Our hope is that the philosophy of education presented here will help teachers to form a courageous vision on teaching, enabling new generations of pupils and students to put their trust in God (Ps. 78:7). That is why we have inserted the word courage in the title. That we call it a Christian philosophy of education is based on the conviction that the Christian faith has something meaningful to add to courageous professionals. Consequently, our book contains many concepts that are directly derived from Holy Scripture, such as ‘hope’, ‘image of God’, and ‘hospitality’. This does not mean that our philosophy of education simply relies on Bible passages. Writing this book has been a hermeneutical enterprise, a continuous search for the essence of biblical notions for Christian teaching and learning today, in our personal and global context. We have placed the relationship between faith and teaching in a theoretical framework. While we have strived to present a coherent whole – one of the features of a philosophy of education –, our primary goal was not to formulate a neatly rounded theory. By clarifying theoretical concepts and explaining its meaning and background, we wish to serve the educational practice. In doing so, we have emphasised that it is the responsibility of all those involved in Christian education to critically reflect on current practice through the lens of the broad pedagogical tradition, and more specifically: the Christian pedagogical tradition. Here, the personal faith and beliefs of educators are at stake: how do they incorporate their self-understanding, their job perception and, most of all, their calling to be a teacher into their reflections on their practice?
In this epilogue, we wish to address briefly two specific challenges facing teachers today. The first is about the person of the teachers themselves. It takes courage to be a teacher, because teachers teach in who they are (Parker Palmer). That is why they need to know the inner landscape of their own soul, their beliefs and ideals. We have therefore emphasised the formation of teachers as persons and of their Personal Professional Theory. This may feel like a heavy burden to place on teachers, as if they themselves are capable of precisely defining what teaching should look like in practice, and how they should embody an ideal of teaching in order to be an identification figure for their students. The opposite is true. The message from Psalm 78 that students do not have to be like us is liberating. Teachers are guides; they point to God, who is full of grace and salvation, and to the world, which is in His hands. The Christological commitment in Ephesians 6:4 (‘Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord’) gives even deeper meaning to the fact that teachers need not expect this of themselves. Understood in this way, courageously
There is, however, also the teachers’ external landscape, namely the context they work in. This presents another challenge. Based on their ideals and beliefs, they relate to different stakeholders in education. In many situations today the pedagogical professionalism of teachers is being questioned. How to be a guide with respect to the high demands of society regarding e.g. sexual and citizenship formation? And how to handle the great differences between students: emotional, social, cognitive, and so on? On top of this – as we mentioned in the introduction – there is also the overwhelming presence of AI, which can make teachers feel redundant. We wrote this philosophy of education because we are convinced that teaching matters, even in our contemporary world. In a highly sophisticated society with increasing demands, students need reliable guides. In the opening verses of Romans 12, the apostle Paul exhorts Christians to offer their bodies as a sacrifice acceptable to God (verse 1). Applied to teaching, this means the Christian life can be put into practice in the classroom. ‘Renewal of the mind’ (verse 2) is not primarily evident from a beautifully formulated vision, but from actions, from what happens in contact with the students. It demonstrates that careful reasoning is involved. Discernment is the key. Christian teachers have a call to see the unique and rich meaning of Christ amid the schemes, the challenges and the temptations of our world. He is not only the Guide, but the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). That, most of all, may give teachers the courage to guide.