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Basic Concepts in Christian Pedagogy

Courtesy of the Hultink Family Foundation, the Cántaro Institute is now the new home for the Reformational Digital Library (formerly known as the Reformational Publishing Project). All rights reserved.

Document: Jan Waterink, Basic Concepts in Christian Pedagogy (St. Catharines, ON.: Paideia Press, 1954).

Excerpt: Can education truly be neutral, or are its foundations inevitably shaped by one’s deepest convictions about mankind, truth, and purpose? This excerpt explores a fundamental question: does a Christian approach to education merely differ in application, or does it rest on entirely different foundations than its humanistic counterpart? Drawing from a 1953 international congress on educational sciences, it also highlights the ongoing struggle to define pedagogics as a legitimate science—especially in the context of its philosophical roots. As Christian educators seek to recover a distinctly biblical framework, this reflection invites us to reconsider what truly lies at the heart of teaching and learning.