Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education

Trinity Journal, Fall 2004 by Senter, Mark H III

Michael J. Anthony, ed. Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001. 747 pp. $49.99.

A virtual Who's Who of 236 contemporary Christian educators from a broad cross section of evangelical Christianity contributed over 850 articles to create the Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education (Anthony's estimate). The authors represent academia, church, mission organizations, publishing, denominational leadership, parachurch agencies, arid training organizations, while the editorial team included four of the most respected Christian educators in evangelical seminaries of North America. With contributors drawn primarily from the membership of the North American Professors of Christian Education, the work represents the maturation of the field of Christian Education.

The editorial team consisting of Michael J. Anthony (Talbot School of Theology at Biola University), Warren S. Benson (now deceased, Senior Professor of Christian Education and Leadership at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and previously Professor of Christian Education at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), Daryl Eldridge (Dean and Professor of Foundations of Education in the School of Educational Ministries at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), and Julie Gorman (Director of the Christian Formation and Discipleship Program and Associate Professor of Christian Formation and Discipleship at Fuller Theological Seminary), began its work by identifying over fifteen hundred entries desirable for the Dictionary. Through a process of consolidation and elimination, the team pared the number to the articles that ultimately appeared in the work.

Like the field of Christian Education, the dictionary appears to be grouped around a collection of themes that together provide definition to the discipline. Defined and explained are biblical concepts of education, biographical sketches of over eighty individuals, church based expressions or strategies, counseling concepts (a type of corrective education), historically significant educational movements, human development theories, leadership concepts, organizations contributing to evangelical Christian education, social issues, teaching and learning strategies, theological trends, and theories and philosophies of education that have shaped evangelical theological education.

Perhaps the place to start a review of the Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education is to look at the definitions of "evangelical" and "Christian education." Thomas J. Nettles, Professor of Historical Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, defines evangelicalism "merely as biblical Christianity thriving in contemporary cultures" (p. 263). Drawing upon the writings of Carl F. H. Henry, he asserts that "evangelicals should be defined in terms of their 'devotion to the sure Word of the Bible'" (p. 263). Nettles distinguishes current evangelicalism from the sixteenth century usage distinguishing Reformation theology from Roman Catholic theology as well as from the Lutheran usage that distinguished its church from Roman Catholicism on one hand and the "Reformed" wing of the reformation on the other hand. He goes on to trace the modern evangelical movement starting in the 1940s. Distinguishing it from Christian fundamentalism without rejecting the full orthodoxy of its predecessor, Nettles rejects a sociological definition of evangelicalism, concluding that, with the substantial debate over the meaning of the word, history will understand the word as essentially doctrinal in nature, clustered around biblical authority, the essence and attributes of God, and the character of the redemptive message and experience.

The article on "Christian education" was authored by Dennis E. Williams, Dean of the School of Christian Education and Leadership and Professor of Christian Education at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who served as President and currently the Administrator of the North American Professors of Christian Education. After conceding that principles of education apply to the discipline of Christian education, Williams addresses the central question, "When is Christian Education Christian?" Four distinctives shape his response. "Christian education is Christian when teachers and learners are dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit in the learning environment. . . . the purpose and goals are honoring to the Lord and his kingdom. . . . the curriculum is developed from the teachings of the Word of God and from an understanding of biblical theology. . . . there is an overall understanding and perspective that God is in control and that teachers and learners are sincerely seeking to fulfill God's will and purpose in all things" (p. 133). Williams then offers three closely related definitions of Christian education and concludes that the significant basics that evangelicals consider important include "Bible-based, theologically sound, Holy Spirit-empowered, the elements of teaching/learning/growth/ equipping, change, the church, evangelism, and service" (pp. 133-34).