Calvinism or Pluralism In Education?

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Samuel L. Blumenfield, a noted author, brings out in his book, Is Public Education Necessary?, how that public education has shifted from educational freedom to an educational tyranny, and he brings out that ”America’s intellectual history is inseparable from its religious history.”  (p. xii, 2011).

I entitled this article, “Calvinism or Pluralism in Education,” because I want to expound more on this shift that ends not just in the religious domain, but degenerates into a public educational focus that has left the Calvinistic and Biblical foundation and degenerated into materialism, secularism, behaviorism, in such a way the very foundation that once was dominate and productive has very much eroded into a system very much against the Christian heritage once basic to our land which greatly promoted learning.

The theme of secular humanism has eclipsed education from being founded in the grandeur of God to a concentration on the corruption of humanity.   We can see the shift from the foundation of faith in God to a pluralism that goes everywhere, but nowhere. Dewey, Marx, Freud, Neitzsche, Skinner, and others have replaced the influences of Calvinism, even Christianity in education.

As the Protestant Reformation began Martin Luther in 1528 set up public schools for all in Germany, and then in 1536 John Calvin, the Swiss Reformer, urged the founding of and led in the development of public schools in Geneva before he went on to found the Academy in Geneva in 1559 to instruct ministers and teachers. The Calvinists led in learning, as the Protestant Reformation spread from Geneva on to the new world.

The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620.  Then, barely six years after the first settlement in Boston in 1630, the Pilgrims began to lay the foundation for their education system, as it appropriated 400 pounds toward the establishment of what was to become Harvard College, founded in 1636, sixteen years after the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth. Calvinism became the base for the founding of Harvard College, whose charter was granted in 1650.

The emphasis of the Puritans on education was two-fold; to encourage learning in general and religious study in particular. The Westminster Standards with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms were an important part of this, but as well Calvin’s insistence that education be as well in the “languages and the worldly sciences.”  (Williston Walker, John Calvin (NewYork: Shocken Books, Inc. 1969)

Our forefathers who first came to the shores of North America, were to a great extent men and women of faith, faith in Christ.  Europeans came to America to escape religious oppression and forced beliefs by such state-affiliated Christian churches as the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. That civil unrest fueled the desire of America’s forefathers, so to establish the organization of a country in which the separation of church and state, and the freedom to practice one’s faith without fear of persecution, was guaranteed.  The U.S. was the first western nation to be founded predominately by Protestants — not Roman Catholics.

Religious persecution and iron-fisted rule by state-affiliated Christianity in Europe had begun to loosen its hold in the 16th century when, for the sake of debate, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. King Henry VIII founded the Church of England, owing to disagreements regarding papal authority. In later attempts to free themselves from the tie of the state governmental system imposed by the Church of England (Anglican Church), such denominations as the Reformed-Presbyterian churches and the European Free Church were formed.

The Puritans came to the New England colonies to escape religious persecution. The Puritans later gave birth to the Baptists and the Congregationalists. Led by John Winthrop, 900 Puritan colonists landed in Massachusetts Bay.  Managing to endure the hardships of pioneer life and accustomed to caring for each other’s needs, they prospered, and their numbers grew from 17,800 in 1640 to 106,000 in 1700. Their attempt to “purify” the Church of England and their own lives was based on the teachings of John Calvin. Using the New Testament as their model, they believed that each congregation and each person individually was responsible to God, and part of this was the proper education of the youth in the disciplines of the Bible.

The Puritans also were responsible for the first free schooling in America, establishing not only education for the children, but later established the first American college, Harvard College in Cambridge Massachusetts. The educational focus of the Puritans had great influence on education as it developed in all the colonies.

However, some 150 years later after establishing Harvard College in 1650 the Rev. William  E. Channing (1780-1842) and a number of other more liberal thinkers began to change the Calvinist focus of Harvard.  Channing entered Harvard in 1794 and graduated in 1798 at the top of his class.  Then in 1801 he was elected regent of Harvard which years later under his leadership and influence shifted from a Calvinistic focus to that of   Unitarianism.

However, there only three Unitarians of the 204 founding fathers who signed either or both, the Declaration of Independence (July 1776), the Articles of Confederation (drafted 1777, ratified 1781) and the Constitution of the United States of America (1789).  Some people even sound like the Unitarians were the basic founders of America.  The Unitarians, however, have been and are one the great advocates for pluralism in America.

Channing became a leading Unitarian minister, but when the American Unitarian Association was organized in 1825, he refused the office of president.  He was a leader in  the Unitarian movement, but much of his energy was focused on developing a new direction at Harvard College and the education in the new nation. Channing’s optimistic view of human nature was very much in contrast to the Calvinistic and Biblical understanding of the “total depravity of man.”

Channing based his Christology on scriptural evidences of Christ’s perfection and his own belief in the freedom of the will.  For him, Christ exemplified the perfection to which others can attain. In order to account for Christ’s flawless moral perfection, he felt it was from hiss preexistence; yet he maintained that others should aspire to, and could achieve a similar perfection.  He regarded Christ as the moral perfect example for humanity and did not see salvation as dependent on Christ’s death for the elect on Calvary, which was central in Calvinism.

Samuel Eliot Morrison’s Three Centuries of Harvard, 1536-1936—(p. 23) says about the school in the original charter and first century that “A learned clergy was the immediate and pressing need that Harvard was expected to supply…Harvard students were reminded that the object o their literary and scientific studies was the greater knowledge of God; and that the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, with out ‘laying Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation’ was futile and sinful.”

The question comes,  “Calvinism or Pluralism in Education?” There is Pluralism!  In many ways the ball of pluralism rolled from Harvard.   Diana Eck from the Harvard University Pluralism Project in an article, entitled “From Diversity to Pluralism” says that: “Pluralism is the engagement that creates a common society from all that plurality.”  She is talking about religious pluralism, but I feel it relates to all philosophies as well.  And she goes on to say that “Clearly the pluralism that would engage people of different faith and cultures in the creation of a common society is not a given, but an achievement.“

What about Calvinism?  The Calvinistic love for learning, putting the mind and spirit above the secular, material values inspired our forefathers who came over from Scotland, Holland, England, and the rest of Europe where the Reformation had taken hold.  When we look at history, it is very evident that wherever Calvinism has gone, that knowledge and learning has taken hold with the moral discernment necessary to build a positive environment and truly knowledgeable people.

Bancroft, the father of American History (1800-1891) in The History of the United States, says:  “We boast of our common schools; Calvin was the father of popular education—the inventor of the system of free schools…wherever Calvinism gained dominion it invoked intelligence for the people.” (p. 463).

Pluralism is an ideology that basically is saying you can start with different presuppositions and reach the same goal.  I feel that much of the chaos in the contemporary American Public School education is that we have left the Calvinistic even Christian influences that once germinated learning in our land and shifted to an amalgamation of everything that ultimately equals nothing.  Our youth have no foundation, and the public schools give not positive direction.   Beliefs have effects on one’s perception of and understanding of reality.    Calvinism offers this!

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, 5931 West Av, Lavonia, Georgia 30553, 706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net