Sometimes my sentimentality weaves in beautifully with my academic study. Today, reading Mary C. Boys, who was the first author I read that pointed out to me the potential arrogance in believing that God only smiles upon Christians. Reading a different text of hers is a pleasure in and of itself because of the influence that other text had on me. [Thanks to Marian Osborne Berky for that introduction!] But then, she quoted at length a theologian who partially brought me back to Jesus in seminary- William Ellery Channing. Apparently he also wrote about religious education, which is not where I encountered him before. With tears in my eyes, he touches me deeply again when he writes: The end in religious instruction, whether in the Sunday school or family, is not to stamp *our* minds irresistibly on the young, but to stir up their own; not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own; not to give a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth... not to *tell* them that God is good, but to help them see and feel God live in all that God does within and around them; not to tell them of the dignity of Christ, but to open their inward eye to the beauty and greatness of Christs character, and to enkindle aspirations after a kindred virtue. WEC, 1838
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 21:08:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015