Christian Parents Research Articles

Your Children's Education: Duties in Christian Education, by Parents as Teachers, and Children as Learners

This article reviews the proper content and considerations for Christians in educating their children, as put forward by the authors of the New Testament and other Christian literature before AD 250, who wrote when oral teachings and Bible interpretations of Christ and the apostles were still current in Christian memories. The paper relates or summarises: the general duty of Christian parents to provide education for their children; the content of Christian education, especially ethics; how parents are to perform their task of educating; the obligations on Christian children as learners; and the double standard, whereby Christian students may learn material incompatible with Christian belief but a Christian is forbidden to teach such material.

A Study of Child-Rearing of Christian Parents : Christian Value Education in the Family

A Study of Child-Rearing of Christian Parents : Christian Value Education in the Family

Ministry Students Ages of Conversion with Implications for Childhood Evangelism and Baptism Practices

In recent years, the age of conversion and baptism in North America has steadily decreased for most Christian faith traditions that practice believer's baptism. Several denominational leaders and Christian educators have expressed concerns about the possible negative effects related to these seemingly premature conversions. The findings from a national study of ministry students, however, provide some evidence that early conversions of individuals within a strong Christian environment (i.e., devout Christian parents and a high level of church involvement) do not necessarily have detrimental effects on the individual's spiritual growth or long-term faith commitment. Nevertheless, some basic guidelines should be followed to encourage the most appropriate practices related to childhood evangelism and baptism.

The Purpose and the Distinctiveness of Christian Schools

This article explores the purpose and the distinctiveness of Christian schools which are thecontemporary concerns of church leaders and Christian educators in Korea. Based on this issue, the purpose of this paper is to provide basic ideas of Christian schools to Christian parents and educators. In order to delineate the purpose of this article following specific contents shall be discussed. First, this paper will describe why we need Christian schools today. This question will be discussed based on the religious nature and cultural aspects of education, God’s mandate and the Great Commission. Second, the purpose of Christian schools will be described in terms of helping parents to perform their tasks, pupils’ serving the Lord, teachers’ teaching biblically, taking up our cross to follow Christ, and God’s glory. Third, five elements will be explored as the distinctiveness of Christian schools such as truth, biblical integration, Christian staff, potential in Christ, and organizational practice. God wants us to establish Christian schools and our students to be educated in Christian perspectives. To accomplish this commissions parents, church leaders and christian teachers need to understand the necessity, purpose and distinctiveness of Christian schools. Christian schools intend not only to followChrist and glorify God but to help students develop a God-centered world and life view.

The Scandal of Particularity: Particularity and the Public Square

The Scandal of Particularity: Particularity and the Public Square Paul D. Hanson A personal note Thank you for the opportunity to join your exploration of the Scandal of Particularity, specifically as it focuses on Particularity and the Public Square. David Novak may share my sense of being a ger who has passed over a border, entered a very special land, and been welcomed as a member of your extended family. Your gracious hospitality notwithstanding, I am aware that you have developed bonds of kinship and understanding, the nature and depth of which are unknown to me, even as my own nephesh in large part is unknown to you. Out of my desire to move from the alienation of the stranger toward the communion of a fellow pilgrim on the fascinating journey you have been taking, I am going to share a few thoughts regarding my faith tradition and the bearing it has on the over‐arching theme of your Joint Project, particularly its starting point in the challenge presented by the “erosion of center.” I understand my faith in terms of a specific historical ontology. My identity, my very being, arises out of a relationship with God chronicled in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, amplified through a long history of interpretation by rabbis and theologians, and extended to me in a most personal and intimate way by Christian parents within the context of a Lutheran Church that they cherished and supported. The tiny town on the south shore of Lake Superior in which I spent my first seventeen years was unfamiliar with the phenomenon of religious and cultural diversity as it is experienced in most regions of the country today. The Italian and Polish miners attended St. Joseph’s Parish, the Swedish and Finnish foresters attended First Lutheran. There were no people of dark skin in Wakefield, though there was one Jewish merchant. Prejudice against minorities was not blatant, but to deny its latency in our Sunday school materials and the jokes people shared around the dinner table would be tantamount with resigning oneself to a life of bigotry. Fortunately for me, my life has been a journey of border crossings, on which the ignorance that matures into prejudice has been dismantled, one personal encounter at a time: Isaiah Mbang at Gustavus Adolphus College, Tim Lim at Yale Divinity School, Buzzy Fishbane at Harvard University, and on and on. The challenges were not only cultural, they were religious. But unlike the repudiation of a faith tradition that was so common among my academic peers, encounter led me not to renunciation of my ancestral faith, but to a deepened understanding of that faith. That background lies at the heart of my present work on religion and politics. The theo‐political hermeneutic with which I work is simply an extension of an ongoing life‐journey, a stage in the development of my historical ontology. I invite you now to visit with me a very personal moment in my life‐journey that hopefully will help you to understand my personal relation to the problem of the “erosion of center.” We are strolling along the shore of a cove in the Penobscott Bay in Maine, my wife Cynthia, my daughter Amy, my sons Mark and Nathaniel, their spouses and their little ones, my precious grandchildren. This happens every July, this gathering of our family, our mišpahah. The significance of this primal community in my self‐understanding is described by David Novak in “The Jewish Political Contract.”1 As I mentioned earlier, my identity, my being is the creation of a millennia‐long relationship, and I cannot begin to trace the genealogy that preserved faithfully the understanding of a compassionate God through persecution, intellectual assault, and the seduction of assimilation so as to bless me with the key to my understanding of life as gift and responsibility. That sense of heritage at my mature stage in life is the source of profound joy alloyed with a tinge of sorrow. Why this mixture of feelings? Amy, my oldest, and her husband Gary Tatz, the son of an Orthodox Rabbi, are raising Gabriel and Joshua in a family overflowing with parental love and deep compassion toward...

Christian Schooling and Educational Excellence: An Australian Perspective

THIS PAPER CONSIDERS from an Australian perspective the tensions for Christian schooling in the notion of educational excellence and whether, ultimately, it is possible for a Christian school to promote itself as a centre for educational excellence and remain authentically Christian. The language of excellence is prevalent in Western society, and the language of educational excellence is certainly prevalent in Australia. Educational excellence appears to be the ambition and purpose of every “worthy” educational program and institution. This paper addresses the responses of Christian schooling in Australia, particularly Christian Parent Controlled (CPCS) schooling, to the concept of educational excellence. The vehicles for this exploration are an examination of the core values of CPCS schools, a consideration of the attitudes of a number of key CPCS educators and a case study of a particular CPCS school. The concept of educational excellence is critiqued in this context.

A Spanish Bishop Remembers the Future: Oral Traditions and Purgatory in Julian of Toledo

Julian of Toledo, born to Christian parents of Jewish descent, took a strong stand against Rome and was responsible for making Toledo into the pre-eminent bishopric of Visigothic Spain in the late seventh century. He also helped King Erwig retain his election by declaring his comatose predecessor Wamba a penitent and presiding over a council in which his people were released from their obligation to obey him. In the intellectual as well as political sphere, he took an aggressive stance. Julian argued against the Babylonian Talmud, insisting that the Messiah had arrived in the person of Jesus, and also wrote a grammar and some poetry (Hillgarth 1976: viii-xi). One of the pre-eminent men of his day, he also contributed notably to the creation of a Christian theology of Purgatory in his Prognosticon Futuri Saeculi, a surpisingly rational and and intimate approach to Judgment Day and the last things. In this work Julian does not offer typical medieval “prognostications,” those charming books sometimes attributed to Daniel that promise to reveal the future from the imagery of your dreams, the occurrence of thunder, wind or sunshine on a Thursday, or the phase of the moon on your birthday. Julian seeks to answer a simple question: where does the soul reside between death and Judgment Day? In doing so, he creates one of the most popular works of the early Middle Ages: the Prognosticon survives in 162 complete manuscripts (ibid.:xxxiv). In an inspired moment, Julian, who may not or may not have known Greek, chooses the Greek prognosticon over the Latin praescientia as his title and then creates a work that is sui generis: a model of clarity, consolation, and good sense. Yet, it is rare to meet anyone today who has actually read or studied this text. The Prognosticon suffers from a triple whammy of unpopularity, at least for English-speaking audiences: it is written in Latin prose by a seventhcentury Spanish bishop, helps to formulate orthodox Catholic theology, and is comprised largely of quotations remembered from Julian’s reading of Patristic authors. To my knowledge, it has never been translated into English, though many of the works it draws upon have been. Lacking the aesthetic appeal of poetry and the linguistic appeal of the vernacular, neither sermon nor penitential nor encyclopedia, the Prognosticon remains in the realm of systematic theology, used mostly as an ancillary citation to illuminate the Zeitgeist of the late Visigoths. Julian’s Prognosticon is one of the earliest works to formulate in some coherent way the fate of the human soul between individual death and Judgment Day in the medieval Christian

We Are Not in Kansas or Kiev Anymore

The United States and Westem Europe are on the edge of a cultural collapse brought about to a large degree by the mass media of entertainment, along with public schools and other institutions of mass cultural diversion, USA Today notes that 70 percent of Americans are unable to name the Ten Commandments. In a culture where physical health is a higher priority than spiritual vitality, another survey found that more Americans are familiar with the specific ingredients in a McDonald's hamburger than know the individual commands that comprise the Ten Commandments. Many Christian parents are concemed about the influence of media violence on their children, but do not know what to do about it. The good news is that there are effective ways to teach children to be media-wise. Specifically, there are five pillars of media wisdom that will help build the culture-wise family. Theodore Roosevelt said that if we educate a man's mind but not his heart, we will get an educated barbarian. Cultural and media wisdom involves educating the heart so that it will make the right decisions.

The spirituality of the Christian parent and spiritual formation

The spirituality of the Christian parent and spiritual formation

Let the Children Come: The Religion of the Protestant Child in Early America

In 1844, the Congregationalist minister Enoch Pond in Bangor, Maine, reminded his fellow clergy that they had been commissioned not only to feed the sheep of their flocks but also to nurture the lambs. Under no circumstances, he cautioned, would a good minister neglect the children, for both Christian parents and their pastors felt “the deepest anxiety” that the children of American parishes would not “receive that wise government, that faithful discipline, that Christian instruction and restraint, which, by the blessing of God, shall result in their speedy conversion, and bring them early and truly into the fold of Christ.” He called for pastors to pray for the children, to convene meetings of praying parents, to pay attention to children during pastoral visits, to impart special instruction to children from the pulpit, to visit their schools, to institute Sunday schools, to teach children the Bible, and to offer catechetical instruction. The devoted pastor would acquaint himself with children, “enter into their feelings, and interest himself in their affairs; and thus engage their affections, and win their confidence.“Christian clergy in America had long heeded such admonitions. Seventeenth-century Puritan ministers made serious, if sporadic, efforts to teach the catechism, often invited groups of children into their homes for instruction, contended over the implications of the baptismal covenant, and urged parents to teach their offspring religious truths and Christian practices. Eighteenth-century Anglican clergy made similar efforts to instruct children, and their revivalist counter-parts in New England and the Middle Colonies encouraged the conversion of children at younger than customary ages. Jonathan Edwards devoted careful attention to his four-year-old convert Phebe Bartlet, who followed in the path of her converted eleven-year-old brother by announcing, after anguished prayers and cries for mercy, that “the kingdom of God had come” to her.

"A Blessing to People": Dorsey Dixon and His Sacred Mission of Song

A Blessing to People" Dorsey Dixon and His Sacred Mission of Song Patrick Huber I'm trying to serve the Lord in my weak way and trying to be a blessing to people, is what I been trying to do. In fact, I've tried to live right all my life, but, you know, we're not going into the story about my life because I don't want that mentioned. I don't want nothing about my life wrote out, because I had it too rough in life. —Dorsey Dixon, on a ca. 1961 homemade recording Carolina Piedmont singer and songwriter Dorsey Dixon was never supposed to live. At his birth in 1897, in Darlington, South Carolina, he was a puny, oxygen-starved baby weighing only three pounds. "I heard [my parents] tell friends and neighbors many times that I was a blue baby. Which I did not understand," Dixon explained in one of his autobiographical writings. "But I have learned that such babies requared the greatest of care by doctors and nerses. and was right up next to imposible to keep one of them from slipping out from the living. But a great unknown Power kept me. and I made it." Dixon's pious Christian parents interpreted his near-miraculous survival as a sign that God had spared him for what they frequently referred to as "a great purpose." Throughout most of his life, however, gnawing doubts about his success in carrying out his divinely ordained mission tormented him. "I do not know if I have full filled the purpose that mother and father said I was left here for or not," Dixon confessed in a memoir written when he was fifty years old. "But I do know that I have had a real tough time in life." 1 For more than thirty-five years Dixon struggled to earn a living in the textile mills of the Carolina Piedmont, but by calling he was a guitarist, singer, and songwriter who came to believe that his special mission in life was to spread the gospel through music. A devout Free-Will Baptist and regular churchgoer, Dixon transformed accounts of small-town tragedies and national disasters into songs and poems about the wages of sin, the unknown hour of death, and the promise of eternal salvation. "Wreck on the Highway," which WSM's Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff turned into a national hit in 1942, remains Dixon's most famous composition, but many of his other songs similarly recount tragic events—millpond drownings, train wrecks, schoolhouse fires, ship sinkings, and other calamities. [End Page 111] Such misfortunes became, in Dixon's hands, moral parables about God's wrath and the self-destructive sins of human pride and godlessness, and, as jeremiads intended to generate spiritual renewal, his songs of tragedy usually concluded with somber warnings to sinners to repent of their wickedness and lead righteous Christian lives in anticipation of heavenly rewards. Perhaps such dreadful incidents resonated with him in part because, as he made clear in his late-life interviews and two unpublished autobiographical writings, hardship and suffering deeply scarred his own life. But Dixon's religious faith and his belief in his "great purpose" sustained him throughout fragile health, bouts with chronic depression, unstable personal relationships, intense pangs of self-doubt, and—despite modest songwriting success—lifelong poverty. In many ways his ongoing financial and health problems seemed only to strengthen his abiding faith. "And friends," he once wrote, "I know that the Great Power of God help[ed] me to win in every battle that I fought to stay in the world." 2 Click for larger view Figure 1 Throughout his musical career, Dorsey Dixon (here) turned stories of tragedy and disaster into religious parables of sin and redemption. Photograph courtesy of Wilson Library's Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Beginning in 1929, Dorsey Dixon composed or arranged more than 130 sacred [End Page...

Genetiese manipulasie as selektiewe voortplanting – ’n voorlopige teologies- etiese beoordeling

Genetic manipulation as selective reproduction – a preliminary theological-ethical assessment Genetic manipulation – the technology in which genes are placed in embryos and gametes of animals – with the purpose of creating certain intended genetic characteristics, has taken place on a limited but indeed astonishing scale. Although the application of genetic manipulation is not yet possible for humans, because of a number of genetic and technical problems, research in this field is taking place at a terrific speed. In this article attention is given to the question whether genetic manipulations may, currently and in the future, pose a reproductive option for prospective Christian parents. A preliminary ethical assessment of genetic manipulation founded on God’s Word is given.

Ouerbegeleiding - 'n opgawe vir opvoedkundige sielkundiges

Parental guidance within specific educational settings requires distinct emphasis because of parents' unique needs. In order to guide and assist white Afrikaans-speaking Christian parents effectively, it is necessary, firstly, to determine the nature and content of such intervention. This is possible only if the parents' needs regarding the education of their children are known. For this reason, white Afrikaansspeaking Christian parents' needs regarding general educational matters and their need for Christian-based parental guidance on the spiritual education of their children were investigated, with the aim of determining the impact their needs may have in respect of the practice of educational psychology. The data collected indicated that white Afrikaans-speaking Christian parents have a very strong need for guidance regarding the discipline and spiritual education of, and communication with, their children, whilst they appear to have little need for guidance concerning political issues. These findings necessitate that educational psychologists note these parents' strong, weak or divergent parental guidance needs. Educational psychologists should also consider, from the perspective of their field of speciality, which educational matters should be addressed during intervention with these parents, even though these matters are not specifically indicated by the parents as a particular need (such as the political issues). Furthermore, in the event that educational psychologists are not (or do not feel themselves) able to assist these parents on a spiritual level, they should refer them to a Christian counsellor. South African Journal of Education Vol. 26(2) 2006: 319–332

Harry Potter and the Witch Hunters: A Social Context for the Attacks on Harry Potter

The following letter, one of many similar letters, appeared in The Roanoke (Virginia) Times on December 9, 2001: don't know if J. K. Rowling is deliberately trying indoctrinate our children in witchcraft and satanism or whether she's simply a deluded tool herself. However, I urge parents listen the voice of God and say no Potter for their children's spiritual welfare. What is it about Potter? What makes a fundamentalist American reading (or nonreading) public, who never got upset over the magic godmother in Cinderella, or Ghnda the Good Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, or Gandalf the Grey, complete with magic staff and wizard's hat, in The Lord of the Rings, book and films, draw the line at Potter? One reason may be the popularity. is everywhere. Bookstores stayed open all night sell the first copies of the penultimate volume in the saga, Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and adults and children alike lined up by the hundreds. A handful of hapless Canadians mistakenly allowed buy the book ahead of its release date were sworn secrecy and threatened with legal action if they did not return the illicit volumes (Canada Newswire par. 3). Fan sites abound on the Internet, including The Potter Automatic News Aggregator, which offers Harry Potter News and Rumors -complete Potter coverage collected from various news sources. Considering Harry, Jack Zipes asks, How is it possible evaluate a work of literature like a Potter novel when it is so dependent on the market conditions of the culture industry?, and maintains that, Today the experience of reading for the young is mediated through the mass media and marketing so that the pleasure and meaning of a book often be pre-scripted or dictated by convention (171-72). So may also be the deploring of Harry, when the Internet gives his detractors as well as fans as wide a scope as the books themselves. Another reason may be a recent shift in the focus of censorship efforts from sex the occult. As Mark West has pointed out, During the 1980s, most of the censorship cases were anything that pertained the body, sex, and swear words. [Now], although books like those written by Judy Blume are still under attack, what has taken over is fantasy stones (qtd. in Dunne par. 4). Complicating this issue is the fact that there are significant differences in what may be considered fantasy from one religion the next (or between differing denominations of the same religion). As an example, Marjone Taylor and Stephanie M. Carlson studied parents' reactions the topic of imaginary companions. While mainstream Christian parents regard imaginary friends as harmless or at worst a nuisance, as when their child insists that the friend must have her own place at the dinner table, Taylor and Carlson note that many fundamentalist Christian parents associate them with the devil, particularly if the companion talks back the child, while in India a child with an imaginary companion is considered be remembering a previous life (248-54). Plainly, the border between what is real and what is fantasy is a shifting line that is culturally dependent. In addition, Deborah J. Taub and Heather L. Servaty's study of Potter notes that another prevailing belief among fundamentalist parents is that fantasy equals deceit, that fantasy and storytelling will lead lying and other deceitful behavior, and this factor combines with the necessity to protect their children from evil forces in the fantasy world (54). However, a great deal of modern children's literature is fantasy, and it is primarily who seems be the lightning rod for these fears. A quick cruise through the Internet produces dozens of Web pages devoted warning parents of the pitfalls awaiting the child who reads Potter. In 2001, exposingsatanism.org saw a satanic S in Harry's scar (Shores par. 9), and demonbuster. …

Motherhood and Tenure: Can Catholic Universities Support Both?

This paper presents a plan for the implementation of more family-friendly policies at Catholic colleges and universities, both as a matter of justice for women and on behalf of the well being of families. It is motivated by the teachings of the Catholic social tradition that emphasize the equality and dignity of women; the importance of the dual vocations of Christian parents, who are called to raise children and to work more publicly on behalf of the common good; and the inherent value of children and their right to be properly nutured and educated within the Christian family. Our starting point is the condition of families in the U.S. today as they struggle to thrive in spite of tremendous demands placed on parents who also work outside the home. We examine the negative effects on women and families that result from a refusal to accommodate parents with young children in the workplace. We are concerned in particular with the challenges faced by women academics at colleges and universities who are also mothers. We argue that, by and large, these women are not adequately supported in academia, even at Catholic universities, in spite of that tradition’s professed commitment to the health and well being of families. Finally we offer several concrete suggestions by which universities may better support women academics who are mothers, thereby contributing to the well being of women and families.

Kennis- en leerbehoeftes van ouers met kleuters

The knowledge and learning needs of parents with toddlers Knowledge and insight regarding the child and his/her particular developmental phase improve the prospects of a successful parentchild relationship. This prerequisite is considered to be a proactive approach to parenthood. Proactive parents with the necessary insight and knowledge are more capable of anticipating the possible nature of their children’s behavioural phases and seek ways and means to satisfy their children’s needs in an appropriate manner. Parents are, however, often ignorant or confused regarding their children’s behaviour. They may thus express the need for knowledge from a perspective that can be reconciled with their particular view of reality. This article reports on an investigation into the knowledge needs of Christian parents with toddlers. In order to reach this aim applied research was undertaken by means of the method of intervention research. Data collection was done through focus group interviews; subsquently these data were analysed by means of descriptive analysis as described by Tesch. The principles and topics identified as a result of the analysis are discussed and the article ends with conclusions regarding the possible design of a proactive parent guidance programme for Christian parents with toddlers.

Parent-Child Communication about Religion: Survey and Diary Data on Unilateral Transmission and Bi-Directional Reciprocity Styles

We analyzed the frequency, structure, and content of parent-child communication about religion to determine if parent-child communication is characterized by a unidirectional parent-to-child transmission or a bi-directional reciprocity in which children are active participants in their religious socialization. In two 1-week data collections, Christian parents with children between 3 and 12 years completed a survey and kept a diary of their religious conversations with their children (Time 1, N = 23, Time 2 N = 15). Diary entries showed that families discussed religious topics an average of 5.4 times in the 2-week span, though on surveys parents reported they discussed religion with children on most days. The most common topics were God, Jesus, and prayer. Survey data indicated some stabilityover time in families' communication but diaries suggested less stability. On all measures, mothers were more involved than fathers in parent-child communication. Conclusions are tentative given the sample, but a bi-directional reciprocal style of communication seemed more typical than a unidirectional transmission style. Based on specific diary and survey variables, children spoke roughly as often as parents, asked questions, and initiated and terminated conversation frequently; parents rarely corrected their children, asked more open-ended solicitations of the child's views rather than test questions, and expressed only modest conviction that they had conveyed their own beliefs in conversations. We emphasize the need for researchers to view children as active participants in religious socialization rather than as more passive recipients of parental influences. The diary method is a promising measure for analyzing the dynamics of parent-child religious communication. Recommendations are offered for future investigations.

The Dual Vocation of Christian Parents

[The author argues that Christian parents have a dual vocation: to care for their children and to contribute to the larger society. Recent theology on the family shows that most writers emphasize only one part of that dual vocation. The author argues that this tendency diminishes family ethics. She roots the obligation to care for one's own in natural inclinations and the experience of Christian parents. The obligation to serve society is rooted in Catholic teaching on work and family.]

Nagy Riad Bishay

Dr Bishay was born on 25 August 1936 in Sohag, Egypt, the first of six children of Coptic Christian parents from Upper Egypt. After an illustrious school career he moved to the capital to study medicine at the University of Cairo, obtaining his MB ChB in 1958. He worked as a general practitioner in various Egyptian military hospitals for the next four years and obtained his Diploma in General Medicine in 1964. He continued to work in military hospitals for two further years as a physician.

Christian Schools in a Pluralistic Society

The central question of this article is whether separate Christian schools are defensible in a pluralistic liberal democracy. This question is answered from the perspective of Christian parents and based on the premise that these parents want to send their children to separate Christian schools. We argue that Christian education and separate Christian schools can be compatible with civic education of children towards a liberal democratic citizen, but that for some Christian communities this will not be easily achieved.