Sights and Insights
God gave his Law to Jacob’s descendants, the people of Israel. And he told our ancestors to teach their children, so that each new generation would know his Law and tell it to the next. – Psalm78:-5-6 (CEV)
This past Sunday, our “Moment for Mission” focused on ELCA colleges and universities. I mentioned that placing a high value on education for everyone was part of our Lutheran heritage. As schools and the goals of public education have become a significant locus on contention within the U.S. in recent years, I find it useful to return to that Lutheran heritage of education. What is it about education that was valued by the Reformers, and why did they advocate for making education accessible?
Martin Luther’s “To the Councilmen of all Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools” is worth the time to read it. Written in 1524, it addresses the reality that a negative consequence of monasteries closed opportunities for education were lost because the monasteries played such a large role in running schools. Luther responded by advocating the creation of public education. He does it from a Christian theological basis, but his goals are much broader than religious education alone.
Luther begins the treatise by responding to those who were taking their children out of school because they felt it was more important that their children learn how to earn a living than for them to have a broad education. Luther responds that a general education beyond learning skills for a career is essential. Broad studies are important because they allow one to become a better Christian and a better citizen. He points to Psalm 78 as evidence that God desires children to be educated so that they can use their minds to understand God better. To fail to educate a child is to neglect their soul, he insists.
Luther specifically argues that Christians need an understanding of languages beyond their native one, literature, history, and other liberal arts in order to appreciate the vast beauty and diversity of God’s creation, appreciate ways of thinking from other cultures, and gain the ability to understand the message of the bible. Without this broad education, weak understandings of the Christian faith reign: “When men attempt to defend the faith with such uncertain arguments and mistaken proof texts, are not Christians put to shame and made a laughingstock in the eyes of adversaries who know the language?” (719) Thus all Christians, he feels, should have a basic understanding of languages and arts; there also need to be some experts who can guide the faithful on more complex questions and so in addition to elementary and secondary education, the church needs some people with higher levels of education.
Meanwhile, because education is also a value to the health of a society, Luther contends that all Christians should gladly support the public funding of education. It is too much, he insists, to expect parents to be able to educate their children sufficiently on their own. Few have the time and most do not have the necessary skills. No family can have all the necessary books, either, and so high quality libraries should also be funded. A strong community is one that invests in the development of the minds, bodies, and spirits of its youth. He writes:
Now the welfare of a city does not consist solely in accumulating vast treasures, building mighty walls and magnificent buildings, and producing a goodly supply of guns and armor. Indeed, where such things are plentiful, the reckless fools get control of them, it is so much the worse and the city suffers even greater loss. A city’s best and greatest welfare, safety, and strength consist rather in its having many able, learned, wise, honorable, and well-educated citizens. They can then readily gather, protect, and properly use treasure and all manner of property. (712-713)
From a Lutheran point of view, then, education has two related goals. One is to strengthen one’s understanding of the world so that the nuances of the Christian witness is understood well and can be applied to virtuous living. The second goal is to create a stronger community by having wise citizens who can make good practical decisions for the common good of the community. Although Martin Luther wrote his letter to German governmental leaders almost 500 years ago, these goals still have continuing value for us today, I dare say.
Quotations are from Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, edited by Timothy F. Lull, 1st edition (Fortress Press, 1989)