“Foundations for the Twenty-First Century” by Michael J. Anthony Review Essay (Critical Writing)

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We live in the era of technologies and great changes of the world as well as human values and needs. Modern education, Christian education particularly, should correspond to the changes of modern society. Michael J. Anthony in his book Introducing Christian Education: Foundations for the Twenty-first Century points out the importance of the Christian education in modern society. Christian education should satisfy the needs of the society that is why it is very important to alter the methods of Christian education which is suitable to modern generations. The twenty-first century with new cultural values and devaluation of the Christian message impulses certain alternation in the role of Christian education in our life.

Christian education expanded its vision to the whole of human growth and development. “A new wind of change was blowing, new age designations emerged for young people – Busters, Generation X, Digital Generation – and with them a new attitude” (Anthony 2001, p. 12). Special approaches should be used teaching these generations. Michael Anthony provides some of such approaches which may be successfully used by ministry leaders as well as priests.

Christian education is still full of misconception and misunderstanding caused by multidisciplinary nature of the field. Although the Bible is a core of Christian education, it is necessary to relate it to a variety of social sciences such as psychology, sociology or history. Michael Anthony provides the means of such integration providing the role of these sciences in Christian education. Beginning with the overview of philosophical and theological historical bases for Christian ministry, the author presents the contributions of other social sciences in terms of biblical teaching. More than that, Michael Anthony examines the administration and structure of ministry. Finally, he applies Christian education theory to different social and age groups. This book is very helpful for ministry leaders to draw up the education programs corresponding to the contemporary needs of the modern society as well as for people who want to develop relationships with God.

Many people don’t even know what Christian education is. “Some students have asked, “Is Christian education what happens in private school?” “Is it what happens in church?” “Is it what occurs at camp during the summer?” (Anthony 2001, p. 13). The author gives all of them the positive answer, but he points out that Christian education is much more than just going to Sunday sermons or reading the Bible. Michael Anthony casts light upon what the notion of Christian education denotes. According to Michael Anthony, “Christian education can be viewed as an effort to encourage people to gain an authentic relationship with God” (Anthony 2001, p. 17). More than that, the author points out the importance of using the knowledge acquired reading the Bible in a real life. Spiritual formation takes place as individuals learn the Word of God and apply their knowledge in living.

The author provides different means of encouraging people to develop their relationships with God from the Old Testament to the twenty-first century. Jesus Christ’s commission to the church is to make disciples until the day he returns. Priests have done all their best to follow this mission, travelling to other lands with gospels. Nowadays they have chosen to remain behind and support their efforts. They plant churches, create new training schools and look for the new alternative methods of passing the gospel message.

Multiculturalism, naturalism and relativism are the basic notions of the twenty-first century which influence moral and ethical values of the modern society. “The challenges facing Christian education in the twenty-first century are to withstand the onslaught of these humanistic philosophies and to educate believers with the absolute truth found only in the Bible” (Anthony 2001, p. 14). Michael Anthony stresses that modern Christian education need new methods of teaching the Word of God. With the development of technologies, people can extend their biblical knowledge not only going to the church but sitting in the front of their TV or their computers watching online gospels. Churches have become empty nowadays. Less and less people go on Sunday sermons. People have become very busy nowadays and it is quite difficult for them to find the time for reading the Bible and developing their relationship with God. More than that, many of them don’t see the point in the importance of such relationships.

Michael Anthony expresses his concern about the diminution of the role of Christian education in the modern society and provides some basic methods which may improve the current situation. He points out that modern education should be aiming at the following the main goals not at the discussion of minor details concerning the methodology of Christian education. The main goal of Christian education is to present every person complete in Christ as the Bible says. Christian education begins with broad foundations of theological, historical and philosophical bases for Christian ministry. Michael Anthony emphasizes the importance of integrating Christian education in other sciences as far as some of the insights that those fields of empirical research have discovered may be very useful in Christian education.

Michael Anthony’s book is very useful for priests, ministry leaders and teachers. The information provided at the book may be used at the lessons of religious studies and theology. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this book is quite difficult for comprehension for many students. It is stuffed with a lot of theoretical knowledge without any demonstration how this knowledge may be used in a real life. In fact, Michael Anthony providing a lot of historical facts and presenting the model of integrating Christian education to social sciences and adapting Christian education to different age and specialized groups doesn’t provide examples which demonstrate the usefulness of his ideas. Of course, this book is very valuable in terms of modern education providing a lot of useful knowledge but it will be better if the author uses less complicated language which makes the students’ comprehension easier and provides more interesting examples from a real life which makes the process of education more captivating.

Michael Anthony’s book encourages the readers to think over the quality of modern Christian education and the way of its improving. Having read this book, I have known a lot of interesting facts from the history of Christian education and the differences between the Christian education in previous centuries and the twenty-first century. I have observed in the book how these differences and changes have influenced the nature of Christian education. More than that, this book casts light upon the notion of Christian education. Despite some drawbacks of this book, I highly recommend it to other students to increase their knowledge on theology and religious studies.

Reference List

Anthony, Michael. Introducing Christian Education: Foundations for the Twenty-first Century. USA: Baker Academic, 2001.

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