Education and Human Rebellion

7/26/2019 Education and Human Rebellion

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Human Rebellion and Education

Michael Goheen

Trinity Western University

Langley, B.C., Canada


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Danger of minimizing sin

Believers often have an inadequate awareness of

their adversary or archene!y who is "near #y$ and"crouching at the door$ %Genesis &'().*

+ur tendency to !ini!ie the gravity, sco-e, and

-ower of sin reducing it to individual diso#edience is!uch !ore than an intellectually deficiency.* t -utsus in urgent -eril* #ecause sin is a very vicious and!ortal ene!y, an irasci#le and -ersistent -ower,which !ust certainly #e knownin order to #e

overcome.* %Ber/ouwer)


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Fall into sin

Tree of /nowledge of good and evil %0.12

1() "3r#itrary$ co!!and4why5

6atanic te!-tation7 8ou#t a#out divine source or fairness

7 Un#elief

7 !aging life in diso#edience to God$s word

7 Willful diso#edience


4/34

Forfeiting the glory of creaturehood

Man has ta/e leave of the relation of de-endence. 9e

has refused to o#ey and has willed to !a/e hi!self

inde-endent. :o longer is o#edience the guiding

-rinci-le of his life, #ut his autono!ous /nowledge and

will. There#y he ceases, in effect, to understand hi!self

as a creature. %;on


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Characterising Sin: Against God

3gainst you, you only, have sinned and

done what is evil in your sight* %=sal! 21'&

T:;).


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Characterising Sin: Idolatry

They e>changed the truth of God for a lie, andworshi-ed and served created things ratherthan the Creator4who is forever -raised*%


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God or an idol

9u!an #eings are inherently religious

creatures. We cannot live without a god,even if it is one of our own !a/ing. We need

a center, an ulti!ate focus, a -oint of

orientation for our lives. We have in fact two

alternatives. @ither we serve the Lord ando#ey his will, or we -ractice idolatry and

diso#edience %Walsh and Middleton).


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Sin as Idolatry

f hu!an #eings are inesca-a#ly

religious, driven always to see/ ano#?ect of worshi-, then the fall cannot

#e characterised solely as revolt

against the rightful Lord' t !ust #edescri#ed further as e>change of

religious allegiance %Cha-lin).


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Idolatry as eitome of sin

dolatry is essentially a declaration of

autono!y and inde-endence fro! ourCreator, our re?ection of his rightful /ingshi-. .

. . dolatry is -ortrayed in the Bi#le not as

!erely one sin a!ong !any, #ut as the

e-ito!e of sin. t is the central act ofdiso#edience which disru-ts Aahweh$s rule

over hu!an life %Walsh and Middleton).


10/34

Sin as idolatry

FAITH CREATURE

Humankind

. . . and you shall earn the penalty for your sinfulidolatry (Exzekiel !."#$.

Idol %&'

Reliious )ature of Human *eins


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Relational dimension of sin

:ot transgression of i!-ersonal standard

Marital analogy' 3gainst e>clusive loyalty of!arriage relationshi- %e.g.,ere!iah ,

9osea)

=aternal analogy' 3gainst /indness,

generosity, goodness of Dather


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Characterising sin: Against creation

3gainst hu!an life, against shalo!, againsthealth, against -ros-erity, against wholeness,against hu!an flourishing.

3! the one they are -rovo/ing5 declares theLord. 3re they not rather har!ing the!selves, totheir own sha!e5* %ere!iah ('1E).

. . . diso#edience goes against the very grain ofcreation itself. 6in is re#ellion against #oth thestructure and the 6tructurer of reality. 6uchre#ellion is inevita#ly selfdefeating and selfdestroying.*


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!ages of sin is death

6ee, set #efore you today life and -ros-erity, death

and destruction. Dor co!!and you today to love the

Lord your God, to wal/ in his ways, and to /ee- his

co!!ands, decrees and lawsF then you will live and

increase, and the Lord your God will #less you in the

land you are entering to -ossess. But if you heart turns

away and you are not o#edient, and if you are drawnaway to #ow down to other gods and worshi- the!,

declare to you this day that you will certainly #e

destroyed. . . . have set #efore you life and death,

#lessings and curses %8euterono!y '120).


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Sin as co"enant rebellion

%&'+ord

' e a t h ,d e s t r u - t i o n ,- u r s e

. i f e ,p r o s p e r i t y ,/ l e s s i n (


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Sin as a ersonal o#er


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Characterising the o#er of sin


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$arasitic %uality of sin

3 -arasite is an organis! that lives off the life #loodof anotherF it is an uninvited guest that /ee-s

ta--ing its host for sustenance.* %=lantinga) Goodness is, so to s-ea/, itself' #adness is only

s-oiled goodness. 3nd there !ust #e so!ethinggood first #efore it can #e s-oiled.*%C6 Lewis)

6in is nothing and can do nothing a-art fro! thecreatures and the -owers which God has createdFyet it organies all these in o-en re#ellion againsthi!.* %Bavinc/)


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Structure&direction

Good creationalstructure

misdirectedby sin

redirected byredemption


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Scoe of Sin

=ersonal lives

Co!!unal e>-ression:onhu!an creation %


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Culture0 Common +ay of life rooted in a

shared -ore reli(ious /eliefs in form of story.

reli(ious-ore

1T&R2


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Heart of culture


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'hree biblical rules

The first rule is that every !an is serving

god%s) in his life. 6econdly, every !an is transfor!ed into an

i!age of his god.*

Dinally, !an/ind creates and for!s a

structure of society in its own i!age.*


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Creating society in deformed image

n the develo-!ent of hu!an civiliation,

!an for!s, creates and changes thestructure of his society, and in doing so he

-ortrays in his wor/ the intention of his own

heart. 9e gives to the structure of that

society something of his own image andlikeness. n it he #etrays so!ething of his

own lifestyle, of his own god%Goudwaard).


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Goudz#aard on Ideologies

deologies' 9u!anly constructed stories that fillthe s-iritual vacuu! after the @nlighten!ent.

Ma/e an end for hu!an society a#solute %e.g.,!aterial wealth and -ros-erity)

Certain social -owers or forces identified as

!eans #y which the goal can #e achieved %e.g.,freedo! of !ar/et)F saviours* or -owers which-eo-le -ut their faith in.*

=lace ourselves under -ower of these saviours

Transfor! whole of society


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Ideology and Education

9ow has this ideology affected education5

Docus on :eil =ost!an$s End of Education


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Failure of the gods

. . . the crisis in narrative the decline of

oncesturdy gods.* %02). . . #oth students and teachers lac/ a

narrative to -rovide -rofound !eaning to

their lessons.* %21)

"god$' . . . a co!-rehensive narrative a#outwhat the world is li/e, how things got to #e

the way they are, and what lies ahead.* %I)


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!hat god #ill your school ser"e(

The truth is that school cannot e>ist withoutsomereason for its #eing, and in fact there

are several gods our students are -resently

as/ed to serve.* %0()


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God of Economic )tility

f you -ay attention in school, and do your

ho!ewor/, and score well on tests, and#ehave yourself, you will #e rewarded with a

well-aying ?o# when you are done. ts

driving idea is that the -ur-ose of schooling

is to -re-are children for co!-etent entryinto the econo!ic life of a co!!unity.* %0()


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'ransformed into the image of our god

The narrativeJgod of econo!ic utility . . . tells

us that we are first and fore!ost econo!iccreatures, and that our sense of worth and

-ur-ose is to #e found in our ca-acity to

secure !aterial #enefits.* %0H)


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God of Consumershi

+ne !ay wonder, then, why this godKecono!ic utility has so !uch strength, whythe -re-aration for !a/ing a living, which iswell-served by any decent education, should #eassigned a !eta-hysical -osition of such highstation. #elieve the reason is that the god of

@cono!ic Utility is cou-led with another god,one with a s!iling face and one that -rovidesan answer to the question, f get a good ?o#,then what5* %)


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God of Consumershi

8evotion to the god of Consu!ershi- serves

easily as the !eta-hysical #asis of schooling

#ecause it is urged on the young early in

their lives, long #efore they get to school4in

fact, as soon as they are e>-osed to the

-owerful teachings of the advertisingindustry.* %)


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God of 'echnology

. . . That -eo-le #elieve technology wor/s, thatthey rely on it, that it !a/es -ro!ises, that theyare #ereft when denied access to it, that they aredelighted when they are in its -resence, that for!ost -eo-le it wor/s in !ysterious ways, thatthey conde!n -eo-le who s-ea/ against it, that

they stand in awe of it, and that, in the #ornagain !ode, they will alter their lifestyles, theirschedules, their ha#its, and their relationshi-s toacco!!odate it. f this #e not a for! of religious

#elief, what is5* %H)


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'hese gods #ill fail too*

. . . the narratives that underlie our -resentconce-tion of school do not serve us welland !ay lead to the end of -u#licschooling . . .* %I1).

My intention here is to offer an answer in thefor! of five narratives that, singly and inconcert, contain sufficient resonance and-ower to #e ta/en seriously as reasons forschooling.* %I1)


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Another story(

f the tale of ca-italistic -rogress is

#eginning to fray at the edges then -erha-s

this is an evangelistically o--ortune ti!e for

Christian education to offer another story

one that re-laces the selfsalvation of

econo!ic -rogress with the tale of a co!ingingdo! of rede!-tion %Brian Walsh).

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Education and Human Rebellion

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