29 Published by THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, six times per annum, in January, March, May, July, September and November, from the Executive Office, 153 Application made for entry as Second-Class Matter at the Post Office at Chicago, Illinois THE JOURNAL OF THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Vol. I JUNE, 1906 No. 2 The Significance of the Movement for Religious Education. If one were to ask, "What is the real meaning of the present movement for religious education?" the answer would vary with one's occupation and dominant interests. Many persons would respond that it is an endeavor to improve defective methods in the Sunday School. Others would say that it is the expression of a desire in some manner to restore to the national educational system the religious factor which has been so largely excluded from the state schools. Still others would find the meaning of the movement in the needs of the home. They would point out that, during the last generation, religious training in the home has undergone a marked decline, and that our most imperative duty is to rebuild family religion. But whence comes the impulse that brings together thousands of men and women to work out these problems, what spirit moving in all accounts for conferences, conventions, literature, and organization for religious education? May it not be that this is a new revival, beginning with a consciousness of sin, of failure and shortcoming at the most vital point in life? Have we not by signal instances been reminded of the dismal failure even of the highest material prosperity coupled with the greatest intellectual acumen, when the moral character is without education in righteousness? Is there not, then, a turning of the people to righteousness, a new realization of the fact and the need of God? Is there not in this movement the sign of the increasing vision of something deeper in life than all our financial prestige, all the externals of our civilization, and even all that we proudly call culture? This is the revival that leads men to seek for righteousness, that recognizes the need of the training of the conscience and the will, that seeks to develop to its highest efficiency every force, every faculty and every form of activity that may serve in teaching us the way of life. The Value to the Minister of the Study of Religious Education REV. AUSTEN K. DE BLOIS, D. D. Pastor First Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois The aim of Religious Education is to bring its subjects into a vital and co-operative fellowship with God. Religion is life. Religious education is a training of the person for communion with the highest life. So it ranges all fields. In its discipline, it seeks the development of every part of the life, for all life is alike sacred. It looks to the achievement of the fully-rounded character. God intends, and men for the most part expect, that the minister shall advocate all that is best in religion and in education. It is sometimes said, however, that while the minister was once the most thoroughly educated man in the community, he now preaches to many whose advantages, in the way at least of general culture, have equaled or surpassed his own. This may be true, yet it should not be true in the realm of religion. Here he ought still to be master and leader. By all means in his power the wide-awake minister keeps himself abreast of the most recent thinking in the sphere in which he has his special tasks and inspirations. He is also conversant with the educational ideals and familiar with the educational methods of the day. In a word, he is an earnest student of the literature, the spirit and the work of religious education. Such study provides a more intelligent conception of the importance of thorough religious training. The whole purpose of the movement in behalf of religious education is practical. Its discipline issues everywhere in a higher form of activity. Its trend is also scientific, its methods careful and exact. Now the average minister is not altogether in love with such aims or such methods. Both his tutelage and his environment have tended to foster this dislike. In his class-work he is apt to preach, rather than to "draw out", develop, and incite to independent study and research. He is not altogether satisfied with the work of his Sunday school teachers, but he is impotent in the presence of the faults he sees. He follows the laissez-faire principle, fondly hop ing that everything will work together for good. He is a man of faith rather than a man of facts, and so he believes that Providence will over-rule unworthful teaching and cause it to contribute somehow to His glory. He finds many bright young converts fall by the way but he is unable to check the indifference that gradually chills their ardor. The minister expected too much. They could not grow without the means of growth. He expected that all the laws of educational nurture could be disregarded without risk or damage. He expected the sapling to flourish and wax mighty without water or sunlight. Such a preacher has not grasped the idea that inefficient or shallow training is disgraceful to the church and dishonoring to God. Worse than all this, he is often content with his ignorance. Such an attitude is perilous. No minister who has felt the impulse of modern methods in child-study, Bible-study and teachertraining can be content with conditions as they are. He feels a divine unrest. He understands that second-rate methods, in church and Sunday School cannot build first-rate character or produce first-rate Christians. He appreciates the fact that the best training is none too good, and that thorough training is essential to future power. He sees clearly that the sins of adult humanity, the sins of personal and corporate life, are not due to natural perversity and depravity so much as to lack of ethical and religious education in the public schools and elsewhere. He finds a clue which leads him down to ground principles. The conviction. deepens within him that the need of the hour is the interpenetration of all educational processes by the spirit of religion, and the invigoration of religious instruction by the use of the best educational methods. Also the study of religious education gives to the minister a broader and more accurate idea of his own duty as an educator. Today the pulpit orator is ornamental rather than useful. It is well to impress a congregation; it is better to develop Christian character in the units which compose that congregation. If the minister does not know how to teach, he had better begin learning today. In his private study, his preaching and his management of church affairs, the minister who wins large and permanent results has always before him the educational idea. It is easy to subordinate this function. It is easy to claim apparent |