THE MODERNITY OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM’S VIEW ON EDUCATION

Abstract

The current world, characterised by a dynamic full of continuous fluctuations and challenges, urges us to change perspectives regarding the educational phenomenon. There is a growing interest for the holistic development of the human being so that s/he could face the imperatives of the contemporary society. The present article creates a favourable opportunity to highlight that the harmonious formation of human individuality was first described many centuries ago. St. John Chrysostom, who adopts a broad approach to the education topic, points out that a responsible educational process should offer a holistic development to people. Thus, we aim to analyze Christian and modern pedagogy discourses in a comparative manner, in order to demonstrate the modernity of the Antiochian pedagogue’s view on education. We investigated the degree of overlapping between the Hrisostomian pedagogical ideas and the current theories of personality development. Also, our content analysis looks into the number of references regarding the children’s upbringing and education as compared to the recurrent topics in the works of St. John Chrysostom. We analyzed St. John’s recommendations on the child’s development, virtues and values, so we can integrate them in contemporary formative contexts. The outcome reveals that the writings of the Christian pedagogue align with the current desideratum of the Romanian educational system. We consider theses pedagogical suggestions and the good practices that are given to be valuable instruments as they are up to date in terms of educational principles, methods and content and they satisfy the needs and the specifics of the educational process beneficiaries.