The Presence of Paul Tillich s Educational Forms in Church Schools

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1 The Presence of Paul Tillich s Educational Forms in Church Schools Although Paul Tillich, one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century, only dealt with the question of education in few of his works, still he finds it of extreme importance, that has unconditional significance 1 even for systematic theology. Those few writings in which Tillich touches upon the question of education especially church or religious education 2 - can provide us with useful answers to the questions of religoius education and church schools undergoing major changes in Hungary today. Three educational objectives three educational forms According to Tillich s categories 3, education is fundamentally defined by three different objectives: technical, humanistic and inducting. - Technical education covers the development of skills and capabilities as well as the delivery of basic knowledge that generally includes instruction in writing, reading and arithmetics and specially consists of the teaching of individual trades. - This education is, however, never exlusively technical, because it is always accompanied, to a greater or smaller degree, by the pedagogical elements of humanistic education. The essence of humanistic education is, in Tillich s words, the ideal of the development of all human potentialities, individually and socially, 4 to actualize humanity in each individual, 5 that is, the actualization of those human potentialities, which are possible in terms of the historical destiny of this particular individual. 6 Tillich finds the roots of humanistic education in the religious idea of the early renaissance, which says that the infinite is present in everything finite, 7, and so for him this form of education is religious in essence and cultural in form. Similarly to other theologians, for Tillich the origin and center of humanistic education is not the same as the educational principles of humanism: we do not form a human from the child as formless material by means of the passing on of knowledge and the development of virtues, and it is not human beings in themselves that stand in the center, as if they could by themselves climb up to God as Erasmus, among others, thought. - The third educational form, inducting education, has always, to a greater or lesser extent, been present in a given educational system: the induction of children, for example, into the family system with its customs, traditions, and symbols as it happened and happens naturally even today. The aim of the latter is not the actualization of potentialities, but the induction into the 1 Tillich, 2002, p Tillich understands religious education as religious instruction taking place in church communites as possible places of the realization of Spiritual Communities which covers in present-day Hungary religious education, confirmation classes and bible study and also the religious education and pedagogy that happen within the framework of educational institutions. 3 Tillich touches upon this twice: first in his paper The World Situation written in 1945, and then a good decade later in October 1956 in his lecture Theology of Education. The latter was delivered in one of the famous church schools of New Hampshire, Saint Paul s School, at a conference organized to mark the 100th anniversary of its founing entitled The Church School in Our Time. 4 Tillich, 1956, p Tillich, 1945, p 15 6 Tillich, 2002, p Tillich, 1956, p 147

2 actuality of the group family, community, tribe, nation, church and ultimately to initiate into the mystery of being, 8 and into the world of religous symbols concerning the questions of human life. Inducting education has, in Tillich, as an important element the introduction to the understanding and experiencing of symbols, the uncovering of their deeper level of reality. Induction may occur spontaneously, by the participation of the individual in the group, but can also be the result of conscious direction. The latter has interpretation as an important tool, which is connected in Tillich by his often used logical form: Induction precedes interpretation, but interpretation makes induction complete. 9 Induction and its interpretation are closely connected also in religious education, because there is no understanding of a church s life without participation; but without understanding the participation becomes mechanical and compulsory. 10 Without interpretation induction cannot take place, as is well known by the people standing before the decision of initiation, as we can see in the questions of the apostle Peter (Matt 15,15) or the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8, 31), and in both cases we can witness the enthusiasm and joy of initiation in the form of a creed (Matt 16,16) and a baptism (Acts 8,36). Competition among the forms of education But what does the appearance of these three educational forms look like in school? And is there a difference in their appearance in church schools? Tillich provides an answer through an analysis of historical examples. For him, it is important to choose as a starting point the latin word for education (educatio) and its meaning. The meaning of e-ducatio to lead out of something, namely from a state of roughness leads us to the main question of education: Education into what? 11 The aim of premodern European education was, for Tillich, the introduction of the individual into the living community and the tradition of the church. Although the three educational forms were in constant competition, in the premodern age inductive teaching had an unquestionable power in which the into what of education played a large role. 12 The reality in which initiation took place was the christian church itself, the Corpus Christianum, that included at the same time religious, political and cultural questions. Moreover, a perhaps even more important aspect was the fact that this christian church was a more or less unified reality, and although there were always schisms in its teaching, the living community and the decisive role of initiation into it cannot be denied. The reason why humanistic education rebelled against the inducting one has to this day defined our ideas about education. Instead of introduction into something, humanistic education wanted to uphold the individual and his/her capabilities, so it stood up against inducting education. According to the humanistic educational principles, the actualization of the possibilities within the individual can hardly be reconciled to initiation into the community.. In Tillich s theology, however, these to can coexist peacefully, moreover, individualization and participation may assist the realization of objectives as the dynamic partners of one another: no individual exists 8 Tillich, 2002, p Tillich, 1956, p Tillich, 2002, p Tillich, 2002, p Tillich, 1945, p 15

3 without participation, and no personal being exists without communal being.individualization and participation are interdependent on all levels of being. 13 Finding an equilibrium in the dynamics of individual and community is still an important issue in education and in the day-today living of church schools. Tillich points out three important changes in the 19th century, which I think defines our education more and more decisively. On the one hand, thechnical education gained precedence, and the main purpose of education has become the adaptation to the demands of industrial society. 14 Tillich emphasizes that at this stage adaptation has gained a more and more important role: adaptation to the demands of the existing society, to the schedules of production, to the aims of industrial development and we might notice that even adaptation to the norms of the powers that be has become technical. On the other hand, in technical education it is not only the inducting character that has been lost, but also the humanistic aims have become empty. Tillich points out that since the feeling of their loss cannot disappear, there has been an attempt to replace them with elements of culture. He has good reason, however, to state that this attempt was bound to fail, because the purpose and content behind culture has disappeared, and the products of culture have become mere instruments in education, without a focus and a center. In Tillich, this can be understood by looking at the mutual dependence of religion and culture: As religion is the substance of culture, so culture is the form of religion. 15 Having disposed of the essence, however, the cultural achievements of the past wove an idealistic veil over the nakedness of this [technical] education, 16 which could not and we can see today that it cannot keep itself alive for long. There have been attempts to replace the missing center with different kinds of supposed values, but the emptiness behind technical education could not be truly filled with either the national idea or the values of industrial society, because the existential questions of humanity and the religious symbols answering them go beyond these concepts. People always long for something that calls to them with utmost seriousness and possesses an absolute weight in their lives. In our present-day world we can think of a number of elements that can have the same demonic influence on the lives of individuals than the national question in the second world war in Tillich s example. This is evident in the large numbers of people in search of their place, in a physical as well as a spiritual sense, the flight into alternative realities, or the great number of different forms of dependence and the great number of people suffering from dependence, all of which show people s demand for initiation. Leading out and initiation belong together. There is no leading out without initiation. The leading out of education (e-ducatio) needs to give something to replace the former state. There is no self-standing, modifier-less education, only education that can say where it can lead those it leads out from a state of roughness and barbarism. So the question is not whether there is a need for inducting education today, rather, whether education, the education in church schools, religious education can provide initiation. Can the initiation it offers speak to them with full force? Can it provide answers to the real questions of their life? Is it capable of showing that the answers to these questions can be found in religious symbols? 13 Tillich, 2002, p Tillich, 1956, pp Tillich, 1973, p Tillich, 1945, p 16

4 Church school and inducting education Tillich sees in this the definitive role of church schools, because they can be the place where the inducting education practiced up to the Middle Ages can still take place in a way that continues to admit the necessity of technical education and so that the problem of humanistic education is also solved. There are at least two major differences between church schools before modernity and those today: denominational divisions and national divisions that are amplified by the development of technical societies at a different rate and their demands. As opposed to the medieval situation, today s church schools are built on a small area of the christian world, and they are dependent on a given denomination, creedal group or even national church. They do not represent the spirit of the whole of christianity and it is an even greater problem if they do not even wish to do so. Therefore Tillich draws attention to the danger that if the induction into these symbols and traditions (are built) on too small a basis, and therefore not strong enough to give a personal center that can radiate into all sectors of contemporary life 17, then students can easily enter into a state of isolation, and their participation in inducting education will not have long-term results. When at a later stage of life, they have questions and doubts, and they realize that the symbols and knowledge they received do not give an answer to the whole of life, they may easily become sceptical and turn against everything into which education aimed to initiate them. This potential danger must always be kept in mind by church schools, christian and religious education: The teachings determining the identity of the community should not narrow down the whole content of the symbols to a partial truth. To prevent this from happening, and to find a solution to the problems of humanistic education, church schools, and especially the religious education taking place in them, should consider the dilemma of life questions and the answers that can be given to them. The root of this dilemma is that the student age-group do not necessarily on their own ask the life questions to which the symbols of christianity might give an answer. Terefore teachers and especially those teaching religious education must teach in a way that tries to find the existential questions that are inportant for the pupils, and that shows that the symbols of christianity answer just these questions. The existing correlation between question and answer which is one of the basic conceps of Tillich s theology is indispensable in inducting education. This is still the case if the situation of questions must be promoted by the school and the teacher. Where this happens, though, humanistic education will also emerge, since its foundation is also the question about ourselves: What am I like? What can I become? How should I realize my possibilities, experience my capabilities? How should I develop? What do I want to become? How can I live to the glory of God? Tillich emphasizes as well that the correlation of the real answer and existing question-situation helps the realization and cooperation of the three educational forms, in which humanistic education ceases to be an alternative, and in certain situations the rival or competitor of inducting education, and technical education can also take its rightful place. The question of church schools is not just the question of church schools. 18 On the one hand, the question of church schools is the question of the whole church and the congregation behind the church school, which needs to carry it within itself as a Spiritual Community and to introduce it into the secret of being, and into the world of religious symbols given as anwers to existential questions. On the other hand, it is at least as much a question of culture and religion, society and church, 17 Tillich, 1956, p Tillich, 1956, p 156

5 education and church. This question needs to be treated within the whole framework of the abovementioned. Tillich, too, thinks that this problem is infinite, and needs to be answered again and again by each new generation. Today, when church schools and schools alike ask about their existence, they can, with the courage necessary, take the opportunity even if it arises due to external constraints to carry out inducting education. If we can move beyond the level of thechnical education which can appear even in religious topics and we can treat technical education at its rightful place as an instrument, and if we can look at cultural accomplishments not as an end, but as useful forms, and we are not satisfied with the intermediate values of humanistic education either, then church schools can provide their students with an all-surpassing value. To do this, church schools are obliged to look beyond their own boundaries, traditions and laws, be they national, denominational or any other boundaries. Bibliography Kodácsy-Simon Eszter: Van-e helye a hitoktatásnak az iskolában? In: Credo, Evangélikus folyóirat, XIX. évf. 3. szám, o. Kodácsy-Simon Eszter: Miért tart fenn az egyház iskolát? In: Szabó Lajos (szerk.): Teológia és oktatás. Luther Kiadó, Budapest, o. Tillich, Paul: The World Situation In: Tillich, Paul: The Spiritual Situation in Our Technical Society. ed.: J. Mark Thomas. Mercer University Press, Tillich, Paul: A Theology of Education In: Tillich, Paul: Theology of Culture. ed.: Robert C. Kimball. Oxford University Press, Oxford, o. Tillich, Paul: Communicating the Christian Message: A Question to Christian Ministers and Teachers. In: Tillich, Paul: Theology of Culture. ed.: Robert C. Kimball. Oxford University Press, Oxford, o. Tillich, Paul: On the Boundary. In: Tillich, Paul: The Boundaries of Our Being. Collins, London, o.

6 Tillich, Paul: Systematic Theology.Vol I., Vol III, University of Chicago Press, 1951, 1963

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