MODERN EDUCATION
J.
THE NEW TESTAMENT
IN
MODERN EDUCATION
BY
]. MORGAN JONES, M.A.
PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
INDEPENDENT COLLEGE, BANGOR
9
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LIMITED LONDON
TO
MY WIFE
AND TO
OUR THREE CHILDREN
iv
PREFACE
RECENT events have undoubtedly brought a great increase
of interest in the significance of Morality and Religion for
Education. The Science and Art of religious Education
are, however, still in their infancy. The most fundamental
problems still await scientific discussion and a practical
solution. The specific features of the educational ideal,
the definite value and application of psychological study
and its results both personal and social the educational
significance of Religion and Theology, the relation between
Home, School and Church as educational agencies, and
many similar questions still represent difficulties that
have not been overcome.
Rather unfortunately, almost exclusive attention has
been given to the elaboration of educational methods, to
the comparative neglect of the content and material of
moral and religious instruction. The latter, however,
must become our primary study, for how we teach must
in the end depend upon what we want to teach.
So far the Bible and that the mediaeval Bible has
been taken for granted in educational discussion, but in
reality it presents a problem of ultimate significance.
After all, why should we, in the schools of the twentieth
century, teach, as an important element in our instruction,
the literature and history of an ancient Semitic race or the
fugitive writings of a little group of Hellenistic religious
enthusiasts of the first century ? On the face of it such
a question demands a far more thorough and scientific
discussion than has yet been given to it. Our very right
to live comfortably in the modern world as distinguished
from the Middle Ages depends upon the answer we give
to it.
The following chapters are intended as a contribution
to this initial educational discussion of the Biblical material
in so far as it concerns the New Testament. The first part
of the book deals with the relation between religious and
modern education generally ; with the results and signi-
ficance of modern Biblical study for the teacher ; with
the educational interpretation of the material of the New
Testament ; with its place and use in the process of
vi THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
education ; and with the specific task of the teacher of
the New Testament. The second part discusses the main
particular problems involved in teaching the New Testa-
ment dealing in turn with the Life, Personality and
Teaching of Jesus Christ (special chapters being devoted
to the Parables and the Miracles) ; with the Life and
Letters of the Apostle Paul ana with the Johannine
Literature, while the last chapter attempts to summarize
the meaning of the whole discussion and to give a com-
prehensive appreciation of the specific educational values
of the New Testament in relation to the needs and interests
of our modern world.
Among the needs of the day is the need for intelligent
mediators between the Biblical expert and the educational
thinker mediators who will also attempt to interpret
both these to the studious practical teacher. It will be
seen that it is to this region that the following discussions
belong. They all attempt to make some vital connection
between the Christian Gospel of the New Testament as
interpreted by Biblical scholars, and modern educational
efforts in principle and practice.
Naturally, no claim to originality is made for discussions
of this kind, but it is hoped that they reveal throughout
some intimate knowledge of what the scientific educators
and of what the scientific theologians have to say. It is
hoped that they also show the influence of a fairly long
and useful experience of the actual difficulties and needs
of modern teachers in the public schools, the Sunday
Schools and other educational institutions.
I am glad of the opportunity to acknowledge my debt
to American writers like Dr. Stanley Hall and Professor
G. A. Coe, as well as to numerous German writings,
especially those of Professor F. Niebergall of Heidelberg.
Much of the substance of two or three of the following
chapters was published some years ago in The Christian
Commonwealth, and I thank the proprietors for their kind
consent to make use of it here. Some parts of the opening
chapters were delivered as lectures at the Summer School
of Biblical Instruction held at the Normal College, Bangor,
in 1920. I feel very much indebted also to my friends,
Principal Rees of the Independent College, Bangor, and
the Rev. H. Harris-Hughes, Bangor, for reading the
manuscript and for making many useful corrections and
suggestions.
INDEPENDENT COLLEGE,
BANGOR,
$th August 1922.
CONTENTS
PART I
THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION . . 3
CHAPTER II
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER . . 24
CHAPTER III
THE PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION . . 44
CHAPTER IV
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT . 63
CHAPTER V
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT . . -79
CHAPTER VI
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHKR AND HIS TASK .... 104
viii THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
PART II
TEACHING THE NEW TESTAMENT : ITS MAIN
PROBLEMS
CHAPTER VII
PAGF
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD. . . 123
CHAPTER VIII
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST FOR ADOLESCENCE . 145
CHAPTER IX
TEACHING THE PARABLES .... .161
CHAPTER X
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES . . . . .181
CHAPTER XI
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS . . . -203
CHAPTER XII
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS . . . .226
CHAPTER XIII
THE JOHANNINE LITERATURE, THOUGHT AND LIFE . . 257
CHAPTER XIV
JESUS CHRIST AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD . . . .282
PART I
THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
I. THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION.
II. THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER.
III. THE PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION.
IV. THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
V. THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
VI. THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK.
CHAPTER I
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION
1. Introductory. Christianity and the Modern Educational Movement.
2. Educational Principles. Psychological Basis Periods of Moral
and Religious Growth The Moral Aim of Education The
Christian Ideal The Value of Systematic Instruction The
Place of Religion in Education.
3. Educational Methods. The Impressionist School The Method of
Systematic Presentation The Method of Questioning The
Need of Variety in Methods The Need of a New Spirit.
INTRODUCTORY
IT is only upon the background of Education in general
that the place and significance of instruction in the New
Testament can be properly appreciated. Life is one, and
we must strive to gather all our educational efforts into
some kind of unity. We fail indeed to appreciate one
of the main contributions of Religion and of the New
Testament if we miss their power to unify all life and
education. On the other hand, the Christian teacher
who does not bring his task into effective contact with
the store of inspiration gathered for him by the modern
educational movement starves himself in the land of
plenty and devitalizes his material. He needs the modern
educator as well as the Biblical scholar before he can
fully enter into his own proper heritage. They also
need what the Christian teacher alone can give them
before they can find and perform their proper function
in life.
It is true that the voice of the great educators has often
been smothered by the exigencies of politics and by the
bickerings of the sects. In spite of that, however, their
4 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
united message has become the common heritage of all
civilized lands. All appearances to the contrary, there
does now exist a more or less coherent body of educational
principles to which all intelligent teachers confess their
willing obedience, and which provides a working basis for
all future effort.
What is curious, if not tragic, in the history of modern
education is that though this body of principles owes far
more to the inspiration of the New Testament than to any
other cause, yet it is the organized educational institu-
tions of Christianity itself that have come least of all
under the broadening influences of the great educators.
On the other hand, it is quite as true that modern educa-
tion has not yet by any means exhausted the inspiration
which the Christian Gospel both in itself and in its history
is capable of contributing to the common task of training
men and nations.
There is therefore a twofold task before the Christian
Church in this connection. One is the task of assimilating
modern educational principles and methods for the pur-
poses of religious instruction. The other is the task of
using the Christian Gospel more and more for the purpose
of enriching the principles and practice of education in
general.
This discussion therefore starts with the willing con-
fession that for us the fundamental principles which have
sprung from the thought and activities of the great
educators possess a general validity. Many of these
principles have found rough expression in such well-
known catch-phrases as ' respect for personality/ ' develop-
ment from within,' ' development all round/ ' freedom
through obedience/ ' many-sided interest/ ' learning by
doing/ ' the concrete before the abstract/ ' no impression
without expression/ ' educative instruction/ and many
others of a similar character. It is true that these have
been gathered from almost all schools of educational
thought whose most enthusiastic disciples are still
quarrelling over their exclusive claims to attention. The
sober-minded teacher will, however, be ready to welcome
them all as valuable contributions to the Science and Art
of Education, and will give to none of them the exclusive
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 5
right to dominate his theory and practice. As catch-
words they are useful to remind him of the many varied
elements that must enter into the process of making men
and women. It has already been suggested that there
is a definite historical reason why such principles and
methods as these phrases imply should be more directly
and effectively applicable to the teaching of morality and
religion than to any other part of education. They have,
as a matter of fact, been almost all directly suggested by
the Christian Gospel itself.
2
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES
Some of these principles as being most germane to our
purpose require a fuller discussion and definition. They
concern the psychological basis of education, its moral
end, the value of instruction and the central place of
religion in it.
PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION
i . There is no matter with regard to which we can
count upon such general agreement as the appeal to human
nature for guidance in the formulation of educational
principles and methods. Nothing is so characteristic of
modern education as the earnestness, persistence and
enthusiasm with which it has carried on the study of the
nature and growth of the child physically, intellectually
and spiritually. If anything, its trust in the infallibility
of the results of its psychological studies is in danger of
becoming too absolute. We have not been reminded too
often that we must know ' John ' thoroughly, if we want
to teach him ' Latin.' There has, however, been some
danger of forgetting that we must also know ' Latin/
and that no amount of psychological study will provide
us with the intellectual material or the moral ideal with
which we want to bring ' John ' into effective contact.
Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that child-study in
6 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
all its aspects represents by far the most fruitful factor
in the triumph of the modern educational movement,
and that in the results of that study, in spite of some
vagaries, a vast amount of authentic material is now
available for effective use in the practice of education.
The study has already been and will be more and more
a very healthy influence in the region of moral and
religious instruction. We now fully realize, or we ought,
at any rate, to have fully realized that it is neither the
teacher nor the theology, neither the Church nor the
Bible which should have the primary consideration, but
the need and capacity of the child. The religious
teacher, like every other, must reckon with heredity,
temperament, varied capacities and interests. The soul
is amenable to influence, and it is true that even
ordinary people are capable of far greater things in
the moral and religious life than we have dreamt.
That, however, does not alter the fact that we cannot
make a prophet or a religious genius at our will, any
more than we can make a great musician or a great painter.
We must not teach as if we expected all our pupils to reach
the same high level of moral and religious experience as
Paul or Augustine or Luther, nor must we expect them
all to repeat the same type of experience. The Christian
teacher is dealing with the same limitations set by
heredity, temperament and capacity as all other teachers.
He is also making use of the same psychological processes,
while the formal educative movements of the inner life
are much the same, whatever may be the ultimate end in
view. The results of psychological study in these regions,
the teacher of the New Testament must accept in common
with all other teachers.
PERIODS OF MORAL AND RELIGIOUS GROWTH
It has also become clear that the child, in morality
and religion as in all other aspects of his life, passes
through definite and well-marked stages of growth and
development in capacity and need. Before maturity is
reached, the growing soul passes through three different
levels of life which are often said with some truth to
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 7
correspond more or less roughly with the gradual develop-
ment of the race. They are Infancy (up to about seven
years of age), Childhood (from about seven to twelve or
thirteen) and Adolescence (lasting up to about twenty-
four or twenty-five and often longer). The general
features of these periods are also well known. We are
here concerned with them only in so far as they bear more
or less directly upon moral and religious instruction.
From this point of view they are the wonder, the imitative
and play instincts of Infancy ; the imagination and
curiosity, the receptive memory, the personal interest,
the growing historical sense, the demand for uniformity
and the growing conscience of Childhood ; the self-
assertion, the social interest, the greater intellectual under-
standing and hero-worship ; the storm and stress, the
reflection and idealism ; the constructive thought and
sense of responsibility of Adolescence in its successive
stages of early (twelve to fifteen), middle (fifteen to
eighceen) and late (eighteen to twenty-four) youth.
This educational Psychology has also brought a good
deal of insight into the processes which are involved in
the direction of instincts, the formation of habits, the
growth of knowledge, the training of the moral judgment
and the control of the will, though we have a long way
yet to go before we can walk with any certainty in some
of these directions.
It is clear, therefore, that the organized agencies of
moral and religious education, both in their ideals and
methods, as well as in the use they make of the material
at their disposal, lag far behind even our present imperfect
scientific knowledge of child-life. A very great deal,
however, still remains to be done before we have laid
broad and firm the psychological basis of moral and
religious education. To understand and make effective
use of the needs and interests and values that dominate
the lives of modern youths and adults in Church and out
of it, in the town and in the country, in the Trade Union
and in the office, at work, at school and at play will
require a much more comprehensive, accurate and patient
psychological study than has yet been dreamed of. We
are really only at the very beginning of an educational
8 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
psychology in any scientific sense. At its best, however,
we must guard against making a fetish of child-study
and its developments, for it can by no means give us
everything that we need for our task. There will always
be a margin of unexpectedness about the individual child
which our general and average formulae will not cover,
and which we must learn patiently to know and to value
for itself in each case. Child-study may help us to
enumerate and classify the motives, the interests, capacities
and needs to which we can appeal. It may reveal to us
the different reactions to be expected in answer to the
influences we bring to bear upon the child or youth. It
may enable us to analyse more and more accurately and
fully the various elements and steps in the educative
process. It may thus help us to realize that whatever
end we may propose for our education must conform
to certain fundamental characteristics of human nature,
but it cannot possibly provide us with that end itself.
It may give us guidance with regard to the forms into
which we can put that end, but its real content we must
get in some other way and by a far wider sweep than
any mere Psychology can take. We must never be
tempted to believe that we can spin out the aim and the
moral ideal of education out of a mere analysis of the
psychological processes.
In fact, Education is not a circle with one centre, but
an ellipse with two foci one of which is represented by
the child, and the other the end for which he is to be
trained. They, of course, must correspond with each
other. That is why education can never be adequately
described in terms of mere natural development, and we
can never get rid of the element of direction and control
from above, be the control as congenial and as unobtrusive
as it may. The discussion of the ultimate end of education,
therefore, is to some extent at least an independent study, and
must have a place of its own in the Science of Education.
THE MORAL AIM OF EDUCATION
2. Modern educators are by this time in general agree-
ment with regard to the moral nature of the ultimate aim
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 9
in view. They would probably be ready to describe it
as the formation and sustenance not simply of a full,
rich, ideal human character, but rather of a fully developed,
free personality in the case of each pupil a personality
developed to the fullest extent, variety and wealth, of
which the general and individual nature of each pupil is
capable as a member of the human community. As
usually expressed, this description requires more accurate
definition, if not also an enlargement of its scope, to make
it of real use. It is lacking in substance and content.
We are at once brought face to face with the critical
question of what kind of character and what type of
personality our education is supposed to promote and
guard. It is here that we are in urgent need of guidance,
and it is here that most modern educational discussion
leaves us in the lurch, and it is here also that we begin to
hear the vital challenge of the Christian Religion.
The prevalent idea seems to be that the ideal must
of necessity be of this vague character, and that each
individual must somehow or other choose his own ideal.
The truth of this is, of course, that the educational aim
must be plastic enough to allow of the utmost variety.
It must, however, be variety within the range of some
unity however wide, or it will become meaningless and
dissolve into nothing. The real fact is that behind every
fresh development of the Science of Education there has
been a fairly consistent view of the character of the ideal
even when it did not attain to definite expression. Still
more is it the case that every great system of practical
education has been consciously or unconsciously based
upon some very definite conception of the ideal life and
its qualities. It must always be so, whether educational
theory provides such an ideal or not. Unfortunately,
what has happened is that in the absence of any thorough
discussion of the comparative value of conflicting ethical
ideals, educational practice has seldom risen above the
level of ' the good patriot/ ' the good citizen/ ' the good
workman/ ' the English gentleman/ ( the good Catholic '
or ' the good Protestant.'
Now, the vital challenge of the Christian Gospel and
the New Testament to modern education is that they do
to THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
actually provide an ideal of personality and character,
capable of universal application, comprehensive enough
to serve as the ultimate moral aim of all education. It is
revealed, on the one hand, in the personality and character
of Jesus Christ, and, on the other hand, in the Kingdom
of God, combining in one coherent whole both the in-
dividual and the social aspects of the moral ideal.
THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL
Here also we cannot, it is true, avoid the conflict of
interpretation, but that conflict itself is in fact only an
added tribute to the educational value of the Christian
standard, for what its history essentially reveals is the
possibility of an ever-renewed application of the person-
ality of Jesus and the life of the Kingdom to the need
and capacity of age after age. It is one of the great
tasks of the Christian Church to think and live itself more
and more fully into the variety of that interpretation and
application, as it must become one of the tasks of the
modern educator to use its material to fill with richer
content the empty forms in which he is apt to present
the ultimate end of education. If the formation of
character and the growth of personality or a society of
personalities are to take their place effectively as the final
end of education, the problem of the kind of character
and the type of personality which are worth perpetuating
must more and more secure the concentrated attention
of educational thinkers. It is certainly the bounden duty
of the Christian teacher to secure the adoption of the
personal spirit of Jesus and the Kingdom of God as the
ultimate end of all education. To succeed in such a task
he will have to meet at least two elementary conditions :
(a) He must be prepared to analyse the spirit and life
of Jesus and the Kingdom in such a way as to distinguish
between those elements in all historical presentations of
them which were merely temporary and those which can
lay claim to some permanent validity.
(b) He must be ready to recognize the existence and
partial validity of a large number of subsidiary educational
aims, which he must be able to co-ordinate and organize
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION n
into a system with the ultimate end as its centre and final
sanction. Somehow or other, in order to maintain its
supreme sway, the ultimate ideal proposed must include
in itself and justify all other legitimate and worthy aims.
The Christian teacher has no right to propose the Christian
ideal as a standard unless he is able to show how it coheres
with and includes such well-established educational aims
as earning a living, gaining knowledge, self-realization,
harmonious development, moral character and social
efficiency.
There is therefore a great deal of work still to do
before it can be said that either Christian or general
educational thinking has exhausted the possibilities of
discussion with regard to the ultimate end of education.
Its problems must always be borne in mind by the teacher
of the New Testament.
The recent and increasing tendency among both
philosophers and theologians following in the footsteps
of the economists to express the meaning of life and the
world in terms of ' value ' ought to be a great help to the
fruitful discussion of such questions as these. The fresh
category of ' value ' intrinsic and instrumental is being
used more and more extensively in all ethical, philos-
ophical and even metaphysical discussions, and may yet
provide the common ground so much needed in order to
approach the solution of such central problems as the
ultimate end of education and its content.
THE VALUE OF SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION
3. We come to a somewhat different question when we
deal with the exact value of systematic instruction in the
general process of education, and especially of education
in morality and religion. It is still the subject of some-
what heated controversy. The old confusion between
education and instruction is now largely a thing of the
past. The organization of personal intercourse and ex-
perience, and indeed of the whole environment of the pupil,
has found its own special place alongside of systematic
instruction. The disciples of Herbart are, of course, the
most enthusiastic sponsors of definite and direct systematic
12 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
instruction, and especially of ' educative ' instruction as
central and essential to any efficient system of education.
The insistence on the fact that instruction may have a
definite formative moral value represents one of the great
services of Herbart in the history of modern education.
By this is meant that some ideas, when presented in the
proper way and at the proper time, can and do become
living forces in the formation of character. They acquire
power to create spontaneously and almost automatically
feelings of living interest, to grip the mind and to direct
as well as to strengthen the will. Certain kinds of know-
ledge given in the right way and at the right time can
produce a moral and religious change. It is difficult to
see how that can legitimately be denied. We may add,
it is true, that though instruction may have a value of
its own, if it is of the right kind, yet it is never fully and
morally effective apart from the spontaneous self-activity
of the pupil, the personality of the teacher and the
organization of the environment.
It is true also that before any satisfactory and satisfy-
ing conclusion can be reached with regard to the value of
instruction as a means of education, we stand in need of a
much more thorough investigation of such problems as
the following : What kind of ideas or principles or con-
victions or knowledge has naturally or can acquire this
formative power ? Why and how does instruction become
' educative ' ? By what process does an idea become an
ideal ?
Herbart 's analysis of the process of Apperception and
his doctrine of Interest reveal some important links in
the chain which connects the idea with the will ; but, gener-
ally speaking, it may be said that the specific value of
instruction is taken for granted rather than realized in
detail by the educational Psychologists. If the great
motive which leads to moral activity is a sense of value
in some ' good,' then ideas become educative in so far
as they represent ' values ' intrinsic or instrumental
and only by some systematic instruction can any adequate
knowledge be brought of these values and ideals as well
as of the various ways and means of reaching them.
Definite instruction provides also the only means of en-
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 13
larging the narrow range of personal experience and inter-
course ; and since perception without conception is blind
and wayward, it provides the only means also of using
systematic thought for the necessary interpretation of
experience.
These and other similar observations seem to rule out
of court the theories of all those who seem prepared to
banish all definite and systematic instruction from the
teaching of morality and religion, and the teacher of the
New Testament can still remain confident that he is
betraying no educational principles when he is using its
material for the direct and indirect presentation of moral
and spiritual values, as well as of the means of reaching
them.
THE PLACE OF RELIGION IN EDUCATION
4. It is now almost universally recognized that
religion in its deepest and broadest sense is an important,
if not a central, constituent in all effective education. It
is so because religion is a primary fact in human nature
and history " an entirely natural product of the human
soul in its intercourse with the material world and with
other souls." This statement, however, requires to be
qualified in several ways before it can yet be claimed as an
effective confession of modern education.
In many cases, though based upon undoubted psy-
chological and historical facts, the recognition of religion
amounts to little more than a formal acknowledgment
without any very strenuous attempt to make practical
application of the principle. Even where religious in-
struction may take an important place in the curriculum,
it remains more often than not a mere excrescence.
Seldom indeed is any serious attempt made to bring
religion into any vital co-ordination with the teaching
as a whole, with the result that a position of ' splendid
isolation ' becomes merely another name for a degrad-
ing ineffectiveness. This failure is, of course, due quite
as much to the persistent intellectual and practical dual-
ism of religious teachers as to the lack of educational
thoroughness.
14 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
The educational attitude towards religion suffers also
from a persistent vagueness in the use of the term,
corresponding to the vagueness in the definition of the
moral aim of education which has already been referred to.
It is true that there is a religious spirit and attitude behind
and beyond every particular form of religion, but that
spirit does not exist in and for itself without definite
expression in one of the many types of religious life and
character. It cannot be cultivated in vacuo, but always
in and through one or other of these types. The challenge
of Christianity to modern education is that for its pur-
poses there cannot be found a higher and more compre-
hensive form of the religious life and spirit than that
which is incorporated in the Christian Gospel and the
New Testament.
We need to be reminded also that this acknowledgment
of religion by the modern educator does not settle, and is
not intended to settle, the question of when and where
' religious instruction ' should be given whether as
definite lessons or through the ordinary subjects of litera-
ture or history or science, whether by the State or by the
Church or by both. It does imply, however, that whenever
or wherever or by whomsoever it may be given, it must
be in relation to and co-ordinate with that whole system
of values which education in general is intended to pro-
mote. It is also implied that it is always the business of
the educator to recognize that religion is a primary and
essential factor in the making of men and women, and
that it is a part of his task to see that full and proper
provision is made in the general education of the nation
for the training of the religious side and for the satis-
faction of the religious needs of human nature. It is
his business also to suggest the best and most effective
material for that purpose. And here the question with
which we are really concerned is how far and in what sense
the New Testament is capable of supplying that need.
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 15
3
EDUCATIONAL METHODS
MODERN EDUCATIONAL METHODS
This discussion of the educational heritage of which
the Christian teacher is the natural heir would not be
complete without some reference to the expert guidance
which is at his disposal for the task of organizing his
material and transmitting it in the most effective way.
He is, of course, not called upon nor expected to apply
slavishly to morality and religion the particular methods
of modern teachers of other subjects. It is the general
principles underlying all particular methods that he needs,
first of all, to assimilate. On the other hand, he must
not forget that in dealing with the Bible he is also dealing
with what is essentially the material of Literature and
History and that the experts in teaching these subjects
have a great deal to teach him too with regard to the
educational interpretation of his material and its proper
grading for different ages, and also with regard to the
form, arrangement and presentation of his material.
But the expert advice must always be adapted to the
peculiar character and characteristics of the Biblical
Literature and History with which the Christian teacher
is definitely dealing.
Up till very recently the method that dominated all
education and instruction was that of an almost mechanical
memorizing. The teacher simply acted as the transmitter
of the stuff his business being to put it into the form
most suitable for its effective gripping of the verbal
memory. This, at any rate, describes the method in its
extreme form.
By this time the pendulum has swung completely
over to the other extreme in the Montessori method ; and
though it may be blasphemy to suggest such a thing, a
malicious opponent might be led to say that we have
here a signal instance of how extremes meet. In both
the oldest and the newest method the teacher does not
teach, but simply stands by watching the child learn.
16 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
In very different forms both extremes reveal an almost
incredible credulity with regard to the unaided capacity
of the human young to teach himself if he is left alone.
Such a view, however, would represent only a very
superficial and popular interpretation or misrepresentation
of Dr. Montessori 's almost unique services to the Science
and Art of Education. If the Montessori teacher can
afford to ' stand and wait ' acting as a kind of living
reference book, only to be used in emergencies that is
because his work has already been done thoroughly in the
selection and organization of the whole environment of
the child. The mere possibility of such a misrepresenta-
tion, however, may serve as a warning to the unwary
when they are tempted superficially to imitate a genius.
The valuable experiments of Dr. Montessori are un-
doubtedly destined to exercise a very healthy influence
upon the whole conception of education ; but so far as the
teaching of morality and religion is concerned, they are
only at their preliminary stage. They may before long
challenge the right of definite and systematic instruction
in morality and religion, as they have already shown the
need for a radical reconsideration and reorganization of
the environment now provided by religious institutions.
We are not yet, however, in a position to discuss the
relation of the Montessori method to the teaching of the
older children and adolescents, with which we are here
mainly concerned.
In any case, we must not let this universal reaction
against the mechanical memorizing of the past blind us
to the fact that there is a place for the appeal to the
memory. In its own place and under proper conditions
that appeal is an essential element in any well-ordered
system of instruction. All effective education, in fact,
depends upon it. The claim of modern methods is that
they do store the memory with what is needed for the
guidance of life, and with far richer resources than any
mechanical learning by rote can ever do. It is very
probable also that the reaction even against mechanical
memorizing has gone too far.
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 17
THE IMPRESSIONIST SCHOOL OF METHOD
Apart from this, the main educational methods at
present in vogue fall into three main types. Rather
:clusive claims have been sometimes made on behalf of
ich of these, but as a matter of fact they are not incon-
sistent with one another. They may be called respectively
:he Impressionist, the Constructive and the Argumentative
>chool of Method. The Impressionist method implies
;hat the teacher is an artist whose delight is in depicting
dvid and dramatic scenes with a lavish and loving brush.
His business is to arouse active sentiments of wonder,
tdmiration and love by fixing living pictures in the mind.
He aims at reaching the will mainly through the imagina-
tion and the emotions. Hence his cry is for story-telling,
more story-telling and still more story-telling. He makes
the bread of stories out of wood and stone, and one would
not be surprised to find mathematical tables at any time
become changed under the magic wand into a fairy tale
or a heroic saga. The story-telling teacher takes pleasure
in enlarging upon his theme and working out its incidents
in elaborate detail rich in colour and glowing in tone.
He works both for large effects and deep impressions.
Sometimes it is claimed that this artistic method can
cover almost the whole range of instruction ; but most
naturally it finds in history, nature, morality and religion
its own chosen field.
It must readily be granted that the Impressionist
teacher has built up his theory, which has been put here
in its extremer form, upon the solid basis of psychology
and experience. We all love a good story, and it is one
of the most effective instruments known to us for gripping
the interest and so directing the will. To acquire the art
of story-telling, therefore, must always be one of the
main tasks of the teacher. We shall see also that the
material of the New Testament is of such a character as
not only to be susceptible to this method of treatment,
but even to demand story-telling for the effective trans-
mission of a great deal of it.
There is no doubt, also, that for the ages of wonder
2
i8 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
and imagination in infancy and early childhood there is
no substitute at all for the well-told story.
Its danger, however, is that it may very easily defeat
its own purpose. The attention is apt to be attracted
by so many vivid details, and the interest gripped by so
many strong and concrete images, that it requires a very
sure artistic touch to preserve the unity of the impression.
Except v on the very highest levels of story-telling, some
element other than the sheer artistic desire to tell a story
well and fully seems necessary in order to make the story
into an effective method of teaching.
THE METHOD OF SYSTEMATIC PRESENTATION
It is the endeavour to provide that element in a
scientific way that justifies and marks what we have
called the Constructive School of Method. It also may
make an extensive use of story-telling, but the story as
such does not really represent the genius of this method,
which is mainly associated with Herbart and his disciples.
Its essential feature is the attempt to influence the will
by setting in motion the process of apperception in the
mind, thus creating a new circle of thought with which
and in which Interest is inextricably bound up. It is
the Interest thus created that is supposed to control the
will. Herbart himself analysed the way in which the mind
thus goes to work into the four formal steps of clearness,
association, system and method. This analysis has since
been modified and amplified by his followers into the
' five formal steps ' of Preparation (with a Statement of
the Aim as a sub-step), Presentation, Comparison, General-
ization and Application. According to the theory, it is
the business of the teacher to see that the mind passes
through these steps, and for the devout Herbartian it is
pretty certain that the only way to secure this result is
to ' build up ' the material of instruction itself on these
lines. The teacher is therefore essentially a builder, first
of all of his material and through that of the mind. All
this was applied by Herbart himself only to large masses
of material and groups of lessons, but it is now very
generally applied to the construction of single lessons
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 19
with more artificiality and less effect. It is an interesting
experiment to group the whole material of the New Testa-
ment in accordance with the Herbartian formulae.
The merits of this method are very evident, and its
influence upon moral and religious instruction has been a
very healthy one. It keeps before us the ideal of moulding
the material of instruction into one organic whole. It
loes not allow the teacher to run away from his task for a
dngle moment. It emphasizes the importance and char-
icter of the material itself and implies a thorough mastery
)f its content and form in detail. It binds the teacher
:o a constant contact with the actual psychological process,
rhich must be set in motion by his presentation of the
material . In the main, the formal steps represent a natural
and fairly accurate analysis of that process.
On the other hand, the defects and dangers of the con-
structive method must not be overlooked. The relation
between the process of apperception and the decision of
the will is not always what the method implies. The
possession of a ' circle of thought ' is no guarantee of the
moral activity that corresponds with it. The whole pro-
cess from beginning to end is defined far too exclusively in
intellectual terms and far too much as the mechanical
working of a machine which only requires the touch of
a knob to set it going. Neither is it quite certain that the
best way to set it going is always to imitate the formal
steps involved in the process itself. The working of the
human mind cannot be quite so logical and perform such
clean-cuts as the formal steps imply. The application of
the same rigid procedure to the construction of each lesson
in an endless series must often involve an artificial stick-
ing-on of labels to material that does not naturally conform
to type.
This constructive method, therefore, with all its merits
and attractions, cannot legitimately make any exclusive
claims upon the teacher. It is an excellent servant, but
may become a bad master. What is probable is that,
modified and qualified by a more thorough and less
mechanical psychology, it is the most helpful method
yet found for the teaching of late childhood and early
adolescence especially.
20 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
THE METHOD OF QUESTIONING
The third or the argumentative method represents a
still more direct appeal to the intellect and a still greater
dependence upon the intellect for the direction of the will.
It represents the old and familiar question-and-answer
method which has been stereotyped in the Church Cate-
chism. It is a variation of the method of teaching
associated with the name of Socrates. In spite or perhaps
because of its familiarity, this method of instruction has
not received from modern educators the scientific attention
it ought. Essentially it is an attempt logically to deduce
principles from facts, or to apply principles to new facts
by a series of well-framed questions, inviting the pupils
themselves to carry through the whole process by their
answers.
Here the teacher is an explorer and guide rather than
a builder or an artist. He attempts to make the pupil
feel that it is he himself who is doing the work. The
teacher is only giving him an opportunity, as it were, to
discover the truth for himself. We have here once again
one of the main elements of instruction, the efficiency of
which depends upon the development of the art of skilful
questioning. The whole method taken by itself implies,
of course, a great deal of faith in the logical power of the
youthful mind, and it is very difficult to conceive any very
extensive use of it by itself as an independent method of
instruction. It is probable, however, that teachers have
been too prone to underestimate the intellectual and
logical capacities of late childhood and early adolescence,
and the revival of a method of this kind in a more scientific
form may yet lead to very fruitful results. The tradi-
tional disconnected and haphazard questioning is, of course,
only an abuse. It is true that the preparation for giving
instruction by this method cannot be so rigid and elaborate
in detail as in the case of story-telling. The material must
be under control in a somewhat elastic form, for the
answers to questions cannot always be anticipated. That,
however, only means that the preparation must be all the
more thorough, while the demand upon the alertness of the
teacher at the moment is far greater.
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 21
Here, again, the truth seems to be that a method of this
kind is specially adapted for the teaching of middle and
late adolescence, and only in a subordinate place for the
instruction of childhood.
These seem to be the chief types of methods at the
disposal of the teacher of the New Testament. He will
do well not to pin his faith to any one of them, and refuse
to bow to any exclusive claims made on their behalf.
They will help to convince him that he must learn the art
of effective story-telling, the art of clear, systematic and
unified presentation of his material, and the art of skilful
questioning.
NEED OF VARIETY IN METHOD
Starting from the value of these, he will probably find
that his main stand-by for infancy and early childhood
will be story-telling in all its forms ; presentation on more
or less Herbartian lines for late childhood and early
adolescence ; and questioning for the later periods. His
experience will also probably show him that his choice
of any one of these methods or any combination of them
will come to depend upon the character of the material
with which he happens to be dealing. Individual incidents,
personal history, biographical records and imaginative
material will naturally take the form' of stories. Studies
in character and personality, the record of social groups,
the transmission of moral experience and the intellectual
content of life will require the aid of the Herbartian or
some similar systematic positive presentation ; while the
discovery and formulation of general principles and their
application will require the more argumentative method.
This, however, is only a very rough division of his material,
and the teacher must be ready to adopt very varied com-
binations of methods at all stages, according to the call of
his subject-matter and the particular capacities of his
pupils.
In the end, what is to be hoped for is that the teacher
will discover for himself just that particular variety of any
one or all of these methods as his very own and learn to
depend upon it as his mainstay.
22 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Such, then, as regards general principles and methods,
is the educational situation into which must be inserted
the task of teaching the New Testament in the modern
world. It is a privilege to enter into the rich heritage it
represents and to make faithful answer to its urgent
demands. It is very humiliating to realize how in-
effective so far has been the response of the Christian
Church as a whole. As an educational institution, no
one will venture to claim that it is at present doing its
work in any satisfactory way. Whether its educational
purpose be considered as giving a knowledge of the Bible,
or obtaining converts, or transmitting a knowledge of what
Christianity means, or producing strong Christian men
and women ; whether we consider the education it pro-
vides, the instruction it imparts or the methods it adopts ;
whether we consider its buildings, its equipment or its
staffing unfortunately there is no one who will or can
claim anything like efficiency for its work. The whole
organized education of the Church lacks life newness of
life, driving power, the power of the Spirit that maketh
all things new. And it can find what it lacks only in one
way in a baptism, and that a baptism by total im-
mersion into the overflowing spirit of its own Gospel
first, and then into the purest ideals and principles of
modern education. We must somehow win the faith that
by the grace of God we have been entrusted with a large
measure of real power deliberately to mould human souls,
and that God is leading us more and more to discover how
to do it effectively.
Such is essentially the religious faith of modern
education. We must see that it is also the educational
faith of the Christian Church.
BOOKS
ADAMS (J.i). Modern Developments in Educational Practice. (London,
1922.)
BAGLEY (W. C.^.The Educative Process. (London and New York,
BRYANT (SOPHIE) Moral and Religious Education. (London, 1920.)
CAMPAGNAC (E. T.). Elements of Religion and Religious Teaching
(Cambridge,? 19 1 8.)
CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND MODERN EDUCATION 23
COE (G. A.). Education in Religion and Morals. (New York, 1904.)
A Social Theory of Religious Education. (New York, 1919.)
DAVIDSON (J.). Means and Methods in the Religious Education of the
Young. (London, 1917.)
DEWEY (J.). Moral Principles in Education. (Boston, 1910). How
We Think. (Boston, 1910.)
GOULD (F. J.). Moral Instruction, its Theory and Practice. (London,
HALL (STANLEY). Educational Problems. (New York, 1911.)
HAYWARD (F. H.). The Meaning of Education. (London, 1907.)
KIRK (K. E.). A Study of Silent Minds. (London, 1918.)
M'CuNN (J.). The Making of Character. (Cambridge, 1912.)
PAUL (AGNES S.). Some Christian Ideals in the Teaching Profession.
(London, 1919.)
POTTER (H. C.). Principles of Religious Education. (London, 1901.)
RAYMONT (T.). The Principles of Education. (London, 1910.)
RICHERT (H.). Handbuch fur den evangelischen Religionsunterricht.
(Leipzig, 1911.)
RUSK (R. R.). The Religious Education of the Child. (London, 1915.)
SADLER (M. E.). Moral Instruction and Training in Schools. (London,
1908.)
SAXBY (I. B.). Education of Behaviour. (London, 1921.)
SISSON. The Essentials of Character. (New York, 1915.)
SPILLER (G.). Papers on Moral Education. (London, 1908.)
T. C. U. Education : Its Spiritual Basis and Social Ideals. (London,
1918.)
THORNDIKE (E. L.). Educational Psychology. (New York, 1913.)
WELTON (J.). What do we mean by Education ? (London, 1914.)
CHAPTER II
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER
r. The Study of the New Testament. Modern Biblical Criticism The
External Characteristics of the New Testament Its Contents
Different Levels of Thought The Peculiar Contribution of the
New Testament Summary.
2. The Need of Trained Teachers. The Training of Teachers Their
Need of a Critical Study of the Bible.
3. The Teacher's Attitude. Two Questions Involved The Moral
Demand Need of a Consistent Attitude Mediaeval v. Modern
Methods The Attitude of the Great Preachers The Needs of
the Ordinary Teacher The Parting of the Ways.
THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
A BAPTISM into the best spirit and principles of the great
modern educators is capable of pouring new life into the
moribund body of the moral and religious education of
the Church, and, as we have seen, it is in an indirect way
a baptism into the spirit and principles of the Christian
Gospel. Naturally, however, we shall find a far more
direct way into the heart of the same Gospel in every
fresh literary, historical and religious study of the New
Testament.
MODERN BIBLICAL CRITICISM
This is not the place to enter upon the history of the
interpretation of the New Testament during the second
half of the last century from the days of Strauss and
Baur through Westcott, Hort and Lightfoot, down to the
days of Sanday, Harnack, Julicher, Bousset and Johannes
Weiss. As a whole, it is probably the history of one of
the most thorough intellectual processes in the story of
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 25
the race. Every book, every chapter, every phrase and
every word in the New Testament have been under the
critical microscope many times from almost every point
of view. The work has been done with almost absolute
freedom, running sometimes into licence and sometimes
into the most utter disregard for the practical results,
good or bad, which might follow for Christianity and
the Church. All the more significant, therefore, is the
undoubted fact that what is practically a consensus of
scholarly opinion has now been reached with regard to
the origin, nature and history of the books of the New
Testament. So far, at any rate, as the teacher or the
preacher is concerned, the differences between scholars
are not of much account. The conception of the New
Testament is now clear in all its main outlines and in
most of its details. Tc this, the Christian teacher must
adjust himself and his work, sooner or later, and the
sooner the better.
We cannot hide from ourselves the fact that it is a
New Testament very different from that which was in
the hands of the teacher a century ago. Of the tradi-
tional theory or dogma about the Bible not a fragment
has been left standing. An entirely new building stands
on the site and in the place of the old, though it is true
that many stones from the old house have been used in
the reconstruction. It is especially necessary for the
teacher at this point to be quite clear as to what that really
means.
In its logical and extreme form, the traditional idea
of the Bible was that of a miraculous, absolute, objective
and consistent Revelation throughout, given directly by
God in a supernatural way, written at His dictation and
preserved by supernatural means.
In and for itself it was God's final word for all time.
In form, origin and history it was taken to be so.
From beginning to end it was a complete and consistent
system of divine truth. This was the dogma of the Bible
in its logical form. Every word was equally infallible
and equally authoritative. Every word meant something
important in a religious and Christian sense.
Of course, no one did no one ever could carry out
26 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
such a theory consistently into practice. We must not,
however, forget that so long as it was consciously or sub-
consciously accepted by the teacher and his pupils, it did
supply in a marvellous way their greatest needs for
authority and for a final court of appeal. It was, however,
a theory that might be shattered in a moment by any one
who dared to employ his critical judgment upon it. That
was what naturally did happen in course of time. The
New Testament as well as the Old was, after a long struggle,
claimed as a proper subject for the same kind of study as
was given to other literature and by the same methods.
The consequences of this critical study we must be pre-
pared to accept frankly for the sake of teaching the New
Testament effectively. It is, however, not the individual
results in detail that concern us here so much as the final
effect upon our general view of the New Testament as
a whole in its origin, character and form. What, then, is
the New Testament as we have it in our hands to-day ?
THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
i . With regard to its external characteristics :
(a) The New Testament is a collection of early
Christian writings, miscellaneous in form, including
collections of biographical anecdotes of the Christian
leaders, private letters, semi-formal epistles and several
other types of literature common in their time. They
were written by Christians to one another and some
perhaps to outsiders on matters relating to the new
religion .
(b) The New Testament, however, is not merely a
haphazard collection, but a selection from a larger mass of
Christian writings, belonging approximately to the first
century after the death of Jesus Christ. This selection
was not deliberately made on one principle. The New
Testament writings are not all earlier than other Christian
writings. They are not different in their form. They
are not all apostolic in their origin. Their selection was
not one deliberate act, but the result of a long process
carried on by different Churches in different places and
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 27
from different motives. The New Testament came into
being by a process of natural selection and survival, and it
was only the last step, and that a formal one, which was
taken by the Church Councils.
(c) So far as all external characteristics are concerned,
no difference can be traced between the writings of the New
Testament and those of their time and age outside. In
language, origin, literary forms, history and preservation
they underwent the same fortunes and misfortunes as
the other books which have come down to us until they
were definitely elevated into the Sacred Canon of the
Church.
Externally, therefore, we have before us a natural,
human, historical and literary growth. The books are
human products which scholars have succeeded in putting
back into their setting in the literature, history, thought
and language of the first two centuries.
Whether and how far what the early Christians had
to say to one another in and through these writings is a
Word or the Word of God to us is a matter upon which
literary and historical study as such can pass no direct
judgment. It is not within its province to do so. To
call the New Testament inspired or revealed can only
be a judgment upon the value of its content, and it is
independent of its form and the process through which
it came. Whatever special moral or religious value there
may be in the New Testament writings, it is clear that
that value is not derived from and cannot depend upon
either their literary origin or their history, upon their
external characteristics or the method of their preserva-
tion and collection but only upon the character of their
contents, the life from which they sprang and the effects
they produce.
2. We are therefore driven back more definitely than
ever before upon the character of the contents of the
New Testament.
(a) Although no hard and fast distinction can any
longer be drawn externally between early Christian writings
inside and outside the Canon, yet the choice of the books
which we have now in the New Testament has been fully
justified on the merits of their contents.
28 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
They are the documents which are most typical of
the early Christian movement itself, and which are of most
importance in estimating the character and value of that
movement. It is true that Luther called the Epistle of
James " an epistle of straw, for there is nothing evangelical
in it," but that was a very hasty judgment on his part.
It might also be argued that the Epistle of Barnabas,
the first Epistle of Clement and the Letters of Ignatius
ought to have been included, but it would tax the ingenuity
of the critic to decide whether they are superior or equal
in value to any New Testament writings. It must also
be confessed that the boundary between the canonical
and the extra-canonical books nearest to them was for
long very uncertain.
THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
In spite of all this, however, the right of the New
Testament to represent the meaning of Early Christianity
still stands firm. While the reasons given originally in
each case for placing individual books inside or outside
the Canon cannot always be endorsed, yet the verdict
of the Early Church as to the supreme value of the New
Testament as a whole, compared with all the other writings
of the time, has been amply confirmed. We can therefore
be sure that when we are dealing with these writings
we are at the heart of the Christian movement.
(b) It has also been clearly revealed to us by this time
that in purpose and nature every part of the contents of
the New Testament is essentially occasional and practical.
Even the fixing of the Canon was not really the work of
the great Councils. It was the free choice of the Christian
Churches to meet their practical needs for Christian
edification and instruction. Every book was written
with a definite practical purpose even the Epistle to
the Romans and the Apocalypse. Each was intended to
meet some concrete situation, and always sprang out
of some concrete historical circumstances. Each writer
wished to bring the power of the Christian Gospel to bear
upon some definite moral conditions. There is not a
book in the New Testament which can be fully or properly
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 29
described either as a theoretical treatise, or an historical
essay, or a mere literary effort.
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF THOUGHT AND LIFE
(c) Scientific modern study has also made it both
necessary and possible to distinguish great differences in
the character and the value of the contents of the different
books of the New Testament. There are two significant
illustrations of this fact. In the first place, there are
present throughout the New Testament two elements
which can be separated from each other. There are
features which belong to the age in general, something
which the New Testament has in common with the non-
Christian Jewish, Greek or Oriental thought and life
of the time. Then alongside of that element we have
the message which is peculiar to these books themselves,
or rather to the movement they represent, namely, that
which is the peculiar contribution of the Founder, and of
the teachers and preachers of the new religion. The
proportion and the way in which these two elements are
mixed in the different books vary considerably, but in
none is either element entirely absent. Sometimes the
peculiar Christian element is the predominant factor and
the form only, or the expression only belongs to the age
in general ; but sometimes the Jewish or Greek thought
is only given a kind of Christian twist.
The relation between these two elements may be ex-
pressed in different ways. They have been called the
kernel and the husk, the permanent and the passing,
the spirit and the form, the Gospel and its historical
expressions. A great deal of the teaching of the New
Testament must always be concerned with distinguishing
between these two.
In the second place, we have learnt to recognize many
different levels of thought and life in the New Testament.
Of these, three at least can be described with some fulness
and represent fundamental types of early Christian thought
and life, namely, the Synoptic, the Pauline and the
Johannine. It will naturally be one of the main tasks of
the Christian teacher to distinguish, compare and estimate
30 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
the value of these different forms of Christian life and
thought.
THE PECULIAR CONTRIBUTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
(d) By all these means what is the most original
contribution made by the Christian movement to the life
and thought of the world has been brought clearly into
prominence. This peculiarly Christian contribution as
revealed in the New Testament is found neither in the
books themselves as books nor even in doctrines and ideas^
but in the personalities whom they reveal in the personal
life and the practical attitude towards life and the world
which they express, the deep moral and religious experience
which created the books and the ideas. More especially,
it has been shown that the comparative value of the books
and their ideas depends upon the relation in which they
stand to the one Personality which dominates them all
to a greater or less extent that of Jesus of Nazareth.
(e) Finally, it is important for the teacher to note that
in establishing all these facts about the New Testament,
modern study has also succeeded in revealing to us a great
deal of the whole concrete world from and into which the
Christian Religion and the New Testament itself came,
the world in which the Christian Gospel had to dwell, with
which it became united in detail and whose problems it
set out to solve. They are the Jewish, the Oriental, the
Greek and the Roman world of the time in language,
thought, morality, religion, politics and social conditions.
Into this world, the Gospel, the Christian ideal and power
were thrown ' like ferment into the pot/ The result is
that what we have in the New Testament is the Gospel,
not in the abstract or as a set of theoretical principles,
but in a multitude of concrete forms and concrete relations.
So far as the New Testament is concerned, the Gospel has
no reality except as it takes shape in definite historical
circumstances, men and societies.
SUMMARY
To put it briefly, then, the New Testament is a collection
of and a selection from early Christian writings, differing
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 31
in nothing so far as all external characteristics are con-
cerned from the other writings of the same age. Repre-
senting as they do a natural human growth, they are
nevertheless the most characteristic literary products of
the early Christian movement. Among themselves, the
books differ in their literary form, purpose and value, but
in them all we can distinguish the peculiar contribution of
the new religion to the world its Gospel, which is found
pre-eminently in the personality of Jesus of Nazareth.
The New Testament, however, gives us this Gospel in the
mould of a definite age in many different forms to meet
the various conditions of the time. For that reason, the
study of the New Testament is being gradually transformed
into a study of Primitive Christian Life, History and
Personality, producing and expressing itself in thought,
literature and action.
It is these general facts, with regard to the nature of
the New Testament as a whole, that are by far the most
important for the modern Christian teacher. The further
results of critical study in detail, with regard to questions
of date, authorship and the historical accuracy of the
several books, are not so important, and any attempt to
describe these results would take us at present too far
afield. The essential point with regard to them all is that
the decision of each question must be obtained in the same
way as all other similar questions are decided, and that is
simply on the evidence available.
It is seldom, however, that they are of any importance
to the teacher as such. His great gain with regard to them
is that he is placed in a much freer position on these
matters. He reaches a point of view which makes him
more or less independent of them, for he cannot any
longer trade in the form of the books so much as in their
content not so much in the written word itself as in what
is behind it the experience, the life and the personalities
revealed in and through the written word. It is only in
so far as the critical discussions touch the life and per-
sonalities in the New Testament that they affect the
teacher's work to any extent.
Such is the case, for instance, in the controversy with
regard to the nature and historical character of the Fourth
32 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Gospel. The different views on this question must lead
to considerable differences in the treatment and use of the
Fourth Gospel, and may change the whole historical picture
of Jesus Christ. This, therefore, will need special discus-
sion later on, along with some other questions of detail
which affect the teaching of particular aspects of the New
Testament.
THE NEED OF TRAINED TEACHERS
It goes without saying that this general picture of the
history and contents of the New Testament must condition
the practical use made of its literature and history in all
directions.
Any intrinsic authority which the New Testament may
have on account of its contents is not thereby materially
affected. Nor is our duty to make a knowledge of the New
Testament an essential element in the general education of
all who share in the civilization of Europe any the less
imperative. For nothing can alter the fact that the New
Testament has been one of the most potent factors in the
growth of Europe.
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS
There are, however, some considerations arising from
the circumstances of our time, the controversies which
have till recently been raging with regard to questions of
Biblical Criticism, the hold which more or less traditional
views still have upon the older generation and the frag-
mentary way in which critical results have been spread
by newspapers all these considerations seem to demand
a somewhat fuller discussion of the value and the practical
effect of the modern study of the Bible upon moral and
religious instruction. It ought not to be necessary to
remind those who are responsible for the training of
teachers that the first condition of any effective teaching
of the Bible (in the schools of the State no less than in the
schools of the Church) is some sound scientific knowledge
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 33
of the Bible itself in its history, form and contents. Yet
the amazing fact is that at least half the children of the
United Kingdom (and probably a much greater pro-
portion) are constantly receiving moral and Biblical in-
struction from teachers who have had no scientific or
iy other definite training for their task. So far as the
Elementary Schools are concerned, it is only in the de-
lominational Training Colleges that any pretence is being
tade to prepare the teachers for the work of teaching the
Jible, to which at least half an hour daily will be devoted
iroughout their career. Even their training is more often
in not a very meagre and unscientific one. Most other
"raining Colleges seem quite content to live by the hope
that the teachers they turn out will somehow ' muddle
through ' this part of their work in some miraculous way
which they do not dream of trusting in the case of any
other subject in the overcrowded time-table of Elemen-
tary Schools. The situation in the Secondary Schools is
still more scandalous. On the other side, the Education
Authorities with one accord take it for granted that their
task is nobly done when they have issued confused injunc-
tions that morality and the Bible must be taught in their
schools, and have published a still more confused and
unintelligent syllabus, according to which they are to be
taught. They never dream of asking whether some
knowledge of Ethics and the Bible are included by any
happy chance in the long list of the qualifications of the
teachers they appoint.
The so-called ' secular ' authorities may, of course,
legitimately retort that they are only following the
example of the Church. This is unfortunately but too
true, for Sunday - school teachers are even worse off in
this respect than the teachers in State Schools. So far
as Nonconformity at least is concerned, the one excep-
tion is the West Hill Training School, and that is more or
less of a private venture, due to the enthusiasm of Mr.
G. H. Archibald. Of course the result of all this insist-
ence upon teaching morality and the Bible, coupled with
the absolute neglect of providing any definite training for
it, is that the teaching in the majority of cases is worse
than useless, and that the most unintelligent views of the
3
34 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Bible are still spread broadcast, and the most irreverent
attitude towards the Bible is assiduously cultivated.
THE CRITICAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE
So far we have been pleading only for some systematic
knowledge of the Bible as the first condition of teaching it.
We must realize, however, that in our day this systematic
knowledge cannot be given or obtained except under the
guidance of modern Biblical scholars who have made the
Bible into a new book for the teacher as for all men. One
of the most curious things in the history of most of the
movements for the reform of the Sunday School is the
hesitation and extreme diffidence with which this whole
subject of the need for Biblical Criticism in the work of
Biblical instruction is approached. An intense eagerness
is often displayed for the adoption of up-to-date educa-
tional methods, but there is generally a good deal of cir-
cumlocution employed whenever it becomes a question
of what, after all, we are supposed to teach through these
modern methods. Many people seem to be under the
impression that every child is born with certain traditional
views of the Bible stereotyped upon his soul, and that
therefore it is a very difficult and dangerous business
to teach him what the Bible really means. As a matter
of fact, of course, the truth is that in the majority of cases
the parents and teachers have a perfectly free hand in this
matter. If the child of twelve has acquired wrong views
of the Bible, which must be corrected later on, it is gener-
ally because the home or the school has taken a good
deal of trouble to drill those wrong views into him. With
far less trouble he might have been helped from the start
to grow unconsciously into the proper attitude towards
the Scriptures. It is not a question of changing the views
of the child but of changing the views of the teacher, and
of so teaching the Bible from the start that the child
may be saved from the wrench of having to remake his
faith later on. We are now continually emphasizing the
need of proper methods for doing this work, but we must
not forget that the matter of our teaching is at least quite
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 35
as important a factor. How we teach will in the end
depend upon what we want to teach.
That is why it is especially necessary at the present
time to realize that modern educational methods will not
and cannot become the permanent methods of moral and
religious education unless and until they are used to
teach the material best adapted to those methods. That
material in this case is the Bible as it comes from the
ands of the modern scientific scholars. It follows as an
nevitable consequence for the teacher that he must learn
o adopt the free attitude of the literary and historical
tudent towards the material as well as the form of the
ible. He has done for ever with traditional theories
th of the text, form and matter of the Biblical narra-
tives. He will deal with them in exactly the same spirit
and fashion as he must deal for educational purposes
with all the world's best literature and that is with
intelligence, freedom and reverence.
3
THE TEACHER'S ATTITUDE
If the case for the frank adoption of the modern
literary and historical methods of studying the Bible
seems to need strengthening, there is no lack of material
for that purpose. Both on moral and educational grounds
the demand is urgent and overwhelming.
Two QUESTIONS INVOLVED
Some of the hesitation with regard to this question
may be due to a lack of clearness as to the issues involved.
In reality, two very different and independent prob-
lems have to be discussed. The first is how far should
our teaching of the Bible be based upon and be guided by
the methods and results of modern criticism ? In other
words, what is its value for the practical teaching of the
Bible ? This deals with that part of the teacher's work
which is, as it were, out of sight. It concerns the choice
36 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
and preparation of the lessons, the value of the Bible as
interpreted by modern scholars and the positive picture
to be given of its place. This touches the pupil only
indirectly. He may be quite unconscious of what the
teacher is doing for him.
The second question is one of a different kind. How
far should the methods and results of modern criticism
be deliberately and definitely taught in the school to the
pupil ? When and how should that be done ? In other
words, what is the educational value of a training in
Biblical Criticism itself? Can it help, in any way, to
promote the growth of Christian faith and character ?
These two questions must be kept more or less apart
and each discussed on its own merits. The latter we shall
have to deal with later on among the particular problems
of teaching the New Testament, and it is only the former
which concerns us at present.
THE MORAL DEMAND
In the first place, the use we make of the Bible should
as an elementary moral duty be guided and controlled
by what we know the Bible to be. If we know, as we do,
that the Book of Deuteronomy was not written by Moses,
but belongs to the seventh century before Christ, there
can be no justification for refusing to base our lessons on
what we know to be the truth. The situation here is now
perfectly clear. In the theological lecture-room every-
where, the main results of modern Biblical Criticism as
represented, say, by the late Professor Driver and Sir
George Adam Smith in the Old Testament, and by the late
Professor Sanday or by Harnack in the New Testament,
are now universally adopted and more or less thoroughly
applied. No responsible Biblical scholar would now
dream of attributing the Book of Genesis to Moses or
Isaiah xl. to Ixvi. to the prophet of that name in the
eighth century B.C., or the Gospel of Matthew to the
Apostle, or 2 Peter to the Apostle Peter. He would not
dream of trusting to the historical accuracy of Chronicles.
He would not hesitate to cut up the Books of Samuel into
earlier and later documents that sometimes contradict
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 37
each other, and he would immediately recognize in almost
all the prophetic books the presence of passages from later
writers. He takes it for granted that Matthew and Luke
are dependent upon the Gospel of Mark and a Collection
of the Sayings of Jesus, and he would not think of re-
cognizing the Fourth Gospel without many qualifications
as an historical record of the life of Jesus.
If we still go on teaching on the basis of the traditional
views of the Bible, we are perpetuating what we know to
be false views and destroying the truth of history.
NEED OF A CONSISTENT ATTITUDE
The situation is aggravated by the fact that for years
the critical views have been filtering down through the
newspapers in a fragmentary and negative way to the
man in the street and the ordinary teacher, with the
result that in the majority of cases those who are teaching
the Bible in thousands of schools up and down the country
have definitely ceased to believe in the traditional views
and to adopt the traditional attitude towards the Bible,
but have not yet attained any personal, positive and
systematic conceptions in their place.
In many cases, therefore, an intolerable burden is
imposed upon the truthfulness and sincerity of teachers
whose instructions still imply the propagation of an
attitude and of views which they no longer share.
We must not, of course, hide from ourselves the fact
that when a modern view of the Bible is adopted as the
only possible background for all our teaching, we are
leaving behind us much more than particular views on
particular points. It must be repeated that we are re-
pudiating the whole idea of the Bible as an infallible
supernatural, miraculous revelation of scientific, historical
and religious truth, as well as the old conception of religious
education and Biblical instruction as a whole. On the
old view, our main business was to transmit as much of
the material of the Bible as time allowed, taking it for
granted that it was all of equal value. No other method
was possible. Every lesson must consist of comment
upon a particular passage. There was no room in the
38 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
scheme for lessons on either the History of Israel or the
Religion of Israel as such, or upon the Books of the Bible
as a whole. We could not give lessons on the character
of Paul or the early History of Christianity except in a
very fragmentary and haphazard way. According to the
modern conception of the Bible and of Education, on the
other hand, our business is to choose as much material
from the Bible as has educative value and power, and to
use it in such a way, at such a time and in such a form
as will help to promote moral and religious growth.
MODERN AND MEDIEVAL METHODS
Between these two views there can be no real and
permanent compromise, for what we have here is a quarrel
between two fundamentally different conceptions of the
meaning and place of the Bible as well as radically different
conceptions of the meaning and methods of education.
In religious instruction, it is true, many have for years
been trying to combine modern educational ideas and
methods with the traditional views of the Bible. The
attempt is utterly hopeless, not only because the old
views are false and discredited, but also because they are
essentially inconsistent with every principle in modern
education. The traditional views of the Bible imply
and demand the mediaeval methods in order to teach
them. On the other hand, the principles and methods
of modern education can only be used to teach the
corresponding results of modern study. It was the old
idea of the Bible that created the mediaeval system of
education, and they stand or fall together.
It must, therefore, be realized that what the public
teacher and preacher are face to face with, is not a frag-
mentary and occasional acceptance under pressure of
individual critical results a mere grafting of some
critical views upon an attitude which is not organically
united with them. It may be inevitable for the man in
the street to pick up the results of modern study in
snatches, and adopt them one by one without revising
his whole attitude towards the Bible, and without realizing
how they work out as a whole. Such a haphazard pro-
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 39
ceeding can only be disastrous in its results for the
Christian teacher. It is only a changed general attitude
that can save the reality of Christian teaching.
Public teaching which implies the outlook of Sir
George Adam Smith to-day, and that of Dean Burgon
to-morrow, must have fatal results for both teacher and
people. It is, moreover, not fair to judge the practical
results of either the one or the other by the effect of what
is only an undigested mixture of both. Yet such is the
ambiguous situation in the Church, pulpit, Sunday and
Day Schools of to-day. It is one of the practical tasks
of modern religious education to see that the children
of this generation grow naturally and from the outset
into that consistent, reverent and enlightened attitude
towards the Bible which corresponds to the facts with
regard to its character and history as revealed by modern
study. It is a task which can never be adequately
accomplished without some clear realization of the essential
change of attitude involved on the part of the teacher.
For the purposes of modern systematic education and
instruction, the Bible becomes more and more ineffective
unless and until the teacher reads and studies it under
the guidance of modern scholars. This, of course, does
not deny the tremendously revolutionary influence of a
free personal reading of the New Testament upon character.
It only confirms it, for that personal reading, so far as
it has been fruitful for Christian purposes, has always
implied in practice the overthrow of the rigid traditional
attitude and the adoption of the critical attitude in
essence by always claiming the right consciously or un-
consciously to choose some parts of the Bible for edifica-
tion in comparative disregard of the rest. It has found
by personal experiment and an instinctive religious
valuation what, for purposes of systematic instruction,
must be found by scientific methods. In reality, the
traditional dogma of the Bible is only a belated or borrowed
theory which attempts to justify the religious value of
parts of the Bible as discovered by experience, and is
extended by the logic of uniformity to other parts and
to the Bible as a whole. It explains that experience in
the wrong way by borrowing its categories from Jewish
40 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
and Pagan sources instead of building upon the Christian
facts themselves.
ATTITUDE OF THE GREAT PREACHERS AND TEACHERS
It is worth noting also that this free critical attitude
for which we are pleading has always supplied the central
core of Christian teaching and preaching as that has been
conceived by all the greatest Christian teachers and
preachers in history. As Sir George Adam Smith has
pointed out, 1 the modern critical movement leaves the
very highest kind of preaching practically untouched.
The great preachers have always instinctively used those
parts of the Bible which modern criticism has now scientifi-
cally shown to be the most fundamental and the peculiar
Christian element in the Bible. They have in practice
instinctively adopted that attitude towards their material
which we now find to be best fitted to bring us face to face
with its peculiar value in history and for life. The best
preaching has always been personal and has always in-
sisted upon its right to choose its own material from the
Bible in spite of all theory. It has gone straight as an
arrow to the human experience, character and person-
alities of the Bible for its material and dealt with it in an
essentially free, human way. That was the choice of its
conscience, and the prevalent theory was only brought in
alongside in order to enforce the choice. Nothing that the
modern critic can say will compare in its daring directness
with the judgment of Luther. " Christ is the master," he
says, " and the Scriptures are the servant. Here is the
touchstone for testing all books ; we must see whether
they work the works of Christ or not. The book which
does not teach Christ is not apostolic even were St. Peter
or St. Paul its writer." He speaks of " scrutinizing the
Scriptures " and sometimes finding " wood, hay, stubble
and not always gold, silver and diamonds. Nevertheless,
the essential abides and the fire consumes the rest." 2 It
is, of course, Luther, the prince of teachers and preachers,
1 See Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament, pp. 74-5.
2 Quoted in Sabatier, The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the
Spirit, pp. 158-9.
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 41
who here breaks through every dogmatic theory in order
to find the real preaching and teaching material of the
Bible. He thus expresses the essential practical attitude
of all the very greatest preachers and teachers of Christian
history, if not their theoretical belief. It is evident that
no critical results can ever really touch any preaching or
teaching that is based on such an attitude, although it
may alter the forms of it in many ways.
All this, however, is only added testimony to the fact
that the rich spiritual content in the Bible will make its
power felt through and sometimes in spite of any and every
theory with regard to it.
THE NEEDS OF THE ORDINARY TEACHER
The preaching and teaching genius of the first order,
however, only comes now and then into human history,
and his influence must in any case be mediated by a host of
smaller men in every generation who must wearily plod
their patient way to those heights which the prophets
reach at a bound. For them one may venture once more
to assert that the modern study of the New Testament as
human historical documents of the prophetic and for-
mative period of our religion is a necessary preliminary
if they are to make effective use of its material for the
purposes of systematic instruction. It is only from this
point of view that the Bible can find and retain its place
permanently in general modern education. That applies
to every stage in religious instruction from the primary
department upwards. To prevent misconception, however,
it must be clearly borne in mind that this does not imply
that critical considerations should be brought directly to
the notice of children. It does not mean that the teacher
is to talk to them about J, E, D and P, or about Ur-Marcus
and the Logia, or Q, from which Matthew and Luke drew
their material. As we shall see later on, it is only very,
very rarely that it is possible or desirable to discuss ques-
tions of accuracy or authorship with children under
twelve probably never except in answer to direct inquiry.
The teacher's lesson and actual teaching must naturally be
positive. The point is that his positive presentation must
42 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
be based upon a critical consideration of his material before
it can become an effective element in the education of
present-day children. A brief review of the practice of any
typically modern teacher like Mr. Archibald, or a brief
consideration of some of the most familiar watchwords of
modern educators, would make this at once evident. It
would be seen that if modern educational methods are to
find a home in Biblical instruction, the methods and main
results of Biblical criticism must be adopted by the teacher
as the basis of all his study and teaching quite apart from
the fact that it is only by their means that a true view of
the Bible can be taught to the child.
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS
It is really high time that this should be regarded as
finally settled in Christian instruction. It is at the root
of a great deal of the trouble which this time of transition
has brought in religious instruction, while lack of clearness
with regard to it accounts for a good deal of the futility
of many earnest attempts at reform. We cannot indeed
hope to make much progress in the effective teaching of the
Christian Gospel and the New Testament to the modern
world until the policy of the Christian teacher in this matter
has been finally settled. Teaching an infallible oracle and
an historical record of moral and religious experience are
two very different and contradictory things, which require
not only very different methods but also a very different
type of material used for a very different purpose.
It is mere childishness to imagine that the reverence
of men for the Bible and its moral and religious value for
their lives can be diminished by telling ' the truth in
love ' about its origin, history and character, or that its
dignity and spiritual power can ever be preserved and in-
creased by insistence upon an antiquated and essentially
pagan theory of its external authority as an infallible
oracle on all kinds of subjects and a crudely supernatural
prodigy. What the Bible is, it always has been and always
will be, because men have heard the voice of God in and
through it. The final test of our reverence for it and our
belief in it will be in our utter trust in its inherent power
NEW TESTAMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 43
to reach the mind and heart and will the conscience of
youth. The best that our instruction can do is to give it
as good a chance as we can to do its work. As Dr. Stanley
Hall says : " Youth most of all needs this greatest of
human documents, and needs to read it with absolute
freedom and honesty of mind ; and there is no danger
but that the new light, already shining from it and yet to
be revealed by their methods (those of the historical school
of Bible study), will make the new to the old as astronomy
to astrology, and will make young men not sceptics but
apologists." 1
BOOKS
BACON (B. W.). The Making of the New Testament. (London, 1913.)
Jesus and Paul. (London, 1921.)
GARDNER (P.). A Historic View of the New Testament. (London, 1904.)
M'LACHLAN (H.)- The New Testament in the Light of Modern Know-
ledge. (London, 1914.)
MOFFATT (J.). An Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament.
(Edinburgh, 1920.) The Approach to the New Testament. (London,
1921.)
1 Adolescence, vol. ii. p. 324.
CHAPTER III
THE PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION
1. The New Testament and Modern Values. The Educational Value
of the New Testament Education and the Preservation of
Values The Records, Creative Epochs and their Educational
Significance.
2. Educational Features of the New Testament. The Conflict of Ideals
The Literature of Personality A System of Values Social
Significance.
3. The New Testament and Adolescence. Grading the Material
Features of Adolescence Adolescent Features in the New
Testament Adolescent Interest in the New Testament The
Natural Food of Youth.
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND MODERN VALUES
HAVING before us such a New Testament as has been
described in the previous chapter, we cannot but ask
what special claim a collection and selection of documents
of this kind can have upon the modern educator. What
kind of educational authority can be associated with
such a New Testament ? What peculiar function can it
perform in a system of education directed towards moral
and religious ends ? Is there anything in the nature and
form of its contents to the call of which any definite stage
of moral and religious growth will spontaneously respond ?
Is it capable of satisfying any fundamental educational
need in a more effective way than any other material
within our reach ?
THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Some intelligible answer must now be found to such
questions as these, for henceforth the place of the Bible
44
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 45
in education must depend entirely upon the quality and
power of its content and not upon any theory of its origin.
The writings of the New Testament are in the first
place historical documents. They are records of the
past. Is there any special reason why they should not
be relegated to the Museum with a great many other
relics of days gone by ? What special justification is
there for their continued life in the School ?
It is possible and also quite legitimate to claim a
special place for some kind of study of the New Testament
by dilating upon the fact that the Bible is in any case an
essential element in the civilization of Europe, and that
therefore no one can be called properly educated who
does not know the Bible. We might enlarge upon it as
the great classic of English Literature. Such facts must
certainly claim the attention of modern educators when
they are discussing this subject, but they will not satisfy
the claim usually made for the educational use of the
New Testament. They provide, after all, only very sub-
ordinate arguments for that educational use, and do not,
in fact, bring us face to face with the real and peculiar
contribution of the New Testament. It is specifically a
religious book, and all its other qualities have originally
sprung from its characteristic spiritual message and power.
If it is to find its own special niche in the educational
building, it must in the end be because of the special help
it can give in the moral and religious training of men and
women. It sprang out of religious life and was written
for religious purposes. Every other quality it possesses
is only by the way, and every other influence it may have
exerted is ultimately due to its spiritual character.
Now, we have already seen that modern educators are
by this time practically agreed that religion, in spirit if not
in form, is and must be a central constituent in the natural
process of education. What, then, is the special contribu-
tion of the New Testament to religion, and to religion
as an educational force ? Naturally, it is the contribu-
tion which Christianity makes to religion in general.
The New Testament is throughout the outcome of the
Christian movement, and any contribution it canVnake to
education must be a specifically Christian contribution.
46 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
It is not the whole of that Christian contribution. This
would include the influence of the Christian Church,
Christian personalities, Christian history and literature
outside the New Testament, and especially all these
Christian elements which are to-day still living and active
all around us. But if the New Testament is not the whole
of the Christian contribution to education, it may well
represent the whole in essence, and it is undoubtedly the
central element in the whole. It may not be the best
means of bringing the influence of the Christian Church or
Christian theology to bear upon the process of education,
but it is at least still unique in the means which it places
at our disposal to present the spiritual power behind the
Christian Church and Christian theology effectively in its
purest form. It is, on the face of it, our only record of the
first creative period of the Christian Gospel when it came
fresh and original into the world and was held passionately
as the primary motive of life.
That is, in brief, the first step towards a general
educational valuation of the New Testament, but its
complete justification as an educational instrument of
peculiar significance calls for a much fuller discussion than
this implies.
EDUCATION AND THE PRESERVATION OF VALUES
Education, after all, like Religion itself, deals with the
living issues of the growing soul in the present and in the
future, and no mere past or its record can claim any right
of entry into its schools except the right of effective
service in dealing with those issues. Fundamental,
natural education, as we have seen, consists of spontaneous
growth through personal living experiences. All other
systematic education and instruction in School or Church
or any other institution are only attempts to make up
for the inevitable lack of range, variety and intensity
of these personal experiences by means of the organiza-
tion of environment, guidance and other influences
necessary to provide opportunity for the fullest growth
of the human young. These attempts all spring from the
recognition of the fact that there do exist in the life of
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 47
humanity certain ' goods ' which are worth preserving,
and which must be reproduced and increased from genera-
tion to generation for the sake of its continued life and
growth. There is a growing tendency to find in this
recognition of values and especially the supreme values
of goodness, truth and beauty the deepest meaning and
the strongest motive in man. The meaning of all educa-
tion is to be found in the desire to secure, as the only
guarantee of progress, that the young should appropriate
these ' values ' even though they cannot, owing to the
naturally narrow range of their experiences, come into
direct personal contact with their most powerful bearers,
>r cannot by their unaided immature judgment recognize
te call of these ' values ' amidst the chaos of conflicting
insations and presentations.
These values may range from the power to read, write
count, through the physical sciences, political and social
istitutions, family, State, Church, to purely moral and
>iritual values like brotherhood, faith, hope, love, for-
giveness, freedom, humanity and God. What is significant
lucationally about them is not only that they are the
larantees of present reality and future growth, and the
:rongest motives which lead to fuller life, but also that
ley all have their history and have grown out of history.
*o each belongs its creative epoch and period when it
first revealed, created and produced in and by some
jrsonality or group-movement of men. For lack of
lirect personal contact with these creative souls or move-
tents, it is the historical record of them, where preserved,
tat provides the essential and most effective educational
laterial for the reproduction and increase of the special
values they created.
CREATIVE EPOCHS AND THEIR EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE
That is the real justification of the use of the past for
present and future education. It is the living past alone
the past which reveals most clearly and powerfully
the living issues of the present that can claim to provide
material for ' educative ' instruction, because it represents
values for the present and the future.
48 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
This, therefore, is what justifies the prominent place
given to Greek and Roman Literature and History in a
modern system of education. Out of them have come
in the main those values of truth, beauty and law without
which no European civilization has existed or can ever
exist .
It is also and equally the supreme justification for
the use of the New Testament, and to a lesser degree of
the Old Testament in modern education. The history
we have in the New Testament is in a supreme degree
the kind of history which must always claim the attention
of the educator. It represents a movement of moral
originality, of religious awakening, of enterprise and
ideals. It is not primarily a history of organization
and abstract theological doctrine, but of overflowing
spiritual life of religion as a driving impulse from above,
as creative emotion, as living thought and expanding
activity. There is no movement in history so intimately
and essentially connected not only with the spread but
also with the creation of so many of the central moral
values which dominate the highest forms of thought,
sentiment and activity of modern life. Apart from the
specifically religious values themselves, the best elements
in modern civilization are represented by the ethical
interpretation of the universe, the spiritual interpreta-
tion of nature and history, the principle of ethical inward-
ness, the interpenetration of morality and religion, the
modern emphasis on personality, the value of the in-
dividual, the organic conception of society, universal
brotherhood, democracy, the supremacy of active love,
moral freedom and a number of other similar ideas and
ideals. These are one and all more or less intimately
associated with the early history of the Christian Gospel,
and more or less clearly represented in it.
It is probable that the prophetic movement in Israel,
some aspects of Judaism, Roman Law, the Mystery-
Cults of the East, Stoicism and other movements of the
Hellenistic civilization, going back to Aristotle, Plato
and Socrates, had a larger share than many Christian
apologists realize in preparing the way for these ideals,
and were significant factors in their origin.
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 49
All the same, there is no other record in history in
which their essential nature and the co-ordination of so
many of them are so effectively portrayed as in the
significant parts of the New Testament. There is none
in which their origin is recorded in a form so suitable
for educational purposes or wherein such powerful help
offered and such impetus given for their reproduction
personal and social life. A brief reference to some of
e main educational features of the New Testament will
irfice to make clear its possibilities in this respect.
EDUCATIONAL FEATURES OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
THE CONFLICT OF IDEALS
i . One of the elements in the literature of the New
Testament which give its presentation of moral and
spiritual values this extraordinary educational power is
that it is no mere intellectual account of their origin
and meaning, but is a living picture of their actual
emergence and progress to supremacy in and through
strenuous conflict between them and the traditional
ideals which they replaced. In the New Testament we
can actually see the new and the old locked in a life and
death struggle. Moreover, it provides us not with one
form only, but with varied expressions of this conflict.
It is a commonplace among educators that in com-
parison and contrast we have a factor of peculiar signifi-
cance in the process of education. It means, therefore,
a considerable addition to the educative power of the
New Testament that in it we see the new moral and
spiritual values emerging in conflict with the old ideals
already in possession of the field, and that in the records
of Jesus, Paul and John especially we have that conflict
in several different forms.
50 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
THE LITERATURE OF PERSONALITY
2. A still greater significance is given to the New
Testament as educative material by the fact that it brings
before us these spiritual values incorporated in person-
alities of great power, sanity and clarity. Practically all
its material is the direct expression of personality and is
gathered round a series of great personalities. It is first
and foremost a literature of personal power. It is the
fact that the writers have succeeded in bringing before
us so vividly the figures of Peter, Paul, John (whether
Apostle or not) and most of all Jesus it is this which
gives the New Testament its most prominent peculiarity.
Even those parts which seem at first sight to fall into
the region of history in the sense of events and even
the teaching, doctrinal discussions and questions of
organization are best appreciated, best understood and
best used in direct connection with this personal element.
This is especially true of the Letters of Paul. For educa-
tional purposes, their greatest value lies not in what they
say about theological doctrines or the organization of
the Church, but in the light they cast upon the life, work
and personal religion of the Apostle himself.
" By what quality," asks Dr. Felix Adler, " in them-
selves or fortunate constellation of circumstances did
Homer and the Biblical writers succeed ... in creating
types of the utmost universality and yet imparting to
them the breath of life, the gait and accent of distinctive
individuality ? I imagine that they succeeded because
they lived at a time when life was much less complex
than it is at present, when the conversation, the manners,
the thoughts, the motives of men were simple. They were
enabled to individualize the universal because the most
universal, the simplest motives, still formed the main-
spring in the conduct of individuals . It was not necessary
for them to enter into the barren region of abstraction
and generalization to discover the universal. They pic-
tured what they actually saw." l
Such a general explanation may be adequate for the
Old Testament, but the age of the New Testament was in
1 The Moral Instruction of Children, pp. 108-9.
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 51
its way as complex an age as our own, and the tendency
towards abstractions was perhaps even greater. It
would be truer to say that in contrast with their age in
general, the men and writers of the New Testament lived
so entirely in the region of the great moral and spiritual
simplicities that the concrete personal picture of them
naturally and inevitably attains universality.
In any case, the fact is that the New Testament
writers have actually succeeded in depicting great per-
sonalities of distinctive individuality who are at the same
time types of the utmost universality. Teaching the New
Testament essentially means making these men live again
in the mind and heart and conscience of our scholars.
Whatever else we do or leave undone, this must remain our
central task, and the tragedy of our present-day teaching
is that our whole curriculum is framed in such a way as
to prevent this being done in any effective way. We are
bringing men into contact with the written word rather
than the living souls behind it. We are teaching books
instead of men, and we leave them with abstract and dead
ideas instead of concrete, personal inspiration. All the
energy of our educational passion should be thrown into
the task of presenting the life, work and personality of
Paul, and still more of Jesus, in such a way as to do their
work once more upon the minds and hearts and the souls
of the youth ; and for the sake of our Gospel, we should
be willing to sacrifice everything else in order to do
that.
This realization of the supreme spiritual values in
personal, individual forms especially in Jesus Christ,
whose character runs on such extraordinarily clear, simple
and pure lines means a great addition to educational
efficiency as compared with the presentation of the ideal
in and for itself. " Logical or mathematical truth," says
Dr. Barbour, " attains universality by a sacrifice of the
concrete ; while moral truth gains universal assent
the assent of will above all only in so far as it appeals
to the imagination and rouses the slumbering ideals in
the hearts of all. Further, since it is directed to action,
it is most cogent when it appears not as a formula, which
still needs translation into terms of practice, but as a
52 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
living example, showing what goodness is in reality and
deed." 1
A UNIFIED SYSTEM OF VALUES
3. The result of this incorporation of spiritual values
in personalities like Paul and Jesus is that what we get
in the New Testament, and especially in Christ, is not
merely a number of separate disconnected ideals or a
series of independent moral and religious values side by
side, but a whole unified system of values. What marks
Him is what has been called a ' transvaluation of all
values.' What is revealed in Him is a whole new spiritual
life and world a new orientation of all values which is
for Him and becomes for His disciples through Him the
ultimate, the divine life that * new man ' and f newness
of life ' of which Paul speaks. There is no need to labour
the point that without this element of unity and con-
sistency there can be no thorough appreciation and
assimilation of the separate and independent values of
life one by one. "Judgments of value," says Professor
Seth Pringle-Pattison, " . . . are not to be taken ... as
so many detached and mutually independent pronounce-
ments of one faculty or another upon particular features
or aspects of the world. They represent rather so many
parts of one fundamental judgment in which the nature
of reality, as exhibited in the system, may be said to
affirm itself. Every particular judgment depends for its
ultimate sanction on the recognition of its object as a
contributory element to this inclusive whole." 2
THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EARLY CHRISTIAN
PERSONALITIES
4. One other element at least deserves to be men-
tioned in any attempt at some general appreciation of
the educational value of the New Testament. Its great
personalities as the revealers and bearers of a new spiritual
life and world do not appear merely as isolated individuals
fighting simply for their own spiritual emancipation, but
1 A Philosophical Study of Christian Ethics, p. 299.
2 The Idea of God, p. 223.
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 53
as, in their different ways, leaders of group-movements.
Their appearance and activities have an essentially social
significance. This is the case not only with regard to
Jesus and Paul in their different ways. All the other
representative figures also Peter, Luke and Mark, as
well as John and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews
are not only typical figures in themselves, but even in
their writings they probably have behind them social
groups and circles with fairly well-defined types of thought
and Christian attitude which they represent.
This also implies a definite addition to the educative
value and power of the history and literature of the New
Testament.
It is very probable that further consideration of the
material of the New Testament, from this point of view,
will bring to light other elements which will help to sub-
stantiate its claim to be and to remain the most significant
material in any intelligent and thorough system of modern
education and instruction.
If it is the aim of education to preserve and increase
the values which give meaning and power to modern life
as a whole, then undoubtedly all serious educators must
look upon the New Testament as a most significant
element in the material at their disposal. There is no
other extant literature, neither Jewish, Greek nor Latin,
which brings together within so manageable a compass
such a vivid record and living picture of the origin and
spread of those intrinsic values and moral ideals which
alone make modern life worth living. If there are other
records which perform the same or a similar service for
some of these ideals, there is no other which puts their
creative material into such sharp contrast with the old,
shows them going forth conquering and to conquer with
such power, incorporates them in such personal, individual
and yet universal forms, reveals them so much as a unified
system and gives them such social significance. That
means to say, there is no other which presents the material
in so essential and so natural an educative form as the New
Testament.
All these qualities in the New Testament, quite apart
from its subsequent history, its general contribution to
54 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
the civilization of Europe and its educational traditions,
provide adequate justification for its very large use in
education, and that because of the very nature and form
of its contents.
They will also help to make clear the proper and
peculiar place of the New Testament in the process of
education, and the definite stage at which its use will
become most effective.
3
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ADOLESCENCE
Having thus marked out the general function of the
New Testament in Education and enumerated some of
the qualities which make it supremely capable of per-
forming that function, we now proceed to ask where it
fits most naturally into the process of Christian education ?
Is there any point at which we must almost inevitably
turn to the New Testament for our material ? Is it
particularly adapted for infancy or youth or maturity ?
Or can it be used indiscriminately at all ages ? Is there
any particular stage at which we can with any confidence
say : It is just here that the peculiar contribution of
the New Testament comes naturally to its own in moral
and religious instruction and education ?
GRADING THE MATERIAL
There is no need to emphasize the fact that we have
here one of our fundamental educational problems, the
answer to which ought practically to decide the whole
framework of our moral and religious curriculum. The
traditional practice was to drop a New Testament passage
down anywhere, and, as in the case of the old International
Lessons, this practice was based upon the supposition
that every part of the Bible provides suitable material
for all ages. The modern study of educational Psychology,
however, has by this time driven that theory out of the
field, but not always with the result of dismissing the
practice that corresponds to it. We all recognize that
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 55
the moral and religious growth of the individual is divided
into the periods of Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence
before maturity each with its own peculiar character-
istics, needs, interests and capacities. We are not,
however, so ready to apply that principle in any thorough
way to the disposition of the Biblical material.
So far as the New Testament is concerned, there can
be no question as to the period to which its material as a
whole belongs. In its present form it is the natural food of
Adolescence. That period provides the one great oppor-
tunity of the Christian Gospel and the New Testament.
It is only then that we can speak in any full sense of
teaching the New Testament. We may even go so far
as to say that it is then or not at all, so far as all human
educational means are of any importance. Before that
time, we can only prepare the way for the great lesson.
Our educational opportunity is, to all intents and pur-
poses, lost, unless the Christian motive, the Christian
ideal and power have found a home in heart and mind
and will before maturity is reached. All the evidence of
Psychology and experience, of history and New Testa-
ment study, points directly to the fact that the Christian
Gospel is the Gospel of Youth, that the New Testament,
both in the character and form of its content, is especially
adapted for the needs of youth, and that youth in its
need and capacity cries out for both. For the full
psychological, historical and educational evidence for
these statements the reader must be referred to the
one great study of Adolescence by Dr. Stanley Hall.
FEATURES OF ADOLESCENCE
For every individual the years between thirteen and
twenty-four are the most fateful years of life the years
that make or mar almost without exception. With the
gradual passing of childhood begins the great flowering
time of the human spirit in Adolescence and Youth.
' This is the golden period of life, when all that is greatest
and best in heart and will are at their strongest. If
the race ever advances to higher levels, it must be by
increments at this stage, for all that follows it is marked
56 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
by decline." 1 " True religion culminates in Youth, and
doctrine is its substitute and memorial in maturity and
old age. Youth has far more to teach in this field, if it
only knew how, than it can learn from age." 2 The glory
of its triumphs no tongue can tell, while its tragedies are
too deep for tears. Abundant, overflowing life comes
pouring into mind and heart and will into body and
soul ; and life goes pouring out again prodigally and
recklessly in tumbling waves of contradictory activities.
The child leaves the quiet haven to embark upon a sea
of troubles significant enough even when most imaginary
its tiny bark at the mercy of every wind that blows
and every wave that breaks. It is an exploring, expand-
ing, adventurous time, a time of hopeless fears, of fearless
and fearful hopes, a time of boundless faiths and of dark
despair, of love that mars and of love that makes. It
scales the heights of heaven and there meets God, or it
may descend and be singed with the fires of hell. The
only thing it may not do is to jog contentedly along
the conventional paths of earth.
Only a confusion of metaphors can attempt to describe
this period, for it is not a world but a chaos a chaos
waiting for the Spirit to move upon the face of the waters
and for the divine word : " Let there be light." If the
light does come it will come with creative power which
will probably mark out for ever the boundaries of earth
and sky, of land and sea, and in the end make man out
of the dust of the earth.
But if Youth does come to the light, it must come in
its own free way. It snaps at external control, and no
Creed or Dogma can hold it. Its teacher must be its
comrade and its lover first of all ready to start at any
moment on any great adventure or any forlorn hope.
Yet no age will bend so utterly before its chosen gods.
Indeed, the first and greatest task of the educator is to
reveal to Youth the gods to choose from, give him as many
strong examples as he can gather of the better choice
the teacher's own among the rest and then murmur
reverently, " If Youth but knew " the God to choose.
1 Stanley Hall, Educational Problems, vol. i. p. 163.
2 Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. ii. p. 317.
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 57
It shames us to think how mean and puny, how
haphazard and helpless, is the service we render Youth.
We are fathers who give him stones when he begs for
bread. We are teachers who shake the mailed fist in
his face when he leaps to the intimate clasp of the naked
ind. We shock his modesty and drag his secret shames
;o the light of day. We laugh at his seriousness and
teer at his dreams. We stamp upon his tragic doubts,
re chill his enthusiasm and but too often leave him to
sink or swim in the storm and stress of the spirit. If he
>ut seldom drowns, that is more often due to his natural
>uoyancy than to our care. We do our best to keep
dm unregenerate, and he converts himself in spite of us,
ind worships as his chosen gods the dreams and ideals
rhich we have cast away before middle age as far " too
ich and good for human nature's daily food."
You ask what can our ordinary, mechanical Biblical
Instruction do for such a being as this ? Nothing but
larm. What can even the best instruction do ? Little
enough, perhaps, but yet that little may be enough to
make all the difference. Youth needs ideas, and ideas,
and still more ideas, all the living ideas and the significant
facts, incarnate in the dominating personalities and
movements of history the great spiritual permanent
values in myriad forms of truth, beauty and goodness.
He needs to rediscover them for himself and to reproduce
them with those who first saw the face divine, so that he
may conserve and increase them for the world to come.
That is the demand of the universe upon him, for the
measure of its progress is the measure of Youth's response
to that call. Youth is life and makes life. There never
is anything else in the world, and no one else but those
who stand and wait to do his bidding.
ADOLESCENT FEATURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
There is no record that answers so readily and so
fully to the call of Youth, nor one that by obedience to
his call is capable of ruling him so completely, as the
New Testament and what it represents. Dr. Stanley
Hall returns again and again to underline the fact that
58 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
the New Testament needs Youth, that Youth needs the
New Testament, and that in its story is eternal youth.
" At the top of the curve of life comes Christianity,
for ever supreme because it is the norm for the apical
stage of human development, glorifying adolescence and
glorified by it, and calculated to retain and conserve
youth before the decline of the highest powers of the
soul in maturity and age." l
11 The story of Jesus's life, psychologically treated,
whatever else it may be, is also another abridged and
variant edition of the same import (namely, of adolescent
experience). There is the glimpse of an early life of
natural growth in favour of God and man. At the age
of early Oriental puberty he is already characteristically
pondering the highest themes with deepening sense of
wrong and human need, a glimmering, conscious higher
mission struggling with temporal ambition, a long con-
flict of the noblest adolescent idealism that ever was
with the hard, inveterate conservatism of a decadent
age and senescent man, with bigotry, hypocrisy and
shame, ending in defeat, the self-effacement of a shameful
death ; then the inevitable resurgam motive, at first
incredulous and apparitional, with ascension or sublima-
tion as the climax, but which later became the very
substance of the Christian faith and the corner-stone
of belief in Jesus's deity and our regeneration." 2
" Thus the story of the Cross, which is the chief symbol
of Christianity, known by multitudes who know nothing
else of Jesus, when relived and vitally participated in,
is the best of all initiatives to maturity." . . .
" The Gospel story is the most adequate, classic and
dramatic representation of the truest formulae of the most
critical revolution of life, to successfully accomplish
which is to make catharsis of our lower nature and to
attain full ethical maturity without arrest or perversion :
this is the very meaning of adolescence. As Jesus, the
totemic embodiment of the race, gathered, unified and
epitomized in His own life the many elements of autosoteric
motive that were before scattered and relatively ineffective,
and made thereby a new focus of history to which so
1 Op. cit., ii. 361. 2 Op. cit., ii. 333~4-
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 59
many lines before converged, from which they have since
diverged ; so each youth can now, thanks to Him, condense
in his own life the essential experience of the race by
sympathetic participation in this great psychopheme." 1
" Adolescence is the time when Jesus 's character,
example and teaching is most needed. He was Himself
essentially an adolescent. . . . Jesus came to and for
adolescents, in a very special and very peculiar and till
lately not understood sense, and just as it is pedagogically
wrong to force Him upon childhood, it is wrong not to
teach Him to adolescents. Their need is so great as to
constitute a mission motive of even more warmth and
force than those that now prevail. No matter for what
creed, race or civilization, and no matter what we think
about His deity or even the veracity of the record, I am
convinced that there is no career or character in history
or literature which so fully meets the deepest needs,
supplements the weaknesses and defects, and strengthens
all the good impulses of this period as His." 2
It has been added that the first disciples were also
in the adolescent stage of life,^and so was Paul, when
they were all swept into the Christian movement. The
whole period covered by the main record of the New
Testament may indeed easily be written in terms of
adolescent experience with its expanding thought, life
and activity, with its enthusiasms and passion and ferment,
with its exuberant ecstasies and visions and its apocalyptic
dreams, with its freedom and its daring and its impatience
of all authority and organization. The whole picture
is one of the overflowing freshness of youth youth, of
course, in spirit and not in the flesh. We lose count of
the age in years of men like Paul, for we see the Gospel
of the New Testament creating and re-creating the spirit
of youth within them, prolonging adolescence to middle
age and making even the old men dream dreams.
ADOLESCENT INTEREST IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Actual experience and experiment also go to show that
the New Testament is thus the natural food for adolescence.
1 Op. cit., ii. 337. 2 Stanley Hall, Educational Problems, vol. i. 163.
60 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
" It seems to be a fact/' says Professor G. A. Coe, " that
interest in the New Testament, especially the Gospels
and the Acts, becomes acute not far from the end of early
adolescence. This is the time when we should expect
the inner life of Christ and the Apostles to become in-
teresting." i Mr. G. E. Dawson investigated the subject
of " Children's Interest in the Bible " between the ages
of eight and twenty, and found that between eight and
thirteen the predominant interest was in the Old Testa-
ment. After that, this interest steadily decreases, while
that in the New increases, until at twenty the Old can
only claim the preference of 10 per cent, of the boys,
while the New Testament claims the interest of 90 per cent.
Again, the interest in the life and person of Jesus is very
little at the early ages of eight, nine, ten and eleven, but
it steadily grows as the years go by until it reaches its
height between fifteen and twenty. 2
This correspondence between the New Testament and
Adolescence is confirmed by every feature of these writings
which was mentioned in the previous section. We saw
that it is the literature of the creative epoch of the great
ideals, that it shows them in conflict with the old, that it
gives them in personal forms, that it therefore reveals
them not as separate fragments, but as a unified system
of values, and gives them, moreover, a social significance.
In fact, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that
the New Testament belongs peculiarly to youth, and youth
belongs to it by native right. It is his book and his
world. It came forth out of his mouth, and it shall not
return unto him void, but it shall accomplish that which
he pleases and it shall prosper in the thing whereto he
sent it. Its voice ought to ring in the ears of the waiting
youth of every generation, saying in the accents of God :
' Ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace :
to the mountains and to the hills breaking out before
you into singing : and to all the trees of the field clapping
their hands."
1 Education in Religion and Morals, p. 294 n.
2 Fed. Sem., vol. vii. p. 151.
PLACE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN EDUCATION 61
THE NEW TESTAMENT THE NATURAL FOOD OF YOUTH
The New Testament belongs to youth by right divine,
and youth belongs to it by human need the New Testa-
ment, of course, not merely as the mechanical record
and written word, the text of conventional commentary
and the pretended source of rigid creed, but the New
Testament as the clear mirror of youth's reckless adven-
ture into the realm of moral revolution, of Jesus and
Paul and Peter and John who came to turn the world
upside down. This New Testament is youth's natural
food and drink, the air he must breathe and the sun that
shines upon him, just as Jesus is his natural Saviour
and Lord by the authority of His illimitable faith and love.
It is the Temple of the Holy Spirit of Youth, though we
have often made it into a den of thieves.
All this does not mean that no part of the material
of the New Testament can be effectively adapted for use
at any other time than adolescence, but only that it
cannot be used with the full purpose and import of the
original writers ; and that only subordinate fragments
are in their present form appropriate at any earlier stage.
For instance, we can and ought to tell some of the stories
of the New Testament, and especially the life of Jesus in
some form, during the years of childhood. What, how-
ever, we must recognize is that we cannot then give its
full Christian meaning to that life. We can only deal
with some aspects of it which are in line with the interests,
the needs and the experience of the child. He may thus be
prepared for the fuller lesson later on, but the material
must be shorn of some of its meaning in order to do so.
The real educational inference is that the whole
weight of teaching the New Testament in any full sense
should fall in the adolescent period, and that the whole
curriculum should be framed with that end in view. The
character and form of its contents is specially adapted for
that purpose, while the natural interests of adolescence
make the work easier and more effective then than at any
other time. When we try to do the same work at any
other period, we are very largely wasting our time and only
making the task more difficult at the proper time.
62 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
The great problem, therefore, of the instruction of
youth in the New Testament is the problem of letting
him come to his own to enter upon his natural heritage.
It is the problem of helping him to rediscover and to re-
produce with Jesus, and by His power, the supreme spiritual
values which Jesus discovered and produced, and which
youth alone can conserve and increase from generation to
generation.
BOOKS
CLUTTON-BROCK (A.). The Ultimate Belief. (London, 1919.)
HALL (STANLEY). Adolescence. (New York and London, 1915.)
RICHMOND (K.). The Permanent Values in Education. (London, 1917.)
CHAPTER IV
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
1. The Practical Character of the New Testament. The Different
Aspects of the New Testament Literature History Religion
The Missionary Character of the New Testament Need of an
Educational Interpretation Some Misconceptions of its Meaning.
2. The Educational Study of the New Testament. The Different Types
of Material The Essential Elements of the Educational Process
Ideals and their Realization.
3. Illustrations and Examples. Educational Study of the Second
Coming The Parousia in the New Testament Its Place and
Value in the New Testament Application to Types of Thought
and to Personalities.
4. Results of the Study. The Rich Variety of the New Testament
The Gift and the Demand The Educational Value of this
Variety The Need for Unity and Application.
THE PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
THE preceding discussion has revealed the fact that the
New Testament as a whole provides material of supreme
value for all education directed towards moral and spiritual
ends. It has also shown that the teacher of youth in
particular is called imperatively to its study.
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Many other types of students, it is true, have legiti-
mate interests in the New Testament, and in varying
degrees can claim it as part of their peculiar heritage and
material.
63
64 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
The New Testament belongs to the great literature of
the world. In its own Hellenistic period and its own
Hellenistic tongue it towers far above all the literary
records of the time in originality, power and beauty, while
in many of its translations also it has attained the for-
mative place in the development of literary style. It is
no wonder, therefore, that the student of literature as
such rejoices in it and claims it as his own.
The New Testament is also the record of the origin of
a great historical movement, destined to become in some
form or other one of the decisive factors in the develop-
ment of the civilization of Europe. Its material, therefore,
naturally belongs to the general historian.
It is, moreover, the history in particular of the genesis
and spread of a religion and that the most significant
religion in the history of the world. It is therefore
legitimately claimed as his own by the student of religion
and the religions, and, of course, still more peculiarly it
belongs to the historian of Christianity. Among the
many workers in this field the Christian theologian, both
as the historian and the philosopher of Christian Doctrine,
has insistently and until recently with success claimed
the New Testament as his own peculiar source and
material.
THE MISSIONARY CHARACTER OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
Within definite limits all these claims can, of course,
be amply justified. There is great literature, great
history and in particular a great religious and theological
history in these writings. Yet it is neither the literary
man, nor the historian, nor the theologian who has the
first and supreme claim upon the New Testament, but
the practical teacher of the Christian Gospel whether
as missionary or preacher or catechist or Christian teacher
in the narrower sense. Every book in the New Testament
sets itself deliberately in some form or other to spread the
Christian life, to confirm Christian faith, to create and
deepen a Christian impression, to inspire Christian hopes,
to clarify Christian ideas, to strengthen the Christian will
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION 65
all of them different ways of teaching Christianity and
different aspects of the Christian teacher's task. The
definite aim of each writer is to create and train Christian
disciples. Everything else is subordinate to that end.
The writers use almost every kind of appeal for that
purpose now a burst of eloquent prose, and again an
historical account, now an appeal to personal religious
experience, and again a theological argument. The New
Testament is throughout an ' edifying ' book in the true
sense of that much-abused word ; it is intended to build
up, to construct Christian disciples and discipleship.
Face to face with some actual concrete situation in
actual life, there is everywhere an attempt to make some
aspect of the Christian Gospel effective in it.
It is, therefore, the man who, in whatever form, is
trying to do the same work to-day it is he who is putting
the material of the New Testament to its original and
proper use. The teacher's study of it for the practical
purposes of his task will naturally do fuller justice to
its peculiar nature than that of either the mere historian
or the scientific theologian. These books belong to the
historian and to the theologian only in a secondary sense
preparatory to its use for practical Christian purposes
by the preacher and the teacher. It does not appear
that any writer of the New Testament ever set out with
the intention of constructing a system of theology or even
of formulating a theological doctrine.
There are theological ideas certainly in the New Testa-
ment and fragments of many theological systems, but
they are always introduced and employed for growing
and enriching Christian faith and life. They are never,
and probably can never be, brought into any complete
theological unity or consistency. In the proper sense
there is no such thing as a New Testament Theology, and
even the task of constructing a Pauline Theology is very
largely a matter of guesswork and of doubtful inferences
from scattered and incidental references in a few of Paul's
letters. We are always doing at least some injustice to
the apostle and missionary when we use his incidental
sayings for purposes they were never meant to serve.
The writers of the New Testament can only have full
5
66 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
justice done to them in the world and work of preachers
and teachers of Christ and His Gospel.
THE NEED OF AN EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION
How far the individual writings themselves achieved
each its particular purpose of educating its first readers,
of influencing them in the direction of the Christian
Gospel, we do not and cannot now know in detail. That
these writings have proved effective, and probably the
most effective instrument to bring men to Christ many
times since then, the history of almost every religious
revival abundantly proves, while every man who reads
them humbly, attentively and intelligently knows also
their revolutionary power.
The men who stand behind the New Testament
writings certainly achieved a miraculous triumph in their
practical task of moving the men and the world of their
time effectively in a Christian direction by their living
and preaching and teaching of the Christian Gospel.
The rapid spread of Christianity throughout the Roman
world from its obscure beginning in a far-away provincial
village is not only a testimony to its own essential truth
and power, but also to the effectiveness of the teaching
and preaching by means of which the work was done.
One of the chief meanings of the New Testament is that
it gives us the only record of what must have been the
most successful, practical and educational propaganda in
history, and the only picture we have of the aims and
methods of the missionaries, and of the ways and means
they used. It gives us the Gospel as preached and taught
in forms showing the wealth and variety of the interests
and motives to which the teachers appealed.
Whatever else the New Testament is, therefore, it is a
supreme object-lesson for the work of the Christian teacher
and preacher in every age. The men who still want to
use it, to make Christians by teaching and preaching, by
proclamation of the Gospel or by instruction, are the men
who are putting the material of the New Testament to
its own proper and peculiar use the original use for
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION 67
which at least the greatest part of it was created and
written.
Even if these records were only great literature and
history, a study of them for definitely educational pur-
poses would certainly be fully justified, for it is in great
literature and history that the educator must always find
his educative material. They call for and demand such
a study imperatively, because they owe their origin
mainly to the needs of Christian instruction and educa-
tion and will not reveal their full power under any other
treatment.
MISCONCEPTIONS OF ITS MEANING
In thus calling for a definitely practical and educational
interpretation and study of the New Testament, it may
be well at the outset to guard against some possibility
of misconception. The kind of study we have in mind
is no substitute for a thoroughly scientific treatment.
Neither is it something tacked on artificially to a literary
and historical study of these writings. This practical
study is itself part of our scientific study of the New
Testament, essential to it, built upon a literary and
historical study and helpless without it. Ultimately,
indeed, it is in such an educational interpretation that we
find the climax of the scientific method of approaching
and dealing with the material of the New Testament and
of revealing its full meaning and power.
To such an educational interpretation there will be
two aspects one descriptive and the other appreciative.
The descriptive study will attempt to interpret the New
Testament historically as the material actually used by
the first teachers and preachers and missionaries of the
Christian Gospel in their varied efforts to make Christians
out of the people of their time. The second or apprecia-
tive study will consider whether, how far and in what
way the Christian teacher to-day can use the same
material for the purpose of making Christian disciples in
the twentieth century. It deals, that is to say, with the
modern use to be made of the material gathered and
arranged in the first part. It will be well to keep these
68 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
two aspects of the educational study of the New Testa-
ment separate from each other.
THE EDUCATIONAL STUDY OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
Even a rapid survey of the various parts of the New
Testament with the Herbartian ' formal steps ' in mind,
will reveal at once how naturally its material falls into
psychological and educational categories. And a merely
formal educational arrangement of the New Testament
thus suggested will not be without its value for the practical
work of teaching. It will not, however, carry us very far,
and in order to bring out the full significance of the
material before us we shall need a more radical regrouping.
We must think rather of the different types of educa-
tional forces at our disposal in the New Testament, namely,
its historical incidents, its ideas, its distinctive types of
thought and its personalities. It is the business of the
teacher to use each and all of these to set up an effective
educational process in the mind and life of his pupils.
Now the essential elements which make up the general
apparatus of education may be reduced to three, and every
educational process implies a constant interaction between
them.
In the first place, every new educational activity starts
from some actual situation in life as it is.
Secondly, it is the intention of every educational
process to change that situation into some corresponding
ideal.
Thirdly, the educator brings, according to his oppor-
tunities, some definite influences, powers and motives to
bear upon the actual situation in order to produce the ideal
he has in mind.
THE MAIN ELEMENTS IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS
That means to say that the teacher, in the general
educative process as a whole and in each particular part
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION 69
of it, must have before him some actual human situation
which he desires to change in the direction of some ideal
in which he believes, by means of some influences which
he can organize and use for that purpose.
It is evident, therefore, that in order to make a full
educational study of the New Testament, we must proceed
to analyse every incident, every idea, every type of
thought, every personality and every book in the New
Testament in such a way as to make plain to ourselves
the nature of the human situation, the moral and spiritual
ideal and the kind of motive-power that are involved in it.
Naturally, with regard to a great many of the details
of the New Testament, no very clear or satisfactory
results can be expected from such an analysis. Their
independent value is but slight, and it is only indirectly
as part of a larger whole that they acquire any educational
significance. Even that, however, it is well for the
teacher to realize. It will help him to avoid the degrading
' homiletic ' method of trying to squeeze a sermon or a
lesson by ingenuity out of unimportant sayings or passages
where neither sermon nor lesson is naturally to be found.
IDEALS AND THEIR REALIZATION
Such questions, however, become more and more
applicable and appropriate with every step as we ascend
from the particular incidents and ideas to the person-
alities revealed in the New Testament. When we reach
such personalities as Paul or Jesus, these questions lead
us to the innermost secrets of the New Testament, and
they become the only questions which are capable of
bringing us face to face with its heart and soul. What
did these men really want to do ? What was the actual
situation faced by them ? What kind of ideal did they
hold before men ? By what means do they attempt to
move men in its direction ? How exactly do they try
to help men ? To what motives do they appeal ?
These are, after all, the vital questions with regard
to any personality and especially the great dominating
personalities of history.
It is something of this kind that is meant when we
70 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
speak of the educational study of the New Testament,
and it will be seen that we are dealing almost entirely
not with the external form or origin of the writings, but
with their historical and intellectual content. This is
not an arbitrary handling of the New Testament such as
the old ' homiletic ' method very largely involved, nor is
it independent of the scientific, historical and literary
method of interpretation. It is definitely built upon the
work of the historian and literary critic, and takes their
results for granted. All questions of text, authorship,
date, authenticity, historical value, literary form and
even questions of exegesis in detail are already considered
and judged before such a study can fruitfully begin. It
is, moreover, itself in the first place a purely scientific
historical study being only an attempt to describe the
actual facts with regard to the New Testament and its
writers. The use that may afterwards be made of the
results of such a study by the modern Christian teacher
and their value for his task to-day is a different matter
altogether, which ought to be sharply distinguished from
the historical study itself. We must shoulder the responsi-
bility for the use we make of the material it provides,
and must justify that use to ourselves and others at
every step.
3
ILLUSTRATIONS AND EXAMPLES
Let us see, then, exactly what is involved in a study
of the material of the New Testament from this point of
view, and what kind of results we may expect from it.
Here, of course, we can only take one or two examples
from the very varied and rich contents of the New
Testament.
EDUCATIONAL STUDY OF THE PAROUSIA
One of the most prominent ideas in almost every part
of the New Testament is that of the Parousia, or what is
usually called the Second Coming of Christ. On the basis
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION 71
of all that modern literary and historical criticism has
told us about the history and different forms taken by
this idea in the New Testament, what we particularly
wish to know with regard to it is its educational value
for the life, practical work and teaching of the first
Christian teachers and preachers of the Christian Gospel.
We are not at present concerned with its place and value
in any modern Christian instruction.
To get what we want, we have to address our three
series of questions to this idea or belief :
1 . What kind of ideal of life personal or social, moral
or religious does this belief imply, embody or encourage ?
How is it related to other aspects of the Christian
hope and of the Christian ideal found in the New Testa-
ment, as, for example, the Last Judgment, the Resurrec-
tion, the Kingdom of God, etc. ?
Does this belief stand at the centre of the New Testa-
ment conception of the ideal, or only on its circumference ?
Has it grown naturally out of the life of the Christian
Gospel, or is it only a foreign element brought into
Christian thought and life from elsewhere ?
Having asked these and similar questions with regard
to the type and ideal of life implied and encouraged by
this belief in the Second Coming, we come next to a series
of questions concerning the way in which the idea is used
in the New Testament :
2. Upon what kind of situation and circumstances is
it brought to bear in the different writings of the New
Testament ?
For what special purpose do the different writers use
it?
3 . What is the nature and value of the appeal it makes ?
How far is that appeal consistent with the central
motives of the Christian Gospel ?
What moral interests is it used to protect ?
What kind of help does it give to a man like Paul to
realize the Christian faith and life ?
In what special ways does he and the other writers of
the New Testament use the belief in order to help their
readers ?
Is it used mainly as an inspiration to renewed moral
72 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
activity, or as a protection against forces hostile to faith,
or as a comfort amidst evil circumstances ?
Even to suggest the answer to such questions would
lead us far beyond our limits. It would lead to a dis-
cussion of the conception of Messiahship entertained by
Jesus, of the place and value of the Eschatology of the
Gospels, of the meaning and use of the title ' Son of Man/
of the different main forms taken by the idea of the
Second Coming in the Primitive Church, in Paul and in
John, of the way in which the early Christians generally
threw most of their faith and hope into this particular
form, and a multitude of other questions.
THE PAROUSIA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The belief does not stand by itself in the New Testa-
ment, but is intimately connected with and a central
element in the whole ' other- worldly/ eschatological
conception of life which dominates so much of the
thoughts and activities of the early Christians, and which
is represented in the apocalyptic drama of the Resur-
rection, the Last Judgment, the Messianic reign in the
' world to come.' It was, however, the most living
element in that drama, and it succeeded in giving new
life to the dead Messianic formulae of Judaism because
it was the Parousia of Jesus that was expected. It was
especially one of the many forms in which was expressed
the supreme significance of Jesus and the fact that all
Christian hopes were centred in Him as the final victor
over sin, Satan and death. In essence, therefore, it stood
at the centre of the Christian faith, though in its pictorial
form it was a belief borrowed bodily from Judaism. It
is evident, however, that as an external eschatological
form it soon became a danger to the Church, and John felt
that it stood in need of being spiritualized and moralized
before it could remain the permanent possession of the
Church and Christian life. The value which it implies
for a man like Paul is the supreme Christian ideal, but its
form encouraged and embodied a strained ' other-worldly '
and dualistic type of piety, tending to turn men's thoughts
away from the tasks of the present, as it did among the
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION 73
Thessalonians. The author of the Fourth Gospel was
therefore led to substitute for it the belief in the abiding
presence of Jesus with His disciples.
On the other hand, it has been claimed that " the
social side of Christianity is, as it were, masked under the
idea of the Parousia. It is masked but also conserved ;
for so long as the idea of the Parousia remained, there
was no fear that acquiescence in the present evil order
would react hurtfully upon Christian faith and morality.
Had it not been for the Parousia hope, the Early Church
might have been prematurely hurled against the Empire
as a revolutionary force, or through enforced acquiescence
in its evils have become a merely pietistic association, a
new Essenism on a larger scale." 1 That means to say
that the belief in the Parousia played the same part in
early Christianity which the doctrine of the inevitable
Class War and the doctrine of the catastrophic Social
Revolution have played in the history of modern
Socialism.
VALUE OF THE IDEA OF THE PAROUSIA
The actual situations upon which the belief is brought
to bear range from the unbelief of the Jews, both at the
trial of Jesus and in the early history of the Church at
Jerusalem, to the despair of the Christian disciples when
face to face with persecution in the Apocalypse and else-
where. In both cases an appeal is made to the Parousia
of Jesus as the full justification of Christian faith and the
full revelation of its truth. In its name defiance is hurled
at the strongest enemies, and they are dared to do their
worst.
It is plain that there was no appeal which gripped the
early Christians in general more strongly than the appeal
to the Parousia. Its basis was the Jewish doctrine of
Retribution. It meant the punishment of the evil-
doer and the reward of the righteous. But in Paul and
the other great figures the belief takes an ever higher and
more spiritual form. Paul learnt later to inspire and
1 Quoted in Fairweather, The Background of the Gospels, p. 307 ; from Cairns,
Christianity in the Modern World.
74 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
comfort himself with the hope of a full and perfect com-
munion with the Lord after death rather than that of the
Lord's visible presence on earth ; and in the end the
Parousia becomes the symbol of a kingdom of spiritual
glory ruled by Christ and God the guarantee of the full
possession of which is already present in the power and
influence of the Spirit.
We have, therefore, in the New Testament Parousia
an idea which covers almost all the forms of the early
Christian ideal from the crudest Jewish eschatology up
to the Pauline identification of the Spirit of Christ with
the Holy Spirit and to the Johannine identification of the
Spirit with the Advocate. It is used in practice as the
strongest inspiration to Christian moral activity, as a
comfort in evil circumstances of all kinds, and it served to
protect for the time being the supreme value of Jesus
Christ ; while continually in its cruder forms it tended to
encourage a strained, ecstatic, unbalanced type of piety,
and at the same time a legal conception of God's relation
to men both of which were only sub-Christian in character
and value.
These are some of the lines upon which our practical,
ethical and educational study with regard to such an
idea as the Parousia must proceed. The facts which
emerge from such a study are those which the teacher of
the New Testament must bear in mind when he comes to
consider the question of the place and value of the whole
eschatological world of the New Testament for his present-
day task of making Christians.
4
RESULTS OF THE STUDY
THE VARIETY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
When the New Testament is studied from the point
of view and for the purpose suggested in the preceding
section, we get an almost bewildering impression of the
wealth and variety of the interests and motives to which
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION 75
the first Christian teachers appealed on behalf of their
Gospel. We find ourselves in an armoury full of the
weapons of Christian warfare in almost endless variety.
In how many different ways, for instance, do the writers
express what the Gospel brings to men ; what various
ways they have of describing the Christian ideal of life.
Now it is the Kingdom of God ; now Sonship to God
the Father ; again it is union with Christ, and then life
in the Spirit ; now it is communion with God, then the
perfect life and again the life of love. It is forgiveness
of sins, justification by faith, eternal life, the Cross, the
Resurrection, reconciliation or peace with God and love
towards God and the neighbour.
The motives and interests appealed to, the powers
called upon on behalf of the ideal, are even more various
in character than are the forms in which the ideal itself
is expressed. Now they are almost crudely utilitarian
and then they are purely spiritual. Now they are
eschatological and then they are moral. They range
from earthly prosperity and misfortune through heaven
and hell to faith and hope and love.
The many forms in which the ideal and its different
values and aspects are described are nowhere reduced to
any recognizable system or unity. We find them there
in the different writers, simply placed side by side as
actually used on different occasions. Sometimes the
different forms are inconsistent with each other even in
the same writer. Sometimes also the ideal itself and the
means employed to enforce it seem to us inconsistent
with each other. Their untold wealth, however, and
their almost endless variety when studied as they were
actually used in the first and most heroic attempt ever
made on behalf of the Gospel, become a supreme object-
lesson for the Christian teacher.
It is for us to decide how far the material thus used
in the first century still holds good for the Christian
education of the youth and children of to-day. They
are not of necessity the only means nor of necessity the
best means for twentieth-century teachers to employ in
order to effect the same purpose. It was certainly only
for the men and women of the first century that the
76 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
material of the New Testament was created or borrowed
and used. It was not written at all for children, and
neither Jesus nor Paul was dreaming of a period of recon-
struction after a great and disastrous European war.
A GIFT AND A DEMAND
If one were allowed to voice in a few words the first
message of the New Testament to us as Christian teachers,
it would be in some such terms as the following :
" These are the various forms in which the Christian
Gospel, ideals and values were preached and taught when
they first appeared, not systematically arranged, but
simply side by side. This is human nature, this is human
need as the first Christian teachers saw them ; these are
the special conditions and needs which they tried to meet .
These are the ways in which they met them ; these are
the methods they used ; these are the motives and
interests, the instruments they employed in their appeal
when trying to change the men and the conditions in the
direction of the ideal life of the Gospel. Once more they
are not systematically arranged. They are not always
consistent with each other, but they are here as they
were actually used by very different men in very different
circumstances.
" It is now left to you to show that this ideal or Gospel,
thus described, is still the ideal or Gospel for the twentieth
century, and whether it can be so in any or all of its
New Testament forms or not.
" It is left to you to obtain such accurate knowledge
of the men, women and children, the conditions and needs
of your time, that you will be able to show how they are
different or similar to those of the New Testament, and
so adapt your teaching to those similarities or differences.
11 It is left to you, finally, to show how far the means
and motives used in the New Testament are still effective
in changing your conditions and your men, women and
children in the direction of the Christian ideal."
So may be described the first free gift of the New
Testament to the modern Christian teacher, and such
are its imperative demands upon him.
THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION 77
EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE VARIETY
The kind of study that has been suggested, one may
venture to call a more practical and educational inter-
pretation of the contents of the New Testament than
the ordinary methods provide. Even the first-fruits of
such a study may be of direct use for the Christian teacher
in his work, quite apart from any systematic valuation
of them in relation to definite modern needs.
Many of our lessons and of our sermons should be
devoted simply and solely to an objective transmission
of the direct results of such a reading of the New Testa-
ment. Especially in our raw youth, when we have not
very much direct personal Christian experience to fall
back upon, such a practice would be refreshing both for
teacher and pupil, for the preacher and his people. In
any case, in these days, it is very necessary work. When
we feel, as we must often do, that we have no very urgent
personal message of our own to give, the most effective
substitute is to put up another man to deliver his message
in his own way through us. Such objective teaching and
preaching, deliberately and openly undertaken, would save
us from a good deal of compulsory hypocrisy.
Quite apart from its personal advantage, however,
such a method enables us to show in an objective way,
without any polemic, that in the actual Scriptures them-
selves, different and sometimes inconsistent views of the
Christian aim and ideal, as well as very different methods
of reaching them, stand side by side. There is no more
effective and yet unobjectionable way not only of teaching
the methods and results of modern Biblical Criticism, but
also of inculcating the spirit of tolerance, than by objective
descriptions of this kind. There might be given, for
instance, objective pictures of Peter and Paul with their
different aims and methods, appealing to different motives
and interests yet both of them prominent disciples of
Jesus. Or with equal effect one might give a practical
interpretation of the Gospel of Mark, and side by side
with it of the Fourth Gospel ; or, of the Epistle to the
Galatians side by side with the Epistle to the Hebrews,
78 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
comparing and contrasting them in their aims and ideals,
in their methods and means.
The rich variety, therefore, of the New Testament
and even its inconsistencies have an independent educa-
tional significance and value of their own which should
not be neglected.
It is impossible, however, for the teacher to rest
content in this variety, however rich it may be. It
becomes inevitably a part of his educational task to
inquire whether there is any possibility of reducing this
variety into some kind of unity to classify and harness
the varied ideals, interests and motives of the New Testa-
ment in the service of a supreme end. If so, what is the
nature of that unity ? It has already become abundantly
evident that there is in the writings themselves no ready-
made or mechanical unity. This question will come before
us again in another form. Here we only note that once
more the New Testament leaves us face to face with a
great demand. Out of its varied material we must get
a clear picture of what the one Christian Gospel was
at first, and of the manner in which it was in very varied
forms and degrees incorporated in the life of the first
century. It leaves us also with the imperative task of
showing that that Gospel or one Christian end still remains
the living Gospel for our time and needs. It leaves us
also with the task of actually applying that Gospel to
the details of our personal and social life to-day. It is
our business, that is, to show that the practical acknow-
ledgment of the redeeming God in Christ does solve for
us the problems of life and the world.
For Books see Chapter V.
CHAPTER V
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
1. Introductory. Two Series of Questions Historical Documents and
Modern Needs Application of the Gospel Essential.
2. Modern Valuation of New Testament in Detail. The Resurrection,
its Forms and Meaning in the New Testament Its Educational
Problems Modern Substitutes Heaven and Hell.
3. ' Translation ' of New Testament for Modern Use. The Universal
Language of the New Testament Terms and Ideas almost
Impossible to ' Translate ' Paul and Jesus in Modern Educa-
tion Descriptions of Jesus Homiletic v. Scientific Exegesis.
4. Limitations to the Modern Use of the New Testament. Three Examples
The New Testament and a System of Ideals Need of Con-
sistent Teaching Unity of New Testament in the Personality
of Jesus No Systematic Analysis of His Values Hence In-
evitable Variety of Interpretation.
5. The Teacher's Knowledge of the Modern World. The Teacher and
Human Nature The New Testament and its World Study of
Modern Men and their Conditions.
6. The Modern Application of the Gospel. The Real Task of the
Teacher The Gaps in the New Testament The Church and the
World.
7. The Social Contribution of the New Testament. The Social Message
of the New Testament Its Spirit, Attitude and Principles
The Demand of the New Testament.
INTRODUCTORY
So far our treatment of the New Testament, from an
educational point of view, has been concerned, on the one
hand, with an historical study of its material as it met
the needs of its own time and its first readers, providing
them with the Christian ideal in many varied forms and
8o THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
aspects, and with whatever helps and motive-power they
seemed to need in their actual situation in order to move
in its direction. On the other hand, a general valuation
of its content and form has been suggested which revealed
its fundamental features and qualities for the purpose
of educative instruction, and which also emphasized in
particular its peculiar adaptability to the needs, capacities
and interests of Adolescence.
In order, however, to apply the material thus collected
and the views thus suggested in the practical teaching
of the New Testament, the modern educator must be
prepared to carry the discussion one or two steps further.
The issues of education are, after all, the living issues of
the present and the future, and however fitted the New
Testament may have been to supply the moral and religious
educational needs of its own time and people, and however
adapted its type of material in general may be for the
human adolescent, it does not necessarily follow that all
its ideas, ideals, motives and helps have the same value
for the twentieth century as they had for the first. Nor
does it follow that because the New Testament is fitted
to supply the general and universal needs of youth, it
is also capable of solving all the particular and special
problems of the youth of the twentieth century in their
peculiar modern forms personal and social.
Two SERIES OF QUESTIONS
The fact is, as we have seen, that the New Testament
comes to the teacher every time with a gift in one hand
and a demand in the other. If it shows us the first great
attempt to interpret and apply the Christian Gospel to a
definite historical set of circumstances, it is at the same
time and by its very nature a call upon us to face the
inevitable question as to how this material is fitted to do
the same work for our time. We must find out how far
it will be effective for the Christian teacher to put our
Christian experience, our Christian ideal and our appeal
on its behalf into the forms and terms of the New
Testament.
Before he can use the New Testament, ^therefore, with
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 81
any confidence, the teacher must ask himself these two
series of questions :
(a) Have the particular events, ideas, books and
personalities of the New Testament the same moral
educational value to-day as they had in the first century ?
Can they be used as confidently in the same way and for
the same purpose ? Can they be used in the same form ?
If not, how much of what we may call ' translation ' do
they need in order to make them effective for our modern
purposes ?
(b) Does the New Testament as a whole supply us
with all the material that we need in order to present a
satisfactory and adequate moral and religious ideal in a
satisfactory form, with adequate motive-power for en-
forcing it and with satisfactory guidance for applying it
in and through the circumstances of our time ? Or are
there any important gaps and defects in the New Testa-
ment material from this point of view ? In other words,
what exactly are the limitations to the value and use of
the New Testament for modern life ?
Here, of course, nothing like a full discussion of such
questions can even be attempted, and we must be satis-
fied with suggesting the various kinds of problems they
involve. Two preliminary observations will help us to
approach them in the right way and the right spirit.
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND MODERN NEEDS
i. A great deal depends upon whether we begin the
discussion from the New Testament end, or from our
experience of the actual needs of the present day. Some-
thing may be said for both methods. On the one hand,
in moral and religious instruction (as is the case also
with regard to secular instruction) we have entered into
a long historical tradition which gives the Bible the
central, if not an all-sufficing, place in the curriculum.
On the other hand, both religion and education, we
repeat, are nothing if they are not answers to actual
living needs. To provide these answers effectively, we
must in the end be free to choose as our educational
6
82 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
material the very best the world can offer in the Bible
or out of it.
Occasionally these two points of view might naturally
give us a different vision, but after our preliminary general
valuation of the New Testament we may be justified
in thinking that it is possible in the end to do justice to
both at the same time. There must, however, be the
constant reservation that where actual and imperative
human need does come into serious conflict with the
Biblical tradition, or with the New Testament itself, the
latter must inevitably give way.
THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION ESSENTIAL TO THE
GOSPEL
2. Another preliminary observation that must be
made is that what we have in the material of the New
Testament is not Christian principle or Christian ideal or
Christian motive-power pure and simple that is, in a
permanent and universal form but these always in some
temporary historical form. Sometimes there may be
an admixture of foreign sub-Christian or non-Christian
elements ; and always the principle, ideal or motive
is found in a form applicable to the need of the first
century, and so more or less clothed in a first-century
garb.
Our definite task as teachers of the New Testament,
therefore, is to strip the Christian Gospel, wherever that
may be necessary, of its original historical garments and
redress it in those of our own time. In every case what we
must ask is, Does this New Testament idea, ideal or motive
require any special adjustment to the language or needs
or interests of our modern men, women or children ? For
instance, a principle which we have succeeded in picking
out of the circumstances of the New Testament may in
itself be available or adequate for our use, but the special
application made of it to some actual situation in the New
Testament may be more or less out of date or useless.
Tiiat is the case with many of the concrete applications
made by Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians (e.g. the
meat offered to idols). Our duty as teachers then will be,
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 83
as it were, to squeeze the moral principle out of the original
situation and to find some way of reapplying it to the
new situation actually before us.
It needs to be emphasized that this whole process of
application and reapplication is necessary to the Gospel
and to our teaching. Because we can and do distinguish
between the essential Christian Gospel and its variable
practical consequences, we are sometimes tempted to
think that we can and ought to confine our preaching
and instruction to this essence. But the application
itself, though it may vary from age to age, and even from
person to person, is also absolutely necessary to the life
and growth of the Gospel. We never actually find the
pure or simple Gospel except in and through some definite
application of its principle. The application we need,
however, can seldom if ever be a mere transference of the
New Testament application to our time. That is why,
consciously or unconsciously, we must always carry
through the complete process of unclothing the Gospel
of its first-century dress and then reclothe it in new
garments in every age.
2
THE MODERN VALUATION OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
With this introduction we proceed to the discussion
of our two series of questions.
The first series involves two somewhat different kinds
of educational problems. One is concerned with the
modern valuation of each particular incident, idea, ideal,
motive, book and personality of the New Testament for
educational purposes ; while the other discusses the
amount of ' translation ' they may need in form and
expression in order that that value may become effective
in instruction.
THE RESURRECTION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Take, for instance, the belief in the Resurrection as
it is found in the New Testament. It is evident that this
84 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
belief had a very significant value for Primitive Christi-
anity. It is one of the main forms in which the early
Christians expressed the Christian ideal, and it is also
used extensively, both as motive and consolation, by
their teachers. The Resurrection of Jesus especially was
the occasion if not the cause of the rapid spread of Christi-
anity ; and early Christian teaching and preaching was
largely based upon it in some form or other. It certainly
made a very strong and effective appeal to the men of the
first century.
The question we now definitely raise is, What is its
value and place in the spread of the Christian Gospel or
the growth of Christian character to-day ? Can we appeal
to it in the same form, for the same purpose and with the
same effect as the first Christian teachers and preachers
did ? Will it appeal in the same form to children of ten
as it will to youths of eighteen, or women of thirty, or men
of fifty ?
If we come to the conclusion, as every Christian teacher
probably will, that the essential faith in the reality of the
eternal life and its conquest over death a faith which
does lie behind the belief in the Resurrection still re-
presents one of the significant values we desire to pre-
serve and increase, we are still left with the further
problem of finding the most fitting and effective form
through which to create and stimulate that faith.
EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS INVOLVED
The faith is found in many different forms in the New
Testament. Now it is the empty tomb of Jesus ; now
His bodily resurrection ; now it is expressed in visions
of the Risen Jesus and now in the ' spiritual body ' of
Paul. Now it is a part of the eschatological drama of the
end, and so a future hope ; and again it is the ' eternal life '
of John, and so a present spiritual reality. Now it is the
moral impression made by the character and personality
of Jesus, and then the present influence of the Holy Spirit
is its earnest and pledge. There are also other different
expressions of what is essentially the same faith.
Are all of these forms of equal value to us to-day ?
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 85
Is there any reason to think that we can use one of them
more effectively in the case of children, another for youth,
and another still for maturity and old age ? Do any or
all of them require some amount of ' translation ' in order to
make them available and effective as appeals in our day ?
Some of the New Testament forms are certainly more
' sympathetic ' to modern ideas and language than others.
Is that any sufficient reason for making a larger use of
them in instruction, or have we more real need of other
forms more foreign to our pet ideas ? We must remember
that our purpose is not to pander to fugitive modern
whims, but to serve the Christian Gospel in order to satisfy
legitimate modern needs in distinction from passing
modern wants. Must we, for instance, eliminate the
eschatological drama of the Resurrection, or can we
preserve its essential value by translating it into some
other more or less eschatological form of belief more
consonant with our modern view of the world ? How far
are we justified in using the term Resurrection at all if
we do not use it in its New Testament sense of the soul
rising again from Sheol ?
MODERN SUBSTITUTES
We cannot stop even here with our questioning. Can
we find what we need for conserving the essential faith
in a life after death in any of the New Testament forms of
belief in the Resurrection, whether translated into modern
terms or not ? Shall we be forced in the end to search
for some quite other form and expression as a means of
conserving this value ? For instance, shall we depend
more upon the spread of an ethical interpretation of the
universe or upon a deepened conviction of the infinite
value of man and the individual as many modern
philosophers seem to suggest ? Or shall we walk in the
ways of Positivism and trust in an immortal humanity ?
Shall we search for our panacea in the darkening by-
paths of Theosophy or Spiritism, or shall we even trust
the vicarious deaths of the battlefield to open the im-
mortal doors before us as many orthodox popular preachers
seem inclined to do ?
86 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
From this long cross-examination it will be seen that
we are ultimately thrown among the most living moral
and religious educational issues, and the need of a deliberate
and careful study of this kind is becoming more and more
imperative every day.
THE ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Such a discussion of the Resurrection would lead
almost inevitably to the wider question of the whole
Eschatology of the New Testament with its Parousia,
Judgment, Heaven and Hell. At present the educational
situation with regard to these is that they have either
disappeared altogether from our instruction or they
retain merely a formal place in it because they are in the
New Testament, which by our ordinary methods cannot
be taught without them. The belief, however, is growing
that these eschatological pictures do, in their own way,
represent some intrinsic or instrumental values in the
moral and religious life, well worth conserving for future
generations. Having, however, practically eliminated the
New Testament forms of these values, we have not yet
found, nor even seriously tried to find, some satisfactory
substitute for them. In attempting to ' translate ' such
motives as the eschatological Heaven and Hell or in
searching for satisfactory substitutes, it will probably be
necessary often to remind ourselves that our need is two-
fold. We must, that is, see to it that the means we employ
are not only such as can get a sure grip upon the actual
people we are dealing with, but are also consistent with
the moral and spiritual end for which we are working.
They must be in and for themselves in some way good and
Christian as well as effective.
3
1 TRANSLATION ' OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
This may serve as a more or less typical example of
the kind of study that is meant when we speak of a modern
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 87
educational valuation and ' translation ' of the New
Testament material in detail.
The Christian teacher is in urgent need of a systematic
discussion on these lines with regard to all the forms and
expressions given to the ideals and motives, ends and
means, ideas and events, books and personalities which
make up the New Testament and early Christianity.
In going over the contents of the New Testament with
such questions as the above in our minds, we shall prob-
ably find a call for almost all degrees of ' translation '
from the mere translation of the words to a radical trans-
formation of the thought in order to make the New
Testament real and effective in our day.
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
Such expressions as ' Our Father/ ' God is Love/ ' The
pure in heart shall see God/ and many other expressions
which belong to the heart and soul of the New Testament
need no translation at all. They speak the universal,
direct and simple language of the human heart and experi-
ence. The only strange thing to us in them is the original
language in which they were spoken.
At the other extreme, however, such expressions as
1 the man of sin ' or ' Antichrist ' will naturally stand
at the bottom of our scale of values and require a very
radical transformation before they can be used at all with
any effect in our moral and religious instruction. To
translate them into modern forms and modern terms is
almost impossible even if it were worth the energy and
time spent upon the task.
In between these two extremes, almost all degrees of
adaptation will be required to make the New Testament
material educationally effective. Jesus, for instance, in
His teaching, life, character and personality, is not only
much more primary and central for early Christianity
than Paul, but also requires very much less ' translation '
to make him the most effective and the indispensable
element in the moral and religious education of modern
youth. In fact, the only serious difficulty in this respect,
88 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
so far as the main body of the Synoptic presentation is
concerned, springs from the Messianic idea in its Jewish
eschatological form.
JESUS IN EDUCATION
There are, however, numerous presentations and
descriptions of Jesus in the New Testament which provide
a good example of the very various degrees of relativity
to the first century to be observed in the ideas of the New
Testament. He is Jesus, Master, Teacher, Shepherd,
Bishop, Prophet, Priest, King, Judge, Lord, Saviour,
Redeemer, Mediator, Christ, Son of David, Son of Man,
Son of God, Lamb of God, Last Adam, Only-begotten Son
and the Word of God. Some of these are universally
intelligible and at the same time represent the supreme
values, which were revealed in Jesus, both for the first
century and for all ages. They therefore have peculiar
educative power. Some stand much further away from
the main spiritual values revealed in Jesus and also
require a far more complicated process of interpretation
and translation to make them intelligible for modern
man and effective for educational purposes. Sometimes,
also, owing to our familiarity with the language of the
New Testament and the apparent simplicity of the terms
themselves, some of the above descriptions seem to be
much more intelligible than they really are. To most
modern readers, such a title as ' The Son of Man ' is really
only an empty phrase so far as the appreciation of its
characteristic meaning in the New Testament is con-
cerned. Usually, indeed, the meaning associated with it
(namely, as emphasizing the humanity of Jesus) is far
removed from its original use in Judaism and the
Gospels.
So much is this the case with regard to some of the
most familiar sayings in the New Testament that the
question must often arise whether it would not be better
for general educational purposes to rest content with a
conventional and traditional interpretation rather than
attempt laboriously to make intelligible to the modern
reader their more exact and historical meaning in the
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 89
New Testament itself. An example may make clear the
dilemma.
HOMILETIC AND SCIENTIFIC EXEGESIS
" For God so loved the world," says the Fourth Gospel,
" that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." Most of those who are very familiar with these
words interpret them as the simplest, completest and
most directly religious and evangelical description of
the meaning of Christianity to be found in the New
Testament. That, in a way, is quite true. This actually
does underlie the saying, but the popular interpretation
almost entirely disregards the typically Johannine meaning
and atmosphere of almost every word in the passage.
' World,' ' gave,' ' Only-begotten,' ' believeth in Him,'
1 perish ' and ' everlasting life ' all represent peculiarly
Johannine thoughts theological and metaphysical which
overlay, as in a palimpsest, the simpler, direct expression
of Christian experience. Whether, however, it would be
worth while attempting to rescue that exact Johannine
articulation of the Gospel in this case for any but technical
students, is very doubtful. It would depend partly upon
the view taken of the comparative value for the general
moral and religious life and progress of the two following
factors which are involved.
On the one hand, it is undoubtedly a great educational
gain to have imprinted upon the mind of youth such brief
and compact symbolic representations which are inter-
preted as clearly summarizing in a simple way the supreme
values of Christian experience. On the other hand, the
divorce of the educational or the homiletic use of Biblical
sayings from scientific and historical accuracy of exegesis
must, in the long run, exert an evil influence upon the
health and progress of the moral and religious life.
In this case, very probably the positive gain would
outweigh the loss because the aim of both the traditional
interpretation and the Johannine writer was one and
the same, and therefore the divorce between scientific
accuracy and homiletic use is not in this case as complete
go THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
as it often is. Generally speaking, however, it is the
duty of the Christian teacher to avoid and to discourage
this kind of dualism in his teaching so far as possible.
It has been an evil influence both in the pulpit and the
Sunday School.
4
THE LIMITATIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Such a conclusion, however, brings us into the very
midst of the second series of questions which we must
face as soon as we begin to make practical use of the
material of the New Testament for the purposes of moral
and religious education.
These questions were concerned, it will be remembered,
not with particular valuations of the various items of
the New Testament material, but with the character and
range of that material as a whole. In effect, we have to
ask how far the New Testament provides us with all that
we need as modern teachers for our instruction even in
so far as it concerns only the presentation and the applica-
tion of the Christian Gospel. The effectiveness of the
use we make of the New Testament depends upon a
definite consciousness, not only of the positive help which
it is capable of bringing and does bring to our instruction,
but also of what it does not and cannot contribute to
our need.
TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF ITS LIMITATION
Valuable and even indispensable as is the New Testa-
ment for the modern Christian teacher, there are evidently
some very definite limits to the help that it can bring
him. There are still some very important needs that it
cannot satisfy and cannot be expected to satisfy. The
teacher and preacher must look elsewhere for some things
that are absolutely necessary for the moral and religious
instruction of our day. Indeed, as we have seen, the
very help that the New Testament brings is conditional
upon that help being supplemented from other sources.
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 91
Here, we must be content with giving three examples
of what we may call this inherent inability of the New
Testament to supply in full what we need. All three
are necessary consequences of the historical and practical
character of the New Testament the limitations imposed
upon it by its very nature. Historical documents in-
tended definitely for their own age must necessarily be
limited in their horizon both as regards time and range
of subjects. The New Testament, therefore, just because
it met the specific needs and took upon it the specific
forms of the first century, cannot ( i ) give us in any prepared
form such a system of moral ideals based on the Gospel
as we need to meet the specific needs of the twentieth
century ; nor (2) give us that knowledge which, as teachers,
we must have of those specific needs and forms of life them-
selves ; nor (3) can it give us any direct and full guidance
as to the best means of enforcing our ideals. Especially,
it cannot directly show us how the Gospel may be united
with those features of modern life which were not within
the range of the first Christian teachers and preachers.
These limitations we will proceed to discuss in this
order.
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND A SYSTEM OF VALUES
With regard to the first, one of the imperative con-
ditions of any permanently effective teaching ministry
is that the teacher or preacher should be in possession
of some fairly unified system of thought and life as a
general background for every sermon and every lesson.
This need not of necessity be a technical system of
theological doctrines, but it must include, at any rate,
a fairly consistent view of the ideal or some system of
ideals for which he is working, some consistent system of
motives with which to enforce those ideals, and some
consistent system of practical helps towards living them.
Every sermon and every lesson may make some definite
and special impression of its own, but there should be
certainly a cumulative and consistent impression from
lesson to lesson and from sermon to sermon. Indeed,
permanent impressions on mind and heart and will,
92 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
that is, on the character, are generally cumulative in
their nature and not instantaneous. A single lesson or a
single sermon may and sometimes does achieve great
temporary success by arousing some expulsive emotion,
or by creating an impulse which can immediately find
expression, but it is a slowly growing accumulation of
impressions that usually exercises permanent control
over life. For this it is essential that the hearer or scholar
should feel that the different impressions he gets, one
after another, all belong together somehow, and that he
should be progressively introduced through them into
the same world of feeling, thought, experience and life.
THE CONSISTENCY OF THE TEACHER
It is probably impossible for any one who has to be
constantly preaching sermons or giving instruction never
to give expression to opinions that are inconsistent ; but
in order to be permanently effective, teaching must be
consistent enough in the ideals presented and in the
motives to which appeal is made to make some unified
general impression upon those who listen to it.
To describe the ideal to-day as obedience to the
absolute laws of the world and God, and to-morrow
as the life of freedom ; now as life in the Holy Spirit,
and then as union with Christ ; to-day as communion
with God, and to-morrow as love and service of men
this must become a source of bewilderment rather than
of education if no attempt is made to bring all the descrip-
tions into some sort of relation to one another as parts
of one definite system of life and thought.
We may talk of reconstruction as much as we like,
but it will never come to anything worth bothering about,
unless behind it there are some dominating moral and
spiritual convictions spreading their light and power
over the whole realm of life. A world that is full of a
myriad different plans but bankrupt in ideals, conviction
and faith will only gravitate back to the old rut once
more, and with added impetus in the end.
Whether we can in reality teach the New Testament
or not depends largely upon whether we can get out of
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 93
it such a system of ideals and motives as will satisfy
the deepest needs of the world.
UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN JESUS
Here, certainly, the New Testament comes a long way
at least towards satisfying the need of the Christian
teacher and yet not by any means all the way. He will
find in the New Testament certainly different strata of
life, different levels of living, but amidst all the varied
elements in these writings he can still recognize the really
distinct spirit and life contributed to the world by the
Christian movement embodied in man} 7 different forms.
It is only in personality that this spirit of life can be
fully and adequately expressed. The unity that is behind
and in the New Testament is a living unity. It is a spiritual
unity in the full sense of that term. Jesus Himself is
the Gospel of the New Testament because He is incalcul-
ably the purest, simplest, most direct and fullest expression
of its spirit and life.
SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE VALUES ' IN JESUS
He remains and will remain the Gospel and its standard
incorporation unless and until there is revealed in the
history of mankind a life of higher and fuller spiritual
values than His, bringing with it a stronger moral dynamic
and expressing itself in fresher, more direct and more
universal forms. If and when that comes we shall surely
know it, but at present it is beyond even our imagination.
Yet, just because our Gospel still comes to us in,
through and as an historical personality, the modern
teacher is reminded that its ideal life, as it is found even
in Jesus Himself, is cast in the mould of the first and not
of the twentieth century. It must, therefore, remain
his task to show that for our time and conditions, Jesus
does reveal a consistent system of ideals or values ' worthy
of all acceptation.' The New Testament does not under-
take that task for him. There is nowhere in it any
systematic analysis of Jesus, nor any attempt to make
a scale or system of the moral and spiritual values incarnate
94 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
and revealed in Him. Out of Jesus, we must get it by a
progressive interpretation led by one or other of the
supreme categories found for Him by New Testament
writers, or led by some other adequate category created
by His influence upon the thought of man since the time
of the New Testament.
That is why, so long as Jesus thus remains the highest
J life incarnate in history, it is the duty and the right of
every generation (and even of every disciple) to reinterpret
and to revalue Him for every new age and situation to
make, that is, its own analysis and application of the
spiritual values embodied in Him for the satisfaction of
the needs of its own life.
THE INEVITABLE VARIETY OF INTERPRETATION
The variety of interpretations is inevitable until we
shall have found the one adequate category that can
hold together all His values. So far, all the different
historical interpretations of Jesus fall into a few fairly
well-defined types, and every well-equipped teacher will
soon find in one variation or other of them his own
personal interpretation, which ought to and will inevitably
become the background, content and end of all his teaching.
THE TEACHER'S KNOWLEDGE OF THE MODERN
WORLD
The second necessary limitation in the help to be
expected from the New Testament concerns the know-
ledge which every competent teacher must have of his
own age and time its men, women and children, and
their actual conditions and special needs. It is, of course,
the actual and varied needs of man, personal and social,
that provide the first justification for the existence of
the teacher. It is a realization of those needs that gives
him and his calling a real place in the economy of life.
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 95
THE TEACHER AND HUMAN NATURE
One of his main qualifications is an effective know-
ledge of the personal and social life as it actually is in
the men, women and children whom he sets out to teach,
their best and their worst, their virtues and their vices,
what is difficult and what is easy for them to do, their
triumphs and their defeats, their joys and their sorrows,
their temptations and their trials.
How far can and does the New Testament help him
to obtain possession of such knowledge ?
It is, of course, true that there are deep abiding
features in human nature, and that there are human
needs fundamentally the same in all ages. The Christian
Gospel is intended to meet those needs. That is why
it may be the Gospel for the twentieth as for the first
century. It is also quite as true that though man is thus
always the same, men and the conditions of life are always
changing. That is why the forms of the Gospel, as well
as the teaching and preaching of the Gospel, must be
different for different men and times. It is only by meeting
the changes in men and conditions that the permanence
of the Gospel can be vindicated.
THE WORLD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
So, by emphasizing the fact that each writing of the
New Testament was deliberate teaching for its own time
and conditions, and was always in touch with those con-
ditions, the inference is made inevitable that if we wish
to teach and to preach in the spirit, and on the lines of
the New Testament, it must be teaching and preaching
for the twentieth century and always in touch with its
specific conditions.
On the other hand, by revealing the actual conditions
of the first century in the Roman Empire, the modern
study of the New Testament has also incidentally shown
us how different in many respects they were from ours.
It has, therefore, made plain the gap that must be filled
by the teacher if he wishes to present and apply the
Christian Gospel effectively to his own time. He cannot
g6 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
find the point of contact for his Gospel simply in the
New Testament, but is driven by the call of the New
Testament itself to a study of his own age, both from a
psychological and a sociological point of view.
It is plain that the New Testament cannot itself give
him this knowledge. It can only compel him to face
the absolute need for such a knowledge.
The study to which the teacher is thus driven is of
two kinds. First of all, it is a study of universal human
nature ; and, secondly, of the particular human nature of
our modern world, of our own country and of our own
pupils. With regard to the former, which will always
remain the more important, a careful study of the New
Testament can still help us very considerably. Our
attention has already been directed to what we may call
the human nature of the New Testament the fact that
it is a human product and a real part of the human world.
Simply to read it from that point of view is a great lesson
in the knowledge of man, of universal human nature.
It is a unique revelation of the human heart. Its inter-
pretation and exegesis are becoming more and more
psychological in character, with its emphasis upon ex-
perience and personality rather than upon doctrine.
STUDY OF MODERN MEN AND CONDITIONS
All this, however, will not take us very far in reading
and understanding the signs of our time. For that we
must depend ultimately upon our own contact with our
own world with the actual conditions of the world into
which the Gospel must be inserted its personal and
social problems, its education and its politics, its economic
interdependence and rivalries, its labour questions and
its international difficulties, its alienation from the Church
and its poor substitutes for religion, its intellectual chaos
and moral helplessness all the features that help to
distinguish it from every other age in history.
The time is surely coming, if it has not already come,
when men who have been overwhelmed in this welter
will begin to read the New Testament with a new anxiety
to find out the help it can give them in meeting the
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 97
problems personal and social which they have utterly
failed to solve without it. There is some danger that their
search may lead to disappointment at first, because they
will be apt to expect a great deal more than the New
Testament can possibly provide for their guidance. It is
only teachers who know both the age and the New Testa-
ment from the inside sympathetically, that can so mould
and moderate their expectations and also bring to the fore
their deepest needs in such a way as to enforce the Gospel
in their lives.
THE MODERN APPLICATION OF THE GOSPEL
Once we do know something of the age in which we
live, with its urgent needs, problems and interests, we
find ourselves still facing a task which the New Testa-
ment by itself cannot help us adequately to perform.
THE REAL TASK OF THE TEACHER
The third condition of effective teaching is a knowledge
of ways and means whereby the actual life lived by men
can be transformed progressively in the direction of the
ideal. The task of the teacher is to bring to bear upon
his scholars such various influences as have this trans-
forming power. To know these means and to be able
to use them well is the real original work of the teacher.
The ideal in its essence is already there, given in the
Gospel. The actual conditions which must somehow be
adjusted to it are facing him all the time. These are, in a
sense, the fixed points between which he moves. His real
business is to find the power and use the proper means
in order to change the actual into the ideal.
All the world is open to him in his search for these. He
can appeal to all the motives that move men, the hopes
that do actually inspire them, the fears that haunt them,
family instincts and national sentiments, self-respect and
love and loyalty all these and many more, in addition to
the sheer attractive power of the ideal itself, are at his
7
g8 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
service so long as he remembers that he is a teacher of
the Christian Gospel, and that therefore his means as well
as his ends must be Christian in their character or at
least consistent with or capable of serving Christian ends.
Here, again, the New Testament comes a long way to
meet him, but leaves him also long before he reaches the
end of his journey. It does offer him such a wealth and
variety of material of the kind he needs as to be almost
embarrassing, and it shows him that material as it was
actually used for the general purpose he has in view. In
it almost every chord in the human heart is struck and
struck again in order to move men towards Christ. But
here, again, once more we are warned that what we have
in the New Testament from this point of view is an
unclassified record almost a bewildering chaos of the
motives and means used by first-century preachers to meet
the needs of first-century men and to influence them in
the direction of the Gospel. The New Testament cannot
help us to decide whether any or all of these means will
effect the same purpose to-day. For that kind of help
the teacher must look outside the New Testament and
himself become responsible for the result. For permanent
influence, as we have seen, some kind of consistency
in his appeals he must have, for it will be futile for him to
threaten the same people with hell one day and the next
day rely upon the sheer moral and spiritual power of love
to lead them. Indirectly, of course, and especially so far
as the personal life of men is concerned, the guidance of
the New Testament still stands absolutely unique in this
respect.
THE GAPS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
There is, however, a far more serious limitation to the
guidance provided for the modern teacher by the New
Testament in attempting to find effective means of apply-
ing the Christian Gospel to modern life as well as to the
range of material offered to him in the New Testament for
that purpose.
The more specifically modern problems are almost all
social, and the most critical challenge which Christianity
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 99
and the Christian Gospel have to meet is primarily neither
personal nor intellectual but social. It is a challenge to
apply the Gospel practically to the growth of social life
in all its forms. And it is here that historical Christi-
anity and the New Testament leave the Christian teacher
to all appearance in the lurch. On the surface, at any
rate, there are large gaps here in the teaching of the
New Testament. The main modern social problems do
not seem to have been within the horizon of the first
missionaries of the Gospel. At any rate, they do not
seem to have made any definite attempts to apply the
Gospel in these regions.
Is there here really a gap in the Gospel itself, as some
have held, or is this comparative absence of contact with
social problems only another illustration of the way in
which the first Christian teachers kept close to the actual
problems before them ? Can the Christian Gospel be
brought into any vital and effective contact with these
significant elements in our age ? Is there any real room
for them in the life of the Gospel, or must we say that it is
so far incomplete and requires the prophetic ministry of a
Luther, for instance, to complete it ? Here we have one
of the main tests at present applied to the New Testament.
THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD
It is useless to think that as Christian teachers we can
in any way evade the issue. We must either moderate
our claims upon men or we must go forward with much
more enterprise to the task of showing that there can be,
and ought to be, a Christian society, Christian education,
Christian politics, Christian industry and Christian inter-
national relations. The world is waiting to hear some-
thing more from the Church than a proclamation of
principles or protests against evils, although even here the
Church has lamentably failed in its duty in recent years.
No progress, however, can be made with regard to social
reconstruction in any direction until Christian teachers
can give some positive guidance based on the principles
of the Gospel and knowledge of the facts of the situation.
It is evading the issue to say that we do not know enough
ioo THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
about educational, political, industrial and international
conditions to do what is required. It is our business co-
operatively or personally to get the requisite knowledge
or to see that those who have the knowledge use it in the
service of the Gospel. The least that we can do is deliber-
ately to set ourselves to train a new generation that will
be more capable than we are of applying the Christian
Gospel to the social situation.
THE SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
It is not our task here to discuss this issue as a whole.
What we are mainly concerned with is to call attention to
the character and range of the contribution of the New
Testament to its solution. That must be indeed one of
the first steps towards adopting the proper Christian
attitude. Does the New Testament give us any help
at all to meet the social situation ? If so, exactly what
kind of help ? Does it reveal to us the spirit in which
men should live their social life ? Can it give us also the
principles in accordance with which social life should be
organized and its problems solved ? Does it provide us
with anything that can be called a Christian programme
in these matters ? Is it our only resource to fall back
upon the fundamental nature of the Gospel itself and on
our own responsibility to apply it in what seems to us
the right way ? If the New Testament cannot give us
sufficient guidance to apply the Gospel in detail to all
departments of social life, then we must seek it elsewhere.
It is our first duty, however, to find out exactly how far
the New Testament is capable of taking us, and there is
urgent need of intelligent instruction on the point.
THE SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
To what extent and on what matters is the Christian
disciple pledged in his social attitude and activities, and
where does his liberty of opinion begin ?
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 101
It is evident that there is no such thing as a practical
social programme in the New Testament. That is part of
its natural and inevitable limitation. It does not and
cannot do our thinking and our organizing for us. It is
evident also that its primary interest is not in institutions
and organizations but in men, and first of all in individual
men. It is to individuals that it makes its first appeal,
and it is through individuals that it works.
If Jesus, however, is the incorporation of our Gospel,
then His disciples and His Church are pledged to a per-
sonality intensely social in spirit, to a very comprehensive
conception of Christian service and salvation, to certain
broad social principles and convictions, in the light of
which that service must be given, and to an intelligent
and persistent attempt to apply that spirit and those
principles specifically to the social circumstances of their
time and generation. One may also be justified in adding
that there are certain tasks and duties imposed upon a
Christian people by the very nature of the Gospel itself
such tasks, for instance, as the cure of poverty and the
elimination of disease. We must also realize very keenly
before we finish reading the New Testament that the
Kingdom of God cannot be established by organization,
nor simply by the reform of laws and institutions. The
present high estimation of outward civilization in general
and of luxury in particular seems incompatible with the
spirit of Jesus, and where wealth is owned at all such
ownership is evangelically permissible only when it is
accompanied by a vivid consciousness of its immense
obligations.
ITS SPIRIT, ATTITUDE AND PRINCIPLES
" It has been aptly said that ' Christ views social
phenomena from above, in the light of His religious
vocation. He approaches them from within through the
development of personality. He judges them from their
end, as contributing to the Kingdom of God.' Four
great principles stand out clearly from His teaching.
God is our Father and all men are our brethren. The
Kingdom of God is at hand. Life is the measure of
102 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
true value. All disciples are stewards. While in some
passages a sudden apocalyptic coming of our Lord is sug-
gested, His teaching involves, at least as often, a regenera-
tion of human society here and now through the working of
the law of righteousness and love, and in the background
of it stands the message of social righteousness delivered
by the prophets of the Old Testament. God's Kingdom
implies God's reign over the whole of human conduct and
carries with it a fellowship among His subjects. There
is to be a Christian society, a People of God, a Church,
which shall be the light, the salt, the leaven of human
life. But this Society is rather the means of realizing
the Kingdom than the Kingdom itself. Life at its highest
is the knowledge of God, but all human life comes within
our Lord's purpose. Life itself is carefully distinguished
from the material means of living ; the service of Mammon
is typical of the spirit of the ' Kingdom of this age. 1
Wealth is dangerous ; and detachment from preoccupa-
tion with wealth is the first mark of the subjects of God's
Kingdom." x
THE DEMAND OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
So far the New Testament does actually take us and
the Gospel for the sake of which the New Testament
exists. It provides us, moreover, with numerous illustra-
tions of the way in which the first teachers did actually
apply their principles to the social as well as the personal
problems of their day. It leaves us with the demand that
we should in the same way answer to the call of our time.
It does not and cannot tell us how to do it. When we
want to know the relation of Bolshevism, Socialism,
Capitalism, Strikes, War, Nationalism and a thousand
other features of our time to the Christian Gospel ; when
we have to apply the principles of the Gospel to the Church,
Politics, Education, Industry, the State and any other
forms of social organization, we shall not find the answers
ready-made in the New Testament ; but it demands that
we should search diligently for the answers for ourselves
and act courageously on our own responsibility. On all
1 Christianity and Industrial Problems, pp. 27-8.
THE MODERN USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 103
these points there is urgent need of Christian solutions, and
it is a definite part of the task of the Christian teacher to
make full use of the New Testament for that purpose,
taking it as far as ever it will go, and making clear the
exact value of its contribution.
BOOKS
BAUMGARTEN (O.). Neue Bahnen. (Leipzig, 1903.^ Predigt-Prob-
leme. (Tubingen, 1905.)
MELLONE. The New Testament in Modern Life. (London, 1920.)
NIEBERGALL (F.). Wie predigen wir dem modernen Menschen ?
(Tubingen, 1906.) Praktische Auslegung des Neuen Testaments.
(Tubingen, 1909.)
SCOTT (E. F.). The Apologetic of the New Testament. (London, 1907.)
WEISS (J.). Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments neu iibersetzt und
fur die Gegenwart erkldr*. (Gottingen, 1906.)
CHAPTER VI
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK
1. New Tasks and Responsibilities. Summary of Previous Chapters
The Changed Situation The Integrity of the Teacher His
Sphere of Work Enlarged.
2. The Teacher's Relation to the New Testament. Deliverance from the
Tyranny of the Letter A Spiritual Relation The Personal Life
of the Teacher.
3. The Common Task of All Teachers. A Teaching Fellowship All
Teachers engaged in making Men.
4. Teaching the Christian Gospel. The Background and Content of
the New Testament The Preparatory Work to be kept in its
Place Finding the Soul and the Power of the New Testament
The New Testament and the Gospel The Traditional Idea of
the Gospel The Gospel in History.
5. The Nature of the Christian Gospel. Faith in Christ and the Faith
of Jesus Himself The Organic View of the Gospel and its Ex-
pressions Intellectual Statements Necessary but Inadequate
Teaching the Gospel means spreading the Spirit, Life and
Principles of Jesus Methods and Agencies, Old and New
A Campaign of Christian Education.
NEW TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
WE have now described the main conditions under which
the teacher of the New Testament must do his work
the general guidance he can obtain from the principles
and methods of modern education, and the character of
the material with which he has to deal.
We suggested the main lines on which an educational
interpretation can be given to the New Testament as a
whole and in detail. We have also attempted to define
the value and place of the New Testament material in
104
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK 105
the process of education, to describe the extent and
nature of its positive contribution, and to mark out the
necessary limitations to its modern use as an educational
instrument.
Before passing on to discuss the particular problems
involved in the task of teaching the New Testament, it
may now be possible, in the light of the preceding dis-
cussions, to indicate more definitely and more systematically
than we have yet done the nature and meaning of that
task, both in relation to the wider interests of education
generally, and in its bearing upon the personal position
and attitude of the teacher himself.
Our literary, historical and educational interpretation
of the New Testament at once places the Christian teacher
in a position far freer and far more responsible than ever
before.
THE CHANGED SITUATION
He must now appear before his pupils, and before all
men, without shield or armour, as it were, taking nothing
for granted but the actual facts and postulates of human
life and human nature. There was a time when he could
build confidently upon a certain theory of the Bible, to be
accepted without discussion or proof. Now, the validity
and value of what he has to say can depend only upon
actual facts which can be tested by ordinary human
methods in the same way as all other facts of a similar
kind. He does not ask men to take what he says on blind,
unreasoning trust to any greater extent than is done in
other departments of human experience and knowledge.
If any one likes to obtain the necessary qualifications
he can test for himself everything that is said. It is
deeper and deeper inquiry that is desired most of all.
The teacher dare not shelter himself behind any dogmatic
theory of the origin or authority of the Bible. He dare
not hide behind the New Testament itself from the shafts
and arrows of criticism. He must be ready to lay bare
even the very foundations of life itself, and see whether
they are well and truly laid.
io6 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
THE INTEGRITY OF THE TEACHER
This inevitably means harder work, greater responsi-
bility and greater courage, but it means also the redemp-
tion of the integrity of the teacher himself, both moral
and intellectual. That, in itself, is one of the greatest of
personal gains for him.
There has been lurking in the minds of even naturally
religious people a dark suspicion that the ordinary canons
of thought and judgment have no validity in Christian
teaching and preaching. The Sunday-school teacher, as
well as the preacher, they say or think, has to preach
and to teach what the Bible says, because it is in the
Bible and not because it is really a positive truth for life
in general or because he really believes what he says.
The fundamental honesty and integrity of the ordinary
preacher is widely and seriously doubted. Thorough
intellectual integrity in the pulpit is a matter for surprise
and bewilderment. The first thing which a public teacher
of Christianity has to do in these days, if he wishes to get
into living touch with men, is to redeem his moral and
intellectual integrity at almost any cost. It is a much
more valuable asset on the side of the Gospel than any
success he may attain by means of his eloquence or his
brilliancy.
The modern criticism of the New Testament, it is
true, cannot purchase his honesty for him, but by com-
pelling him to throw away the artificial protection of a
Bible, a quotation from which is supposed to establish
any truth, it makes the redemption of his honesty possible
and much easier.
THE SPHERE OF HIS WORK ENLARGED
The very thing, however, which enables the teacher
to establish his honesty and integrity at the start also
vastly enlarges the sphere of his work. The range of his
teaching or preaching is inevitably widened. New tasks
are laid upon him, and these mean new opportunities.
Since he cannot now start by silently taking for granted
that the New Testament is the last court of appeal and
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK 107
that its written word is a final external authority, he is
compelled to lay the foundations of his message deeper
down and deal at first hand with the fundamental issues
of life. That means a nearer approach to the universal
human standpoint, more reality and more living contact
with the actual facts of life.
The Christian teacher must now show not only that
there is a direct way from the Bible into life, but also
from life itself into the New Testament. He must not
only try to make the ideals of life conform to the truths
of the New Testament, but also to test the statements
of the New Testament by the facts of life. Indeed, the
particular kind of teaching that is most needed in our
time is the teaching that will make the New Testament
once more a living book, a book by live men to living men.
Even those who are closely identified with the Churches,
as well as those who are outside them, stand in great
need of this kind of teaching. It is only very rarely
that the Christian teacher can take for granted in his
pupils of all ages much knowledge of the contents, meaning
and value of the New Testament. Generally the best
that w r e find is a vague kind of more or less inherited
belief in the supreme value of the ' Bible.' The people
who hold such a belief are continually in need.of teaching
that will clarify their ideas of the kind of value we have
in the Bible, that will make them realize how the Bible
has acquired that value, and how in detail it has sprung
out of life. That means to say they are always in need
of transforming their inherited belief into a living faith,
by being compelled again and again to build it up from
the foundations.
THE TEACHER'S RELATION TO THE NEW
TESTAMENT
FREEDOM FROM THE TYRANNY OF THE LETTER
The modern Christian teacher has thus been given an
opportunity to redeem his moral and intellectual integrity.
io8 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
He has also been compelled to undertake a more funda-
mental and living kind of teaching. The same process,
however, has also delivered him from the tyranny of the
letter of the New Testament. He has been delivered
from all those arbitrary methods of exegesis and inter-
pretation spurious homiletic uses of single phrases and
texts, the licence of allegorical methods and the vagaries
of the ingenuity exercised on predictions and apocalypses
methods which are the inevitable consequence of insist-
ence on the letter of Scripture. We have been compelled
to recognize radical differences in value between sayings
and to go behind the letter and the individual statements
to the books of which they form a part and to the life
and experience expressed in them. The letter becomes
the handmaid of faith instead of being the tyrant of
thought and belief.
This, however, does not mean that the Christian
teacher is cast adrift from the moorings of the New Testa-
ment. Modern study has shown more clearly than ever
how dependent he is in reality upon the New Testament.
It is the only record of the founder, the foundation and
first spread of the Christian Religion, the record of its
formative age and of the classical types of the life it
produces. From the New Testament we get our clearest
knowledge of the Christian Gospel and ideal as well as
of the various forms it took in the hands of its first teachers.
A SPIRITUAL RELATION
The difference now is that this tie with the New Testa-
ment is not one of the letter but of the spirit. It is a
relation, to use Paul's phrase, ' in Christ/ It not only
allows but compels us to ask how the letter is connected
with the spirit of the New Testament and what is the exact
relation between it and the Christian Gospel.
The practical effect, therefore, of our previous dis-
cussions, so far as the personal attitude of the Christian
teacher in relation to his task is concerned, may be de-
scribed in brief as follows. The redemption of his in-
tellectual integrity is secured, inasmuch as his dealing
with the New Testament no longer implies the initial
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK 109
acceptance of a ready-made theological dogma which
cannot be examined in open court.
He is compelled to face more fundamental questions
which concern the validity and value of the New Testa-
ment in general and in detail. He is delivered from the
tyranny of the letter of the New Testament, inasmuch as
the value of its written word depends upon the spiritual
life and experience it expresses.
The real nature of the relation between the teacher
and the New Testament has been revealed as, first of all,
historical, and then a spiritual relation. He is bound to
it in the same sense as he is bound to the historic Christian
Church, namely, in so far only as it preserves the Christian
Gospel in spirit and atmosphere.
THE PERSONAL LIFE OF THE TEACHER
All this demands not only much harder and sterner
work, but also a much fuller and richer personal religious
life on the part of the teacher. For this there can be no
substitute at all. No amount of objective respect for
the record, no amount of historical faithfulness and no
amount of intellectual honesty important and necessary
as these are can ever make up for the lack of a personal
experience of the moral and spiritual power of the Gospel.
The historian and the philosopher may do a great deal for
the New Testament and its interpretation, but merely as
such they can never teach it in any full sense. That can
only be done finally by the intelligent Christian disciple
whose soul is continually fed by the Lord of the New
Testament and of all life.
Naturally, as compared with the traditional attitude
towards the Bible, the attitude we have described may
involve the danger of a rather pronounced subjectivity.
That cannot be avoided, but its responsibility must be
bravely shouldered, and it is partly compensated for by
the emphasis on the historical objectivity of the Christian
Gospel which will come to light in the following section.
no THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
3
THE COMMON TASK OF ALL TEACHERS
So far, we have been dealing mainly with the more
personal attitude of the Christian teacher in approaching
his task. The task itself requires some fuller description
and definition.
If the discussions of the previous chapters mean any-
thing they mean that once more, as in the early days of
Christianity, the Christian teacher must stand shoulder
to shoulder in the ranks of the vast army of the teachers
of the human race, sharing in the same great task, bur-
dened with the same great responsibilities, meeting the
same difficulties and enjoying the same and only the same
rights, privileges and opportunities.
A TEACHING FELLOWSHIP
Into this wide fellowship the Christian teacher should
enter with enthusiasm, for it means that he and his task
are no longer to be washed into an isolated backwater and
kept there, but that he is to join with the mighty throng
of those who sail the wide waters of the river of life. He
will rejoice in this not only because his own work will be
kept constantly in touch with the realities of the common
life, but also because the task of all other educators will
be widened in outlook and deepened in spirit by constant
touch with the rich and inspiring material which he can
bring to the common store. His moral authority will
increase in proportion to his success in bringing his material
into closer and closer contact with the living needs of
men whose appetite will grow by what it feeds on. It will
henceforth be his fault if an ' effective demand ' does not
arise for what he has to offer.
ALL TEACHERS ENGAGED IN MAKING MEN
It may seem to him that many of the world's teachers
must live continually far away beyond the boundaries
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK in
of his territory, dealing with material which seems far
removed from his specific task ; but he must never let
himself forget that even teachers of Geography, Latin
and Mathematics are somewhere or other leaving their
mark upon the minds and souls of those whom he also
has to teach, and that they need and in the end will
value his help and comradeship to ensure that that mark
should somehow or other become one of ' the marks of
Jesus/ In time, the Christian teacher himself, depending
solely upon the spontaneous inspiration and power of the
moral and religious ideal depicted in the New Testament
and incompletely but effectively in himself will find
that he is called naturally to a place of pre-eminent
and central influence for his work's sake. Read the Bible,
it has been said, as an ordinary book, and it will soon
become for you the most extraordinary book in the world.
Let the Christian teacher also enter honestly into the
common fellowship of the other human teachers of child
and youth around him, sharing in the common task of
shaping thought and heart and will, helping them to grow
into free men, then he too will find the highest honour
and dignity freely given to him.
4
TEACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL
A distinctive and decisive place among the world's
teachers belongs by right to the Christian teacher, mainly
because he brings in his hands the New Testament as
a teaching instrument of incomparable worth as far
superior to any ' text-book of morality ' as Jesus Christ
Himself is superior to the conventional life of men. It
is by handling the New Testament aright that the Christian
teacher will find and keep his rightful place. It is as a
teacher of the New Testament that he should be known
first and last by his effective use of its material for the
fullest human education. He must not allow himself to
think meanly or superficially of the meaning and range
of his task. Teaching the New Testament well is the
H2 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
most serious and arduous task to which the teacher ever
set his hand.
It does not mean using the New Testament as a dump-
ing ground for our own small ideals and motives much
less for our own theological beliefs and opinions or for
our own fads and fancies. It does mean giving reliable
information about the New Testament, about the contents
and history of its books and about the background of
the life from which they sprang. What we try to make
the New Testament do educationally depends upon what
the New Testament is. We must make it intelligible
before we can make it interesting;, and it must become
interesting before it can become effective.
This study will attempt to do three things. It will
seek to describe and appreciate (i) the Background of
the New Testament ; (2) the New Testament as Literature
and History ; and (3) the Religion and Theology of the
New Testament. We must not underestimate the import-
ance of this task, for it is the essential foundation upon
which the higher aspects of teaching the New Testament
must be built. In its main aspects it will come before
us later on.
To a large extent, however, it represents only the
work of scaffolding, which must not be confused with the
real task of building, upon which the teacher is engaged.
We must keep it in its proper place, and more particularly
that part of it which deals with the geographical, political
and social background of the New Testament. Enough
of this kind of knowledge must be given to make the
books intelligible, but maps and models, the details of
habits and customs of Oriental lands, must not be allowed
to monopolize the time and energy of teacher and pupil
as they have sometimes been in danger of doing.
Teaching the New Testament itself means nothing
less than teaching the essential content and message of
the New Testament, or rather of the religious movement
which created the New Testament. It means using the
material which is peculiarly its own contribution to the
life of the world in such a way and at such a time as to
give the most effective impetus possible to the formation
of character and to the making of personalities who have
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK 113
a life to live and work to do in our modern world. Every-
thing else is only preliminary to that.
The final task which the serious Christian teacher has
to do is a much more delicate and strenuous task than
merely transmitting information about the New Testa-
ment. He must grip securely the soul and power of the
New Testament, while its soul and power must grip him
organically, and through him become organically one
with the life of men and the world.
THE GOSPEL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
To do his work adequately, therefore, the teacher must
take pains to find out what is the soul and power of
the New Testament. We have already considered some
aspects of this question in relation to the unity of the
New Testament and to the unity which must be behind
all the teacher's instruction. What we are here specially
concerned with, is its place in the task of teaching the
New Testament. In its more general relations the question
is fast becoming the central and critical problem in all
discussions of Christian history, Christian Ethics and
Christian thought . What is Christianity ? What is its
essence ? What is its peculiar contribution to the life
of the world ? To use what is perhaps the most fitting
phrase in this connection, and which we have already
adopted for our purpose, what is the essential meaning
and power of the Christian Gospel ?
It is not easy to describe in explicit terms the situation
created in this respect by the traditional theories of the
infallibility of the written word of the Bible as an external
authority. When Dean Burgon, from the University
Pulpit at Oxford, not much more than half a century
ago, could say of the Bible that " every book of it, every
chapter of it, every verse of it, every syllable of it, every
letter of it is the direct utterance of the Most High," it
is evident that every part of the New Testament was
as necessary to the Christian Gospel as every other part.
In fact, the Gospel was literally the Bible.
114 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
THE TRADITIONAL IDEA OF THE GOSPEL
On the other hand, nothing was more characteristic
of the old Evangelicalism than the idea of what was called
' the simple Gospel ' always the same in form and
substance for all men and for all times. Theoretically,
at any rate, it stood in no vital relation to time and place.
It was the business of the preacher simply to proclaim
it to all and sundry, and it was sufficient for him to do so.
This required no teaching in the proper sense at all, but
simple proclamation and the exhortation to believe.
This ' simple Gospel ' was the stock-in-trade of the
orthodox evangelist a recipe for all the ills that flesh
is heir to, and it was already made up for him into a dose
in neat packets. It could be easily expressed in a series
of apparently simple statements either of abstract truths
or historical facts which comprised ' the plan of salva-
tion.' This worked out in the end as the main points
of a system of scholastic theology or, in the phraseology
of a somewhat later time, of ' fundamental doctrines/
which was supposed to be the actual content of the
New Testament and inseparably connected with the
Virgin Birth, the Miracles, the atoning Death and the
Resurrection.
It is difficult for us now to realize how these two
views of the Gospel, as identical with the Bible as a whole
and yet at the same time a consistent system of truths,
could be held together in the same mind. Yet we can
see that they both sprang from the same root, namely,
from the idea of Revelation and inspiration as external
and supernatural. God, it was believed, had spoken to
men once and for all from outside. His Word enters into
life as a new and independent element, side by side with
but untouched by human capacities, changes and circum-
stances. That Word is the Bible.
THE GOSPEL IN HISTORY
We have certainly travelled far since these views of
the Gospel and the New Testament could be held. We
have seen too clearly the heterogeneous elements which
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK 115
have entered into the making of the New Testament
elements that are often inconsistent with each other
and with the original teaching of Jesus. The only
question now is as to how the Christian Gospel is related
actually to the New Testament and in which direction
we are to look for it. We may still speak of the ' simple
Gospel/ but only in the sense that at the heart of the
Christian movement there is a direct and inevitable
appeal, so clear and so simple that to it every man can
and must answer ' Yes ' or ' No.' There has never been
such a Gospel as could be picked up like a stone and
flung at men haphazard in the hope that it would hit
one of them. One of the great things we have learnt is
that the New Testament does not give us the Gospel as
an abstract truth, but always in concrete relations. We
cannot find the Gospel anywhere except embedded in
history, and in the concrete relations of life. We find it
in history intertwined with a vast mass of traditional
material of all kinds, including Oriental imagery and
myths, pagan ' mysteries,' Greek philosophy and Roman
Law in Creeds, Sacraments and Church. We find it
embedded in the life and experience that is behind the
New Testament. It came to us first of all incarnate
wrapped up in an historical life and as a life. It was
' the Word made flesh ' and not the bare abstract Word.
It was lived out at a certain historical period under
definite and temporary historical circumstances. Its
history since then is a process of organic growth and life
in and through the circumstances of each age. It is in
Christian history as the life is in the tree. That life
cannot be separated from the sap and the roots, the trunk
and the branches ; yet these take new forms and shapes
with every new spring, while the life still lives and ex-
presses itself through them in new ways.
5
THE NATURE OF THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL
We have already attempted to express the Gospel as
the New Testament reveals it. It is the life ' in Christ,'
n6 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
in Paul's phrase, expressed first of all in and through the
personal life of Jesus under the definite conditions and
meeting the definite needs of the first century in Palestine.
It is subsequently expressed in the life of His disciples
much more imperfectly, but still meeting and assimilating
the circumstances, needs and problems of men in Antioch,
Corinth and Rome. It is always the same life essentially,
the Gospel of Christ and the religion of Jesus being only
different forms and expressions of it.
THE ORGANIC VIEW OF THE GOSPEL AND ITS EXPRESSIONS
If the modern study of the Bible has taught us any-
thing, it ought to have taught us to elevate above all
else the ethical and religious content of the Gospel which
underlies all its expressions. Faith in Christ must mean
primarily faith in what Jesus stands for, and what Jesus
stands for we must surely find in His own personal life
in the spirit, attitude and character of Jesus, even more
than in His verbal teaching.
INTELLECTUAL STATEMENTS NECESSARY BUT INADEQUATE
It is, then, this organic view of the Gospel as the life
1 in Christ,' embodied in varying historical forms, which
is the peculiar contribution of the New Testament. The
distinguishing marks and the intrinsic values of this life
we can, no doubt, as in the case of the tree, describe in a
general way, but we never succeed in reducing the descrip-
tion to quite universal terms or abstract statements, for
we never find the life except in more or less temporary
forms. There is always some element of limitation in
the most general statement of its meaning and power.
No expression exhausts its fulness, and every historical
and intellectual expression of it includes something other
than the thing itself. In accordance with the paradox of
the spiritual life, this something more always means
something less than the spiritual reality. The nearest
we have come to expressing the Gospel in general state-
ments is in such terms as the Fatherhood of God and the
Brotherhood of Man, but we cannot look even upon these
as the Gospel which makes the New Testament what it is.
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK 117
Abstract statements, however true and however Christian,
do not make up the Christian Gospel.
More or less abstract statements we must, in the
nature of the case, have, and they have their own place
in education. It will again and again be necessary for
the teacher to realize the Gospel as including certain
definite intellectual principles or convictions, and as
embodying definite moral qualities clearly related to each
other. There is, however, probably no analysis of this
kind which will at present command universal assent.
One will interpret the Gospel mainly in religious terms
of the Fatherhood of God and childlike trust in Him ;
while another will start from the Brotherhood of man,
and so emphasize the ethical call of the Gospel to the
persistent, loving service of men ; while still another will
prefer to express it in terms of constant and prompt
obedience to conscience, and so emphasize the realization
of the highest and fullest personal life. What is here
emphasized is that the teacher must use these interpreta-
tions and especially those of the New Testament in
order to lead his pupil deeper and deeper into the life
and personality of Jesus Himself, as greater far than
all attempts to interpret and to explain Him.
THE PRINCIPLES AND SPIRIT OF JESUS
When, therefore, we speak of teaching the New Testa-
ment, we cannot mean by it simply the proclamation of
certain moral and religious truths, however important.
We cannot mean by it even teaching Jesus Christ in the
sense of getting men to imitate the individual outer or
inner life of Jesus. It must mean in the end to spread
the life that was in Jesus in such a way as to make it
organically one with all the manifestations of life in our
day and express itself in all the circumstances and move-
ments of our life. The historical and practical conse-
quences of the Gospel are inevitable and involved in its
existence, though they may vary from age to age. These
consequences are at the same time both personal and
social ; they are ethical and intellectual ; and the
Christian Gospel is not taught effectively to any age until
Ii8 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
these consequences are made plain and urgent to its mind
and heart and will to its conscience.
METHODS AND AGENCIES, OLD AND NEW
For the teacher of the New Testament, therefore, there
is no stopping-place until this whole task is accomplished.
It is his duty and privilege not only to have the nature of
this task clear in his mind and urgent upon his conscience,
but to search for every method and agency which is
capable of being used for the purpose. The Church
already provides him with its traditional educational
agencies in the pulpit and Sunday School. Both need
to be transformed, however, in order to become efficient
instruments of Christian education and instruction. The
official Christian ministry and pulpit especially will have
to take its teaching work much more seriously. We
cannot avoid this by pleading our prophetic mission.
The permanent influence of the prophetic afflatus and
message itself can only be guaranteed by more systematic
teaching. It can only be filled with meaning and power
by its educational content and end. In fact, all the
traditional institutions of the Church need overhauling
from this educational point of view ; while in order to
meet the changes in outlook and in the nature and range
of the Christian task, the Church must also go in search
of new methods and new agencies through which its work
can be more effectively done. It is true that the Church
must use the New Testament more than it does for pro-
viding itself with the Christian instruction it so badly
needs. It is, however, called also to the Christian educa-
tion of the world at large.
For this purpose, we need agencies more definitely
organized for the instruction of youth and maturity. It
should be much more public in character through public
lectures and free discussions quite different from the
present more or less private meetings of the Church.
There is need also for a more intellectual and clarifying
type of instruction than the present ' edifying ' methods
provide. An order of public Christian teachers whose
main business was to organize educational agencies of this
kind would be a great boon.
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER AND HIS TASK 119
The task of the Christian teacher, therefore, so far as
the New Testament is concerned, is threefold. He must
transmit a knowledge of the New Testament its back-
ground, literature, history, ethics, religion and theology.
He must use this material in order to make clear and
enforce the essential meaning and message of the New
Testament, its peculiar contribution to the life of the
world, the Christian Gospel and its power. He must
finally use this Gospel and its power as an integral part
of all the influences which all kinds of educators are bring-
ing to bear upon the human young in particular, in order
to grow ideal Christian personalities and a society of such
personalities in the Kingdom of God.
All this implies and demands an efficient teaching
ministry in many forms. The Christian teacher is as
necessary to the Christian Gospel as the Gospel itself, and
a clear idea of its nature and meaning are necessary to
him. Nothing less than a consistent, persistent and
insistent policy and campaign of Christian education will
ever meet the need. To have the larger share in this task
of Christianizing the world in practice of putting the
stamp of Jesus upon all its life in every department is
the privilege and responsibility of the teacher of the New
Testament.
BOOKS
AYRE (G. B.). Suggestions for a Syllabus in Religious Teaching.
(London, 1911.)
BRYANT (SOPHIE). How to read the Bible in the Twentieth Century.
(London, 1918.5)
DENNEY (J.). Jesus and the Gospel. (London, 1913.)
FAUNCE (W. H. P.). The Educational Ideal of the Ministry. (New
York, 1908.)
FORSYTH (P. T.). Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind. (London,
1907.)
HACKENSCHMIDT (K.). Die Christus-Predigt fur unsere Zeit. (Gottin-
gen, 1909.)
HASLETT (S. B.). The Pedagogical Bible School. (Chicago, 1903.)
PEASE (G. W.). An Outline of a Bible-School Curriculum. (Chicago,
1906.)
RAYMONT (T.). The Use of the Bible in the Religious Education of the
Young. (London, 1911.)
ZURHELLEN (ELSE UND OTTO). Wie erzdhlen wir den Kindern die
biblischen Geschichten ? (Tubingen, 1906.)
PART II
TEACHING THE NEW TESTAMENT : ITS
MAIN PROBLEM
VII. THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD.
VIII. THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST FOR ADOLESCENCE.
IX. TEACHING THE PARABLES.
X. THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES.
XI. THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS.
XII. THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS.
XIII. THE JOHANNINE LITERATURE, THOUGHT AND LIFE.
XIV. JESUS CHRIST AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
CHAPTER VII
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD
1. Presentations of Christ in the New Testament. Christ in Christian
Instruction The Synoptic, Pauline and Johannine Types of
Life and Thought The Main Features of Each.
2. The Synoptic Presentation in Instruction. Difficulties of the Gospels
The Gospels in Modern Instruction Teaching of Infancy and
Childhood in Relation to Adolescence.
3. The Historical Life of Jesus. Presentation of Christ to Childhood-
Must be Historical Historical Value of the Gospels The Use
of Non-historical Material.
4. Content of the Life of Jesus. Outline Boyhood and Youth Main
Elements of the Public Ministry Last Days and Death The
Story in the Gospels Makes a Difficult Demand Dramatic
Elements Educational Dangers Aims and Methods of the
Teacher The Resurrection.
5. Moral and Religious Appreciation. Love for Jesus and its Qualities
Moral, Intelligent and Reverent Based on the Love of Jesus
for Men Main Features of His Life for Boyhood Heroic,
Adventurous and Joyous Love.
PRESENTATIONS OF CHRIST IN THE NEW
TESTAMENT
CHRIST IN CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION
AT this stage of our discussion it may reasonably be taken
for granted that the central task of Christian education
is to bring the growing personality more and more into
vital union with the spirit and will of Jesus Christ, and
to secure the thorough application of that ' life in Christ '
in and to all the manifold relations of life personal and
social .
133
124 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Correspondingly, the task of Christian instruction
(which is only one aspect of education) is to present Jesus
Christ in His life and teaching, His work and personality,
in such a way and at such a time as to help effectively in
bringing about that vital union with Christ and its personal
and social application. It follows that the essential
meaning of teaching the New Testament is to make
effective use of its material for that definite, moral and
religious purpose, and for every subordinate end that
may be necessary for the purpose.
It is therefore evident that the spirit of Christ must not
only animate the teaching throughout, but also that the
central place must be assigned to the actual presentation
of Jesus Christ Himself.
THE THREE MAIN TYPES OF THOUGHT IN THE
NEW TESTAMENT
That, of course, must be supremely true of the New
Testament part of Christian instruction, for it might well
be said that the New Testament is nothing else but a
series of presentations of Christ. There are in it almost
as many presentations of Christ as there are writers.
They may be conveniently divided, however, into three
main types, namely, the Synoptic, the Pauline and the
Johannine. These represent the three main forms in
which the Christian Gospel was presented in the formative
period of Christian history. Naturally, these three are
not independent of one another, but reveal a definite
development of Christian experience and thought in
contact with a different environment. They may roughly
be distinguished from one another by saying that the
Synoptic Gospels present Jesus as the Messiah ; that Paul
presents Him as the redeeming Son of God ; while the
Fourth Gospel presents Him as the revealing Logos or
Word of God.
In their different ways, all three look upon Him as in
some sense divine. In the Synoptics, His divine dignity
comes to Him partly at His birth, but mainly at His
baptism ; in Paul, His divine powers (in some way not
quite clear) are in a state of suspense during His life on
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 125
earth, but become active in a new way through the Cross
and Resurrection ; while in John the earthly life is only
another mode of His full divine existence.
To a greater or less degree, all three are theological
constructions based upon and issuing from the historical
life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, combined with a
definite appreciation of His moral and religious value.
THE MAIN FEATURES OF EACH TYPE
These three elements of historical life, religious ap-
preciation and theological construction, are mixed in very
different proportions and co-ordinated in very different
ways in the three presentations. In the Synoptics, the
history is by far the most significant factor, and it is what
stamps the whole. The appreciation is mainly one of
the moral value of the teaching of Jesus, while the theo-
logical element makes itself felt mainly in a definite
apologetic tendency which is only loosely combined with
the life and death.
The Pauline presentation, on the other hand, is marked
by the predominance of the theological point of view.
This is so closely interwoven with the religious apprecia-
tion that it is often a very difficult task to separate the
two, and sometimes it is quite impossible. With the
exception of the death, the historical life almost dis-
appears from the presentation, though there are many
signs that it is always in the background, and that it was
one of the main factors in the origin of both the religious
appreciation and the theological construction.
The presentation of Christ in the Johannine literature
is, at the same time, a further development of Pauline
ideas and an attempt to combine the Pauline conception
with the Synoptic type. The Johannine presentation
thus becomes a theology or a philosophy put into the
form of a life of Christ. Here the historical element, the
religious appreciation and the theological construction
are almost inextricably mixed up together in such an
intimate way that it seems a hopeless task to try to keep
them apart or to express them separately.
It will be agreed that in dealing with the main
126 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
problems raised by the use of the New Testament in
modern Education, we must deal first with the Synoptic
presentation as the earliest and the simplest as well as
the most historical of the three main types of life and
thought in the New Testament. We must try to see what
is its place and value in our moral and religious instruction
what elements in it are available for our main purpose,
and when they can be used with most effect.
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION IN
INSTRUCTION
It is evident that the full presentation, even of the
simplest of the Synoptic Gospels, cannot be adequately
appreciated before childhood's days are well over. It is
quite possible and even probable that most of the material
of the first three Gospels was derived from the catechetical
instruction of the Early Church ; but if so, it was certainly
not the instruction of children. It must have been that
of growing youths and adults.
DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS
That naturally does not mean that there are no
elements in Mark, Matthew and Luke eminently suitable
for the instruction of children of all ages. What it does
mean is that the material they provide must often be
taken out of its context, and must always be specially
adapted for use during the earlier periods of life. The
Synoptic presentation as a whole belongs peculiarly to
the adolescent stage. There are also other difficulties
in the way of using the Synoptic material in its actual
Biblical form for the purpose of introducing Jesus Christ
to the younger children. For instance, there are three
Synoptic Gospels, and the question must immediately
arise as to whether we should make one the basis, and
gather the material of the others around it for the pur-
poses of instruction, or use a kind of amalgam of all three,
I
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 127
as is often suggested. Both methods, however, involve
some adaptation of the Synoptic presentation under the
influence of a more or less subjective point of view.
Further, it is plain that there are moral, religious
and theological conceptions in each of the Gospels which
are definitely above the comprehension of any child of
nine or ten. Such are the ideas of Messiah, the Son of
Man, Son of God, as well as many of the conceptions
of the Sermon on the Mount.
Moreover, the kind of appreciation of Jesus that we
find in the Synoptic Gospels is not always such as we can
desire to perpetuate in our permanent valuation of Him.
Only too often they seem to describe Him in terms of
supernatural and miraculous power. It is implied that
some of His deeds are displays of sheer divine power. It
is true that this element is not usually a part of the deed
itself ; it is often easily separable from the substance of
the incident narrated. The act itself is generally capable
of interpretation under other categories than mere power.
In any case, we cannot wish to allow an impression of
Jesus as a prodigy of mere power to become the primary
element in our appreciation of Him upon the mind of
child or youth. There are indeed plenty of signs that
Jesus Himself desired to avoid anything of the kind.
On the other hand, on the face of the Synoptic narra-
tives, the appreciation of Jesus in terms of His personal
character and personal religion appears to be of only second-
ary interest to the writers. They certainly supply us with
plenty of material for reconstructing the main features
of His personal religion, but often we have to do so out
of elusive suggestions and incidental references. Any
permanent interpretation of Christ will of necessity
reverse this order of interest and scale of values. Our
highest terms will be those of character and personality
with the stress upon personal religion and the moral will.
Finally, the Synoptic presentation sometimes consists
of narratives which certainly in their present form do not
belong to the historical life of Jesus, but are rather symbols
of the Synoptic faith in Christ and the creations of that
faith. As we shall see, modern religious instruction may
be able to make very good use both of the moral content
128 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
as well as the form of these legendary stories, but it is
not often that they can in their Biblical form become
part of our presentation of Jesus itself. Their place and
value and the method of using them in Biblical instruc-
tion, must be more fully discussed later.
No MERE REPRODUCTION OF THE GOSPELS POSSIBLE
All this means that our presentation of Christ can
never be anything like a literal reproduction of the
Synoptic construction. We must be satisfied at first with
something less, and always with something different in
its motive and purpose. In fact, we must dig below the
surface for the richest veins of gold underneath, if we wish
to use the Synoptic presentation of Christ effectively
for the moral and spiritual ends of the Christian Gospel.
Mark, Matthew and Luke provide us with an abundant
wealth of material, and the most essential material for
the purpose ; but if we are to use it effectively in Christian
instruction we must be free to select and adapt it, to a
greater or less degree, to the needs and capacities of the
varying stages of moral and religious growth.
In order to find out what to select and how to adapt,
we must return for a moment to our psychological results.
As we have seen, the material of the New Testament in
its full sense, and especially its presentations of Christ,
are the natural food of adolescence. All the teaching
given to infants and children is from this point of view
only preparatory, just to the degree that childhood itself
is a preparation for adolescence.
CHILDHOOD IN RELATION TO ADOLESCENCE
There is, however, another sense and one quite as
real in which it is true that each period of human growth
represents not merely a stage on the way to a higher,
but something complete in itself, different from and
independent of the life of every other period. In this
sense, infancy and childhood have each its own Gospel
adequate for itself and corresponding to its need. That
may be a Christian Gospel as Christian in its spirit as
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 129
that of adolescence but it is necessary to remember
that it can never be the full Christian Gospel.
It may be said, therefore, that in our effort to present
Christ, the adequacy of our instruction will depend upon
our success in combining these two points of view, namely,
that of infancy and childhood as preparatory stages on
the way to adolescence and maturity, with that of the
same periods as revealing their own independent life
and needs which do not depend upon adolescence for
their completion.
To combine successfully these two points of view in
the working out of a scheme of instruction and education,
is one of the supreme tasks of the Christian teacher.
What may be offered here or elsewhere can only be very
inadequate suggestions based upon very imperfect know-
ledge. Nevertheless, the attempt must be made again
and again to solve the problem as one of the central
difficulties of religious teaching.
THE HISTORICAL LIFE OF JESUS
PRESENTATION OF CHRIST TO CHILDHOOD
We do not come face to face with the real difficulties
of the problem until we have to deal with the instruction
of late childhood (between the ages of nine and twelve).
There is a fairly general agreement among modern
educators that this is the fit and proper time for making
the first attempt to give anything like a consistent and
more or less systematic picture of Jesus, and that the
attempt should be made towards the beginning rather
than the end of this period.
Naturally, the child will have already been told
a number of suitable Wonder-tales and other stories of
which Jesus is in some sense the hero ; but so far they
have been told only as individual stories complete in
themselves. They have been told also not so much for
the sake of giving a picture of Jesus as for the sake of
somelelement of educational value in each story itself.
9
130 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
At about eight or nine years of age, however, the child
is ready to appreciate to some degree a connected series of
stories, and in an elementary way the picture of a growing
personality as well as the meaning of history as dis-
tinguished from an independent ' once-upon-a-time ' story.
There is an opportunity of impressing upon the mind
some simple, consistent and clear picture of Jesus, through
His deeds and words, in His relations with God, man and
the world around Him.
The questions of the special aim, general character,
form and content of this first deliberate presentation of
Christ are essentially educational questions, although
some theological considerations are undoubtedly involved
in any attempt to answer them. Educational principles
and methods ought to be the decisive factors, and,
fortunately, substantial agreement is to be found among
those best qualified to form an opinion with regard to
the main points.
MUST BE ESSENTIALLY HISTORICAL
In the first place, the presentation of Christ for child-
hood should, without any doubt, be essentially historical.
This is not meant in the sense that every item of it must
be guaranteed as literal fact by historical criticism, but
in the sense that it must provide the picture of a life
actually lived out under definite historical circumstances
of time and place. It must not be left hanging in the
air, as it were, out of effective touch with the earth.
Without overdoing the local colouring and the more
trifling peculiarities of the time, it ought to be the picture
of an individual Jew of Galilee in the first century. The
universal elements themselves, which are so evident
in the life of Jesus, demand this individual background
in order to reveal their meaning and power. That is
one of the great advantages of the biographical approach
to history and religion, and we must make the most of it
at this stage. The adaptability of the Synoptic presenta-
tion for this very purpose is also the very reason why it
is to be preferred to the Pauline and the Johannine
presentations for purposes of instruction.
I
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 131
THE HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS
This, of course, raises the whole question of the
historical value of the Synoptic Gospels. If the teacher
re ever led to believe that no such person as Jesus ever
lived, it would make the task of teaching the New Testa-
ment a very different thing. Whatever might be the
effect of such a conclusion upon the value of the Christian
religion, it would certainly reduce the value of the New
Testament as an educational instrument, especially for
this period of life, to a much lower level. The Synoptic
material would then have to be relegated to a later period
to keep company with the Johannine Gospel. Instead
of the life of Jesus at this time, we should have to be
satisfied with a life of Paul material much more difficult
to handle and of far less value for this age as the first
personal bearer of the spiritual and moral values of early
Christianity.
It does not, however, appear that the Christian teacher
will ever be called upon to face the need for such a radical
revolution in connection with teaching the New Testament
and the Christian religion. This radical attack upon the
fundamental historical character of the Synoptic Gospels
has far less prospect of success to-day than ever, though
it will probably always remain as one of the many ques-
tions which ought to have some discussion as part of
the general problem of the relation between Christianity
and History.
It may now be taken for granted that the Synoptic
Gospels do provide us with sufficient reliable material
to construct a historical picture of Jesus in the main
features of His character, deeds and words. Once that is
granted, difficulties with regard to particular incidents
and sayings can be overcome. To most modern teachers,
passages here and there may appear to be unhistorical.
It is scarcely to be expected that there will ever be absolute
agreement in detail with regard to what can and what
cannot be included in a strictly historical life of Jesus.
Every teacher must, in the end, fix his own limits, and
the only rule that can be laid down is that naturally no
132 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
honest teacher will repeat as history what he does not
believe to be history.
This, however, does not mean that he cannot use even
legendary incidents and that for historical purposes
in his narrative of the life of Jesus. Such incidents,
when properly introduced by some non-committal
formula, may, indeed, have a useful part to play in what
is intended to be an historical presentation of Christ.
THE USE OF NON-HISTORICAL MATERIAL
Another element also which cannot be called strictly
historical must always enter into any attempt to picture
Jesus as a whole. The Synoptic Gospels after all only
provide us with a somewhat uncertain chronological
framework, into which are inserted a number of incidents
and sayings which vary in each Gospel, and are differently
arranged in each. The whole of the early life up to the
baptism is practically a blank, while the geographical,
political, social and religious background of the particular
incidents, as well as of the story as a whole, is only barely
indicated.
Some of this background must, in any case, be supplied
in order to make the life and sayings of Jesus intelligible,
and it can only be supplied by the constructive exercise
of the well-informed historical imagination. To convey
the impression of Jesus as a historical person, some
attempt must be made to describe the home at Nazareth,
His education, His work as a carpenter, the growth of
His mind, etc. all the elements necessary to make His
first public appearance natural and intelligible. Of all
these things we have no direct historical records only
hints and suggestions. They must always remain imagi-
native constructions, based on our general historical
information.
When, therefore, we speak of a historical life, it is
not meant that every item of it must consist of undoubted
facts of history in the strict and narrow sense. Our
nucleus of history must be eked out, on the one hand,
by the introduction of stories and incidents which may
of doubtful authenticity. These are historical only
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD
133
the sense that they were actually told of Jesus at a very
early time, and perhaps even during His lifetime. They
will naturally be told as such, and they will be told because
they help in some way to make the picture of Jesus
clearer by revealing the sort of impression He made upon
His disciples and contemporaries. They are true to Him
even though they may not be true of Him.
On the other hand, the gaps in our historical material
must, somehow, be filled by imaginative constructions
true to the record of history, and based upon what we
know from other sources about the time, the land and
the people of Jesus.
What is primarily intended, then, is that we should
make a deliberate attempt to describe the real life of a
real person among real men in real circumstances.
THE CONTENT OF THE LIFE OF JESUS
OUTLINES OF THE LIFE OF JESUS
The framework of the narrative is already laid down
for us in the Gospels, and it follows quite simply the
childhood and youth, the public ministry in all its aspects,
the trial, death and resurrection. The discussion in detail
of most of the educational problems connected with the
treatment of the material content of the narrative will
be found in other chapters. We shall here deal mainly
with the more definitely historical aspects of the life.
i . Introduction . Though Mark 's historical record begins
with the Baptism, and the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
bring us no certain direct information about the birth
and childhood of Jesus, yet we cannot do without some
kind of introduction. Such an introduction might proceed
on one or all of three lines.
We might start with some features of modern life
that are familiar to the children Churches, the seasons of
Christmas and Easter, the meaning of the Christian era
all leading us back to Jesus and creating an interest in
Him.
134 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Secondly, we might describe the people of the Jews
and their original country still starting from modern
times and going back to Jesus and Palestine.
Finally, the third line of approach might be through
the birth-narratives. They would be given as stories
told about Jesus with a view to deepening the impression
already made, that He must have been a marvellous
person. The teacher would not raise the question of
their truth at all unless it be definitely put to him. If
the question is asked, he must take the responsibility of
explaining the position as he sees it, insisting upon the
value of the stories (whether ' true ' or not) as showing
how great Jesus must have been to make people tell
and believe such stories of Him.
For this purpose, the Birth-stories can be told in very
much their Biblical form.
BOYHOOD AND YOUTH
Following this should come some account of the child-
hood and youth of Jesus, though of Him as an individual
we only know that He lived in Nazareth, and that probably
He was a carpenter by trade like His father Joseph. It
is, however, still possible to reconstruct enough of the
external life of a Galilean boy of that time, His home
life, His education and probable journey to Jerusalem,
to serve as a background and preparation for the latei
experiences. From the Gospels themselves also,
reading between the lines, we can infer a good deal with
regard to what must have been happening in the inner
life of Jesus during His youth. Many of His parables
are mirrors of His personal and early experiences, as well
as of the Gospel He wished to enforce.
Out of these elements a plausible and probable picture
of the childhood and youth of Jesus may without much
difficulty be reconstructed. The purpose of such a
picture is to make the children feel that they are hearing
of the real life of a real man, to give a concrete background
to the public life, to prepare for it and to provide the
appropriate atmosphere. Essentially it will be an ex-
pansion of the brief description of the Gospels : " Thei
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 135
He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was
always obedient to them ; but His mother carefully
treasured up all these incidents in her memory. And as
Jesus grew older He gained in both wisdom and stature,
and in favour with God and man " (Luke ii. 51, 52).
MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE PUBLIC MINISTRY
2. Public Ministry. In the public ministry we come
for the first time to the personal history, and the task of
the teacher is to use the material of the Gospels to give
as vivid and as clear a picture as possible of Jesus strug-
gling and fighting for great spiritual ideals and values.
There ought not to be very much need for the teacher to
talk in any formal way of these spiritual values of which
Jesus was the bearer. The values are in the history
itself, and will make their own power felt. What the
teacher has to do is to find the most effective arrangement
and grouping of the facts in order to give an interesting
presentation of them to children of this age. Here
some preparatory scenes will come first : John the Baptist,
the Baptism of Jesus, the Temptation, the first public
appearance at Nazareth and the calling of the disciples.
The emphasis is mainly upon the relation of Jesus to God,
His consciousness of Sonship, His sense of a divine
mission.
Then will come most naturally the early ministry in
Galilee, wherein Jesus appears as the Helper and Healer
of men in body and soul. This part of the narrative will
consist of a selection of the stories of healing, some of the
parables and other incidents which can be brought into
appropriate relation with them.
It is the time when " the common people heard Him
gladly," and when the controversies with the Pharisees
had not yet arisen. The climax of the narrative of the
ministry is only reached by attempting to show Jesus
on one side fighting strenuously with the Pharisees for
His ideals, and on the other devoting Himself to explain-
ing them to His own disciples. He appears as the Prophet
and the Teacher, and it is here undoubtedly that the main
stress of the life of Jesus must always come. Education-
136 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
ally, as we shall see when we come to deal with adolescence,
the controversy with the Pharisees is the most valuable
element in the Gospels ; but at this age we cannot do very
much to make the difference between the ideals of Jesus
and those of the Pharisees clear, yet some attempt should
even here be made to narrate the main facts in such a way
as to reveal some of their significance in this respect.
THE PROPHET AND THE TEACHER
In this section, therefore, should be grouped well-chosen
examples of the controversial incidents and parables as
well as examples of the positive side of the same struggle
to maintain the higher ideals in the intimate talks of
Jesus with His disciples. These latter find their centre in
the conversation at Csesarea Philippi and the Transfigura-
tion. All this represents only one method of grouping
the incidents of the Gospels, and it attempts to combine
a topical and chronological arrangement. Several other
suggestions, equally justifiable, might be made, but in any
case only a few examples of each type of incident and
teaching can be given.
3. The Last Days, Death and Resurrection. In this
section of the narrative the main incidents will be the
journey to Jerusalem, the Entry, Cleansing the Temple,
the Passover and the Last Supper, the Betrayal by Judas,
the scene in Gethsemane, the Trial, the Crucifixion and the
Resurrection. It is easy to enumerate them, but not so
easy to deal in any satisfactory way with the many educa-
tional problems they present (e.g. the problems of pre-
senting the Messiahship of Jesus, the character of Judas,
how to give any intelligible account of the attitude of the
Jewish leaders and authorities, and how generally to
present to children the story of the Trial, Death and
Resurrection without doing more harm than good). One
can only make a few suggestions with regard to the treat-
ment of some of them.
FEATURES OF THE STORY IN THE GOSPELS
The story of the last days and death of Jesus is told in
the Gospels with extraordinary restraint, simplicity and
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 137
dignity. The narrative as a whole represents the highest and
noblest literary achievement of the Early Church. There
is nothing else in the New Testament to compare with its
power to move the heart and will, for it is the most effective
portrayal of the most effective fact in the history of the
world. It is so especially for those who can refrain from
mixing up their own rigid system of theology with the
story of the Gospels ; who have some power of reading
between the lines, and have some understanding of the
circumstances and of the thoughts and ideals of the actors
in the drama. These facts will not have much need of the
teacher. He will simply have to see that they approach
the narratives in the proper attitude and look at them
from the right point of view. It is true that here as
elsewhere there are many literary and historical problems,
and that it is a subordinate part of the teacher's work
to meet them sometime in some way. In the older classes,
occasion must be found to deal with them frankly, and to
interpret even the legendary elements in relation to the
meaning of the Cross for the Early Church . Dealing with
the literary or historical difficulties, however, is of little
importance compared with the main problem, which is a
purely educational one.
MAKES A DIFFICULT DEMAND UPON THE TEACHER
In one sense it may well be said that in teaching these
last lessons we are face to face with the fundamental
and final task of all religious instruction. When we have
thoroughly learnt and taught the meaning and power of
the Cross and the Risen Life, it might legitimately be
said that the Christian lesson has come to its natural
end. It is often the case, however, that we fail to teach
that final lesson thoroughly, either because we try to
teach it too early, or because we do not prepare the way
for it carefully enough. Both arise from the fact that in
our teaching w r e do not follow closely enough the matter
and method of the Gospels in dealing with these final
scenes in the story of Jesus. Their way is to bring before
us historical narratives of concrete incidents, leaving them
to make their own impressions on the mind. We are so
138 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
accustomed to our own dogmatic interpretations that
we do not in our teaching trust the method of the Gospels,
but are always tempted to read them in the light of the
Pauline Epistles. This does not mean that the method
of the Epistles has no place in religious instruction, but
only that it has no place when we are in the region of the
Gospels, which is the life of Jesus. It is true that there
is a dogmatic element in all the Gospels, but what is
truer still is that it is practically absent when the writers
are dealing with the trial and death of Jesus. That is a
true educational instinct, and if we are to follow it, our
lessons must consist of an attempt to bring our pupils
directly under the influence of the facts themselves, and
to let the facts speak for themselves to the human heart.
The Gospels themselves make it very plain what this
will mean, for they give the story of the Cross as the
climax of the life of Jesus and of the hard-fought struggle
between Him and His enemies. With every incident
as it comes, the convictions of Jesus with regard to God
and His Kingdom are more and more sharply contrasted
with those of the people around Him. The real character
of the opposing forces is more and more clearly revealed.
The time for compromise is past, and both sides pursue
their purpose to the bitter end. There is no evading
a final decision between them.
DRAMATIC ELEMENTS IN THE STORY
If Jesus in utter faithfulness to His faith goes forward
undismayed to take upon Himself the final consequences
of that faith, His enemies also become utterly reckless
in the pursuit of their purpose, and never falter in their
campaign of hate. Such is the dramatic impression which
these last scenes made upon the minds of the early dis-
ciples. To transmit that impression faithfully is the
central task of the teacher.
The Gospels, it is true, show us that the facts have
to some extent been edited, but the editing has always
taken what we may call a psychological direction. That
is to say, the Early Church so moulded the narrative as
to bring out more dramatically still the contest between
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 139
fundamentally different ideals ; and in their hands the
various actors have become almost universal types of
the different attitudes involved in such a contest. They
have thus made Jesus, the religious leaders, Judas, Pilate,
Peter and the others stand out before us as great typical
figures in the universal struggle for and against God and
His kingdom. They do not seem to have done any in-
justice to the facts in this way, for they have only brought
out more clearly the meaning which was inherent in them.
The redemptive power is in the history, if only the mind
and the heart can be brought directly and humbly face
to face with it.
EDUCATIONAL DANGERS
Narrating the life of Jesus for childhood, the first task
of the teacher is to consider how much of this historical
and psychological meaning can be effectively brought
home to the child. The concrete and dramatic story of
the Cross and its external incidents are such as will be
easily followed with interest and intelligence by them.
It is not so easy to give the right impression of the motives
and inner experiences involved. It is difficult, especially,
to do anything like justice to the enemies of Jesus. There
is nothing in the experience of the children which can
help them to understand why the Jews should put a man
like Jesus to death. Their actions will seem to be utterly
without sense or reason. That is one of the dangers of
telling the story of the Cross too early. Some attempt
must already have been made to explain in some simple
fashion the contrast between the popular, national and
military ideas of the Messiah with the peaceful and
spiritual conception of Jesus Himself with regard to the
Kingdom of God. This will help the children to under-
stand how Jesus came to be condemned for blasphemy ;
and though they will not be able to follow the deeper
motives of the leaders, the tragedy may become to some
extent intelligible to them.
METHOD AND AIMS OF THE TEACHER
The method to be adopted by the teacher also requires
a great deal of consideration. He must either tell the
140 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
story or read it from the Gospels, or a selection from them.
The difficulty about telling the story freely in this instance
is, that the composition of the story in such a way as to
reproduce the spirit, atmosphere and impression of the
Gospel narrative is a very difficult and dangerous task.
It is not only that its composition by the teacher means
a great deal of careful thinking, for that could be over-
come here as elsewhere. The great danger is that our
narrative should become sentimental instead of repre-
senting the strong, moving pathos of the scene. On the
other hand, the difficulty about reading the story in the
Gospels is that we need a picture which can only be
painted by fusing together elements from them all, and
there is a danger of destroying the best impression by
passing to and fro from one to another. But whether
he decides on telling the story of the Cross or reading it,
there are some points which the teacher must bear in
mind throughout.
(a) His great aim should be to bring the children
face to face with Jesus as He goes to His death, and to
let nothing stand between the story itself and the heart
of the child. Let him stand for once directly under the
influence of the human tragedy and triumph of the
scenes themselves as elements in human history, freed
from all theological dogma, and especially without the
intrusion of the dogmatic temper.
(b) In particular, we need to be warned against letting
the figure of ' the Lamb of God/ passively suffering His
doom, have too much control over the description. Let
the heroic, majestic side of the innocence of Jesus be
emphasized.
(c) So far as possible also, it should become clear how
the attitude and words of Jesus bring before us the whole
meaning of His life and Gospel. Even now it is the filial
trust towards God and the brotherly service of others
that mark Him and His words. ' Father ' is still His
name for God, and it is of others that He thinks and not
of Himself. This may, after all, be the best way of saving
the children from a mere ignorant and unreasoning hate
of the enemies of Jesus. " Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do.''
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 141
EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM OF THE RESURRECTION
The story of the Resurrection presents a very different
problem, which is dealt with elsewhere. So far as their
religious and educational value is concerned, these narra-
tives belong essentially to the life and experience not of
Jesus but of the disciples. Whatever view we take of
their historical character, they are a picture of the faith
of the disciples and a record of their religious experi-
ences. As the Birth-stories form the introduction,
so the Resurrection-stories form the conclusion of the
Life of Jesus both of them primarily pictures of the
tremendous significance of the Personality of Jesus for
His disciples. Their proper educational place is as an
instrument for impressing the supreme value of the per-
sonality and character of Jesus upon the mind, and the
impossibility of thinking that death could destroy Him.
The first and main task of the teacher is through them to
create and strengthen the convictions that Jesus cannot
fail to carry through His ideals and purposes, that God
rules even through death, that Jesus offers a permanent
spiritual communion with Himself to His disciples and
that eternal life is in that communion. Before and after
death He is the same in character, in purpose, in love and
in power. Whatever there is in these narratives which
can help the teacher to make these convictions real and
living, it is His business to use for that purpose. Some
of these narratives He will not be able to use at all ; some
He will use as Wonder-stories in early childhood ; and
some He will use here and elsewhere in trying to make the
moral and religious experience the inner history of the
disciples between Calvary and Pentecost real and clear
to His pupils.
5
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APPRECIATION
So far, we have been dealing mainly with the historical
elements of our presentation of Christ for childhood.
Naturally, we are not teaching the life of Jesus for the
142 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
sake of the merely external dead facts of history without
any appreciation of their moral, spiritual and intellectual
value. We must try to let the facts reveal the spiritual
values of which Jesus was historically the bearer, but we
need to be reminded that we cannot expect at this period
a full and adequate appreciation of these values. There
must, therefore, always be some subjective element in
every teacher's attempt to teach the life of Jesus. That
cannot be avoided and should be frankly recognized.
Any and every presentation of Christ implies to some
extent even the particular theological interpretation of
the teacher Himself. We should, however, honestly try
to let the facts speak for themselves ; we should try to
distinguish between the moral and religious appreciation
which is essential and the theological construction that
may follow for us ; and we should in any case try to make
clear to ourselves the main spiritual values which we wish
deliberately to associate with Jesus in the minds of the
children.
LOVE FOR JESUS AND ITS QUALITIES
All will agree that the first aim of the Christian teacher
must be to awaken love for Jesus and trust in Him and
what He represents in so far as a child of nine or ten is
capable of such an attitude. When, however, we speak
of love for Jesus, we must remember that if it is to be
a moral factor strong and healthy and not merely a
cheap and enervating sentiment, it must be an intelligent
love. That means to say, it must be generated by and it
must grow with an increasing knowledge of Jesus. To
love Jesus means to know Him. It is a moral apprecia-
tion of Him, of what He is and what He represents to
some degree or other.
It must also be a reverent love. That means to say,
to love Jesus is to love One who stands far above us in
word and deed, in character and spirit. To love Him
means to feel His power, to bow to His authority, to obey
the call of His love. Underneath and behind our love for
Jesus there must therefore be a realization of His love
for men to make it intelligent ; and to make it reverent
THE LIFE OF JESUS FOR CHILDHOOD 143
there must be some realization of the authority and power
of His love to the uttermost in the Cross.
BASED ON THE LOVE OF JESUS
Naturally, it is only a small part of this end that we
can hope to achieve through our first presentation of
Christ to childhood. On the other hand, we must re-
member that we are now laying down the main conditions
upon which our ultimate success will largely depend.
That reveals at once the kind of picture we must try to
give. It must be one which will discover, though only in
an elementary way, the main spiritual values which
became focused in the life and death of Jesus and
especially the reality and utter generosity of His love.
It is necessary and inevitable that many different pictures
of Jesus should be drawn by different hands. One may
seek chiefly to reveal His beauty, while another enshrines
His truth and another still His righteousness ; but they
must all, to be true at all, reveal the sovereignty of His
redeeming love the sovereignty and the reality of it
in His spirit, character, deeds and words. His beauty,
truth and righteousness are closely woven into the pattern
of His love.
This, then, is the supreme and first condition of any
and every effective presentation of the Christ. This also,
combined with the moral needs, capacities and interests
of childhood, will suggest the other characteristics of the
child's life of Christ that we need.
MORAL FEATURES OF THE BOY'S LIFE OF JESUS
There can, indeed, be little hesitation as to the
dominant notes that should ring through the story of
Jesus in the ear and soul of boyhood. They are heroism
and courage, the spirit of adventure and the spirit of
joy. When the highest love takes up the harp of life,
these are the chords it strikes. It is true that it is in
adolescence that this love will come to its own com-
pletely and decisively, but the heroic, adventurous and
joyful elements that wait upon it to do its bidding must
144 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
be there to welcome it when it comes in its glory. It is
the moral heroism of the faith of Jesus that needs most
emphasis and illustration now, and there is a wealth of
material in the Gospels for the purpose.
It ought also to be clear that our picture of Jesus for
this period should be frankly and thoroughly human-
full of genuine human experiences, of struggle, tempta-
tion and growth, of doubt and perplexity as well as exulta-
tion and triumph, representing the ebb and flow of the
spirit within the steadfast unity of gracious and holy
purpose.
This, of course, by no means excludes the growth of a
wider and deeper appreciation of Jesus later on as the
bearer of divine values, nor of a fuller theological inter-
pretation of His person and work. It is the necessary
foundation and preparation for them, but we must now
be satisfied with fostering in an elementary form some
moral and religious interpretation corresponding to the
needs, capacities and interests of childhood.
BOOKS
BLAKE (NORA). Stones of Jesus. (London, " Teachers and Taught.")
FORBUSH (W. B.). The Boy's Life of Christ. (London : Hodder &
Stoughton.)
GILLIE (R. C.).The Story of Stories. (London : A. & C. Black.)
LEE (HETTY). Lessons on the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. (London :
National Society.)
NIEBERGALL (F.). Jesus im Unterricht. (Gottingen, 1910.)
REYNOLDS (F. B.) and WALLER (H. I.). Jesus the Hero. (London,
"Teachers and Taught.")
CHAPTER VIII
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST FOR
ADOLESCENCE
Adolescent Life and its Features. The Decisive Stage in Education
Adolescence and the New Testament.
The Literary Study of the New Testament. The Books of the New
Testament The Need for Educational Editions Three Aspects
of the Gospels.
The Character and Teaching of Jesus. Study of Jesus for Adolescence
Jesus as a Teacher Jesus in Controversy The Jewish Leaders
Contrasted with Jesus The Moral and Religious Experience
of Jesus and its Fundamental Features Social Spirit and
Activity of Jesus.
Life and Thought of the Primitive Church. The Synoptic Presenta-
tion as a Whole Relation to the Life of the Primitive Church
The Origin of the Church and Christian Theology.
The Synoptic Gospels and Modern Problems. Modern Valuation of
the Synoptic Presentation Its Relation to Living Issues.
ADOLESCENT LIFE AND ITS FEATURES
ADOLESCENCE THE DECISIVE STAGE IN EDUCATION
IT has already been said in many forms that the cul-
minating point in our moral and religious instruction
and education is to be found in adolescence. Then comes
normally the decisive experience, when the vision and
the meaning of the spiritual world of which Jesus is the
supreme revealer flash upon the soul of youth and may
make or mar his destiny. This may come suddenly or
gradually. We may call it ' conversion ' or describe it
by any other name equally unfitting and inadequate.
In any case, its reality and gravity in some form, as a
10
146 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
natural and inevitable feature of healthy adolescence, is
undoubted. It is a well-known point in any effective
and successful educational process, and on a small scale
is an essential factor in every process of learning. In
Herbartian language, it is the culmination of the process
of apperception. It is the point at which all the varied
elements which have somehow found a place in the mind
become fused into an illuminating unity, acquire living,
transforming power and enter into control for the time
being in fact, become educationally effective.
1 Conversion ' is thus a critical stage a crisis in
education. Adolescence is its natural home among the
periods of human growth, though it may sometimes be
paralleled also in that transition-time between infancy
and childhood which often anticipates on a smaller scale
many of the features of adolescence. In many cases
this experience might rightly be called religious conversion,
even when the specific religious element is not central.
It combines in itself three elements, namely, a sense of
the inadequacy of past experience, an effort to look at
all things from the new and more unified point of view
and an element of reverence of all which the religious
sense of sin, the exercise of prayer and the act of worship
are the crowning expression.
Adolescence, then, is the most critical period of human
growth. It is the time of decision, the age of ideals and
of the conflict of ideals, the stage of strenuous struggle
for a higher unity and at the same time it is the age
of self-assertion and of a keen desire for wider communion
in larger social groups and communities. It is the flower-
ing time of love and the period when the sense of personal
responsibility awakes.
ADOLESCENCE AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
Because it is all this, it is also the one great oppor-
tunity of the New Testament with its Gospel of love
and ideals, of the value of the individual and of personal
loyalty to Christ, of social service to men and loving trust
in God the Father.
So far, we have only been able to prepare the way,
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST 147
in infancy and in childhood, for the understanding of this
Gospel in its full sense. Now comes the time for the
presentation of its essential qualities and power, the time
to make its urgent call ring clear in such a way as to demand
a decision for or against it.
The whole material of the New Testament is, therefore,
here in place its living history and its classic literature,
its supreme ideals and its highest motives, its ethics, its
religion and its theology, its epoch-making personalities
and the community of its saints, its Kingdom of God
and its crucified, triumphant Saviour. More than all,
here is the time when all these should be brought to bear
decisively upon the living issues of the life of modern
youth.
THE LITERARY STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
It is clear, therefore, that a mere literary and historical
study of the New Testament will not suffice here. It is,
however, a very necessary preparation for the deeper call
of the New Testament. Youth is in search of reality,
and of reliable knowledge too, and as critical of theories
as he is of conventions. His study of the New Testament
cannot be too critical in preparation for a keener, fuller
and more positive appreciation of its personalities, move-
ments, ideals and forces.
He will, first of all, study its books the Gospels of
Mark, Matthew and Luke, the Book of Acts ; and then
the Letters of Paul ; then Hebrews and the Johannine
Literature ; and the rest when he finds the time.
THE LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
It is to be hoped, however, that he will be able to read
them all sooner or later in some better and more attrac-
tive form than our ordinary editions of the Bible, and
also with some more effective help than the conventional
commentary. Most modern commentaries seern to have
been expressly written for the age of senile decay and
148 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
not for living and growing youth. They plod on doggedly
from dead phrase to dead idea, evading dexterously most
of the difficulties of youth and explaining cumbrously
all that is self-evident or obvious. For purposes of
educative instruction they are mostly barren and useless,
and they only interfere with the light that breaks from
the soul behind the written page.
We are in urgent need of a series of educational editions
of the books of the New Testament, with new and intelligible
translations, which ought to make most of the conven-
tional commentary needless. We need these as a sub-
stitute for the usual popular and Sunday-school editions
which are only the bulkier commentaries in miniature.
In the religious instruction of youth far too much time
and energy are spent on details that do not matter, with
the result that the weightier matters of the Gospel do
not get the attention which is their due.
In this chapter we are only concerned with the study
of the Synoptic Gospels, which must naturally accompany
the Synoptic presentation of Christ for adolescence. The
study of the Letters of Paul, his personality, his work
and his presentation of Christ, and also that of the
Johannine Literature and type of thought and life, will
be discussed in later chapters.
There are three aspects of the study of the Synoptic
Gospels which ought to form part of the Biblical instruc-
tion during the periods of early and middle adolescence :
THREE ASPECTS OF THE GOSPELS
1 . Each of the Gospels ought to be studied separately,
but more especially Matthew and Luke, keeping in mind
particularly their different aims and methods and the
peculiarities of their several presentations of Christ.
This should be rather a rapid reading and survey than
a detailed exegesis. Several readings of the text from
different points of view are better than a wearisome
plodding through verse after verse.
2. There should be a Synoptic study of the three
Gospels in order to examine the literary and historical
relation between them, their common basis in Mark, the
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST 149
use by Matthew and Luke of an early collection of the
Sayings of Jesus, their different methods of selecting,
arranging and dealing with their material as well as the
different forms they give to the words of Jesus, all of which
reveals the peculiar tendencies and interests of each. A
course of lessons arranged definitely with these ends in
view would prove an interesting variant of the ordinary
Biblical instruction, and would provide at the same time
a good introduction to the third study.
3. Finally, there should be a critical study of the
character and history of the Synoptic Gospels literary
and historical intended to describe more particularly the
history of the material, from its source in oral tradition
through early written collections to the present form of
the Gospels ; also their general literary form and language
in relation to the language and types of literature extant
in their time, including the origin, history and purpose of
such characteristic literary forms as parables, for instance.
3
THE CHARACTER AND TEACHING OF JESUS
This study of books should lead to a more intimate
and appreciative knowledge of the thought, life and per-
sonalities of the New Testament ; and the study of the
Synoptic Gospels should be accompanied or followed by
1 . An elementary but systematic study of the character
and teaching of Jesus on the one hand, and on the other
hand by
2. A fairly complete consideration of the Synoptic
presentation of Christ as a whole.
STUDY OF JESUS FOR ADOLESCENCE
Provision has already been made during childhood
for dealing with the more or less external record of the
Life of Jesus with some necessary indication of the growth
of His experience and some examples of the characteristic
content and methods of His teaching. Now towards the
150 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
end of early adolescence (13-16) come the need and
opportunity for a fuller description and a deeper apprecia-
tion of the moral and religious meaning of the life, work
and character of the Master. This comprises the urgent
material of the New Testament the material most likely,
so far as both its content and form are concerned, to
prepare the will for the great choice that is usually made
during these years, and also to impel the will to make that
choice.
Such a study ought to try to do three things :
(a) It ought to give some clear description of the main
elements in the inner life and experience of Jesus His
sense of the near presence of the Father, His free obedience
as Son, His intimate personal knowledge of God.
(b) It ought to describe and illustrate these as revealing
and expressing themselves in His ' Messianic ' mission and
His persistent and generous service of men to the utter-
most sacrifice of the Cross.
(c) It ought to give a fairly full description of Jesus
in His threefold teaching capacity in His relation to His
people in general, to the Pharisees and to His disciples.
JESUS AS A TEACHER
For the purposes of this instruction, the dominant
element in such a course of study should be the religious
and ethical teaching of Jesus but the teaching in close
relation to the character and personality on the one hand
and to the deeds and work of Jesus on the other. It is
not an abstract discussion that is meant, but an attempt to
give a living presentation of the historical Jesus, discover-
ing and revealing the supreme values of the spiritual
world in spirit, word and deed the word being the clearest
and most intelligible expression, interpreting both the
deed and the spirit. We may, therefore, take the section
on the teaching of Jesus as representative of the whole
course.
No study of the Gospels in adolescence could be
complete without an adequate study of Jesus as a Teacher
in His methods and principles, including both the form
and content of His teaching. The form of His teaching is
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST 151
as significant as its content. His parables are so char-
acteristic that we shall have to give them a separate
discussion. But His teaching life in the open air, His free
and genial intercourse with men of all kinds, His intimate
communion with Nature and the use He made of it, His
keen observation of men and things, His deep insight
into ordinary human nature and His sympathy with the
ordinary work and experiences of men, His respect for
women and children, His intimate touch and preoccupation
with individual men, His use of the Synagogue and His
deep and intimate knowledge of the Old Testament all
these things are essential to the genius of Jesus, significant
features of His teaching and its methods and a revelation
of His whole spirit. They also form the best introduction
to the content of His teaching for the people in general in
His parables.
JESUS IN CONTROVERSY
For educational purposes at this time, however, the
most important element in the teaching of Jesus and the
most valuable feature in the Gospels is represented by
the controversy with the Pharisees and the other parties
of the time, for in this conflict of ideals we have the old
and the new side by side in concrete forms. They are
presented in dramatic contrast again and again until the
conflict finds its consummation in the Cross. For the
effective presentation of an ideal, as for its history and
preservation, the point at which it enters for the first time
into a life-and-death struggle with its predecessor in control
is the most dynamic and the most decisive. It is then
that its moral value is most clearly revealed and is also
considerably increased by becoming identified with the
personality who is its bearer in the conflict. That is why
the controversy with the Pharisees must be a central
element in the moral instruction of the adolescent. It is,
in effect, the most dramatic representation in all history
of the central struggle of adolescence itself, namely, the
struggle to grow out of the bondage of the law into the
freedom of the spirit. It is the destined struggle of youth
in every generation to burst the bonds of tradition and
march into a fuller and more independent life.
152 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
It becomes one of the main tasks of the teacher, there-
fore, to attempt once more to use the material of the
Gospels in order to make this struggle real, intelligible and
urgent to the heart and mind and will of youth. Now it
is not so much the external course of the controversy
that he must bend all his intellectual and spiritual energies
to depict, but its inner meaning, its moral significance, its
strong contrast of two spiritual worlds, one lower and one
higher, one a creed outworn, the other a newly born spirit
of life. The condemnation and death of Jesus at the
hands of the Jewish authorities do not represent the defeat
of the new life but its conquest, which is marked by the
' power of His Resurrection/
THE JEWISH LEADERS
In order to bring out this meaning, the teacher will
more than ever be called upon to make some effort to
describe fairly and adequately the main features of the
Pharisaic Ethic, Religion and Theology on the one hand,
and on the other hand to make some analysis of the
consciousness of Jesus.
He will now find plenty of guidance for both purposes in
recent literature on the subject. He must, however, try
to get rid of many of the traditional prejudices against
the Pharisees, and do justice both to their defects and to
their merits. There is no need to underestimate the value
of their contribution to the life and thought of their
people and the world in order to guard the superiority
and infinite value of the spirit, attitude, life and
principles of Jesus. After all, the Pharisees represented
the cleanest, the most honest, the most earnest and
conscientious element in the life of their time. Their
spiritual pride, their narrow nationalism, their rigid
orthodoxy, their casuistical calculations and their legal-
istic doctrines were the dark shadows cast by their real
and deep sense of the absolute validity of the Law as
God's will, by their consciousness that their people had
an urgent message from God for the world at large, and
by their intense desire to protect that message from the
unholy touch of profane hands. Far better all their
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST 153
earnest narrowness than the merely opportunist, worldly
and indifferent breadth and shallow culture of the
Sadducees. Far better their misguided retreat from the
touch of the world which was the dark shadow cast by
their dependence upon God alone than the mad, military
and political ambitions of the Zealots with their faith in
brute force.
CONTRASTED WITH JESUS
Over against all these stands Jesus in direct opposition
to the Sadducaic opportunist, to the Zealot nationalist,
to the ascetic Essene, as well as to the exclusive Pharisee
refusing to become either a mere politician, a reckless
revolutionary, a useless hermit or a plaster saint. The
faith and hope and love which kept Him from depen-
dence on the arm of flesh, delivered Him from the snares
of political intrigue, gave Him courage also not to flee
from the world's responsibility and work and saved Him
from spiritual pride and self-righteous exclusiveness.
There was really no choice for Jesus between the monastic
Essene, with more ' holiness ' than usefulness ; the
Zealot nationalist, with more zeal than sense ; the aristo-
cratic Sadducee, prouder of his lineage than of his loyalty
either to his people or to his religion ; and the legal-
minded Pharisee, fuller of theological lore than of practical
love. Jesus was great enough to see the good in them all
and perhaps to learn of them all but also to repudiate
them all. He had the courage to strike a way of His own.
He was as wide in His outlook as the Sadducee, but with
an infinitely greater love for His country and people. He
was as uncompromising in His conviction and devotion
to God's will as the Pharisee, but with an infinitely greater
comprehension and wider tolerance. He was as much a
man of the people as any Zealot, but with much more
sanity and balance of mind and with an infinitely longer
patience. He had as much faith in perfect purity as the
Essene, but with an infinitely deeper insight into its moral
quality and spiritual inwardness.
To explain and enforce these contrasts, the teacher
for this age must do his utmost to penetrate into the
innermost secrets of the soul and experience of Jesus.
154 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
He will, of course, never fully succeed, but he must not
give up the attempt. He must resist the temptation
to rest content with superficial phrases and with formal
descriptions and titles. The freer, the less tied to tradi-
tional formulae and methods he can be the better will
he succeed in his purpose. Youth must feel that he is
groping for realities even if it does not know whether he
succeeds or fails. His constant failure indeed will be
educationally more effective than a cheap success.
THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL SECRET OF JESUS
One of his main difficulties will be to interpret the
Messiahship of Jesus in relation to the national and personal
ideals of his age. He must try to show that Messiah-
ship as a burden upon the soul of Jesus rather than an
external dignity at which He snatched. He must show it,
too, as the only contemporary form and category which
His deeper moral and religious experience of Sonship could
take that and no more.
It is somewhere in that experience of Sonship that
the last secret of Jesus lies. The other side of it is the
Fatherhood of God. Its complement for Him was the
Brotherhood of man. Love to God and man was therefore
essential to its nature. Freedom and obedience were at
one in it. All His virtues were the virtues of this filial
and brotherly love. They are the truthfulness, the
gentleness, the courage, the loyalty, the patience, the
self-control, the wisdom, the justice, the sympathy of
love. They really do not exist as virtues apart from the
supremacy of love. The Kingship of God the Father is
in this love, and it is to be finally incorporated in His
Kingdom.
Out of all this also comes His imperative sense of
vocation and of a divine mission of Saviourhood which
finds only partial, temporary and inadequate expression
in the title and office of the Messiah.
In all this experience are involved the great principles
of the Gospel and teaching of Jesus the doctrine of the
Fatherhood, the Brotherhood of man, the value of the
individual, the supremacy and universality of Love, the
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST 155
moral and religious significance of the Kingdom in the
universe, as well as the other convictions which make
Jesus into the unique bearer of a whole new world of
spiritual values.
It is along lines such as these that the teacher must
search for the background, the meaning and the power
of the contrast with the Pharisees which led through
conflict to the consummation of the Cross.
SOCIAL SPIRIT AND ACTIVITY OF JESUS
The other element in the teaching of Jesus which was
mentioned, namely, His intimate teaching of the disciples,
answers to that other prominent feature of adolescence
which is represented by the group or social interest.
With childhood the historical has ceased to be narrowly
individual and biographical and becomes more and more
social. The great men of adolescence are creators of
communities, leaders and representatives of groups.
Jesus must, therefore, be presented in that social
atmosphere which belongs naturally to Him. Every
aspect of the life and teaching of Jesus is full of it. His
fundamental religious experience was that of being one
of a spiritual family of God the Father with many brothers
and sisters. The primary ethical expression of that
experience was Love the essentially social principle-
finding wider and wider application every day in service
and self-sacrifice for men. His teaching in the aspects
already mentioned mirrors all this in its love for the
open-air life of nature and humanity, in His habitual use
of the synagogue, in His fight with the Pharisees.
The one outstanding social activity of Jesus using
that word strictly in the sense of His activity in creating
a new community must be associated with His teaching
of His group of disciples.
It is true that after His death the definitely social
inspiration and impetus derived from Him led to the
formation of the Christian Church. This represents the
most significant social institution in the history of the
world ; and it must always form an important element
in a full presentation of Christ.
156 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Historically, however, during His lifetime, the com-
munity actually established by Jesus was not a Church
but a School. His followers were not Churchmen but
disciples, and it is that group-movement and the teaching
associated with it which claims attention and needs
emphasis in this study of Jesus for adolescence.
4
LIFE AND THOUGHT OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH
Such a study as we have now suggested of the character
and teaching of Jesus seems to represent the kind of moral
and religious appreciation of His personality which is
needed some time before adolescence is far advanced.
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION AS A WHOLE
To do full justice, however, to the Synoptic Gospels
and their presentation of Christ, something more is needed
than an exegetical, literary and historical study of the
Gospels themselves, more even than a description of the
historical person, work and teaching of Jesus. So far,
what we have been doing is to make use of the material
of the Gospels in order to describe the facts about Jesus
and to express that moral and religious appreciation of
Him which those facts themselves seem to us to imply
and demand not what they actually meant to the
writers of the Gospels.
We saw that all the presentations of Christ in the
New Testament include in varying proportions not only
an historical element and a moral and religious apprecia-
tion, but also a theological construction. So far, this
third element has found no definite place in our instruc-
tion. It is, nevertheless, essential to the Synoptic Gospels,
though it may not take a very prominent place in their
external structure. It is, after all, their theology that
provides the categories into which both the historical
acts and the religious appreciation are put. The theology
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST 157
has also influenced the presentation at least both of facts
and of their religious interpretation.
We must, therefore, find room for some account which
will include the theology in and behind the Gospels in
our instruction especially since it represents one of the
three main types of life and thought in the New Testament.
ITS RELATION TO THE LIFE AND EXPERIENCE OF
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH
We have, then, to seek the most effective method of
describing the Synoptic presentation of Christ as a whole
in its meaning, relations and value, in its origin, history
and influence.
This is not well done by abstracting anything like a
theology of the Gospels from a concrete description of
the life and experience of the early disciples. The
Synoptic presentation of Christ was a living growth out
of the experience of the Early Church, and was intimately
connected with all the rest of its life. Undoubtedly,
therefore, the proper method of approaching the task
before us is to describe the life and experience of the
Early Church as a living social movement with the Synoptic
presentation as an essential element in it, and indeed as
its greatest contribution to the history of Christianity.
The Synoptic Gospels, like the Johannine Literature, are
not merely the work of individual writers expressing
individual points of view. They are the expression of a
typical faith and Matthew, Mark and Luke even in their
peculiar characteristics represent wide circles in the
Primitive Church and significant developments of its
life.
Our Synoptic studies, therefore, while beginning in
childhood with a description of the facts of the personal
life of Jesus and continuing in early adolescence with
the study of His moral and religious significance, must
culminate in a religio-social study of the life, faith and
theology of the early Christian community before adol-
escence has run its course. For this purpose the early
chapters of Acts, as well as some elements in Paul's letters,
158 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
must be employed in addition to the material of the
Synoptic Gospels.
THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
This is not an easy study, for it implies an attempt to
distinguish between the contribution of Jesus Himself
in the Gospels and the influence of the Primitive Church
upon the original facts and teaching. It would start
with the relation of the disciples to Jesus during His
lifetime and after His death. It would attempt to inter-
pret the meaning and influence of the Resurrection, follow-
ing upon the despair of the Crucifixion and leading up to
the descent of the Holy Spirit. It would try to account
for the origin of the Christian Church and describe its
relation to Judaism and to the Law. It would try to
show how the disciples were led to begin to theologize
about Jesus, and to describe the main factors which
decided the character, content and form of that theology
the influence of the personal life of Jesus, the problem of
His death, the controversy with the Jews, the influence
of the Old Testament and of Jewish conceptions. The
Eschatology with its problems of the Messiah, Son of
Man, Son of God, and of the Kingdom of God with the
Parousia, would be an important chapter. Such special
problems also as the rise of belief in the Virgin Birth
and the identification of Jesus with the Suffering Servant
would have to find a place as well as the causes which
led to the origin of the first Christian literature.
More than all the personal religious faith and ethics
of the early disciples and the Church, their practical,
moral and religious motives would require attention.
The teacher would have to try to show the presenta-
tion of Christ which lies behind the Synoptic Gospels
arising under and out of all these conditions and influences,
and also show the different specific forms it takes in the
separate Gospels the historical emphasis of Mark, the
anti-Pharisaism of Matthew, and the social and almost
communistic tendencies of Luke.
THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION OF CHRIST 159
5
THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND MODERN
PROBLEMS
Finally, while all this literary and historical teaching
may be satisfactory so far as the New Testament itself
is concerned, it certainly can never by itself do full justice
to the moral and religious needs of youth. It has only
revealed to him what once has been. History, however
significant, is after all not religion, which belongs essentially
to the living present. Youth needs, and must have, a
faith capable of meeting the needs and problems of to-day
and to-morrow. It is not enough to show him how the
Christian faith met the needs of yesterday.
MODERN VALUATION OF THE SYNOPTIC PRESENTATION
Our literary and historical study must, therefore, be
accompanied at every step by a practical interpretation,
a modern ' translation ' and valuation of every item of
our instruction. It is well to know the Gospels and the
Synoptic presentation as one definite interpretation
or valuation of Christ and the Gospel, expressed in
terms of the first century ; but it does not really amount
to moral and religious instruction. It cannot become a
religious education without some attempt to show its
permanent value for the task of constructing a modern
presentation of Christ and the Gospel.
Such categories as Messiah, the Son of God, the Son
of Man, the Kingdom of God, the Suffering Servant and
others are, after all, Jewish terms. It is well to know their
meaning for their time. This ( language of Canaan ' must,
however, be translated into modern English, and the
permanent value of such terms must be made clear before
they can become effective instruments of modern religious
instruction and education.
RELATION OF GOSPELS TO LIVING ISSUES
The emphasis upon the historical Jesus, the use of
Old Testament prophecy, the stress upon signs and
160 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
wonders, the place of the Virgin Birth and the central
significance of the Death and Resurrection in the Synoptic
presentation, suggest and may give us some help to solve
such modern problems as the relation between Christianity
and History, the use and value of the Old Testament
in religion, the relation between Science and Christianity,
the meaning and value of life after death and immortality
all of them urgent and significant questions of religion
in modern days.
Such problems as these must have a definite place in
any complete modern religious instruction, and no teach-
ing of the New Testament which does not continually
keep them in mind, and which does not use the material
of the New Testament as a help in their solution, can be
satisfactory. Thus only can the New Testament fully
justify its central place in modern Christian education.
BOOKS
BOUSSET (W.). Jesus. (Halle, 1904 ; trans. London, 1908.)
COAXES (J. R.). The Christ of Revolution. (London, 1920.)
GLOVER (T. R.). The Jesus of History. (S.C.M., 1917.) Vocation.
(S.C.M., 1913.)
GRUBB (E.). Notes on the Life and Teaching of Jesus. (London, 1910.)
KING (H. C.).The Ethics of Jesus. (New York, 1912.)
LATHAM (H.). Pastor Pastorum. (Cambridge, 1904.)
M'FADYEN (J. F.). Jesus and Life. (London, 1917.)
MICKLEM (N.). The Galilean. (London, 1920.)
NEUMANN (A.). Jesus. (London, 1920.)
RASHDALL (H.). Conscience and Christ. (London, 1916.)
ROBERTSON (J. A.). The Spiritual Pilgrimage of Jesus. (London,
1917.)
By an Unknown Disciple. (London, 1919.) The Creed of Christ.
(London, 1906.)
SCHRENCK (E. VON). Jesus and His Teaching. (London, 1907.)
The various handbooks qf the S.C.M. for Study Circles on the
Teaching of Jesus will be found of great value for all teachers.
For a systematic arrangement of the text of the Gospels to
illustrate the teaching of Jesus, see especially :
HALL (T. C.). The Messages of Jesus. (London, 1901.)
KENT (F.). The Shorter Bible. (New York, 1918.)
WEINEL (H.). Jesus. (Berlin, 1912.)
CHAPTER IX
TEACHING THE PARABLES
1. The Nature of the Parables. The New Valuation of the Parables
The Parables in the Gospels Their Authenticity Their Charac-
teristics Parable and Allegory.
2. The Purpose of the Parables. Mistaken Theory of the Evangelists
The Influence of the Theory Summary.
3. The Educational Value and Use of the Parables. Their Educative
Value Progressive Use of the Parables For Small Children
In the Life of Jesus In Early Adolescence.
4. Teaching the Parables in Practice. How to Teach the Parables
The Art of Telling the Stories The Practical Application of the
Parables
THE NATURE OF THE PARABLES
THE NEW VALUATION OF THE PARABLES
No one will deny that modern Biblical Criticism has
rendered a very signal service to religion by rescuing the
Prophets of the Old Testament from the obscurity into
which they had been cast and showing their fundamental
importance in the history of Israel and of Christianity.
It is no less certain that Christian life and thought must
also acknowledge a somewhat similar debt to recent
New Testament scholars for delivering the parables of
Jesus out of the hands of arbitrary methods of interpreta-
tion and making them available for the purposes of
Biblical and religious education. So arbitrary were those
methods that it had become an axiom that the parables
were not to be used as a primary source of Christian
teaching, but only as very subordinate helps for the
purpose of illustration.
u
162 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Even Trench takes it for granted that they form only
" the outer ornamental fringe, but not the main texture " l
where the teaching of Jesus is concerned. By this time,
however, we have reached a stage when it is felt that
not only are the parables the most characteristic part of
the teaching of Jesus, but the most reliable evidence for
the main features of that teaching as soon as a scientific
method of interpreting them is adopted. The recent
studies of Jiilicher, Bugge, Weinel and Fiebig combined
have now placed the parables in their own proper position,
and for the first time have made it possible to use them
effectively in the work of religious instruction. Instead
of being looked upon as riddles and elaborate allegories
meant to ' half-conceal ' the truth, most of them at least
are seen to be transparent explanations of some of the
most important truths of the Gospel, mirrors in which
some of the most fundamental features of the inner
personal life of Jesus can most plainly be seen. Their
general meaning and purpose have now been made plainer
than ever before in the history of the Christian Church ;
and it has become one of the urgent tasks of the Christian
teacher to make more systematic use of the parables for
Christian instruction in the light of this modern study.
To do that he must first of all get a fairly clear idea of the
results of this recent study with regard to the purpose
and place of the parabolic element in the teaching of Jesus ;
and also of the methods by which the parables can be
taught.
It is evident that one of the deepest impressions made
upon the minds of His hearers by the teaching of Jesus
was that it was very different from that of the Scribes,
and that this impression was connected with His use
of parables. The first meaning of this difference, of
course, is to be found not in the mere form or method
of the teaching, but in the freshness and independence
of its content. His was not an elaborate exegesis of
texts, nor was it an array of traditional authorities, but
an outpouring of the contents of His own soul in a limpid
stream. The Hebrew Maschal in all its variety of proverb,
paradox, metaphor, simile, fable, riddle and allegory was
1 Notes on the Parables, p. 39 (1858).
TEACHING THE PARABLES 163
probably more or less familiar to the people as part of
both the Old Testament and the Rabbinic teaching of
school and synagogue. What Jesus did was not to invent
unheard-of methods of teaching, but to choose the most
popular and effective of the old. These, however, he
made new by filling them with the freshness of His own
personality. It is quite possible that He may even have
borrowed now and then something more than the general
forms of His teaching from the Rabbis ; but if so, what
He borrowed certainly became a new thing in His hands.
There are some Rabbinic sayings and parables that bear
a very close resemblance to some sections of the Gospels.
In real meaning and spirit, however, they are as different
as the moral message of Jesus is from the legalism of
Judaism.
THE PARABLES IN THE GOSPELS
What we have now to do, however, is not to trace the
origin and history of the parabolic method, but to study
the parables of Jesus as subject-matter for Christian
instruction.
According to the Synoptic Gospels the teaching of
Jesus was not only exclusively moral instruction, but it
was also almost entirely occasional, popular and pictorial
in form. He spoke always not in abstract but in concrete
terms in vivid imagery of all kinds. Many times we are
told generally that Jesus spoke in parables, and most of
the examples given of His teaching are in parabolic form.
Three passages are called ' parables ' in all three Gospels
Matthew, Mark and Luke. Two more are so called in
Matthew and Mark ; one more in Mark alone ; three in
Matthew alone ; and eleven in Luke alone. There are
therefore twenty sections in the Synoptic Gospels which
are definitely referred to as parables. There are also six
other passages more or less directly referred to under the
same name. But it is quite evident that no importance
is to be attached to the occurrence of the name itself, for
there are many other passages in the Gospels so similar
in form and character to the above-mentioned that it is
impossible to separate them. One writer on the parables
164 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
includes as many as seventy-nine sections of the Gospels
under that name, and the number varies in different
writers from that figure down to thirty.
AUTHENTICITY OF THE PARABLES
It is now generally agreed that this parabolic material
as a whole is the most authentic element in the Gospels.
The parables generally, that is to say, come in substance
from Jesus Himself, and they represent the most character-
istic side both of the form and method of His teaching.
The only important qualifications made by modern
scholars to that statement are the two following :
(a) It must be granted that the Evangelists in record-
ing many of the parables do not give them in exactly
their original form the form which Jesus gave to them.
Generally the changes made are not of any importance.
In some cases, however, it is held that the meaning has
become obscure just because the Evangelists have not
been faithful enough in their record of the words of Jesus.
Some, indeed, insist that in two or three cases the whole
meaning of the parable has been changed.
(b) This last opinion, that two or three of the parables
have been more or less mutilated by the Evangelists, is
connected with the fact that many modern critics believe
that the interpretation given to some of the parables in
the Gospels is not authentic. It does not represent the
thought of Jesus. This is the case, it is said, especially
with regard to the Parables of the Sower and of the Tares.
The Evangelists have a mistaken idea that the parables
are allegories in which every detail has a spiritual mean-
ing. Jesus, on the other hand, it is held, only intended to
teach one supreme truth through each parable as a whole.
Other modern critics, while granting that the writers of
the Gospels may have exaggerated the allegorical element
in the parables, yet believe that Jesus Himself did now and
then use the form of Allegory. They therefore say that
the allegorical character of such parables as those of the
Sower, the Tares and the Wicked Husbandmen is not
due to the Evangelists, but to Jesus Himself. This point
is of importance, as we shall see later on, in so far as it
TEACHING THE PARABLES 165
affects the general purpose of the parables. Omitting,
however, for the moment all consideration of the three
parables just mentioned, let us see what is the particular
nature of the others that we find in the Gospels.
It would seem that the only elements essential to a
parable in the sense of the Gospels are, in the first place,
a thought or truth that needs expression or explanation,
and then the illustration or expression of that truth by
means of a comparison. The comparison, however, may
and does take several forms, and we find the word used
by the Evangelists to cover a variety of comparisons,
extending from a proverb like " Physician, heal thyself,"
to an allegory like that of the Wicked Husbandmen in
Mark xii.
NATURE OF THE PARABLES
(a) The simplest form is that which may be called the
Similitude, in which a resemblance is pointed out between
some general fact in nature or in ordinary life and a
moral or religious truth. A good example of this kind of
parable is the saying about God and Mammon. " No
man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the
one, and love the other ; or he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
There are at least twenty-eight parables in this form of
similitudes in the Gospels.
(b) The comparison may, in the second place, take
the form of a complete incident, real or imaginary, taken
from ordinary life. Here something that is done by a
certain person in definite circumstances is used to illus-
trate or enforce a moral truth. The best known example
of this kind of parable is the narrative of the Prodigal
Son, in which the attitude of God to man is illustrated and
enforced by a comparison with the attitude of a loving
father to his son under certain definite circumstances.
In form and character these narratives are of exactly the
same kind as those we know as jEsop's Fables, but the
word ' fable ' has become so identified with stories of
animals speaking that we cannot use it of these narratives
of Jesus. Professor Jiilicher therefore suggests that the
word ' parable * should be used of them in a restricted
166 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
sense, and considers that there are twenty-one parables
of this kind in the Gospels.
(c) There is still another type of parable in the Gospels
which has been called that of the Illustrative Instance. In
these the moral truth is enforced and illustrated by giving
a typical narrative of its application in practical life.
At least four of the parables of Jesus are of this kind,
namely, those of the Good Samaritan, the Pharisee and the
Publican, the Rich Fool and the Rich Man and Lazarus.
(d) Finally, as has already been mentioned, there are
three other parables so called, which cannot be classed
either as Similitudes or Parables in the narrow sense
(that is, Fables) or Illustrative Instances. These are the
Parables of the Sower, of the Tares and of the Wicked
Husbandmen. They differ from the others not only in
the fact that every detail of them has a meaning and place
in the message of each parable, but that they have also
become the subject of much controversy as to how far
they are to be attributed to Jesus in their present form.
The subject raises the whole question of the interpreta-
tion of the parables in general. Their value for Christian
instruction depends very largely upon that.
2
THE PURPOSE OF THE PARABLES
Why did Jesus speak in parables ? How did He wish
them to be interpreted ? So far, it has been implied that
His purpose was simply to explain and enforce His teach-
ing through them in a popular way, and that He expected
their meaning and point to be immediately understood.
At first sight that seems self-evident.
PURPOSE OF THE PARABLES
It is only natural to suppose that Jesus in putting His
teaching into these concrete images is simply following
the methods of all popular teachers, and is trying to make
the truth He has to proclaim more easy to understand
TEACHING THE PARABLES 167
than it would be in abstract forms. On general grounds,
the purpose of the parables would need no discussion.
Everybody would take it for granted that Jesus by this
means wished to come into closer touch with His hearers.
Unfortunately, however, the matter cannot be disposed of
so easily. The Gospels themselves create the difficulty by
saying that there is a totally different motive at the back
of the parables of Jesus. In one passage at least they
describe the Master Himself as explaining the general
purpose of His use of parables, and the explanation is a
very strange one. He is represented as saying that His
object is not to reveal the truth but to hide it. In
different forms this passage is found in all three Gospels,
but it is borrowed by Matthew and Luke from Mark.
In the latter it runs as follows, according to Dr. Moffatt's
translation :
" And when He was alone, His associates and the
Twelve questioned Him about the parables. Then said
He to them, ' To you is the secret of God's reign given,
but to those outside everything is imparted by way of
parables ; that they may see and see, yet not perceive,
and hear and hear, yet not understand, lest haply they
should turn again and be forgiven.' '
There does not seem to be much possibility of mistaking
the meaning of these words. They declare quite plainly
two things :
1. First of all, they say that Jesus has two kinds of
teaching, one of which is called ' the secret of God's
reign ' and the other ' parables.' The former is given to
the circle of disciples, the latter to the crowd outside.
2. Secondly, they declare that the purpose of the
parables is to give the crowds something for eyes and
ears but nothing that can enter mind and will. This is
a means of hiding the truth from them to prevent their
repenting.
We may try to soften the harshness of this inter-
pretation, as the other Evangelists have tried to do, but
we cannot get rid of it. Mark is here attributing to Jesus
a view of the parables that makes them the means of
concealing the truth.
The question is, Can this theory be adopted in view
168 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
of everything else that we know about Jesus and the
parables ? It is universally agreed that we cannot, and
that for several reasons.
MISTAKEN THEORY OF THE EVANGELISTS
In the first place, even the Evangelists themselves
do not adhere to it. It has had some effect, it is true,
upon the form they give to some of the parables, but now
and then they represent Jesus as using expressions which
contradict the theory. For instance, in introducing one
parable, He says : " Hear Me all of you and understand/ 1
taking it for granted that He can make the truth plain
to them by means of a parable (Mark vii. 14). He is also
surprised when they do not understand.
In the second place, many of the parables themselves
contradict the theory. So far from hiding the truth
from the people are they, that no better instances can be
given of a truth made absolutely plain. Who could miss
the message of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son and
the Hidden Treasure ?
In the third place, such a theory is contradicted by
the whole character of Jesus as described by the Evangel-
ists. He saw in ' teaching/ ' preaching/ ' seeking the
lost/ the mission of His life, and He was not the one to
mock the helplessness of the crowd. It is impossible
to think of Him as speaking in parables with the object
of not being understood.
We are forced to say either that the Evangelists have
seriously misreported the words of Jesus on this matter,
or that they are putting their own later and mistaken
interpretation of the parables into the mouth of Jesus,
and that He Himself never had occasion to discuss His
purpose in using them. In any case, we can do nothing
with this mistaken theory of the Evangelists, for it does
serious injustice both to the parables themselves and to
the character of Jesus. He certainly did not spend His
time so largely in propounding riddles and weaving
elaborate allegories. Such an idea could only arise after
His death. The disciples had then to explain the fact
that the Jews refused to accept Him as the Messiah,
TEACHING THE PARABLES 169
and they fell back, in this as in other cases, upon the
theory that they were ' predestined ' not to understand.
They gave the same explanation of His betrayal by
Judas.
Once this mistaken interpretation has been cleared
out of the way, however, we are left only with the natural
explanation that Jesus used parables because He found
that he could make His teaching plainer and more con-
vincing through them. We gain nothing by trying, as
many do, to combine some form of the theory of the
Evangelists with this. To say that Jesus intended to
half-conceal and half-reveal the truth in parables, is to
say that He was at cross-purposes with Himself, without
either saving the accuracy of the Evangelists or doing
justice to the sublime simplicity of the majority of the
parables.
INFLUENCE OF THE THEORY
But then, if it was the purpose of the parables to
explain and enforce the thought of Jesus, why is it that
some of them are so difficult of interpretation ? The
meaning of most of them is perfectly clear, and their
point cannot well be missed. When that is not the case,
there is always a definite reason for the apparent obscurity.
It is a defect in their transmission. Some are given by
the Evangelists only in a fragmentary form, and probably
almost always in a more or less shortened form. The
situation and context in which they were spoken were
forgotten.
Sometimes, too, the theory of the Evangelists has
affected the original form of the parable. It must be
remembered also that the life to which Jesus appeals is
not so familiar to us as it was to the people who listened
to Jesus.
All our difficulties in interpreting the parables arise
from these causes difficulties that had no existence at
the time they were spoken. As they came from the lips
of the great Teacher, they formed the clearest and most
convincing part of His teaching.
It is the business of the modern Christian teacher to
revive in the minds of his pupils something of their fresh-
170 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
ness and of the impression they made upon those who
first heard them.
SUMMARY
In the preceding discussion, emphasis has been laid
upon the following points with regard to the parables in
the Synoptic Gospels :
1 . That the parabolic teaching was the most character-
istic element in the teaching of Jesus, and that it made
a deep impression of freshness and originality upon His
hearers. " The common people heard Him gladly."
2. That these parables are essentially concrete illustra-
tions from ordinary life, used by Jesus in order to make
His message more effective than it would otherwise be.
They are not elaborate allegories in which every detail
has a hidden meaning, but familiar similes and narratives
which culminate in one special point. That point Jesus
wishes to emphasize in order to express and confirm a
moral truth or a moral duty.
3. That in the Gospels we generally get these parables
themselves in substance very much in the form given to
them by Jesus. Sometimes, however, we have only a
summary. The circumstances in which they were spoken
have not always been preserved for us in the Gospels.
Sometimes also, owing to a mistaken theory held by the
Evangelists with regard to the nature of the parables as
intended to hide the truth from the people, an incorrect
interpretation has been given in the Gospels. Even while
they give us the parables themselves in their original form,
they sometimes add their own comments, and these are
not always consistent with the purpose of Jesus.
This last feature is really the main difficulty with which
the teacher has to contend when he is using the parables
in religious instruction. If the reports of the Gospels
were not often fragmentary, and if they did not so often
omit to state the exact circumstances in which each
parable was spoken, the teacher would find his task a
much easier one. His work is complicated by the need of
supplying for the child what is missing in the Gospels.
These being the facts with regard to the parables
and their transmission, it is clear that the general task of
TEACHING THE PARABLES 171
the teacher in connection with them is to use them each
and all in such a way as to reproduce something of the
clear impression which they made upon the minds of the
people who first listened to them. This cannot be done
simply by reading a parable from the Gospels and making
moral and religious comments upon each detail. That
is the only method still commonly adopted, and it destroys
the freshness of the parabolic teaching.
In order to prepare the way for making the most
effective use of the parables in Christian instruction, it
may, therefore, be useful to enter upon a somewhat
detailed and educational discussion.
3
THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE PARABLES
That the fundamental significance of the parables of
Jesus is educational may easily be realized. They provide
us, indeed, with the most direct educative material in the
New Testament. They were created by the greatest of
all Teachers expressly for the purpose of moral and
religious education and instruction. That is largely why
the great educators have returned again and again to the
teaching methods of Jesus for inspiration and guidance.
Here, if anywhere, the Christian teacher can learn how
and what to teach. It might almost be said that the use
we make of the parables in education is the best test of
whether and how far the spirit of Jesus and the Christian
Gospel has obtained a firm grip of our instruction.
EDUCATIVE VALUE OF THE PARABLES
Moreover, their use by Jesus Himself will enable us
to see just at what point in religious growth the parables
are most likely to exercise their full weight of influence in
education. Evidently they seemed to Jesus to provide
the most likely means of effecting the transition from an
external and objective stage of development to a more
internal and subjective period represented in His
172 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
historical circumstances by the transition from the
morality of outward observance and Law to that of dis-
position, love and freedom. In a word, and using the terms
of individual and educational psychology, we are at the
end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence. And
there is no doubt that every educational consideration
points to the fact that it is here that the most fruitful
teaching of the parables of Jesus both as regards sub-
stance and method is in its proper place. It does not
follow that their material cannot be used at any other
time, but it will only be for some subsidiary purpose
and in some subsidiary way. Earlier than towards the
end of childhood, we can only prepare the way for a full
teaching of them, and that in a fragmentary manner.
Later than early adolescence, we can only elaborate and
systematize their teaching. Their full educative oppor-
tunity conies once and for all in late childhood or in
early adolescence. It is then that their inherent power
to influence the process of moral growth will tell decisively.
PROGRESSIVE USE OF THE PARABLES
Guided also by the literary, historical, ethical and
religious significance of the parables as they are found in
the Gospels, it will not be a difficult task for the teacher
to decide when, in what form and for what purpose each
parable should be used in instruction.
FOR SMALL CHILDREN
In the first place, some of the parables of Jesus are
such consummate examples of the art of story-telling,
illustrative of elementary moral virtues, that their use
cannot well be avoided in the instruction of children even
before they pass out of their infancy. At this time, of
course, they would be used not as part of the deepest
religious teaching of Jesus nor even definitely as parables
in their original context. They would be used simply as
independent narratives, valuable in and for themselves,
forming part of a collection of interesting individual
stories suitable for the instruction of children under eight
TEACHING THE PARABLES 173
years of age. There are some of them that require
practically no change at all in order to adapt them for
this purpose. Their Biblical form is so complete in detail,
so transparent, as to be easily intelligible as stories even
to the smallest child. Such, for instance, are the stories
of the Good Samaritan and of the Loving Father (which
would be a better title for this purpose than the Prodigal
Son). The former would be told simply as an instance of
unselfish kindness by a stranger, and the latter as one of
a father's generous love.
There are others that would require more elaboration
of their detail in order to make them effective for small
children. The teacher, however, need not hesitate about
filling out their detail so long as he is faithful to their
essential meaning, for it is very probable that Jesus
Himself gave them originally in a much fuller form than
the one we now find in the Gospels. In this way the
story of the Shepherd and the Lost Sheep might be used
as an illustration of care for animals and kindness to them.
To this a companion story might be made out of the
Parable of the Good Shepherd. This, of course, is not
the main purpose of these parables, but it is quite in their
spirit and in the spirit of Jesus, while it only requires
an easy elaboration of their details to make them very
effective for this end.
IN THE LIFE OF JESUS
There is also another aspect of the parables which
has not yet had the attention it deserves even in the
scientific study of Jesus and the Gospels. They are not
only the supreme examples of the art of teaching as
practised by Him, but many of them have also a unique
psychological value. They not only explain the truths
He preached and enforce the demands He made, but they
often also cast a welcome light backwards upon the history
of His inner life and His personal experiences and interests.
After all, every man spontaneously turns to that part
of life and the world in which he is most interested and
of which he has the fullest knowledge, for his aptest
illustrations. It is, therefore, not without significance
174 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
that almost half the figures, illustrations and metaphors
used by Jesus are taken direct from the common open-
air life of nature around Him, and almost the other half
from the details of the ordinary daily occupations of the
men among whom He lived. There is scarcely an ordinary
calling known to His time and country which He does
not use in a spontaneous way in order to explain and
enforce His Gospel. That at once stamps Him and
reveals Him as a lover of Nature and of ordinary men
a soul rejoicing in the open air of the world's life, and a
sympathetic sharer in men's ordinary experiences, with a
human interest in their daily work and their children's
play.
More than that, even, there is every reason to think
that some of the parables have sprung directly out of
particular moral experiences in the personal life of Jesus
Himself, and in that sense are ' human documents ' of
supreme value.
IN LATE CHILDHOOD
It seems to follow that some of the parables must
naturally find a place when sometime between the ages of
nine and twelve we should try (as we have already seen)
to give a picture of the personal life and activity of Jesus .
In order to make His life real, we must include some
pictures of Him as a teacher, and we cannot do better
than give some concrete instances of how He taught the
people in parables. Here and there in the sketch of His
life when He is described as teaching in the Synagogue,
or walking with His disciples or conversing with in-
dividuals or preaching to the crowd one or more of the
parables might well be introduced into His conversation
or address. The main object of this, of course, would be
to give a real picture of Jesus Himself, and the parables
chosen would therefore be those that cast some light
backwards upon His own life or that can be most easily
inserted into definite situations in the general narrative.
The Parable of the Treasure would fit admirably into
the early days of the ministry, and find a background as
well as an application in the life of Jesus and His disciples,
TEACHING THE PARABLES 175
sacrificing home and friends for the sake of the Kingdom.
The Parable of the Sower finds a natural background
when Jesus sends out His disciples on their mission
through Galilee, making them realize what He Himself had
already realized in His own experience, namely, the variety
of the results to be expected.
In the same way some of the other parables may be
inserted at different points into the narrative of the life in
such a way as to illustrate very vividly the experience
through which Jesus and His disciples must have been
passing at that very time. The teacher will find it an
interesting work to seek for a suitable background in the
life of Jesus for such parables as are simply grouped
together without a context in the thirteenth chapter of
Matthew.
IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE
So far, however, we have only been introducing the
parables into the curriculum in a more or less subsidiary
way. As we have seen, the great opportunity for any
adequate teaching of the parables of Jesus in their full
significance as expressing His fundamental principles
and enforcing His most urgent moral demands, comes
at the end of the period of late childhood or in early
adolescence. At this time the children are developing
very rapidly their powers of independent thought, and
some elementary lessons on the parables will help to
link the concrete narratives of childhood with the more
definitely intellectual instruction that must begin with
adolescence.
Two methods of dealing with the parabolic teaching
are here in place. At about twelve or thirteen years of
age a special series of lessons on the main parables, chosen
for their particular ethical or religious significance, might
be given. A good introduction for such a series would be
a few lessons on the life of Jesus in the open air, His
accurate observation and love of nature as well as His
interest in the ordinary life and work of men. Then the
general purpose of parables would be explained, and finally
a selection of the simplest parables dealt with one by
one. This selection would certainly include those of the
176 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep, the
Pharisee and the Publican, the Servants entrusted with
Money, the House built on the Rock, the Mustard Seed,
the Treasure and the Pearl.
Finally, somewhat later in adolescence, an attempt
must be made to deal, as we have seen, with the whole
subject of the teaching of Jesus more systematically.
Undoubtedly, the best introduction to such a sketch and
the best summary of the teaching of Jesus will be found
in a consideration of the parables.
Naturally it is not contended that all these sug-
gestions for making use of the parables should be rigidly
included in every curriculum. The discussion is only
intended to reveal the many opportunities there are in
modern education to make much fuller use of this material,
and in a more effective way than has so far been made.
The method of dealing with the parables wherever and
whenever introduced needs careful consideration, and some
discussion of that subject here will not be out of place.
4
TEACHING THE PARABLES IN PRACTICE
How TO TEACH THE PARABLES
It has already been said that the general task of the
Christian teacher with regard to the parables is to use
each one of them in such a way as to reproduce something
of the fresh impression which it made upon the minds
of the people who first listened to it. How, then, is the
teacher to approach his task with that end in view ?
In the first place, he must study the record of each parable
so that the one special point emphasized in the story
may become perfectly clear to him. In most cases a
careful reading of the story is enough to show what that
is. In the story of the Hidden Treasure, for instance, the
point evidently is the decision to give up every possession
which the man has in order to gain the more valuable
TEACHING THE PARABLES 177
treasure. In the story of the Prodigal Son it is the
father's overflowing love, bent upon forgiveness in spite
of all obstacles. The main point of the story of the
Servants entrusted with Money by their master is that
every possession implies a duty the extent of the duty
depending on the extent of the privilege. Of course, if the
point itself of each story is not perfectly clear, it is useless
trying to explain or enforce a moral truth or a moral
duty through it.
THE ART OF STORY-TELLING
The next step for the teacher will be to tell the story
in such a way as to bring out the point in the telling
itself. If he wishes to do any kind of justice to the
method of Jesus he must cultivate the art of story-telling.
He must try to make the story appeal as a whole directly
to the imagination and reason of the class without any
explanation. He must remember that he is dealing
primarily with children who require a fuller and more
picturesque narrative than is generally given in the Gospels.
So in many cases he must be bold enough to use his
imagination in filling out the details and making a com-
plete story out of the outline in the Gospels always
taking care, of course, not to obscure the main point.
The test of the good teacher is his power of expanding
the brief form which he finds in the Gospels in such a
way as to make the child realize the force of the main
point without the need of explaining it to him in so many
words.
The details of the story are not of any independent
value. Their purpose is to make the whole story natural
and interesting, serving always to make its point more
convincing. The story of the Hidden Treasure, for
instance, will not appeal to the child in the brief form given
to it by the Evangelist. The labourer and his master
to whom the field belongs must enter as actors on the
scene ; the operations of ' selling all that he hath * and
of buying the field must be dramatically described ; while
some definite idea of the value of the treasure and the
12
178 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
sacrifice involved in selling the goods must be given by
describing the digging up of the treasure and enumerating
some of the precious things the man must sell.
Filling up the outline by particular descriptions of
this kind is the only way to produce the needed impres-
sion upon the child. Merely saying ' he sold all that he
had ' will not make him realize what is happening, but
a short, vivid description of the sale of the furniture
and the break-up of his home would make the situation
real and the point effective.
Once the teacher has constructed a narrative of this
kind and is able to tell it vividly he has laid the foundation
for the moral truth or duty which he wishes to emphasize.
As this man was ready and determined to give up the
good things that he had for the sake of the better so
Jesus encourages the readiness of men to give up even
what is good in the moral life for what is better, and the
better for what is best, though it is not always easy to
do so.
APPLYING THE PARABLES
What is then left for the teacher to do is to apply this
truth or duty to concrete circumstances. This he can
do in two ways. He can do so, in the first place, by
finding such a situation in the life of Jesus as will
show the parable in action. It will be noticed in Matt,
xiii. 44-46 that the Parable of the Hidden Treasure is
simply grouped with others. We are not told when,
where and for what definite purpose it was spoken.
We can, however, easily imagine a situation in which it
might have been used with effect and concretely applied.
No doubt Jesus was many times brought into close
touch with some Galilean peasant who was deeply im-
pressed and troubled by His teaching. The vision of a
better life had been given to him, but he could not finally
bring himself to make the sacrifice that was necessary
in order to realize the new life as his own. There were
serious difficulties in the way perhaps ties of love or
comradeship or home or possessions were keeping him
bound to what he was. What better way of making
TEACHING THE PARABLES 179
the message of this parable real than by showing it as
part of the conversations of Jesus with such a man ?
The second method of making the application of the
parable real would be to give concrete instances of men
and women in history who have given up the good things
they loved for the sake of the better they had seen.
Examples might be found even within the experience of
the child himself when some valuable good thing must
be sacrificed in order to attain something better.
In brief, therefore, an effective method of giving a
lesson on this Parable of the Hidden Treasure would be
as follows :
1. A brief description of Jesus giving up home and
friends for the sake of His work, and of His disciples
doing the same thing, would form an introduction.
2. Then a scene in which Jesus is teaching in one of
the villages of Galilee would be described ; the effect
upon some one definite person which Jesus notices ; his
vision of a better life ; his perplexity and the difficulties
in the way ; his coming to Jesus with his doubts and
difficulties.
3. During the conversation Jesus tells him this story
of the Hidden Treasure for the definite purpose of en-
couraging him to come to a decision to sacrifice the good
things which he values for the sake of the better that
Jesus has to offer.
4 4- Finally, one or two examples from history might
be given of people who have faced and made the same
choice, and the child could be shown that the same ex-
perience can come into his own life.
Such a scheme seems to provide an effective method
of teaching most of the parables, whether they are given
as part of the life of Jesus or in a series of independent
lessons. It is only after they have been taught in this
way that they can be read with profit and commented
on in the Gospels themselves.
BOOKS
BROWNE (L. E.). The Parables of the Gospels in the Light of Modern
Criticism. (Cambridge, 1913.)
BRUCE (A. &.).The Parabolic Teaching of Christ. (London, 1887.)
i8o THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
BUGGE (C. A.). Die Haupt-Parabeln Jesu. (Giessen, 1903.)
FIEBIG (P.). Die Gleichnisreden Jesu im Lichte der Rabbinischen
Gleichnisse. (Tubingen, 1912.)
JULICHER (A.). Die Gleichnisreden Jesu. (Leipzig, 1899.)
WOODS (E. S.)- Studies in the Parables of Christ. (London : S.C.M.,
1908.)
ZURHELLEN (ELSE UND OTTO). Wie erzdhlen wir den Kindern die
biblischen Geschichten ? (Tubingen, 1906.)
CHAPTER X
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES
The Miracles in Christian History and Life. The Modern Situation
The Educational Value of the Miracles Their Relation to the
Gospel To Religious Growth To Christian Tradition.
The Miracles in Early Childhood. The Miraculous Narratives as
Wonder-Stories Essential Features of Educational Wonder-
Stories The Miraculous Narratives of the Gospels.
The Acts of Healing. The Needs of Childhood The Attitude of
the Teacher The Acts of Healing as Historical Illustration
of their Use.
The Use of Legend. Legendary Narratives in the Gospels Illustra-
tion of their Use Story of the Daughter of Jairus.
Miracles and the Christian Gospel. The Special Task of the
Teacher The Religious Significance of the Miracles The Needs
of Adolescence How they can be Met.
THE MIRACLES IN CHRISTIAN LIFE AND
HISTORY
THE MODERN SITUATION
THE particular problem to be discussed in this chapter
is that which concerns the value and place of the miraculous
narratives of the Gospels in Biblical Instruction, especially
as it faces the Christian teacher who accepts the verdict
of modern literary and historical criticism upon these
narratives. It is probable that he may still be able to
look upon many of the strange acts of healing which are
recorded of Jesus as actual facts. It is quite as probable
that he has already been led to consider many other
miraculous narratives, either as exaggerated reports of
natural incidents or as the transformation of sayings
181
182 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
and parables into events or as the projection of psycho-
logical facts into the external world or as being due to
the influence of Old Testament predictions and narratives.
While he recognizes that Jesus did possess marvellous
powers to which it is difficult to set a limit, he is at the
same time convinced that the sun or the earth never stood
still, that an ass never spoke human words and that a
storm was never stilled by a word.
So he wants to know whether and how he is to go on
telling these stories not only of Jesus healing the sick,
but also of Jesus walking on the sea, feeding the thousands
and raising the dead, as well as stories of His miraculous
birth and physical resurrection. He believes them to be
legendary in character. His faith is quite independent
of them. They are even a burden upon it rather than a
help to it.
The first impulse of such a teacher is to throw such
narratives on one side as worthless, not only for himself,
but also for the children he is teaching. He has a feeling
that if he uses them at all he becomes untruthful and some-
thing of a hypocrite. And when he can persuade himself
to employ these narratives in his teaching, his constant
temptation is to rationalize them to reduce them in
some crude fashion into natural events.
Such a result would certainly be a very serious
calamity for moral and religious instruction. It only
needs, however, some little consideration of this whole
matter from an educational point of view to lead him
to a very different conclusion. The question of the value
and use of these miraculous narratives cannot thus be
settled in a summary fashion and in bulk, nor is it settled
simply by the theological or scientific views of adults
upon the question of miracles.
EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE MIRACLES
If all the miraculous narratives of the Gospels were
absolutely historical, it would not follow that they would
be of any value for the purposes of religious education.
On the other hand, if they were all absolutely unhistorical,
they might still be of the utmost importance educationally.
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 183
At bottom the problem we are dealing with is not
really theological but educational. Its solution depends
not so much on the correctness of our theological or
scientific views as on the educational value of the moral
content of the narratives. In its turn the educational
value of these stories depends partly on the general aim
of our teaching, partly upon the laws and stages of religious
growth, and partly upon the character and history of the
stories themselves.
RELATION TO THE GOSPEL
1. So far as the general aim of our teaching is con-
cerned, every Christian teacher would agree that, by the
time our pupils go out into the world, we ought to have
transmitted the Christian Gospel to them in such a way
as to make them realize it first of all, at any rate, as a
moral force. Their readiness to obey it should not depend
upon their belief or disbelief in the historical character
of such a narrative as that of Jesus cursing the fig-tree
or feeding the multitude with a few loaves and fishes.
It follows that, whatever may be our methods of dealing
with the miracles, our teaching should not in the end
make the interest and the importance of the stories centre
upon their miraculous elements, but upon any moral
purpose or message they may contain.
The impression finally left upon the mind must be
not that Jesus could work miracles, but that the Jesus
of whom these stories could be told was such that out of
His deep love for men He was ready to spend and be
spent in their service. It is the moral and not the physical
power of Jesus that belongs to the Gospel. The climax
of the teaching must be to put the miracles in their proper
relation to the Christian Gospel and to explain their past
and present value for the Gospel. It is here in this last
stage of our teaching that the difference in scientific and
theological views comes fully into sight. It is here that
the origin and value of the miraculous as a whole must
be discussed.
2. Apart from our aim, we must also be led in this
matter by the laws and stages of moral and religious
184 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
growth. The most evident fact here is that the first
business of the teacher is to cultivate and guide the sense
of wonder and the imagination of the child. To be
effective, religious teaching must in some way make its
contact with that region. The religious life springs from
it, and must travel through it before it can take possession
of the intellect and the will.
RELATION TO RELIGIOUS GROWTH
It is also certain that in the earlier years of childhood
the distinction which we draw between the probable
and the improbable, even between the possible and the
impossible, does not exist. There is no problem of
miracles at any rate so far as degrees of probability are
concerned. Raising the dead and walking on the sea
are as easy or as difficult to believe, as real and as true
to the child, as healing the sick or any other event outside
the child's ordinary experience. So far as the children
are concerned, the problem is not whether the story we
tell contains what may be called a miracle, but whether
the miracle is of the right kind. Does it grip the imagina-
tion, and does it grip the imagination in the right way?
Does it simply glut the imagination to idle satiety, or
does it employ the imagination in order to reach the mind
and the will ? It probably ought to be added that the
adult teacher must not be in too much of a hurry to impress
his own unimaginative views with regard to the import-
ance of historical accuracy and the improbability of the
cruder miraculous narratives upon the mind of the child.
The child lives in a world of make-believe for a longer
time than is sometimes imagined. For him there is no
reason why angels should not want food, why serpents
and asses should not speak, why axes should not swim,
and why prophets should not travel in whales. In his
own due time he will shed that world naturally if only
we will let him alone and give him a little help only when
we have found that he is doing so.
Here, therefore, the views of the teacher as to miracles
are simply out of court. If he cannot leave his views
behind him, and enter into the credulous mind of childhood
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 185
for the time being, he should not attempt to teach children
at all. Each miraculous narrative must be judged on
its own merits, and whether we use it or not depends
upon the character, the motive and effect of the miraculous
deed. Its marvellous nature is a merit rather than a
defect if its marvel is of the right kind.
RELATION TO CHRISTIAN TRADITION
3. Moreover, the Christian teacher cannot forget that
the stories of miracles have always been part and parcel
of the Christian tradition. It is not as if he had a choice
whether to deal with them or disregard them. The
latter he simply cannot do, for they are inextricably
bound up with all the records we have of the life of Jesus
which must always be the very centre of Christian teach-
ing. This, indeed, suggests the most serious problem we
have to deal with.
There is a point at which historical fact becomes
necessary for the child, and when he begins to distinguish
between imagination and history. It is then we are
bound to give some sort of historical life of Jesus. The
teacher may then be called upon to speak of legend as
legend, and at the same time to protect the child from
thinking that legends and lies are convertible terms.
He must be able to use miraculous narratives from the
Gospels because they are an essential element in the
earliest Christian tradition, and yet at the same time he
must remain true to his own convictions, and also stand
guard over the continuity of the child's growth in passing
from the world of imagination to the world of fact.
From this brief consideration of the characteristics
and needs of childhood, the place of miraculous narratives
in the earliest Christian tradition and the general aim of
Christian teaching, three questions with regard to the
miraculous narratives of the Bible emerge :
1. What is the independent educative value of the
individual stories used as Wonder-tales in early child
hood when the imagination must be gripped and employed
by the teacher in order to reach the will ?
2. How is the teacher, who ' does not believe in
i86 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
miracles/ to deal with the stories of miracle in the
Gospels when in late childhood the historical life of Jesus
must be told and the difference between facts and legends
must be recognized ?
3. How can the whole question of the miraculous be
discussed during adolescence in such a way as to make
the origin and character of these narratives as legend and
folk-poetry plain in such a way also as to show their
proper relation to the Christian Gospel as well as to
preserve and emphasize all that is of real value in them ?
The educational problem of the miraculous narratives
in each of these forms will be discussed in the following
sections with the hope of indicating the main lines upon
which the solution must be sought.
2
THE MIRACLES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
MIRACULOUS NARRATIVES AS WONDER-TALES
In early childhood, as has been said, the critical and
historical question with regard to the miraculous does not
arise either for the teacher or the child. The strictly
miraculous narratives will stand on exactly the same level
as all other marvellous stories which are only outside
the narrow experience of the child.
The question for the teacher is not whether a story
describes a natural event or a miracle, but whether, as a
whole, it is of such a character as to cultivate the imagina-
tion in the right way. It is by more or less miraculous
narratives in the wide sense that this can best be done as
a rule. It does not, however, follow that every story of
1 miracle f in the Bible is suitable for the purpose. The
teacher is in need of single Wonder-stories, complete in
themselves, and each one must fulfil certain conditions,
moral and educational, before he can use them with a
good conscience at this period. He cannot, therefore,
consider the miraculous narratives of the Bible in such a
way as to accept or reject them en bloc.
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 187
He must rather look at each story independently in
order to find out whether in spirit, content and form it is
of such a character as to be available for his purposes.
As a test for every tale that offers itself, he must have
in his mind certain conditions upon the fulfilment of which
alone a story can be admitted into the membership of the
sacred circle of the pictorial images he must print upon the
child's imagination.
ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF WONDER-STORIES
It will not be very difficult to set forth such con-
ditions in a series of statements with the confident hope
that the demands implied in them will at once appear
reasonable to those who have given any attention to the
needs of early childhood.
It is taken for granted, to start with, that every story
chosen should be told freely to the children and not read
either by them or by the teacher. Then, every good
Wonder-story, whether Biblical or not, fit for use in moral
and religious instruction should bear upon it the following
marks :
1 . The story must be of such a character as to appeal
vividly to the imagination, or it must at least yield to
imaginative treatment.
2. The story must not contain anything grossly
superstitious, and must not, as a rule, call attention to any
forms of wickedness or sin that are not already familiar to
the child. At least it must be possible easily to eliminate
such features if they are present without spoiling the
story.
3 . The mere marvel or miracle must not be the only or
the main point of interest in the story.
4. Incidentally or otherwise, the story must be such as
is capable of expressing a moral action. It must, that is,
contain or lend itself easily to conveying something of
positive moral value a moral quality that stands in some
actual relation to the child's life.
5. The story must be such as can be put into more or
less of a psychological form. By this is meant that the
action must be such as can be connected with the simpler
i88 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
working of the mind. We must be able to make the
child follow not only the external action, but also some of
the more elementary thoughts and feelings of the actors
in the drama. The purpose and the effect of the action
must become more or less clear. Probably, therefore, God
should not appear much as a direct actor on the stage.
He must rather be the background and atmosphere of
every tale the hidden but real inspiration of the human
drama. As God works in history, so we should give an
impression of His working in instruction mediated
through the deeds of religious personalities.
If these conditions are fulfilled in a Wonder-story, then
it might be said that the more marvellous and miraculous
the narrative, the better it suits our purpose at this stage.
That means to say that the greater or less degree of
historical probability a story possesses is not a matter of
much consequence compared with the fulfilment of the
foregoing conditions.
MIRACULOUS NARRATIVES OF THE GOSPELS
The Christian teacher, therefore, must ask how many
of the miraculous narratives of the Bible do actually or
can easily be made to conform to this standard ? As a
matter of fact, probably few or none of them are quite
suitable for children between six and eight years of age
in exactly their present Biblical forms. On the other
hand, there are many of them that can more or less easily
be adapted for this purpose. The changes required will
naturally vary with each story. Some, for instance,
like the stories of the birth and childhood of Jesus, need
only a few changes in form, setting and language in
order to make them ideal Wonder-stories. As much as
possible of the charm of the quaint language of the Bible
should be retained, though something of it must inevitably
be lost in the attempt to avoid words that need explana-
tion in the case of children of this age. That will always
be the case whenever we tell any Biblical stories in early
childhood.
There are other stories, such as the ' Stilling of the
Storm ' and ' The Feeding of the Multitude/ which
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 189
require more radical changes before the above conditions
are fulfilled. In spirit and general content they will
suit our purpose well enough ; but, as they are told in
the Gospels, it is probable that they would miss their aim
in the case of the children. There is a danger that the
interest would become concentrated upon the mere
miracle rather than upon the sympathy of Jesus and His
goodness of heart. The moral quality cannot be impressed
upon the mind by simply pointing it out at the end. It
must be woven with the thread of the whole tale, so that
the children may feel, even without being told, that Jesus
loved to help men, or that Jesus was too good a man
to be afraid of a storm, instead of merely thinking that
Jesus could work miracles. Thus, in the story of the
Storm at Sea, for instance, all the art of the story-teller
would be employed in making an effective contrast
between the deep peace of Jesus and the restless agony
of the terror-stricken disciples. This, for young children
at any rate, is not effectively done by the words ' He slept,'
and ( Lord, help us, we perish,' which, of course, do the
work thoroughly for adults who read the story. For
children, it must be further and more fully illustrated by
some description of the scenes on board that must have
led up to these words.
There are, of course, other miraculous narratives in the
Gospels which it would be very difficult, if not impossible,
to adapt as Wonder-stories without destroying them
altogether. Such, for instance, are the stories of the
Resurrection and the Ascension, Cursing the Fig-tree, the
Raising of Lazarus and many others. It may be possible
to use them later on in another way, but here, at any rate,
they seem to be out of the question.
Probably the result of a fuller consideration of the
miraculous narratives of the Gospels would be the making
of a good selection of them for use as Wonder-tales to be
told in a fuller and more or less different form not with
a view to eliminating the miracle, but in order to make
them conform to the conditions which have been mentioned.
In such a selection would be included the Christmas
Stories, the Stilling of the Storm, Walking on the Sea,
Feeding the Multitude, Raising the Widow's Son, Healing
THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
the Epileptic Boy and others. In each case it will be
the work of the teacher to read the story over carefully
and to ask himself whether and how each can be retold
in such a form as to grip the imagination, while at the
same time making the mere exercise of miraculous power
subservient to any good moral purpose, and showing
the movement of the minds of the characters as well as
the external action.
All this, of course, means more work for the teacher,
who will, however, find his reward in more effective
teaching.
3
THE ACTS OF HEALING
So far the question of literary and historical criticism
has not arisen in any acute form either for teacher or
scholar. All the teaching takes the form of single stories,
and the value of each miraculous narrative ought to be
judged by its power to grip the imagination for moral
and religious ends.
THE NEEDS OF CHILDHOOD
After the age of eight or nine, however, the teaching
must become more connected. The material must be
grouped and become more historical. It is here that
connected life-stories of great personalities are in place,
and the teacher is called upon to give narratives of the
lives of Moses, David, Paul, and especially to teach the
life of Jesus as a whole. In most of these biographies
the question of miracles will have to be faced in some
form or other, and for many reasons it becomes a rather
difficult problem in dealing with the life of Jesus.
The question of the general form which the life of
Jesus should take for children between the ages of nine
and twelve or thirteen has already been discussed. At
first, at any rate, it should be told by the teacher in
narrative form and not simply read or studied with
comments in any one of the Gospels. Its main object
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 191
should be to give the children a concrete and clear picture
of the life, work and teaching of Jesus as a real human life
lived among men. In doing this the critical problem
of what is historical and what is not does not and ought
not to arise in any definite form for the children. Of
them the only thing that can in most cases be said is
that they are beginning to realize in a general way the
difference between actual facts and the product of the
imagination. They may at any moment ask whether
some individual incident is really ' true ' or not, and they
will not be ready to accept any kind of tale as actual
fact without question.
For the teacher, on the other hand, the critical question
does arise in an aggravated form when he is face to face
with the task of giving the children some clear if elementary
picture of what Jesus actually was and said and did.
It is certainly not his business to discuss critical questions
in teaching children, but quite as certainly he is bound
to preserve his own intellectual integrity. He must not
play fast and loose with the Biblical narratives, nor is
he justified in simply forcing his own views upon the
child, whether they are radical or conservative. His own
views will and must, without doubt, influence the form
of his narrative, but the value of his narrative in giving
a picture of Jesus should not depend exclusively upon
acceptance of his views.
The real problem, therefore, is how he can remain
faithful to his own convictions and still not tyrannize
over either the mind of the child or the Biblical stories.
It is this problem which becomes urgent for the teacher
in the case of the miracles of the Gospels. How is he
going to deal with these narratives in telling the life of
Jesus to children between nine and twelve years of age ?
THE ATTITUDE OF THE TEACHER
The probability is that he has found no reason to
change his conviction that many of the acts of healing
recorded in the Gospels are historical facts more especially
the healing of nervous diseases and some of their physical
results, such as blindness, deafness and sometimes lame-
192 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
ness, as well as probably some skin diseases that were at
that time confused with real leprosy and called by that
name. He will not be anxious to make the range of
historical fact a narrow one, believing as he does in the
unique nature of the personality of Jesus and realizing
the extraordinary effect such a personality may well
have had. At the same time, for many reasons, such
stories as those of Raising the Dead, Walking on the Sea,
Feeding the Thousands and others of a similar kind will
almost inevitably have a legendary or only a parabolic
character for him, though there may be some historical
elements underlying them. This will be true also of the
Birth narratives and of most of the Resurrection and
Ascension stories in their present form, as well as of the
accounts of the Temptation and the Transfiguration.
Now, the first thing such a teacher has to do is to
recognize how closely the miraculous narratives are inter-
woven with the life, teaching and work of Jesus as
described in the Gospels. Even if he desired to do so,
it is impossible for him either to ignore or to eliminate
them. He is not called upon to include them all in his
narrative, but a representative selection of them must
have a place in some form or other.
MIRACLES OF HEALING
There will not be much difficulty about the miracles
of healing. A number of these from the Gospel of Mark
he can tell as integral parts of the historical life. He can
thus describe the healing of the madman in the Synagogue
(i. 22-27), Simon's mother-in-law (i. 29-31), the paralysed
man (ii. 1-12), the deaf stammerer (vii. 31-37), the
epileptic boy (ix. 14-29), blind Bartimaeus (x. 46-52)
and perhaps two or three others. For each he must find
an appropriate setting, with a view to making them
intelligible as real experiences for the people present, for
the persons healed and for Jesus Himself. This setting
will, as a rule, in outline at least, be found in the Gospels,
but it does not matter much whether it is really historical
or simply invented by the evangelist or by the teacher
for the purpose. Naturally, no attempt should be made
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 193
to explain the cures in each case, and the common phrase
' possessed by demons ' must be retained with an ex-
planation that evil spirits were then supposed to bring
the diseases. The main effort of the teacher should be
given to describing the scene, the feelings and words of
the actors and spectators in such a way as to make an
impression of the extraordinary effect produced by the
words, attitude, look and will in fact, of the whole
personality of Jesus upon other minds and wills.
It is probable that some legendary elements have crept
even into these stories of healing, but they are insignificant,
and in retelling the story the teacher can avoid them very
easily without interfering with the meaning of the narrative.
In order to illustrate this method of dealing with the
acts of healing as part of the life of Jesus, it may be well
to give one example of its application as it has been worked
out by Else and Otto Zurhellen. 1
Let us suppose, then, that in giving a connected narra-
tive of the life of Jesus we have reached the first day
of His public activity in Capernaum. In Mark i. 2134
there is a very brief summary of what happened on that
day. The cure of the possessed man and of Simon's
mother-in-law are narrated at some length. Others are
only referred to, and we are told that " the people were
greatly struck with the teaching of Jesus, for He was
teaching them like One who had authority and not like
the Rabbis." The business of the teacher is to reproduce
as much as he can of this impression.
ILLUSTRATION OF THEIR USE
In order to do that for the children he must give a
much more concrete picture of the scene than is given in
Mark. He must tell the story in such a way as to make
the children re-experience its events with some one who
saw the whole thing. For that purpose the narrative
must be given from the point of view of some one who
saw and felt the effect. Let it be a labourer from one
of the narrow streets of Capernaum. Give him and all
the chief actors names. Follow him that Sabbath to
1 Wie erzdhlen wir den Kindern die Biblischen Geschichten ? (Mohr, 1906.)
13
194 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
the Synagogue. Describe the ordinary service there and
an ordinary address by a Rabbi, as well as the feelings
of our hearer. Jesus standing up to speak excites
curiosity as a stranger. Give as His address some of the
sayings of the Sermon on the Mount and one of His parables,
making the contrast between it and the preceding address
as clear and sharp as possible. Then describe the attitude
and the natural comments of the congregation. The
address is interrupted by the forced entrance of the
possessed man who is well known. Describe him briefly,
and the conversation between him and Jesus, giving
their attitudes, looks, gestures vividly. Then comes
the astonishing power of Jesus to calm him, the renewed
surprise and excitement and the comments : " What a
man ! " " He has power over evil spirits ! n "A
miracle ! " (< Did you see how He looked like a king ! "
" Marvellous ! I never saw anything like it 1 " " Just
now the words and then the deed ! " The service breaks
up in the excitement of the cry : " A prophet ! a prophet ! "
A vivid narrative built on some such lines as these will
certainly help to make the life of Jesus real to the children
even. It provides the only setting for the miracles of
healing, for it is an attempt to reproduce what must
have been behind the short summaries of the Gospels.
There will always remain differences of opinion as to
exactly how many and which of these acts of healing
can still be accepted and narrated as actual facts and as
integral parts of the historical life of Jesus. Different
teachers will probably draw the line at different places.
In any case, each teacher can only give as actual history
at this stage those incidents which he considers to be so.
4
THE USE OF LEGEND
LEGENDARY NARRATIVES
There is a second type of miraculous narrative in the
Gospels, namely, that of which the raising of the widow's
son and the feeding of the multitude are representative.
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 195
Some of these are now interpreted as exaggerations of
actual incidents, some as due to the influence of Old
Testament sayings, some as parables transformed into
events, while the origin of others is obscure. In any case,
for some reason or other, they are all considered more or
less legendary in character.
It must be confessed at the outset that the teacher
who holds this view is faced by a serious difficulty when
he tries to tell the life-story of Jesus to children between
the ages: of nine and twelve or thirteen. It has already
been pointed out that at an earlier time he can with a
good conscience put his critical views behind his back
and use many of these narratives as Wonder-stories,
absolutely indifferent as to whether they are historical
or not. At a later period, too, in adolescence he can
discuss the whole question of the miraculous and legendary
elements in the Gospels quite frankly with his scholars
with profit, and with no danger to their reverence for
Jesus and the New Testament. But in late childhood
he can do neither the one thing nor the other. For the
teacher himself, the critical question becomes urgent in
an acute form. He must have some definite opinion as to
the character of these narratives. On the other hand,
he cannot discuss literary and historical questions criti-
cally with the children. Neither can he give to them as
history that which seems to him to be either doubtful or
definitely legendary. What, then, is he to do ? He is not
justified in simply disregarding such narratives. By so
doing he would not only fail to reproduce the atmo-
sphere of the Gospels, but he would also miss some of the
best concrete illustrations of the teaching and character
of Jesus. All attempts that have hitherto been made to
construct a rationalistic life of Jesus in any living way
have been failures.
There is also a good deal to be said for the view that
these narratives should be so dealt with as to leave the
way open later on either to show their legendary character
or to defend them as historical. It would not be quite fair
to shut the door finally upon either of these alternatives.
So far as one can see the best way out of the difficulty
is that suggested and taken by Else and Otto Zurhellen
196 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
in their book on the Bible stories. They describe their
method as illustrated by the story of the daughter of
Jairus (which they regard as legendary) as follows :
ILLUSTRATION OF THEIR USE
" What, however, we recognize as legend we shall
narrate also as such. The best method of doing so appears
to us to be that we should give the legendary material
as descriptions of the impression which the advent of the
great personality makes upon men. As in the case of the
parables, one must invent situations in which we can
place such a legend so that at the same time the manner
of its origin becomes plain. Take the following as an
instance : In a Galilean village it becomes known that
Jesus is coming to-day. The people gather together on
the road which enters the village, and wait in groups for
the famous prophet. The conversation naturally is about
Him and His wonderful deeds. One tells of His healing a
lame man in Capernaum. Another insists that there were
two lame men whom He made whole at the same time.
" A third does not consider such acts of healing so
very marvellous ; others had done the same thing, and
even greater things. He is fiercely contradicted. One
man who has been standing somewhat on one side notices
the warm discussion going on, comes nearer and hears
what they are talking about. ' Shall I tell you/ says he,
1 what I heard a few days ago at Magdala ? ' He gets
everybody's attention. Then he tells them the story of
Jesus and the little daughter of Jairus (Mark v. 21-24,
35-43) amidst the running comments and exclamations
of the bystanders in which their feelings, their sympathy,
their expectation and their astonishment at Jesus find
utterance. In the midst of the excitement caused by this
story the cry is raised ' He is coming.' In front of this
episode we would place the story of the man sick of the
palsy (Mark ii. 1-12). After it might come the incident
of the demand for a sign (Matt. xvi. 1-4). Other legendary
narratives might be introduced in a similar way/' x
Thus inserted here and there into the framework of
1 Op. cit. t pp. 198 ff.
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 197
the life of Jesus, very effective use can undoubtedly be
made of the more or less legendary narratives of the
Gospels by the modern teacher. Telling them on these
lines he can preserve his own intellectual integrity, and at
the same time do justice to the child and the spirit of the
Gospels. His narrative will also remain within the region
of historical probability for it is almost certain that
such stories were told of Jesus even within His own
lifetime. Moreover, such a method has the advantage
of leaving the value and accuracy of such narratives a
more or less open one for future discussion later on, while
at the same time it suggests a natural origin for legendary
additions to the life of Jesus.
All the stories of miracle cannot, however, be dealt
with in this way the story of the Gadarene swine, for
instance, and the cursing of the fig-tree. Only those that
are quite evidently consistent with the known character of
Jesus, and either illustrate His teaching or some of His
personal qualities, should be so employed. The others,
such as the two mentioned, must be omitted altogether,
either as inconsistent with our picture of Jesus or as being
without moral value.
As good examples of stories which may be told with
effect in this way one might mention the raising of the
widow's son, the feeding of the multitude and the healing
of the lepers. One or two even of those narrated in the
Gospel of John might be used the wedding feast at Cana
and the raising of Lazarus, for instance although it
would probably be better to give these when studying the
teaching of Jesus by itself later on in adolescence.
5
MIRACLES AND THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL
THE SPECIAL TASK OF THE TEACHER
The preceding sections have been devoted to a con-
sideration of how and when the individual miraculous
narratives of the Gospels can be used in a positive form
ig8 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
in the moral and religious teaching of the New Testament.
When, however, they have been used separately in early
childhood, and many of them have been included in
different forms in teaching the Life of Christ in late child-
hood, we have not by any means finished with the question
of the miraculous in relation to Biblical instruction.
We have only indirectly prepared the way for distinguish-
ing between historical and legendary elements in the
Bible, and so made it easier for the mind to meet the
criticism of the miraculous narratives which modern life
will inevitably bring with it to every growing boy and
girl more and more so, indeed, as modern education
becomes more effective and universal. More systematic
and direct teaching on this question will be needed if
the growing adolescent mind is to be put into a position
to meet without unnecessary strain and danger both the
popular and scientific criticism of the miracles of the Bible.
It is not the business of the teacher to eliminate the
supernatural and the miraculous from the Bible and
Christianity. It is rather to give his pupils a worthy
conception of the miraculous and the supernatural to
fit their meaning into the modern view of the world to
distinguish between the supernatural and the merely
arbitrary interference with law, between extraordinary
moral acts and mere displays of power or prodigies. It
is his business so to describe Christianity and its history
as to make moral power and not physical miracle its
centre. His spirit must be that of the words, " Blessed
are they that have not seen and yet have believed. " It
is an attitude towards miracles rather than opinions
about miracles he must strive to fix. He must recognize
that the belief in miracles represents some religious values
which he is responsible for preserving. Among the many
reasons why the miraculous narratives of the New Testa-
ment have been clung to and are still clung to by many
people are the following :
RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF MIRACLES
i. They have become the expression of the central
religious faith that " we are not shut up in a blind and
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 199
brutal course of nature." The belief in miracles is an
attempt on the part of the religious man to express his
experience that his surroundings can be conquered and
made to " work together for goodness." As has often
been pointed out, this experience is felt as if God broke
through the regular course of nature for his sake that
is to say, the event has all the appearance of a miracle.
A mere belief in the miracles of the New Testament alone
can, however, be neither a satisfactory nor a full expression
of this feature of the religious life, and of the present
reality of God's help.
What the teacher has got to do, therefore, is to accustom
the mind to feel the reality of God's help in other ways,
by making the relation to God a personal and moral one
rather than a physical and material connection.
2. The New Testament miracles have also become
intimately connected with precious parts of the Gospel
and faith in Jesus. They have acquired, in the words of
Dean Inge, " a sacramental value." l They are, therefore,
clung to tenaciously, not so much for their own sakes
as for the sake of the faith of which they have become a
part. Here, again, in our view, the connection is neither
necessary nor useful, but a perilous one for the faith.
But the fact that the connection is made is the reason
why the shock of criticism imperils the Christian faith
of many in these days. The Christian teacher must see
to it that the two do not stand or fall together in the
case of his pupils.
He can do so because he has largely in his hands the
moulding of both the historic and personal faith of the
child. The connection between the miraculous narratives
and the reality of God's help on the one hand and the
value of Christ on the other, has not yet been fixed in
the mind of the child, and it is our duty to see that it is
not made in such a way as to make the Christian faith
dependent upon such narratives as that of the Virgin
Birth, or the reanimation of the body of Jesus, or the
walking on the sea. The necessary connection should
be made exclusively with the moral and religious elements
of the teaching and personality of Jesus. That is the
1 Truth and Falsehood in Religion, p. 103.
200 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
only way to prepare the mind to move freely and in-
dependently later on amidst the miraculous narratives,
without danger and with real profit.
THE NEEDS OF ADOLESCENCE
The needs of the modern child, therefore, in order
that he may be prepared to meet the inevitable criticism
of the miraculous narratives may be summed up as
follows :
1 . He needs to be shown the comparative unimport-
ance of these narratives in relation to the meaning and
value of the Gospel, Christ and the Bible.
2. He needs to realize that the modern view of the
world and the universality of unbreakable laws give more
rather than less room for Christian faith.
3. He needs to understand something of the way in
which miraculous narratives became connected with the
personality of Jesus as well as the meaning and value which
they have whether they contain accurate history or not.
To supply these needs will certainly require systematic
teaching with regard to miracles at some period, and it
cannot be postponed to adult age. The boy enters the
' storm and stress ' period of adolescence generally
before he is sixteen years of age, and it is then that he
needs all the help that we can give him to meet his in-
evitable doubts and perplexities.
We have already seen that this kind of systematic
work is neither necessary nor possible, as a rule, during
the period of childhood. At that time the best that we
can do is to formulate our teaching in such a way as
indirectly and unconsciously to wean the mind gradually
and healthily from its natural and naive credulity. Early
adolescence then somewhere between the ages of twelve
and sixteen is the one and natural opportunity for
undertaking such a task.
The method adopted for this purpose will probably
vary with the different types of teachers, and with the
changing circumstances, but perhaps the following sug-
gestions for a course of lessons may help the reader to
work out his own plan :
THE PROBLEM OF THE MIRACLES 201
1. Some of the simpler prophetic narratives might be
studied for instance, some parts of the Book of Jeremiah.
This would be done with a view to analysing to some
extent such prophetic phrases as ' God saith/ ' God did/
into their psychological and historical elements. They
include all the natural causes and show the religious form
in which the Bible describes what we would express by
saying ' conscience ' or ' insight J or ' thought/ etc. One
might compare the Biblical report of an event with
one of Cromwell's reports to Parliament, put one into the
form of the other and show that Cromwell had as Veal a
sense of God's guidance as the Biblical writer.
HOW THEY CAN BE MET
In this way it can be shown how the Bible passes over
all the secondary causes, the human instruments and acts,
the natural events and turns its thoughts directly to the
divine cause, including everything under God.
2. A simple sketch might be given of the origin of the
Gospels not from a literary point of view, but in order
to show the history of the material. It would start with
the popular stories told about the Master during His life-
time, the memories of the disciples and their preaching
of Jesus these passing from mouth to mouth and sharing
the fate of all oral traditions, taking different forms
sometimes twisted, sometimes exaggerated. The say-
ings would be translated from Aramaic into Greek, and
some of them written down early for purposes of
instruction.
Part of this account would be occupied with explain-
ing the rise of unhistorical narratives, owing to mis-
understandings, imperfect memories, influence of the
belief in the Messiah and the extraordinary impression
made by the personality of Jesus. The rise of such
marvellous stories so early might be compared with what
happened in the case of St. Bernard or St. Francis. It
should always be made perfectly plain that such stories
were not deceptions or inventions, but the natural result
of the greatness of Jesus, the desire to do Him honour and
the credulity of the age. They are stories of what He
202 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
might have done, being what He was, gradually turning
into stories of what He did.
3. Then, in reading the Gospels, care should be taken
in discussing each miraculous narrative to show the moral
and religious ideas which it expresses, while noting frankly
the possibility or probability of its not being an historical
event.
4. Every opportunity should also be taken to note
the difference between the ancient view of the world and
the modern one. The idea of possession by demons as the
ancient account of disease is a good illustration.
5. Most of all, at this time such a positive sketch of
the Christian Gospel should be given as will naturally fix
the impression on the mind that in essence its nature is
moral and religious, and that the truth of its moral and
religious content is for us independent of its alleged
miraculous accompaniments.
For Books see Chapter XI.
CHAPTER XI
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS
1. The Birth-Stories in Christian Instruction. Christmas and Easter
The Meaning and Power of Christmas The Character of the
Biblical Narratives The Birth-Stories in Early Childhood
How to deal with them As an Introduction to the Life of
Christ.
2. The Birth -Stories in Adolescence. The Educational Opportunity
of Christmas The Religious Value of the Birth-Stories The
Religious Value and the Physical Miracle.
3. The Easter Faith. The Easter Message and the Easter Faith The
Growth of the Easter Faith The Experiences of the Disciples
Between Calvary and Pentecost The Story of a Great
Spiritual Struggle.
4. The Easter Message. The Story of the Empty Grave The Develop-
ment of the Story In the Synoptic Gospels and in the Gospel
of Peter The Permanent Faith.
5. The Ascension in Christian Instruction. The Story in the New
Testament Its Value for Religion and in Modern Instruction.
THE BIRTH-STORIES IN CHRISTIAN
INSTRUCTION
CHRISTMAS AND EASTER
MOST of the Protestant denominations of this country
have almost entirely lost touch with the Church Calendar.
From the point of view of religious education that is by
no means all to the good, and it may yet be useful to
revive some of the historical Church Festivals as the most
effective points of contact for some of the most important
elements in Christian Instruction. The only festivals
that still keep their hold upon the minds of the people
are Christmas and Easter, and that not because of their
203
204 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Christian significance so much as because they fall at
natural turning-points of the year and have become parts
of our general life. In connection with them, however,
religious and Christian ideas can still be easily awakened
and points of contact can still be found in them for the
growth of Christian faith and character. Educationally,
therefore, they still provide an opportunity that ought
not to be missed. Christianity is essentially an historical
religion, and these two festivals are bound up with the
historical personality of Jesus, out of which that religion
grew. The mere existence of Christmas and Easter in
our year does undoubtedly of itself serve some of the ends
of Christian education. Men and women are still moved
by them more or less consciously in a Christian direction.
The work of the teacher is to make that movement more
deliberate and more definite. How can we then ' keep
the feast ' at the present time most effectively for
Christian instruction ? How can we make the best use
of these festivals and what they represent in Christianity
deliberately for Christian purposes ? The problem is not
an easy one to solve in these days, when the very facts
which these festivals are generally supposed to celebrate
have become doubtful for so many, inside as well as out-
side the Church. Here we are only concerned with the
problem in so far as it involves the use and value of the
narratives of Birth, Resurrection and Ascension in the
New Testament. What is the value of these narratives
for the growth of Christian faith, knowledge and character ?
When and how can they still be used ?
It is probably the case that the first religious impres-
sions of most of us are due to some Christmas story or
other heard through the firelight of some of the dark
evenings before Christmas. Everything is in the teacher's
favour at such a time. He finds his pupils in their most
receptive mood. At such a time we get nearest to what
may be called a natural and effective education when an
event like the Christmas Festival inevitably calls forth
its own inevitable tale. The spirit of the season grips the
imagination of the world. It has not only a long Christian
ancestry, but it has grown up, as it were, with the human
race itself. It is pre-eminently the season of childhood
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 205
and the flowering time of the imagination the carnival
of bright illusion. At present, it is the only time in the
year when the child by right divine can claim to live
in his own natural wonderland peopled by Father
Christmas and Santa Claus, by elves and sprites, by
angels and the Christ-child.
THE MEANING AND*POWER OF CHRISTMAS
One of the dangers of modern times is to pluck the
child out of that world too soon. The modern child is
in danger of growing old and wise too early. One of the
things we have to learn in moral and religious education
is how to feed the imagination properly and effectively.
For the years of childhood it is there that both morality
and religion are making a home for themselves. The
older religious education never cultivated the imagination
and the sense of wonder because its angels were too
crassly matter of fact, and its miracles were not numerous
and wonderful enough. On the other hand, the modern
theological movement is in danger of making its keen
sense of historical truthfulness for adults into a barren
literalism for children, of stunting the best powers of
childhood and of disparaging the educational value of
imagination. This does not mean that we must or shall
tell the same stories in the same way as our fathers and
mothers did, but it does mean that we must never let
the opportunity of Christmas pass us by whether in
school or at home without going through its open door
into the wonderland beyond with the child's hand in
our own. And in order to make the best use of the
opportunity we must be very clear as to the end we have
in view, the educational value of our material for that
purpose and the most effective way of using it.
Can we still use the Christmas stories of the New
Testament in our religious instruction, knowing what we
do about their origin and history ? And if we can, how
many of them, when and in what form ?
It is indeed true that very little room for doubt has
been left us with regard to the real nature of these stories.
They are almost all and almost entirely legendary in
206 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
character and an expression of faith in Jesus more than
records of historical facts. There is no more evidence
for their historical accuracy than there is for the many
other similar tales told of other heroes in the history of
religion and thought. Whatever use we make of them,
it must be with our eyes open to their twofold character.
In the first place, they are variations and survivals
in Christianity of the primitive wonderland of religion,
going back finally, perhaps, to ancient nature-myths of
man's childhood. Secondly, in the New Testament they
have been purified and used as attempts to express the
value of Jesus Christ to the Early Church coming to the
Christians probably from the Messianic beliefs of Judaism
and the Greek stories of the Sons of God.
CHARACTER OF THE NARRATIVES OF CHILDHOOD AND
BIRTH
It is impossible here to enter upon any detailed dis-
cussion of the various literary and historical questions
connected with these well-known stories. The situation
seems to be that the first generation of Christians had
but little interest in the parentage and birthplace of
Jesus, and there is but little evidence of their thinking
that there was anything extraordinary about these things.
Their minds were fully occupied with their intense belief
in Him as the promised Messiah and His divine value
for their lives. They made many attempts to explain
why and how He could have this divine value as their
Saviour. " He was the Man from Heaven," says Paul ;
11 He was the Incarnate Word of God," says John ; "He
received the Holy Ghost at baptism," says Mark ; " His
glory was not fully revealed till the Resurrection," says
Peter. These are some of their main ways of expressing
the divine impression made upon them by Jesus. As
time went on, however, and they became more fully
familiar with Greek ideas and stories of ' the Sons of
God ' and with Messianic predictions and theories, many
of them also threw the expression of their faith in Jesus
into the form of Birth-stories suggested by pagan and
Old Testament legends, purified and moulded for their
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 207
purpose. These finally culminated in the story of the
miraculous birth thus tracing back His divine power as
Saviour to the Incarnation itself and not only to the
Resurrection, Transfiguration and Baptism. There are,
of course, several different cycles of Birth-stories in the
Gospels, and as the poetry of faith they are almost magical
in their effect. As such no purer or sublimer tribute
could be paid to the power and majesty of Jesus. In
no place in the New Testament are we made to see more
clearly what Jesus must have meant to the Early Church.
All literary and historical criticism becomes very
secondary when once we read these stories as first of all
and most of all pictures reflecting the faith and experience
of the early Christians. The value of this material for
the teacher is that it enables him to impress this moral
and religious value more deeply than ever upon the mind.
With regard to the educational use to be made of the
Birth-stories it is hoped that the previous discussions
of the miraculous and legendary narratives of the Gospels
has already prepared the mind of the reader for what
needs to be said.
THE BIRTH-STORIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Useful and valuable as the stories of the Birth and
Childhood may be at other times, there can be little doubt
that their real and peculiar place in religious instruction
is to be found at the point where the child is beginning
to leave infancy for childhood, where he is beginning to
pass from the world of pure imagination to that of history.
That means somewhere between his sixth and eighth year.
It would seem that the natural course of religious
instruction up to the age of about eight years should
run somewhat as follows :
During the earliest years of teaching, the idea of God
can be present to the mind of the child only as human.
So, while in answer to the child's questions about the
moon and the stars, the storm and the wind, we speak
naturally of God as making them ; yet in the first more
or less incidental teaching of religion, God must remain
very much in the background and His elementary moral
208 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
qualities attributed to a figure nearer to the child's
experience. Christian tradition and legend have already
provided us with just such a figure in the Christ-child.
The needs of the child can, therefore, best be met at this
time by Nature and Wonder-stories in which the Christ-
child plays the divine part of protector, friend, helper,
comforter and adviser. These Christ-child stories in their
form and content should be somewhat similar to fairy-tales
with elementary moral motives behind them and in them.
In any case, whatever may be the kind of instruction
given in these earliest years, there comes a time when
the child is ripe for a gradual weaning from Wonderland
into History, and from the idea of the Christ-child into
something nearer the Heavenly Father. In instruction
this represents the need for a connecting link between
the religious fairy-tale and the historical life of Christ
which is to follow. For this purpose nothing better has
yet been discovered than a series of the half-historical,
half-legendary Wonder-tales of the Bible. The series
would begin with the Christmas stories of the New
Testament, in which the figure of the Christ-child appears
as the gift of the Father. It would continue with such
stories as those of Elijah, Creation, the Patriarchs from
the Old Testament and such Wonder-tales of Jesus as
the Stilling of the Storm, Feeding the Thousands, stories
of Healing, and finish up with tales of the more historical
heroes, such as Moses, David and some of the Prophets
becoming less and less marvellous and legendary, while
more and more historical and moral.
HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM
Every one of these must, of course, be told by the
teacher in the spirit of the child. He must, for the time
being, forget the difference between the world of external
fact and that of the imagination. For the child they are
both one. He has no conception either of natural law or
of historical truth.
This, then, seems to be the proper place and value of
the Christmas stories at the transition time from infancy
to childhood from the period of religious fairy-tales to
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 209
that of religious history. They are the educational
connecting link between the two preceded by general
Nature-tales of the Christ-child, who is the substitute for
God, and followed by heroic stories of men who were the
instruments of God.
This is their real home so long as the teacher can
forget all his negative criticism of them and enter into the
wonderland of the child. To do anything else is to sacrifice
the welfare of the child to the exclusive point of view of the
adult. Many are afraid, even at this age, of the question
turning up is this really true ? If it does, however,
what it usually means at this age is a pathetic request for
more certainty and not for more doubt. In nine cases
out of ten there need not be much hesitation in saying,
" Yes, of course, it is true."
As AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE OF CHRIST
So far as their form is concerned, the Christmas
stories should be told fully and almost recklessly at this
age so far as the use of a trained imagination is concerned.
Not that the Biblical narratives can be improved upon so
far as they go, but their language is sometimes above the
understanding of a child of six ; they leave many things
unsaid which must be supplied for the child, and they
consist of several cycles of stories which are inconsistent
with one another. Certain omissions are also necessary,
especially so far as the physical miracle is concerned and
the relations between Joseph and Mary. With these
modifications the whole material of Matt. i. 19-11. 23
and Luke i. 5-ii. 40 may be used for Christmas stories.
This material cannot, without doing violence to it, be
reduced to one consistent whole which can be narrated
consecutively. Several cycles of stories can be made
out of it. To discuss in detail the form and content of
these cycles of stories would take us too far afield. The
main point, however, is that the teacher should be able
to enter fully and freely without any qualms of conscience
into the wonderland of the child and put his informed and
trained imagination to work so as to make each incident
as full of action, mystery and detail as possible.
14
210 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
For late childhood also (9-12) the value of the Birth-
stories will be somewhat similar. As we have already
seen, some historical account must be given at this period
of the life and work of Jesus as a whole. These stories
cannot any longer remain as integral parts of that account .
The distinction between what is ' true ' and what is not
' true ' is already sufficiently realized at this age to make
it necessary for the teacher to mark the difference in some
way. So far as one can see, the best way out of the
difficulty is to interpolate these stories in a general intro-
duction to the life of Jesus, and to use some non-committal
formula when telling them. This method will serve the
twofold purpose of distinguishing them from the main
historical narrative, and also of helping to create the proper
religious atmosphere for the life which is to follow. 1
2
THE BIRTH-STORIES IN ADOLESCENCE
With regard to the stories of Birth and Childhood in
the religious education of youth and adults, very little
need be added. There are probably two or three occa-
sions on which the teacher will be brought face to face
with the task of dealing with them at the celebration
of Christmas and in any study of the Gospels, or in any
consideration of the typical modern difficulties with
regard to the Bible and Christianity.
THE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY OF CHRISTMAS
For adolescents the Christmas season should become
something more than a festival of the Birth of Christ. It
may fittingly be used to celebrate the birth of Christianity
as a whole. The Christmas gift is the whole personality
of Jesus, His life and death, His teaching, work and
character. It is the best opportunity of the year to im-
press upon the mind the central place of Jesus Christ in
the Christian Religion, and to discuss the essential meaning
of Christianity. This is a subject which, of course, goes
1 See Chap. VII. passim.
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 211
to the root of most of our religious and theological troubles.
The solution of almost every other problem in the thought
of modern days depends upon the answer which will be
given to the critical question : What is Christianity ? In
the teaching of adolescents almost everything depends
upon the view of the essential nature of Christianity which
is placed before them. This, of course, is not the place to
discuss that subject, but only for reminding the reader that
the Christmas festival in many ways affords the best
natural opportunity for definitely facing it.
In this wider interpretation of the educational oppor-
tunity of the Christmas festival, the New Testament
stories of the Birth of Christ will take only a subordinate
part. On almost all hands the subject of the Virgin
Birth has ceased to count as a factor in the religious
situation, though it may still be clung to by many as an
article of belief, and though a frank discussion of it may be
useful for clarifying ideas with regard to the essential
nature of Christianity. Most scholars have also long
ago come to the conclusion that historically we know
practically nothing of the early life of Jesus, and that all
the narratives pertaining to them are of legendary growth.
That, however, does not mean that they cannot be used
in a subordinate place for the purpose of making clear the
central place and value of the Person of Christ.
Whenever and wherever the Christian teacher is called
upon to deal with this subject and the stories connected
with it in the New Testament whether at Christmas or
in critical discussions it must be naturally with some
positive and constructive end in view. He will certainly
have to pass many negative and destructive verdicts on
the proper occasions, but these he will only use to reach
some higher end. It is also perfectly plain that the end
he has in view must be a moral and religious one to
strengthen Christian conviction and to promote deeper
and more intelligent Christian life. Every book in the
New Testament was, of course, written directly for the
same purpose, and when he desires to get the best and the
whole Christian value out of these Birth-stories, he is
trying to achieve the very purpose for which they were
originally written.
212 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF THE BIRTH-STORIES
The first question, therefore, to which the teacher
must address himself is the religious value of the stories,
and he must distinguish that from the physical miracle
and the historical accuracy of the narratives. That
religious value may be generally expressed by saying
that whether the story of the Virgin Birth and the legends
connected therewith have any direct historical value or
not, there could be no more convincing proof of the
tremendous impression made by the personality of Jesus
upon the early disciples, and of their faith that He was
divine in some sense than the circulation of these stories
of His origin. It is not meant that that covers the whole
of the religious value of the Birth-stories, but it touches
the main point. Their value is increased rather than
lessened when we take these stories to be not accounts
of historical facts, but legendary growths. When they
are looked at as variations and survivals of the primitive
wonderland of religion, perhaps even bearing traces of
the ancient Nature-myths of man's childhood ; when we
remember that they must have come to the Christians
through the Messianic beliefs of Judaism combined with
the Greek mythology of the Sons of God, the fact that
they were adopted, purified and adapted by the Church
becomes an astounding proof of the unique significance
of Jesus for His early disciples. It is from this point of
view that they retain their value for the Christian preacher
and the teacher of the senior classes in the Sunday School.
ITS RELATION TO THE PHYSICAL MIRACLE
When he has thus put his pupils into the right religious
attitude towards the Birth-stories, the teacher can then
try to show how this religious faith in the divine value
of Jesus is connected now and was connected in the minds
of the Early Church with the physical miracle. He can
easily show that at no time was there any essential con-
nection for the Early Church in general between the two
things. The mere silence of every part of the New Testa-
ment, with the exception of the first chapters of Matthew
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 213
and Luke, is itself enough to show that much. And even
in these chapters themselves there is not a word to show
that the authors laid any fundamental stress upon the
physical manner of the Birth. The most that can be said
is that the circle of disciples from which these chapters
come did find in the story one expression of their sense
of the supreme value of Jesus. There is absolutely no
reason to think that faith, even for them, in any way
depended upon the miraculous origin. Throughout the
whole of the New Testament no appeal is ever made to
the Virgin Birth as a reason for believing in Jesus as the
Son of God, neither by Jesus Himself nor by His disciples.
This separation of the religious value of Christ from the
physical miracle may be further illustrated by pointing
to the fact that whatever may have been true of the Early
Church, in these days the call for belief in a miraculous
birth is more often than not simply a hindrance to faith
in Jesus. In very many cases it weakens, and sometimes
it may destroy, the appeal that comes from what Jesus
said, did and was in Himself.
It is upon the background of some such discussions
as these that the teacher can prepare the minds of his
pupils for a free and frank discussion of the literary and
historical questions connected with these stories, which
probably must have its place sometime in adolescence.
The importance of these questions must not, however, be
exaggerated, for once the Virgin Birth ceases to be an
essential article of Christian faith and belief, the details
of the literary and historical criticism cease also to be
of supreme significance for the ordinary Christian disciple.
Once the stories themselves have been used in different
ways and at different times to bring the growing soul
face to face with Jesus Himself and His religious value,
both Criticism and Education have done their work.
3
THE EASTER FAITH
The Resurrection of Jesus and the narratives connected
therewith are far more closely interwoven with the litera-
214 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
ture and history of the New Testament than His Birth.
The whole subject is also much nearer the heart of the
Christian Gospel. Belief in the Resurrection of Jesus
was in some sense essential to the New Testament belief
in the future life generally, and in some ways it is so still.
It is, therefore, a much more complicated and necessary-
task to give these narratives their proper place in the
teaching of the New Testament and in religious instruc-
tion as a whole. It is, however, an element of religious
faith which belongs rather to the verge of maturity than
to childhood's days. At any rate, it presupposes a fairly
clear appreciation of the moral and religious value of the
personality of Jesus, which seems impossible before
adolescence.
The first condition of any fruitful dealing with the
problem is to realize the distinction between the Easter
Message of the empty grave, including the appearances
to the disciples and the Easter Faith in the victory of the
Crucified over death and His continued personal life with
the Father.
Our real difficulties begin when we are face to face
with the historical and distinctively Christian associations
of Easter, with the Resurrection of Jesus and life beyond
the grave. The modern study of history, theology and
education forbids our continuing simply to retail the
Biblical narratives in their Biblical form without some
criticism of their nature and value. It is quite as im-
possible either to pass them by or to give them simply as
merely popular legends. We know that it is not good
teaching to force critical considerations upon the children.
Our lessons must be based upon modern criticism certainly ;
but, as a rule, it is only positive views and descriptions that
we ought to present to those who are under the adolescent
age. The critical considerations upon which those views
and descriptions are based should be left for later study.
THE GROWTH OF THE EASTER FAITH
It is certainly an important part of the work of the
Christian teacher to transmit a knowledge of the Bible
and its contents as well as the meaning and history of
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 215
Christianity. Both these, however, must be subordinate
to the growth of Christian faith and the formation of
Christian character. In the end every part of the curri-
culum must be judged by the contribution it makes to the
growth of the Christian life. Fundamentally, therefore,
what we are concerned with here is not the historical
value of the Resurrection, nor its place in a theological
system, but how it can help to build up Christian characters
to-day.
There are many who assert emphatically that a direct
communion with the Risen Christ is part of their own
personal experience. Such communion, however, must in
any case belong to a more or less mature Christian faith,
and be very personal in its nature. Moreover, it is im-
possible to think of it as a force independent of an
impression already made by the personality of Jesus as
revealed in His earthly life. We cannot hope to produce
such experiences in others as a direct power for the growth
of a Christian life. Repeated as well-authenticated his-
tory, however, they may help others to feel the force of
the impression made by Jesus, and thus be of primary
educative value in a Christian direction. It is, therefore,
from this point of view that the Resurrection narratives
of the New Testament must be judged, and it is for this
purpose they ought to be used in religious instruction
in so far as they incorporate the genuine historical ex-
periences of the first disciples. That is also why the
teacher must come to some conclusion as to how much
history is contained in these narratives. His great need
is to try to realize for himself the actual experiences
through which the disciples went after the death of Jesus,
and then give to his pupils some positive and concrete
picture of that experience.
THE EXPERIENCES OF THE DISCIPLES
The main features in the narratives that are recognized
as historical by modern scholars are easily described.
The Crucifixion had for the moment shattered the grow-
ing conviction of the disciples that their Master was the
Messiah of God come to establish the Kingdom. In their
216 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
despair they fled to Galilee sick and sore at heart. Before
many weeks were over we find them back again in
Jerusalem, with their faith restored and openly pro-
claiming Jesus as the Risen Christ. They were now
convinced that the Cross was not the defeat of Jesus, but
ordained of God for His greater triumph. How their
faith was renewed between Calvary and Pentecost we
cannot now describe with any great confidence. It is
difficult to pick out the historical facts underneath the
stories of the Resurrection whether the grave was found
empty ; how, when and by whom the Lord was first
seen. A close study of the narratives themselves reveals
the fact that it is impossible to obtain any clear and
consistent picture of the external events. The most that
we have any historical right to say is, that the change
from despair to faith was accompanied by a series of
appearances of the Risen Lord to some of the disciples.
Most probably, also, Peter was one of the first and fore-
most to experience this recovery and be instrumental
in spreading it, and probably the change took place in
Galilee.
It is, of course, impossible and undesirable to eliminate
the mystery and the sense of miracle from this progress
of the disciples out of deep despair to the recovery of
faith. Upon any view of the narratives, it will always be
a very difficult task to describe the psychological process
that is involved. In spite of its difficulty, however, it is
certainly the main business of the teacher to attempt
some positive description that will produce a sense
of reality, and also some sense of the moral struggle
through which the disciples fought their way to
victory.
The question is, how can such a consistent and con-
crete picture of the experience of the disciples be con-
structed out of the materials at our disposal in the New
Testament ? Many attempts have been made to provide
the teacher with such a narrative, which must naturally
be consistent alike with the spirit of the New Testament
and with the results of modern criticism. The following
tentative suggestions more or less represent the general
result of these attempts.
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 217
BETWEEN CALVARY AND PENTECOST
We can, to begin with, easily follow the disciples as
they fled heart-broken on the fateful day from Jerusalem.
We can follow their thoughts and questionings on the way,
as well as their tender memories as they pass spot after spot
for ever consecrated by something said or done by their
Master. He must have been continually in their thoughts
by day, and in their dreams by night, all the way to
Galilee. How was it possible that He could have failed ?
Was He deceived ? Were they deceived in Him ? How
could God have let such an One die, and in such a way ?
Every hope seemed gone ; and yet and yet they had
been surer of Him than they had been of God Himself.
The light in His eyes, the tones of His voice, face, form
and figure came back to them. He had given them some-
thing that no one else ever had a new life that could
never be destroyed.
So, with faint gleams occasionally upon a sea of despair,
they are home in Galilee once more. It was a struggle
between the divine impression made upon them by His
life with them, and the shame and terror of the Cross. One
after another they came to Capernaum each with the
same fight going on in his soul. They could not help but
meet, if only to comfort each other and to remind each
other of the happy days that were gone for ever. The
world would never be the same again. Perhaps it was at
Peter's house they met in the glimmering light when the
day's work was done. How often they went over the
great romance of their life how sad to think of !
Did they hear any rumours from Jerusalem ? Did
some of the women who had stayed to the very end come
with tales of an empty grave, and of passing visions of
a well-known face ? As they talked of Him, did their
hearts begin to burn within them as of old ? The authority
of the Master began once more to assert over them its
sway stronger than death. They read the 53rd of Isaiah,
and saw in it a picture of the suffering Servant who was
still their Master. And was it not Peter repentant,
aching, impulsive Peter to whom one night was given,
in the very midst of eloquent, reckless words, the glowing
2i8 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
vision of the Face Divine ? That moment of ecstasy
came back again and again with greater power and reality
to the man who wanted it most, and who could never
forget the first great moment in which he had said, " Thou
art the Christ." Then also from him the fire spread
to hearts made warm again amidst the scenes of the first
great triumphs of their Lord, after the first terror had
spent itself. Then at last the coming Pentecostal Feast
called them back to the scene of the tragedy that was
slowly becoming a triumph in their minds, and on the
scene to a greater Pentecost than ever their brightest
dream had pictured.
If any view of the Resurrection whether traditional
or critical is to become educationally effective, or any-
thing more than a rigid theological dogma, it will be by
trying in some such way as this to make it psychologically
probable and real.
THE STORY OF A GREAT SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE
It is in any case a difficult task which faces the teacher
here ; but he can never give up the attempt to accomplish
it. Christian teachers who give thought to their work
can never remain satisfied with merely retailing now
one, now another, of the Biblical stories without attempting
to give one unified picture. It is the inner history and
experience of the disciples during this time that must
be made as real and vivid as possible. On one side, the
sense of miracle and mystery by which the events are
surrounded in history and faith must not be lost. But
there is no justification, on the other side, for burdening
the moral experience of the disciples with an ancient
and materialistic view of the universe which we cannot
wish to perpetuate.
Once the growing mind has been impressed by some
conception of the severe spiritual struggle through which
the disciples passed triumphantly, the youth may be
taken later on through the Biblical narratives themselves.
They will then be ready to appreciate their moral meaning,
and their more or less legendary character may be dis-
cussed without danger. The emphasis of the Resurrection
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 219
will have been laid for them in the proper place, namely,
on the supreme value of the personality of Jesus, and the
impossibility of thinking that death could ever destroy
it. Their hold upon the life to come will be strengthened,
and their ideas with regard to it kept pure and moral.
Finally, they will also have had the supreme lesson on
the infinite importance of human personality to God
and man. These constitute the real Easter faith, the
essential constructive and educative elements in the
narratives of the Resurrection. And that teacher will
keep the feast best of all who can give the simplest, and
the most real, picture of the inner history of the disciples
between Calvary and Pentecost.
THE EASTER MESSAGE
So far as the Easter Faith of the New Testament is
concerned, and probably so far also as the needs of moral
and religious instruction go in our day, we might rest
satisfied with the foregoing discussion of the Resurrection.
It does not, however, do full justice to the New Testament
itself. The Easter Message of the visions of the Lord
and of the empty grave are also part of the New Testament
as well as the essential Easter Faith. It is, of course,
the religious faith in the continued life of Jesus in a full
and personal form that must remain central ; but we must
face also the forms taken by that faith in the minds
of the early Christians, the events which produced or
occasioned their belief, and especially the relation in which
the empty grave and the resurrection of the body stood
to their belief in the continued life. This discussion of
the Easter Message will naturally be suitable only for the
later adolescent and senior classes.
DISCUSSION OF THE EASTER MESSAGE
We cannot enter upon such a discussion with any profit
unless we distinguish between the general conditions
220 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
and beliefs of the first century and those of modern days.
For us the faith in the continued personal life of the
Lord, or the permanent value of the character and person-
ality of Jesus, may be and actually is quite independent
of the historical facts with regard to the empty grave,
the physical resurrection and the details of the visions
of the first disciples. These questions are of interest to
us mainly because they were so closely connected with
the form taken by the religious faith of the early Christians,
and because of the light they cast upon the way in which
the disciples defended that faith. It is, therefore, quite
possible that, while sharing the faith of the first disciples,
we may have to reject as mistaken and inadequate some
of the reasons which they gave for holding that faith.
THE STORY OF THE EMPTY GRAVE
We have, it is true, only a limited knowledge of the
views of that time with regard to the relation between
the body and the soul. More or less Greek views of the
body as the prison-house from which the soul escaped
at death were to some extent current among the Jews
in a modified form ; but there can be little doubt that
the popular Jewish view (with which in this instance we
are mainly concerned) could not think of the future life
in the Messianic Age, for instance without the resur-
rection of the body in some form or other, that is, without
an empty grave.
The first disciples could not, therefore, believe in the
continued personal life of the Lord without at the same
time taking it for granted that the grave was empty,
whether they examined it or not. The earliest witnesses
do not mention the empty grave, nor is the empty grave
ever given as a reason for belief in the Resurrection.
All the same, it is very probable that even Paul would
say that the grave must have been empty. The two
points at issue are whether any stories of the empty
grave accompanied the visions and the belief in the
Resurrection from the first, and if so, whether there
was any historical foundation for them. The evidence
of the New Testament is very uncertain and very in-
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 221
adequate on these points, and the opinions of modern
scholars are widely divided. Some think that all the
stories of the empty grave are simply legendary growths
based on the natural inferences of the disciples from the
visions, and that there is no historical justification for
them. Others think that there must be some substratum
of historical fact underneath them, and that the grave was
really found to be empty. They then attempt in different
ways to explain the fact. Probably the truth is that
the evidence does not justify a definite conclusion either
way. In any case the New Testament seems to show
that the empty grave had no influence in producing the
belief in the Resurrection. It is never spontaneously
referred to by the Christians as a reason for belief. It
received prominence only in answer to the objections
raised by Jewish opponents. Attention having once been
called to the grave, the Christian imagination continued
to play about it, until we have at last the marvellous
descriptions of the actual Resurrection itself in the
Apocryphal Gospels. In the New Testament there is
still a good deal of restraint shown in describing what
happened at the grave itself ; but even there we can trace
a definite development in the argument and the stories
connected with it.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE STORY
In Paul and in the early speeches of Acts there is no
mention of the empty grave at all. In Mark, three women
go to the grave to anoint the body, and find the stone
rolled away, while in the tomb a young man in a white
robe sits. He tells them that Jesus is risen, and bids
them tell the disciples that the Master has gone before
them into Galilee. They run away frightened and do
not say a word to any one in their awe. Since the genuine
end of Mark is lost, we can only guess how the narrative
was continued. In Matthew we are told that the Jews
had set a guard of Roman soldiers to watch the tomb,
which was sealed. When the women came a great shock
of earthquake occurred, and an angel of the Lord descended
and rolled away the stone. The soldiers are struck down
222 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
unconscious, but the angel shows the tomb empty to
the women and bids them tell the disciples.
IN THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE GOSPEL OF PETER
This they do immediately. When we come to John,
we find that Mary Magdalene goes alone to the tomb,
sees the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. She
tells Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved.
They run to the place and see for themselves that the
body is not there. From a comparison of these narratives
about the empty grave as they are found in Mark xvi.
1-8, Matt, xxvii. 62-xxviii. 16, Luke xxiv. 1-12, John
xx. i-io, with the silence of Paul in i Cor. xv. 1-8
and of Peter in the speeches of Acts, it will be seen that
the development of the narrative is in two directions
the aim apparently being to make it more and more
certain that the grave was really empty, and that the
only way to account for the fact was the Resurrection.
The New Testament stops short of giving a description
of the actual Resurrection itself, though the story of the
guard and the earthquake in Matthew comes near it.
This last step is reserved for the more unrestrained imagina-
tion of the Apocryphal Gospel of Peter. However many
legendary elements may have crept into the narrative
of the New Testament, it is reserve itself when compared
with the unlicensed grotesqueness of the Gospel of Peter.
There we are told that the elders and scribes hold watch
at the grave with the Roman guard under Petronius.
The grave is sealed with seven seals, a tent is pitched
near by, and the crowds from Jerusalem come out to see.
During the night the heavens are opened and two men
come down, the great stone moves of itself to one side,
and the two men enter the grave. Then all the soldiers
see three men come out, and they are followed by a cross.
The heads of the two men reach to heaven, while that of
the man whom they support reaches above the heavens.
The whole story has become grotesque as far removed
as anything could be from both the restraint and the
spirit of our Gospels. There is no point, however, as
we trace the story backward from the Gospel of Peter
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 223
to the Gospel of Mark, at which we can say : Here we
come at last upon a bedrock of fact. We can only
comfort ourselves by saying that the story of the empty
tomb was after all only a dark and dangerous bypath
even for the faith of the early disciples, while we are
thankful that we need not travel that way at all in order
to reach as strong a faith as theirs in the permanent
value of the character, work and personality of Jesus,
and in His continued, full, personal life after death.
The only reason for following this bypath at all in our
moral and religious instruction is that the contents of
the New Testament demand it, and that it enables us to
illustrate the difficulties and weaknesses as well as the
strength of the Resurrection-faith of early Christianity,
and that it throws into more vivid contrast the reality
underlying its temporary forms.
5
THE ASCENSION IN CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION
This discussion would not be complete without some
reference to the Ascension, but a few words will suffice
to place it in its proper relation to the Resurrection.
THE STORY OF THE ASCENSION
In his Gospel Luke barely mentions the fact that
Jesus " parted from them and was carried up into heaven,"
but in the Book of Acts he gives the only detailed descrip-
tion of the Ascension itself to be found in the New Testa-
ment. The narrative is not an integral part of the Book
of Acts. It seems, indeed, to be deliberately introduced
by the author in order to correct the impression made
by the Gospel, that the Ascension took place on the same
day as the Resurrection. In the spurious ending to
Mark also it takes place on the day of Resurrection.
In John, while there is a scarcely perceptible interval,
according to one passage, between the two events, the
Gospel as a whole looks upon the Resurrection, the
224 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Ascension and the Parousia as one spiritual process.
In Paul, too, there is no room for the Ascension as a
separate event. For Him the Resurrection is a resur-
rection to the right hand of God in power, and it is thence
He makes Himself known as still living to His disciples,
including Paul himself.
As a matter of fact, the idea or the faith which is here
clothed in the garb of history is elsewhere generally
expressed by the figure of Christ sitting at the right hand
of God, the phrase being used about a dozen times by
the different writers of the New Testament.
How these different representations of the Ascension
are related, and exactly how the Ascension was con-
nected with the Resurrection on one side and with the
Parousia on the other, it is difficult to say. Perhaps we
do not know enough of the history of early Christian
thought to form any clear judgment. In any case, what-
ever view may be held as to the bodily resurrection, very
few would now insist upon a literal interpretation of the
very materialistic Ascension story in Acts. Its allegorical
or mythological character is very generally recognized.
In its present form, at any rate, it is quite unhistorical.
How it arose is another matter. It may have been
originally the story of another Resurrection-vision with
the usual mysterious disappearance at the end. More
important than the form of the representation is the
meaning of the Ascension for the faith and life of the
disciples what it stands for in their experience. It
was undoubtedly intended to make clear and intelligible
the faith that Jesus is Lord, that as God's representative
all authority has been placed in His hands. Not only has
He come out of His grave alive, but He has come as the
living Lord. It is essentially the same faith as is ex-
pressed also through belief in the Resurrection. Its
educational value and purpose are similar to those of the
Resurrection-visions, and if it is to be used at all in
religious instruction, its place is among those visions.
The Ascension is not an historical event, but it is another
attempt to represent an historical faith in terms of ancient
views of the world which have disappeared. We may
have the same faith, but our changed views of the world
THE BIRTH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 225
and heaven make it impossible for us to express it in the
same form. We must express it not in terms of time and
space, but in terms of morality and religion which also
the first disciples did for the most part.
BOOKS
BRUCE (A. B.j). The Miraculous Element in the Gospels. (London,
1887.:)
GORDON (G. A.). Religion and Miracle. (London, 1910.)
INGE (W. R.). Truth and Falsehood in Religion. (London, 1906.)
LAKE (KIRSOPP). The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ. (London : Williams & Norgate.)
LYTTLETON (A. T.). The Place of Miracles in Religion. (London,
1899.)
MEYER (A.). Die Auferstehung Christi. (Tubingen, 1905.)
SOLTAU (W.). The Birth of Jesus Christ. (London, 1907.)
TRAUB (G.). Die Wunder im Neuen Testament. (Tubingen, 1906.)
ZURHELLEN. Wie erzdhlen wir, etc. (See Chap. IX.)
CHAPTER XII
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS
1. Paul in the New Testament. Jesus and Paul Sources of our
Knowledge Extent and Character of the Sources.
2. The Historical Significance of Paul. His Spiritual Independence
His Vindication of the Independence of Christianity The
Creator of the Christian Church, Christian Theology and Christian
Literature Paul in Christian History.
3. The Permanent Value of Paul. Matthew Arnold and Paul
Hellenism and Judaism in Paul Paul's Two Great Aims the
Free Personality and the Community.
4. Paul in Christian Instruction. Paul and Jesus in Modern Instruc-
tion Paul a Difficult Subject Nevertheless Necessary.
5. The Story of Paul's Life. Natural and Artificial Difficulties The
Traditional Method Unsatisfactory The Story of Paul.
6. The Work and Teaching of Paul. The Background of Paul's Work
and Teaching His Personal Experience His Typical Struggles
The Motives of Paul's Theology.
7. The Ethics, Theology and Religion of Paul. Paul's Ethical Teaching
The Theological Framework Three Main Lines of Thought
The Anti- Jewish Apologetic The Missionary Theology The
Theology of the Spirit Central Doctrine of Paul The Religion
of Paul.
PAUL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
IT is certainly the first and the ultimate task of the
Christian teacher to make Jesus Christ live effectively
in the mind and heart and will in the conscience of His
pupils. With as little doubt, the second task of the
teacher of the New Testament is to make Paul, the greatest
messenger Jesus has yet found, deliver his own peculiar
message to men, and exercise his own peculiar power over
men in the service of his Lord. As the second great
personality in the history of early Christianity, the
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 227
Apostle is without a rival. Strictly there is no third
except the great Unknown who stands behind the
Johannine writings.
JESUS AND PAUL
At the beginning of the greatest spiritual movement
in human history stand these two personalities of such
extraordinary power and originality one of them at
least, if not both, towering into sheer sublimity far above
all the heroes of the centuries. In them and in the
relations between them are mirrored all the most im-
portant spiritual problems which have ever vexed the
soul of man the reality of the unseen, the nature and
means of communion with God, the value of personality,
the essential nature of Christianity and its relation to
other religions, the relation between history and religion
as well as the relation between religion and theology.
To make these two live again in the souls of men is a
work not only of surpassing interest, but also of sur-
passing importance for the moral and spiritual welfare
of mankind. This has become self-evident so far as the
personality, work and message of Jesus are concerned.
What is, perhaps, not yet so fully realized is that it is
essential to understand and appreciate the personality,
work and message of Paul also, both for the sake of his
own independent value and in order to understand the
place of Jesus in and above the whole Christian movement.
It is, indeed, the secret of the power of early Christian
history that these two stand together at its birth and
baptism. The problem of their relation to each other in
dependence and independence, holds the key to the inter-
pretation of the New Testament.
In order to get within reach of the solution of that
problem and in order to enter into the full heritage of the
New Testament, the Christian teacher and the Christian
disciple must try again and again to make Paul a living
reality to his mind and conscience.
Fortunately, we have fuller and more direct information
about Paul than about any of his contemporaries. That
knowledge comes to us mainly from two reliable sources.
228 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF PAUL
1. Incorporated in the Book of Acts is a document
which is generally recognized as a first-hand account
written by Luke the Physician, the friend and companion
of the Apostle. This provides us with a direct record of an
interested spectator who was also something of a hero-
worshipper. Paul's own revelations of his mind and heart
in his letters find an echo and an effective comment in
those more concrete and particular observations of his
faithful fellow- worker.
2. We have also the good fortune of possessing at
least eight and probably ten letters written or dictated
by Paul and more carefully preserved than any other
literary records of his time. They are all genuine personal
letters, written to his converts and Churches. They are
not treatises or essays dealing systematically with special
subjects of general interest, but letters meant originally
for the use of individuals or small groups all more or
less known to the Apostle. They may not, therefore,
enable us to give a systematic account of his thought,
but they are all the more valuable because so often they
are unconscious revelations of his life and character.
One of them, and the most brief of all the letter to
Philemon is a very intimate personal note, written
merely to accompany the return of a runaway slave to his
owner, and recommending him to the renewed care of his
Christian master. For all its brevity it is a miracle of self-
revelation.
Another was written to Christian disciples in Rome, and
stands at the other extreme from Philemon, on the verge
of becoming a systematic discussion of the main message
of the Apostle.
There are two letters (probably incorporating a third)
written to Corinth in Greece and dealing mostly with some
definite problems of the application of the Gospel to the
life of the Church and the community.
One is a letter of thanks to his Christian friends at
Philippi in Macedonia, acknowledging their care for him
while he was in prison at Rome, and full of personal
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 229
revelations of his heart and of his love for them and for
his work.
Two are directed to the Christians of Salonica, and
are mainly noted for their discussions of the early Christian
eschatological hopes and fervours which were creating
difficulties among them. Another is a strong appeal to
stand fast in Christian liberty, which went to the Christian
Churches of Galatia in Asia Minor ; while the last two
Ephesians and Colossians went to the Province of Asia
the most populous and significant region of the Empire,
ind in many ways the centre of the religion, commerce
and thought of the world.
The three Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus are
also attributed to Paul, but it is doubtful whether more
than fragments of them at most have come from him,
while there is no doubt that the Epistle to the Hebrews
has been falsely attributed to the Apostle.
These are the documents which provide us with
authentic raw-material so far as they go for describing
the history, work and personality of Paul. The letters
show that he was a man who had an extraordinary capacity
for self-revelation. He possessed the infrequent gift not
only of observing the facts of his inner life and the struggles
of his will, but also of interpreting and describing his
soul's experiences with clearness and power in an in-
telligent and intelligible form.
Luke also was a descriptive writer of no mean power,
and the dramatic moments in Paul's adventurous travels
lose nothing of their significance in the telling.
EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF THE SOURCES
There is, however, still a great deal that these docu-
ments (and some other more indirect records of Paul in
Acts and elsewhere) do not tell us about the Apostle,
and it is necessary to emphasize the fragmentary character
of our knowledge at its best. They barely cover the last
ten years of his life and activities. There are at least
fifty years and those the formative and most energetic
years about which we know very little directly, though
we may be able to infer a great deal from the letters
230 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
and Luke's diary. Moreover, the letters which have been
preserved represent only a small portion of Paul's corre-
spondence even during the last period of his life. Being
also purely occasional in their nature, they take for granted
a great many things essential for our full interpretation
of them and their writer. They contain only fragments
of Paul's thought, and though there are many signs of
a more or less complete intellectual system behind the
letters, it is a precarious task to reconstruct that system
out of the broken fragments which they preserve.
The result is, that there still remain many unsolved
problems with regard to the life, personality and theology
of the Apostle, and it is necessary for the teacher to realize
that fact.
There are problems not only of the chronology and
course of his life, but also of the character and significance
of his education, the meaning of his conversion, the history
of the first seventeen years of his life as a Christian, his
relation to Barnabas and to the first Apostles, of his
exact relation to the Greek world and its thought, the
influence of the Mystery-Cults upon him, as well as of
his historical and spiritual relation to Jesus Christ. These
and many similar questions with regard to Paul are still
not settled.
It is true that we can often fall back upon probable
inferences, and upon our general knowledge of the time
and its conditions for help to solve them ; and a great
deal of what passes as Paul and Paulinism has its sole
source in such inferences.
The teacher will, therefore, find it necessary to give
his whole mind to an ever-renewed study of Paul, to
scrutinize carefully every picture and deal honestly with
his pupils with regard to his own reconstruction of the
figure of the Apostle.
2
THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PAUL
Whatever inadequacy there may be in our sources,
it is abundantly clear that Paul played the main part in
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 231
the development of Christianity, and we can see clearly
some of the main directions in which his central signifi-
cance for early Christian history lies.
PAUL'S SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE
i. In the first place, he became of primary import-
ance because he had fought his way more or less inde-
pendently to a moral and spiritual level of thought and
life which was not far removed from where Jesus Himself
had stood. It is true that he did not reach that level
either so easily or so naturally as Jesus. The Master
towers far above the Apostle in simple and natural
majesty of bearing, and in His unclouded certitude of
soul. Paul's outlook was never so clear nor so direct
and effective as that of Jesus. Paul had come to it
through devious ways over arid, trackless wastes, and
he came in bedraggled garments and bespattered with
mud, sore and sick, and with his patience worn by failures.
Still he had, with so much travail, come so far upon his
way that it seems to have required only the touch of the
Spirit of Jesus at a critical moment for him to discover
the secret of God and His Fatherhood, man and his
brotherhood, life and its triumphant redemption.
In the story of Christian origins, Paul is no secondary
figure who has simply borrowed all that he has. In
many ways he is a personality of striking originality in
his experience and conception of the Gospel as well as
in his intellectual and missionary application of it. There
is nothing second-hand about his religious faith, although
the direct and indirect personal influence of Jesus at the
critical moment counted for so much in his history.
There is little that is merely borrowed in his theology,
though he owes so much to the conceptions of Pharisaism.
His Church is an original conception in spite of its growth
out of the Primitive Christian community. His universal
mission was a new thing in history, in spite of its many
parallels with the activities of the vagrant priests of
Mithras and Isis, of the wandering teachers of an eclectic
philosophy and of the ' apostles ' of Judaism in the
Hellenistic world.
232 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
Nearest to Jesus he stands in the originality and
universality of his spiritual experience, the directness of
his touch with God, the courage with which he accepted
the results, the daring and the stubborn will with which
he obeyed the vision when it came.
It is futile to speculate whether Paul would ever have
won his way through without the timely help of Jesus.
We only know that the compelling touch of the Master-
soul meant for Paul the final opening of the door of life,
and that for Paul it was the figure of Jesus that stood for
ever more at the threshold.
This, then, was the first great deed of Paul to come
groping in the dark to the very threshold of the new
discovery and to recognize in Jesus the hand of the Lord
who helped him through.
VINDICATION OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY
2. Secondly, when Paul had found in Jesus Christ the
God he sought and the fuller life for which he longed,
he also found the movement which Jesus had already
created in danger of settling down into an obscure Jewish
sect. He recognized in it the making of a world-religion
and the stronger rival of the Judaism of his dreams. So
he boldly went forth to make it what it was meant to be
and what he somehow knew Jesus Himself had meant it
to be. In thought and practice he freed from the bonds
of Judaism the Gospel of the free grace of God revealed
and incarnate in the living Christ for the redemption of
mankind. He justified its independence and originality,
practically and theoretically, both against its weak-
kneed friends and its Jewish enemies, using their own
intellectual and historical weapons against themselves.
He used the Jewish terms and Jewish doctrines to vindicate
the independence, originality and supremacy of the new
religion. It was probably the only means by which he
could theoretically set free the Christian Gospel from the
bonds of Judaism as well as from the halting compromises
of the Primitive Jewish-Christian Church.
In practice also it was Paul who did actually take the
new religion out into the wide world and planted it firmly
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 233
in the heart of the great cities of the Roman Empire.
He was the most effective missionary Christianity has ever
known. His mission was far greater in idea and plan and
method than even in its actual performance. It is true
that he had a large number of helpers in this work, and
some forerunners, but his was the master-mind and
master-will in the whole movement. Before he died, the
main strategic points in four great provinces of the
Empire Galatia, Asia, Macedonia and Achaia had been
occupied by groups of Christian converts, themselves
energetic centres of missionary work for Christ, knowing
of each other and rivalling each other in their efforts
within the bonds of the same organization. That work
meant planting the new Gospel not only in the heart
of Hellenistic Asia but also of Europe. In the hands of
Paul it meant planting Christianity also in a form in
which it could be assimilated by the peoples of the Graeco-
Roman world. He started the process of inserting the
Gospel into the living categories of that world its yearn-
ing for redemption, its hope of a divine Saviour, its mystery-
rites, its collegiate consciousness and its philosophic terms.
Such was the second great deed of Paul.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY,
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
3. Three other things he did which were each of
primary significance for the history of Christianity, but
which we can here group together. He became the
effective creator of the Christian Church local and
universal ; he was the first Christian theologian ; and
he laid the foundations of a Christian literature.
Paul not only evangelized the great cities, but also
organized his converts in each place and shepherded
their souls carefully and patiently. He kept in close
touch with his churches and had his messengers continually
passing to and fro among them.
It was Paul also who first attempted to give the
Christian Gospel, experience and movement a definitely
intellectual and theological expression. It has indeed
been said that his whole Gospel was a theology. He
234 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
certainly seems to have been impelled by his very nature
and training to search for intellectual forms by means
of which he could express, for his own satisfaction and
the edification of his converts, the meaning of his and
their new experience and Gospel. He seems also to have
definitely formulated his Gospel in intellectual forms as
a weapon of offence and attack in his dealings both with
Jews and Gentiles.
Finally, the service of Paul to Christian literature is
twofold. He was the first comprehensively and effectively
to claim the Old Testament as a Christian book, and also
in his own way to justify that claim. More directly,
his own letters form the first nucleus of an original
Christian literature. He so discussed the questions
which were of vital and passing interest to his Churches
in his letters that they introduced the Christian move-
ment effectively into the realm of the highest literature.
In some senses they were in form and matter a new
phenomenon in the Greek, Roman and Jewish world
of their time. Many of their great passages must have
come to the men of the time like streams of living water
to thirsty souls. Using the colloquial Greek of the common
people, they gave fresh and classical utterance to some of
the deepest and most universal experiences of the human
heart. Their fervour and enthusiasm, their freshness and
moral earnestness, their directness and simplicity, must
have come as a new revelation from God to those who
were accustomed to the foolish garrulity, the elegant
posing and the empty rhetoric of the majority of the
literary men of those generations. These were unique
services, and it is they which give to Paul his unique place
in the development of early Christianity.
PAUL IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY
We need not enlarge upon the significance and influence
of the Apostle Paul in and upon the nineteen centuries
which have passed since his death. His power over certain
types of mind has been incalculably great, though other
men, even after repeated efforts, have utterly failed to
appreciate his greatness or to understand him. Many
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 235
have even shrunk from him in disgust. He has been more
ardently followed (though seldom loved), more bitterly
hated and more seriously misunderstood than almost
any other great personality in history. Men like Marcion,
on the one hand, and Luther, on the other, have revelled
in his presence, while the Neoplatonist and the Hellenic
mind have almost always hated him. He has been too
Jewish for these, while for others he has been too much
of a Greek. By way of veneration or reaction, however,
almost the whole history of Christianity might be written
in terms of the Pauline experience and the Pauline
theology. At times he has overshadowed even the figure
of Jesus Himself, and a long line of the men who for good
or ill have made the history of Europe bear the marks of
Paul even more deeply then he did ' the marks of Jesus.' It
has sometimes been for ill rather than good, because the
Paul who was thus honoured was not the full and complete
Paul.
3
THE PERMANENT VALUE OF PAUL
MATTHEW ARNOLD AND PAUL
Ernest Renan was of opinion that Paul was now at
last coming to the end of his long reign, but, as a matter
of fact, what he saw was the reaction against a false
view of Paul, dissolving into a better appreciation of
Paul's permanent significance and value as a man and
a thinker and a Christian personality. The fitting man
to answer Renan, therefore, was Matthew Arnold, who
in spite of many qualities which seemed to unfit him to
become the interpreter of Paul, was yet the first to lead
us back to a better and more human understanding of the
Apostle. " Precisely the contrary," he writes in answer
to Renan, " I venture to think, is the judgment to which
a true criticism of men and things, in our own country
at least, leads us. ... The reign of the real St. Paul is
only beginning ; his fundamental ideas, disengaged from
the elaborate misconceptions with which Protestantism
236 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
has overlaid them, will have an influence in the
future greater than any which they have yet had an
influence proportioned to their correspondence with a
number of the deepest and most permanent facts of
human nature itself. . . . Not in our day will Paul relive,
with his incessant effort to find a moral side to miracle,
with his incessant effort to make the intellect follow and
secure all the workings of the religious perception. Of
those who care for religion, the multitude of us want the
materialism of the Apocalypse, the few want a vague
religiosity. Science, which more and more teaches us to
find in the unapparent the real, will gradually serve to
conquer the materialism of popular religion. The friends
of vague religiosity, on the other hand, will be more and
more taught by experience that a theology, a scientific
appreciation of the facts of religion, is wanted for religion.
. . . Both these influences will work for Paul's re-
emergence. The doctrine of Paul will arise out of the
tomb where for centuries it has lain buried ; it will edify
the Church of the future. It will have the consent of
happier generations, the applause of less superstitious
generations. All will be too little to pay half the debt
which the Church of God owes to this ' least of the
Apostles/ ' who was not fit to be called an Apostle because
he persecuted the Church of God.' " 1
HELLENISM AND JUDAISM IN PAUL
The way may seem far from the Apostle Paul to
Matthew Arnold, but in their very different ways they
were both engaged in the same never-ending task. They
were both defending a gospel which was to the Jews a
stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness, but which
was intended to lead to a method of life involving the
reconciliation of Hebraism and Hellenism while preserving
the one from Hellenisticism and the other from Pharisaism.
In that struggle is to be found the spiritual significance
of Paul, and Matthew Arnold is the best witness to its
permanence. The analysis may be crude and incomplete,
1 Matthew Arnold, St. Paul and Protestantism (popular edition, London,
1888), pp. i, 2, 80.
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 237
nevertheless it is true that the main values of modern
life are to be traced back to the messages of Greece and
Palestine the struggle between them and the many
attempts to reconcile them in the individual and social
life. Paul was the first (unless Philo of Alexandria be
accounted worthy to stand by his side) to realize and to
face the problem in any comprehensive way as well as
to do any sort of justice to some elements at least in both.
He did attempt to combine the freedom of Greece with
the ethical emphasis of the Jew into a great ideal of a
free moral personality as the end and aim of all his efforts.
He at least attempted to pour the energies of the divine
community of Israel and the comprehension of the
philosophic republic of Greece into a new universalism
which was to take shape in a world-wide Christian
Church.
It is in these two things the emphasis on the freedom
and independence of the moral personality and his emphasis
on the solidarity of the race ' in Christ ' that we find
the permanent value of Paul, and also his peculiar touch
with modern needs and interests. A thorough study of
him in the light of these two great ends has an abiding
value.
PAUL'S Two GREAT AIMS
For these two ends he is almost a fanatical enthusiast
with an almost unearthly strain of reckless abandon to
his cause, ready to pay almost any price for its success
in aches and pains of body, in the travail of his soul
and even in a tattered reputation giving continually
of his best and truest to it, without money and without
price and without thanks, at the sacrifice of comfort,
home, friends and people.
This capacity for unstinted devotion to such causes
is directly due to the fact that he looks upon his task as
almost exclusively a religious one. He is, indeed, a typical
example of an intensely religious personality God-
haunted and God-subdued and of what such a personality
can accomplish among men. His personal experience of
religion was a classical one. It is still the clearest and
most characteristic example of one of the two most
238 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
important types of the specifically Christian experience
and faith. It was characteristic of him that this did
not become a mere c religiosity/ but an intense passion
for righteousness, a constant pressure upon his will. It
also made an imperative call upon his intellect urging
him to a more and more thorough and comprehensive
expression of his faith in intellectual terms, and to its
incorporation in the social life of the world. Every age
stands in need of being kept in touch with such men,
and to be reminded of the fundamental values they
express and our modern time perhaps more than any
other.
Naturally, these permanent values in Paul are com-
bined with many elements merely temporary and passing.
His picture of the world, his belief in angels and demons,
his views of body and soul, and many others of his beliefs,
have gone never to return, having had their say and done
their work. If we judged Paul merely by his theological
method, whether in argument or in the formulation of
his doctrines, he would remain for us a figure of the past
with whom we have now very little in common.
He himself, however, is none the less a typical person-
ality, and the work he performed in and through these
temporary forms is none the less permanent in its essential
nature and significance.
The historical achievements of the Apostle Paul are
great and various, but they do not exhaust his work.
In and through the things he said and did, he left behind
him the impress of a personality of enduring value-
greater than anything he ever said or did.
4
PAUL IN CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION
PAUL AND JESUS IN MODERN INSTRUCTION
In many ways it is a difficult task to give the Apostle
Paul his own proper and peculiar place in a system of
Christian instruction and education. He is a much more
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 239
complicated personality than Jesus, was born and worked
in a more complicated situation. The stamp of his age
is seen more clearly and oftener upon his thought, work
and life. He was called upon to meet many practical
problems which were beyond the horizon of Jesus. His
touch with fundamental human nature was not so direct
and simple as that of his Master.
The universalism of Jesus, for instance, may not be
so explicit in expression and application as that of the
Apostle. It was, nevertheless, quite as real. It was more
(effective in the long run, because its roots went down to
simpler and more permanent elements in humanity. He
found universal humanity in every individual in his
relation to the Father. The forms of Paul's peculiar
contribution to universalism are more extensive than
intensive, more cosmopolitan than psychological. He
reads humanity in terms of nations rather than of in-
dividual human nature. What Jesus therefore gave to
the world was a universal Gospel, but the special con-
tribution of Paul was a universal Church and a federation
of religious communities within which the individual
personality must hold a more or less precarious place.
Paul himself, it is true, made the promotion of both his
aim, but even he did not always succeed in resolving the
inevitable tension between them. The universalism of
Jesus is therefore more easily grasped than that of Paul,
and it also provides a more central and effective educational
motive. In any case, it is clear that it is far easier for
the modern world to find points of contact with the Gospel
of Jesus than with the Church of Paul.
First of all, too, it is in the region of the concrete and
varied application of the Gospel that the educational value
of the Apostle Paul mainly lies, whereas Jesus brings us
in a simple and direct way face to face with the spirit and
fundamental principles of that Gospel. The latter, of
course, are also to be found in Paul, but in order to see
them we have often to thrust aside a mass of strange
material which prevents the clear and direct revelation
of them. Paul himself, and others for him, have built
around his central heart high walls which are not always
easy to scale.
240 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
PAUL A DIFFICULT SUBJECT
The concreteness of his presentations in his theological
doctrines, his Church and his many other definite applica-
tions of the Christian faith are educationally deceptive, as
the history of Christian instruction plainly shows. They
are fairly easy to transmit superficially, but more often
than not it has been easier to rest content with the Pauline
forms than to press forward and inward beyond them
into the central faith and Christian spirit of the
Apostle.
The problem, therefore, of teaching Paul as a real
element in Christian instruction and education is no light
task, and cannot be solved without a good deal of hard
work and strenuous thought.
In one thing alone does Paul seem at first to have an
advantage over Jesus as a teaching instrument. We feel
that we ought to know more about him and to know
him more personally and directly than Jesus. Though a
biography is no more possible in his case than in that of
Jesus, still Paul does speak to us directly in his own
letters as well as through the dramatic story of Acts,
while we have our knowledge of Jesus only at second
or even third hand.
This, however, does not help us so much as it might
seem to do. It is balanced by other and more vital con-
siderations. The letters of Paul are, of course, of vital
importance for our understanding of him, but somehow
or other, great as their power often is, they have not in
them the same power of revelation as the material of the
Synoptic Gospels. Jesus even through His reporters can
reveal more of Himself in a few brief sayings than Paul in
a long letter.
Generally speaking, therefore, Paul provides material
more intractable in the hands of the modern teacher than
does Jesus. It is much more complicated and needs more
manipulation, because Paul is always moving more towards
the circumference of the Christian Gospel and life. He
deals much more" largely with the particular concrete and
temporary application and expression of the Christian
Gospel.
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 241
PAUL NEVERTHELESS NECESSARY
This fact, however, though it may set before us a
difficult task, means that we have all the more need
of Paul alongside of Jesus in any complete scheme of
Christian instruction. It is not only that he fills a large
place in the New Testament, but he provides the necessary
complement to Jesus and His teaching. The practical
application of the Gospel under the direction of the
Apostle Paul is an essential element in its full presenta-
tion, and therefore in Christian instruction, especially in
view of our modern situation. We need a much clearer
recognition of the fact that such a comprehensive and
devoted crusade for the incorporation of the Gospel in the
intellectual convictions of men, in their personal callings
and work, and in social institutions, is not only a corollary
to it, but a necessary element of the Gospel itself. The
application may change from age to age, but it is in the
process that the Christian Gospel finds its reality, fulness
and power.
It is, then, one of our great tasks to make the Pauline
material in the New Testament effective as one of the
primary elements in Christian instruction. But before
we can make this material effective we must somehow
make the figure of Paul and his work interesting in the
deeper sense to the modern mind ; and in order to make
him interesting we must so far as possible make him in-
telligible. Our task is to promote and cultivate a better
and clearer understanding of Paul in order to enlist the
hearts and emotions of men on his side so that he may
grip their will and conscience.
5
THE STORY OF PAUL'S LIFE
NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL DIFFICULTIES
As we have seen, it is not easy to make Paul intelligible.
We have to meet the natural difficulties arising from the
16
242 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
nature of his personality, the course of his education, the
character of his moral and spiritual experiences, the
complication of his environment, the intricate windings
of his subtle mind, the variety and wide extent of his
activities as well as the extraordinary contradictions
revealed in his historical influence upon different types of
men and their very different reactions under his influence.
In addition, however, to such natural difficulties as these,
we have made other difficulties for ourselves by our
traditional methods of approaching and dealing with the
task of teaching Paul. We have generally started from
the wrong end and emphasized the wrong side. Paul, the
theologian, has loomed far too largely and too early in our
minds as teachers, and in our instruction. It is indeed a
matter of grave doubt whether a detailed study of Paul's
theology as such can ever become an integral part of
Christian instruction at all except in mature, select and
more or less expert circles. The difficulties of making it
really intelligible and interesting are so great as permanently
to stand in the way of our finding the simpler and more real
Paul who stands behind his theological constructions. At
any rate, if we let the latter control our approach to him
we are quite likely to remain simply puzzled by them and
to find the door leading to the understanding and apprecia-
tion of Paul shut against us.
TRADITIONAL METHOD UNSATISFACTORY
We must, without doubt, pluck up the courage, so far
as all effective instruction is concerned, to break away
quite definitely and decisively from the traditional methods.
Our educational study of Paul must proceed on more
historical lines begin with the dramatic human elements
in his life and adventures, go on to describe him as a
Christian disciple, and try to make him intelligible as a
Christian missionary and organizer, selecting only so much
of his letters and his thought as may be absolutely
necessary for this purpose. Then and then only will
come the time to present him as the creator of n
Christian Literature, as a theologian and in his universal
significance.
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 243
Once we adopt this general attitude to our task, the
distribution of the Pauline material in a progressive
Christian instruction will not be so difficult.
THE STORY OF PAUL
It is not much that we can usefully employ in the
curriculum for childhood. That will probably consist of
>me of the more dramatic incidents in the life and adven-
;ures of Paul the Traveller selected and somewhat more
idapted to this age from Mr. Basil Matthews' Paul the
Dauntless, and including some justifiable imaginative
construction of the early days at Tarsus, the scene at
the stoning of Stephen, the story of the conversion in its
more external aspects, some of the adventures in Galatia,
Ephesus and elsewhere, the arrest and first trial, the
voyage to Rome and maybe one or two others. These
will not amount to anything like a life of Paul, but they
may easily be strung together so as to form a more or
less connected narrative.
In early adolescence will come the attempt to describe
the life and work of Paul as a Christian man and as a
Christian missionary more fully and more connectedly.
For this purpose, the inspiration and guidance offered by
Paul the Dauntless are invaluable and unique. There is
nothing like it in modern literature, and the teacher will
do well to soak himself in its spirit and method before he
begins his task.
The merely wearisome recital of the three missionary
journeys, with the deadly repetition of more or less empty
names of cities and countries stereotyped for the memory,
has always been a heavy burden for the teacher to carry
and for the pupil to endure. Much more interesting and
much more illuminating would be some attempt to make
Paul's travels live as pictures even if the record of his
journeys be far from complete. Still more to the point
would be some effort to distinguish between the experi-
mental methods of the first period in Cilicia, Antioch,
and the journey with Barnabas, and the later period
when Paul went off on his own lines, and the vision of a
great imperial mission stood clear before him.
244 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
This story of the life of Paul should probably be
accompanied and illustrated by some appropriate quota-
tions from the Book of Acts and the Epistles ; and also
by some elementary account of the origin and purpose of
his letters some two or three of them being selected as
examples in their proper connection.
6
THE WORK AND TEACHING OF PAUL
THE BACKGROUND OF PAUL'S WORK AND TEACHING
Following this story of Paul as a Christian man and
a Christian missionary would come in middle and late
adolescence a study of the work of the Apostle as a whole
in relation to his heritage and environment, his character
and personality.
i. The first part of this task is to provide the life,
thought and work of Paul with its own peculiar back-
ground. An attempt must be made to give some descrip-
tion of Judaism and Pharisaism, mainly as the soil out
of which Paul grew, and partly as one of the enemies he
had to face in carrying out his chief task. Secondly
and on the other hand, the Hellenistic popular thought
and religion in the Roman Empire must also be present
in the background, to a certain extent, as one of the
influences which moulded him, but more as the power he
set himself to conquer and subdue to the life of the Gospel.
There is also a third element which must have its
place in any introduction to the study of Paul, namely,
the Primitive Church. He may have had fleeting glimpses
of Jesus in Jerusalem and may once and again have
listened to His voice, but more often than not the
Primitive Church historically stands between him and
the Master. To the first disciples belong the earliest
experiences of the Risen Jesus, as well as the preservation
of the memories of His earthly life. It was they also who
established the first Christian community. Their signifi-
cance in the New Testament is therefore twofold. They
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 245
preserved and mediated the direct and personal influences
of Jesus and also, both positively and negatively, prepared
the way for Paul.
The similarities and differences between Paul and
these three elements in his heritage and environment
should be revealed fairly clearly in our study of the
Apostle. It was upon these that he built, but it was
these also which he had to fight on behalf of his Gospel.
In view of the present state of our knowledge of
the Primitive Church as well as of Judaism and of the
Hellenistic religion, the teacher will not find it an easy
task to make this part of his study of Paul useful and
fruitful educationally.
PAUL'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
2. The second element in the discussion will be some
analysis of the moral and spiritual experiences of the
Apostle, and especially of his conversion. No one has
yet succeeded in making the experiences of Paul on the
way to Damascus either historically or psychologically
quite intelligible. Probably there will here always remain
a surd beyond our calculation and elements beyond our
control. But it would be a great service to Christian
instruction if only the peculiar character of Paul's ex-
perience could be made clear by comparison with other
classical instances of similar conversions like those of
Augustine and Luther, which involve in general the same
type of sudden break with the past and a thoroughgoing
reconstruction ' by the grace of God ' of the whole life.
Out of these experiences sprang the great aims which
afterwards controlled the lifelong activities of Paul the
ultimate values revealed in that life and work. These
we have already described generally as the creation and
promotion of free moral personalities on the one hand and
of a universal Christian community or Church on the
other.
THE TYPICAL STRUGGLES OF PAUL
In the pursuit of these aims we find Paul more and
more forced into antagonism and a desperate struggle
246 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
with the legalism of Judaism and the Primitive Church
on the one hand and on the other with the non-ethical
paganism of the Hellenistic world.
It is in the emergence and development of these
struggles in so definite and defined a form that the central
historical and permanent significance of the Apostle Paul
for education lies the life-and-death struggle of new
ideals for supremacy over the old, incorporated in con-
crete forms.
It is essentially the same struggle as we find in the
history of all the prophetic figures of the race in Luther
and Savonarola, in Wyclif and Hus, in the Hebrew prophets
and in Jesus, in different forms. It might, in fact, be said
that one of the greatest tasks of all education is to make
this struggle living to, and live again in, the minds, hearts
and will of the young.
A comparative study of some of these outstanding
personalities from this point of view would be one of the
most significant contributions to spiritual education, and
Paul has undoubtedly his own contribution to make for
this purpose. The struggle against Judaism is most
clearly represented by the letter to the Galatians, and the
struggle against Hellenistic paganism by First Corinthians ;
and these letters might well be studied definitely in this
connection.
THE MOTIVES OF PAUL'S THEOLOGY
3. What will provide the climax to the study of these
struggles both positively and negatively and also the
best introduction to the study of Paul's theology, as well
as the best bridge between it and his experience, is a
definite consideration of the pedagogic and apologetic
elements in Paul's life and thought. Most of Paul's
theological constructions spring directly out of his needs
as a defender of the faith, against its two great enemies,
and then out of his needs as an organizer and teacher of
his converts.
Behind this motive of the missionary teacher there
is, of course, the primary demand of his own personal
experience of Christ and God for intellectual explanation
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 247
and interpretation upon a mind like that of Paul. From
this point of view Paul's theology is an attempt to uni-
versalize his own personal experience ; but that experi-
ence is not allowed freely to find its own intellectual
expression. In the particular forms it takes it is con-
ditioned now by categories borrowed from his old Pharisaic
theology, and again by influences from Hellenistic thought.
It is conditioned also by the urgent need of defence against
Judaism on the one hand and paganism on the other ; and
finally also by the more positive desire to promote the
growth of the Christian life in his converts. It is the
loose combination of these more or less divergent sources
and motives that explain the varied forms and com-
plexities of Paul's theological constructions.
Educationally, it is a far more important task to un-
ravel these motives that led to all the theologizing of Paul
than to study his doctrines in detail or to attempt to
reduce his often occasional theological statements into a
consistent system. It is in order to realize vividly the
force and character of these motives that we need here
a definite study of Paul as a missionary teacher the
defender of the faith against Jews and Greeks and the
faithful pastor of the flock of Christ .
THE ETHICS, THEOLOGY AND RELIGION OF
PAUL
From all this we can then proceed more hopefully to
a special study of Paul's Ethics and Theology, and in the
end come back through them once more to that funda-
mental religious faith which he shared with Jesus Christ
and found also in Him completely incorporated and made
' the power of God unto salvation.'
PAUL'S ETHICAL TEACHING
i. In order to avoid any danger of misinterpreting
Paul's theology, it is just as well first of all to emphasize
248 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
his intense moral earnestness and teaching. Not that we
can speak of ethics in any technical sense or of ethical
theories in connection with Paul, but we need to be sure
that his full message is not only an intellectual formulation
of the Christian experience, but also a definite application
of the Gospel to the life of the will, both in the activities
of the personal life and in social relations.
The ethical imperative is as much a reality to Paul as
it was to Jesus. The moral sense of responsibility, the
energy of the will to struggle and to work were not
paralysed by his trust in God, his profound experience
of the free grace of the Father, and his sense of the absolute
sovereignty of the divine will. It was only stimulated
by them to achieve greater ethical triumphs than ever
before. For him as for Jesus, the primary incarnation and
application of religion was in a sturdy morality of personal
life, and the main qualities of the personal, ethical ideal
which thus issues out of Christian faith are love, sincerity,
simplicity, freedom and independence, purity, loyalty and
gratitude.
Nor does Paul fail to meet many of the problems of
the social life as they emerge one by one in the experience
of himself and his converts. Neither a politician nor a
social reformer in the narrow sense, yet he does devote a
great deal of attention to the most important social
institutions to marriage and the family, nationality and
the State. He may have been mistaken in his judgment
with regard to the proper Christian attitude towards
slavery, marriage, the place of women or the Roman
State, but for him as for Jesus, love, which includes active,
unselfish service as its first element, was the root-principle
of the Christian life, and he took it seriously and applied
it intelligently.
More than all in this connection, it must not be for-
gotten that Paul was the effective creator of the Christian
Church the greatest social institution in the history of
the world. He has a clear vision of its social significance,
and it becomes under his hand the germinating ground
of a new world. In it there is neither bond nor free,
neither rich nor poor, neither male nor female. It is a
democracy of equals, each with his own work and function
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 249
according to the grace which God has given him, and all
living together as brothers in the peace and happiness
that can come only from willing co-operation in unselfish
service and good deeds. He may not have been always
faithful to his principles, but his ideal of the Church,
its life and its tasks, is a social contribution of supreme
value to the world.
2. We cannot here enter upon anything like a sketch
of Paul's theology, but must be content with suggesting
the main lines upon which a study of it for educational
purposes should run. It certainly ought, first of all, to
be studied in close relation to his work as a missionary,
a teacher and apologist.
THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
For these purposes he succeeded in putting his message
into a form more or less metaphysical which reads
like a complete, finished, concrete, simple and clear story
so far as its fundamental outline is concerned. It runs
as follows :
Christ, the Son of God, a superhuman, heavenly,
Divine Being, in willing obedience to God the Father's
behest came down from heaven in the fulness of time,
was made man, and through His death and resurrection
was " exalted to the right hand of God." By this means
He has redeemed those who believe in Him from the
flesh and sin, the law, death and Satan, and has thus
brought to them the salvation of God of which the holy
influence and working of the Holy Spirit of God and of
Christ is the guarantee here and now.
Under the presuppositions of that age it is a simple
and a clear story, however strange it may sound to our
modern ears. It was one of Paul's educational triumphs
to have formulated such a story, and not the least of its
merits for its time was its mythological character. To
us it may not be so simple as it looks, for we have left
the whole universe in which it moves far behind us ;
but the people of the time questioned the possibility and
probability of no word of it. To them the actors were
all real, and the means adopted were all perfectly natural.
250 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
In its separate elements it was no new theology created
by Paul. Pagan thought was already familiar with
divine beings who came down to earth, while the death
and resurrection of these divine beings were not strange
to them. Already, also, the Primitive Church had its pre-
existent Christ, and they had seen in the Cross and Resur-
rection their redemption. They knew the Holy Spirit,
and in His marvellous working had found the earnest
of their full salvation. What Paul did was to universalize
their Christ, to set the Cross defiantly and triumphantly
in the centre of the picture, to gather together the scattered
elements of their beliefs into one complete and coherent
drama of salvation, to enunciate it clearly, to proclaim
it as something new and independent of Judaism, as well
as to defend it vigorously against all attacks and to
justify it with all the strength and subtlety of his specu-
lative intellect.
THREE MAIN LINES OF THOUGHT
We do not, however, find in the Epistles of Paul any
complete and unified system of theological doctrines
elaborating this outline and framework, and covering
systematically all its details. What we do find is that
his mind seems, as a result of his needs as a missionary,
to have been working in three different directions which
correspond to three aspects of his life and work. There is,
firstly, an Anti- Jewish Apologetic. Secondly, there are
the elements of a theology designed .to support his Gentile
Mission and to overcome paganism. Thirdly, there are
in his letters numerous traces of a more or less original
and independent theology which springs more directly
out of his Christian experience and that of his converts.
These three cycles of thought are constantly over-
lapping one another in Paul's letters, and it is impossible
to weld them together into one consistent system. That
may, however, only be due to the fragmentary character
of the letters as compared with Paul's own mind. So
we must be content with giving a brief description of
each one separately, so far as we can trace their character
through scattered and occasional references and dis-
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND HIS LETTERS 251
cussions in Paul's letters. That seems to be the only way
in which we can make them of real educational value,
and the only way by which we can arrive at some under-
standing and appreciation of the practical meaning of
Paul's theological thinking.
THE ANTI-JEWISH APOLOGETIC
(a) The first line of thought was intended to meet
Judaism, to defend and to justify the independence and
superiority of the Gospel against Jewish attacks. This
Anti-Jewish Apology is mainly concerned with the means
of salvation, and discusses the relation between faith and
law, works and grace, the Old Testament and the Law,
bringing out the great contrasts between the new and the
old religion. It uses the Jewish terms and ideas of the
Christ, law, justification, sacrifice and propitiation, to
interpret the personality and work of Jesus, to explain
the character of His death and to describe the means and
method of salvation. It starts with the dogma of the
corruption of human nature and the inability of man to
fulfil the whole law. It proceeds to the doctrines of the
complete obedience to the demands of the law in the
life of Christ, His death as the complete and final sacrifice
for sin as well as the full satisfaction of the law, making
the whole system of Jewish sacrifices useless, His Resur-
rection proving the acceptance of that sacrifice by God.
This line of thought finally issues in the doctrine of
Justification by Faith and closes with eschatological
doctrines of the final salvation in the Kingdom of God
ushered in by the Parousia of Christ, the Last Judgment,
and the Resurrection of the just, clothed in ' spiritual
bodies. 1
THE ANTI-PAGAN THEOLOGY
(b) The second line of thought goes out to meet the
Gentiles and supports the appeal of Paul's great mission
to the Greek, Latin and Oriental pagan world. It uses
Greek and Pagan terms and ideas of the Logos, incar-
nation, the dying and rising again of divine Saviours, fear
252 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN EDUCATION
and dread of the world of demons, salvation and re-
demption through a mystico-physical union with the
divine by baptism, common sacrificial meals and other
sacramental mystery-rites, as well as the idea of the con-
tradiction and universal struggle between the flesh and
the spirit combined with the belief in the immortality
of the spirit when released from the bonds of the flesh.
These terms and ideas are used in order to interpret to
the pagan mind the personality and work of Jesus Christ
as well as the method of salvation through Him. This
line of thought also starts from the dogma of the cor-
ruption of human nature, its sins in this case being
against the law of conscience ; it proceeds to interpret
the heathen gods as demons, from the evil power of whom
men need deliverance ; or as mere images weak and in-
effective . It sketches a doctrine of Christ as the Lord
who is the incarnation of the Son of God in flesh to pro-
cure full and final redemption from the curse and power of
the flesh, the death and resurrection as the triumph of the
spirit over the flesh or as the conquest over the world of
evil demons. This the Son accomplishes in a repre-
sentative capacity for the race of men, thereby winning for
Himself a place " far above all rule and authority and
every name that is named, not only in this world but also
in that which is to come." This redemption from the
flesh and from the power of demons may be shared by all
men through faith, which has here a tendency to become a
belief in this series of ' evangelic facts ' as well as trust in
the Son of God. The salvation becomes the actual pos-
session of the believer by the mystic sharing of Christ's
death and resurrection which finds its expression in a
sacramentarian doctrine of the Church, Baptism and the
Lord's Supper.
It is not meant that these two lines of thought are to
be found in the writings of Paul separately and indepen-
dently drawn. What is fairly clear is that the unsyste-
matic theological thinking of the Apostle for apologetic
and missionary purposes ran on both these lines, now
on one, now on the other. They cross and recross each
other at many points, while they run parallel to each
other in
