Education or Conversion: Epictetus and the Gospels

Abstract

BULTMANN says somewhere that he caused a considerable commotion among a group of students of an American university, who attended his tutorial, when he maintained that there is no such thing as a Christian education. First he tried to elucidate that contention by drawing a comparison between biblical and Greek ethics. According to the typically Greek conception, ethical requirements are not understood to be the commandments of an authority, as in the biblical way of thinking, but are seen from the Greek viewpoint of a rational education by means of which the nature of man must be realised. Education is, seen thus, a question of teaching and learning. The true essence of man is assumed to be the reason. Education is therefore the methodical development of reason, the rational faculty of man. Can one speak of a Christian education in this sense? Apparently not, if the essence of education is thus formulated. If Christian faith is not based on human reason, then a Christian education is not possible 1). When BULTMANN refutes the Christian education so well-loved