The goal of education-Biblical Vision:

The goal of education-Biblical Vision:

(a)   Education and Kingdom values:

The term Christian education itself implies teaching and instructing about subject matter in education. In Christian education it is to teach an individual become mature in the pattern of the life of Christ. But in the wider sense of the term, teaching is always aim at transformation of an individual and a society as a whole. We could see that Jesus ways of teaching was for transformation rather than mere information as an educationist Walter Wink has opined it. Walter wink’s point was that Jesus teaching on Mark 1:14, 15 which calls for repentance means calling to get new mind for the reign of God is at hand.

            One of the chief exponents of liberation approach in Christian education, Thomas H. Groome defines Christian education as “a political activity with pilgrims in time that deliberately and intentionally attend with them to the activity of God in our present, to the story of Christian faith community, and to the vision of God’s kingdom, the seed of which are already among us.” Hence, the purpose of education is to usher in the kingdom of God in Jesus. The kingdom of God invites us a response of constant conversion, metanoia. The inner conversion must turn us outward toward God in our neighbor. Our conversion requires that we strive to live sinless lives as individuals, but it also demands that we oppose and struggle all the social and cultural expressions of sin in our world. We must struggle to create social, political, economic structures and cultural arrangement that are capable of promoting the values of the kingdom of God.

            As Thomas Groome, other exponents of liberation approach of education such as Paulo Friere, James E Loder etc opines that the overall aim of education is to inaugurate the gospel of the kingdom of God on earth. The goal of education is to promote social transformation for the sake of freedom, justice and peace. It aims to help people embody a life-style of Christian participation with efforts to transform and humanize the world. The goal is to transform both the church and the people for liberation and humanization. People are to become initially aware of oppressive structures, especially those that are racist, sexist, economic, political and cultural.

(b)Education as self awakening:

The goal of education as self awakening may be understood in line with Paulo Freire’s view of conscientization which is a process of cultural action in which women and men are awakened to their socio-cultural reality and more beyond the constraints and alienations to which they are subjected, and affirm themselves as conscious subjects and become active co-creators of their historical future. According to Paulo Freire, conscientization in Christian education or religious education make one to participate in God’s redemptive work of building a community of peace, love and justice.

            The emergence of contextual theologies is the results of the process of conscientization. For example, Dalit theology emerged out of Dalit consciousness in their search for their roots in relation to the image of God in full humanness. The feminist theology also emerged out of their consciousness of women oppression and exploitation in the socio-cultural society. This self-awakening is in response to the prevailing social, religious and economical exploitation and dehumanization. Only by an active participation can people arrive at an authentic solution to their problem. Hence Freire proposed the pedagogical method of participatory dialogue. This involves a meeting of the minds of both the educators and learners in a truly participatory learning experience. Hence education for transformation will take place through engagement in participatory dialogue.

© Education as sharing/crossing boundaries: In a multi-faith context of Christian education there is a need to broaden our perspective of the aims of Christian education, its content and its methods. And Christian education must be defined from a contextual and inclusive perspective. The present Indian context is a multicultural and multi-religious therefore, there is a need to learn how to live together in harmonious relationship with our neighbors. It requires reviewing the kind of Christian education program in the churches, church run schools and theological institutions.

            The aim of Christian education should focus on faith formation, critical way of knowing, engaging and living out in the multi-faith social contexts. Prabhakar has said, Christian education in a pluralistic context like India should aim at making it possible for the learners to seek to live a faith-life in which they do not ignore the contextual issues. It should aim at helping the learners to be sensitive to the challenges of plurality of religions and cultures. Education is more than a transmitting a heritage; it is learning, living, relating and growing within a community to relate to larger communities until it encompasses the entire world. Hence, education is for building relationships, both within one’s own community and with those of other communities.

            Therefore, the goal of Christian education should be to live together and build communities of peace, unity and harmony. There should be mutual enrichment to build an inclusive community. To meet this aim we need to have openness to one another. It is not only openness but we also need commitment to work together for common good. Christian education must cultivate this attitude through the process of teaching-learning.

(d) Education as building an inclusive community: Samson Prabhakar has asserted that Christian education in a pluralistic country like India should be understood as an activity for preserving a particular set of religious beliefs, customs, traditions and even a particular aspect of self-identity. However, he felt that this would result in parochialism. He said instead, Christian education needs to be understood as those activities of the church, through which she intentionally attempts to bring transformation in all aspects of human life and create an inclusive Community of Communities.

The inclusive community as Prabhakar has opined is a human community where no one is discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, caste, creed, religious background, ethnic background, religion, language, money and so on. He dreamt that it is a community that exists on the foundation of interdependence, mutual respect, mutual enrichment and mutual caring and sharing. A community where there is a harmony between human beings and the world of nature. It is a community which is not value-free, but where Kingdom values are held as the highest.

The ultimate goal of Christian education in a pluralistic context like India should be to enlighten all the people to have this kind of vision and to empower them to work towards making the dream a reality. Christian education needs to be understood as a means to bring transformation in all aspects of community life. Prabhakar proposed a sort Christian education under three propositions.

(i)                 Christian education is an activity of faith-education for transformation.

(ii)               Christian education is an activity of empowerment of people.

(iii)             Christian education is an activity of mutual-critical-enrichment.

(e)  Education for peace and justice: Peace is the absence of violence and injustice. When one talks about peace and justice it needs to see with violence and injustice. Where there is injustice there is no peace either, and where there is injustice there is violence. Samson Prabhakar has mentioned three points for educating for peace:

(i) To help learners understand and cope with violence in their immediate world and seek alternative to that violence.

(ii) To help the learners to grow in understanding of the “war mentality” in our culture and find ways to create a counter-mentality in our immediate environment.

(iii)To explore ways to build a mentality of global interdependence within our immediate environment.

In order to achieve these goals, first of all one needs to make an attempt to understand the causes of violence in our society.

Secondly, we need to understand the so-called “war mentality” in our culture itself. Here the word “war” means a mentality which supports military resolutions to conflict and the assumption that security of nations rests on arms.

Thirdly, there need to build a counter-mentality-a way of looking at the world as one family, an interdependent unit. In achieving this particular goal we may need to deal with several interrelated themes. They are as Prabhakar mentioned:

(i)                 Becoming aware of the need to live with differences  (races, caste, ethnic, cultural, religious and so on);

(ii)               Developing a sense of oneness;

(iii)             Understanding the systems and structures that influence people;

(iv)             Developing a sense of responsibility for strengthening ties among people.

Justice and peace is like violence and injustice and it is two sides of the same coin. The issue of justice is rooted in God’s righteousness. The Bible reveals the God of justice and righteousness, which is based on human values. Indeed, it is one of the central concerns of God with special focus upon the poor and the oppressed. Where there is a grave injustice, the God of the covenant is not neutral, but takes side of the poor and the oppressed (Micah 6:8; Deut 16:20; Jer 22:13-16; Isaiah 1:17).

Jesus stood for universal justice for all people in the world. His mission was essentially for the victims of injustice and oppression. His Nazereth manifesto in Luke 4:18-21 has shown this concern. It describes His mission as one of liberating the oppressed and the powerless people.

In the context of injustices in the world today, education can become an instrument for justice, seeking to make the victims of injustice aware of their position as a group, so that they can unite and work for change. The quest for justice is an ongoing process. There is a continuous strife for attaining justice, which stands as a goal to be achieved even through a process of conflict and struggle. The struggle for justice does not involve only the change of the minds and hearts of the individuals and the community, but it is the system itself that is called into question. And therefore, to talk about justice concerns both the people and the institutions or systems. Justice for men and women, who need to be fully human and to be true to themselves, assume responsility to change the structures and systems of society that dehumanizes them.