Our attention has been called from time to time to the movement within our Christian schools, by decision or by neglect, to get away from the Reformed faith as defined in the creeds to some looser, broader basis. A “task force” of the Christian school organization is still working on a proposal for such a broader basis. The October, 1982, Outlook contained an article on this subject. This article by Dr. J. Faber, Principal of the Canadian Reformed Theological College in Hamilton, Ontario, is reprinted, with permission from the February, 1982, Reformed Perspective, published at Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Church and School
In this issue, featuring education, a timely topic is the relation of schools and creeds. Right from the beginning of the reformational school movement in the sixteenth century there has been a close connection between the church and its creeds and confessions, on the one hand, and the Christian schools, on the other. One of the most striking indications is a regulation in the Church Order of the Synod of Dordrecht 1618/19. It stipulates that the consistories everywhere shall see to it that there are good teachers who shall not only teach the children reading, writing, languages, and arts, but also instruct them in godliness and the Catechism. This same Synod that prescribed a form of subscription for the ministers of the gospel, also devised a formula in which school teachers should express their agreement with the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dordt. These are the well-known Three Forms of Unity.
During the nineteenth century in The Netherlands, a second reformational school movement took place after the Secession and later under the leadership of Dr. Abraham Kuyper. The organizational bond between .church and school was weakened and the responsibility The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed show valuable additions, and in the Heidelberg Catechism we confess that we with body and soul, both in life and death, are not our own, but belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has redeemed us, body and soul, from all our sins; He bought us with His precious blood; He has delivered us from all the power of the devil, and has made us His own possession. When I consider those words of creeds and confessions, it becomes clear to me that a creed is a pre-functional confession. It is a matter of the heart, the center of human life. It responds to the word of faith which is preached. Man believes with his heart, says Paul, and so man is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so he is saved, Romans 10:10. A creed is an expression of religious commitment; in its sweep it permeates the totality of human life in a manner similar to the Word of God which it echoes.
Philosophy = Creed?
When I read Dr. Beversluis’ appeal to develop a Reformed philosophy of education, I am aware of the fact that he does not mean Reformed in a creedal, or what he calls denominational, sense. Although, I do not think that we may distinguish between reformed and Reformed in such manner, I will heartily support his search for Scriptural philosophy of education. But such an educational philosophy Is on another level than the historic creeds of the Christian church. When the author speaks about “the production of an instructional handbook or creed that summarizes the reformed educational vision,” the combination of expressions makes it clear that he used the word “creed” in another sense than the Christian church has done it for centuries. The first question is: What do you mean by the word “creed”? What is the character of a Christian creed?
Professor John M. Frame, in Outlook of January 1982, wrote a valuable article about the question “Are the Reformed Creeds Worth Keeping in Schools?” Although I agree with his arguments for the affirmative answer to this question, he grants that an educational creed is desirable. “The real issue is whether such a creed ought to replace the church creed in the Christian schools’ constitution, or only to supplement them.” It may seem that we deal only with a matter of semantics-words, words, words—but I think it important not to use the word “creed” for a philosophy of education or an instructional handbook. We should not obscure the unique character of the Christian creeds.
May I immediately add another thing? Not only the character of the Christian creeds and Reformed confessions is significant, but especially their contents. In the sixties the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship in Toronto formulated a so-called educational creed. It speaks about life, Scripture, Christ, reality, knowledge, scholarship, and academic freedom. There are some good remarks in this summary of certain basic principles relevant to education. What is good in this statement is found in broader and better form in the Reformed confessions. But it does not in a separate entry speak about sin and its devastating influence in the totality of human life. It only mentions in a theoretical manner “the central religious antithesis of direction in life.” True, Christian scholarship cannot perform its task without confessing that by his fall into sin man has become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all his ways. He has lost all his excellent gifts which he had received from God, and retained—only small remains thereof, which, however, are sufficient to leave man without excuse (Art. 14, Belgic Confession). The omission of the confession of sin gives to the educational creed of the AACS a falsely optimistic slant which is enhanced by a reference to “God’s gracious preservation of creation after the fall.” In this educational creed we hear more of Abraham Kuyper’s theological construction of common grace than of the Reformed and Scriptural confession of God’s providence. Whoever studies the samples of educational summaries of principles offered during the last decades and compares them with the contents of the creeds and confessions must conclude that, if in school communities they are to replace the historic confessional documents of the Reformed churches, they will impoverish Christian life and action.
It is clear that the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship desired to “bow before Christ’s Kingship over all scientific work.” But why did they in their Christian scientific enterprise cut off the explicit connection with the creeds of the early Christian Church and their heart-moving confession of the Lordship of Christ? And why not have the simple and direct Heidelberg Catechism—with its cognate theme of the only comfort in life and death—speak within the scholarly community about Him who made us His own possession, to whom we belong and whom we worship?
Leave Them There
One could elaborate on the contents of the ecumenical creeds and the Reformed confessions and show their significance for all education on elementary, secondary, and tertiary level, from grade school to college or university. The doctrine of the trinitarian God and the means by which we know Him is fundamental for Christian education. What the Reformed churches confess concerning creation and the place and function of man is of primary importance. In Hamilton, Ontario, there is a Reformed high school and the pupils enter it through a hallway adorned with a simple plaque with the words: “to the end that man may serve his God,” taken from the Confession of Faith concerning the creation of all things. The Canons of Dordt provide excellent ammunition over against the onslaught of humanism in twentieth century education. The exposition of the Ten Words of God’s Covenant in the Heidelberg Catechism give good guidance in ethical questions that undoubtedly will be raised in the classroom.
It goes without saying that the limitations of this article do not allow broad expositions. There is need of an instructional handbook that summarizes the Reformed educational vision, to use the words of Dr. N.H. Beversluis. But let us not call it an educational creed and let us leave the historic Christian Creeds and Reformed Confessions in place, also in the Christian schools. We will need them there, in the eighties, and in the further future, more than ever before.
