So What Makes Our Teaching Christian

This work explores a perennial question that Christians who are called to teach must consider: So what makes our teaching Christian? It considers the essential and distinctive elements of Christian teaching by examining the apostles' teaching ministry in the Book of Acts and aspects of Jesus's own teaching in the Gospel of John. It proposes how teaching in the name, spirit, and power of Jesus relates to the teaching ministries of Christians today. For example, an in-depth look at Jesus's teaching of both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman known in Christian tradition as Photini provides insights for transformative teaching of both insiders and outsiders in a Christian community. This work is a theological, pastoral, and educational exploration of Christian teaching that has implications for both laity and clergy in their ministries.

This work explores a perennial question that Christians who are called to teach must consider: So what makes our teaching Christian? It considers the essential and distinctive elements of Christian teaching by examining the apostles' teaching ministry in the Book of Acts and aspects of Jesus's own teaching in the Gospel of John. It proposes how teaching in the name, spirit, and power of Jesus relates to the teaching ministries of Christians today. For example, an in-depth look at Jesus's teaching of both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman known in Christian tradition as Photini provides insights for transformative teaching of both insiders and outsiders in a Christian community. This work is a theological, pastoral, and educational exploration of Christian teaching that has implications for both laity and clergy in their ministries.

Noted Christian education professor and theorist Robert W. Pazmino shares the theological essentials to guide faithful educational thought and practices in the third millennium. He explores a prepositional theology that deepens the relationships between God and us through our teaching and learning together with spiritual wisdom.

In Teaching and Christian Practices several university professors describe and reflect on their efforts to allow historic Christian practices to reshape and redirect their pedagogical strategies. Whether allowing spiritually formative reading to enhance a literature course, employing table fellowship and shared meals to reinforce concepts in a pre-nursing nutrition course, or using Christian hermeneutical practices to interpret data in an economics course, these teacher-authors envision ways of teaching and learning that are rooted in the rich tradition of Christian practices, as together they reconceive classrooms and laboratories as vital arenas for faith and spiritual growth.

"To reject power and its legitimate use is ultimately to reject God's gift and intention for Christians as we live in the world," writes Robert W. Pazmino. He defines what authority is and how it is perceived by and operates in various Christian communities. He applies these factors and the need for confident, authoritative teachers specifically to the ministry of Christian education. By What Authority Do We Teach? completes a trilogy covering key elements of evangelical education. Also in print are Foundational Issues in Christian Education, an agenda of theological, sociological, psychological, curricular, and other concerns; and Principles and Practices of Christian Education, which integrates conversion and connection into the teaching task.

Newspapers are filled with stories about poorly educated children, ineffective teachers, and cash-strapped school districts. In this greatly expanded treatment of a topic he first dealt with in Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Douglas Wilson proposes an alternative to government-operated school by advocating a return to classical Christian education with its discipline, hard work, and learning geared to child development stages. As an educator, Wilson is well-equipped to diagnose the cause of America's deteriorating school system and to propose remedies for those committed to their children's best interests in education. He maintains that education is essentially religious because it deals with the basic questions about life that require spiritual answers-reading and writing are simply the tools. Offering a review of classical education and the history of this movement, Wilson also reflects on his own involvement in the process of creating educational institutions that embrace that style of learning. He details elements needed in a useful curriculum, including a list of literary classics. Readers will see that classical education offers the best opportunity for academic achievement, character growth, and spiritual education, and that such quality cannot be duplicated in a religiously-neutral environment.

We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.