Four and Twenty+ Blackbirds: Luther on Education

15 July 2008

Luther on Education – Source Located

There is a famous quotation of Luther that goes,

I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.

A brief search of the Internet can find many, many times this is quoted. But I wasn’t able to find any references to the source of that quotation. In fact, I even read one place where Luther’s authorship was doubted. (Indeed, quite a few of Luther’s popular “quotes” are not authentic.)

A little effort last week with my Luther’s Works in Logos yielded the original in the American Edition, though worded a bit differently. I imagine the quote as popularly cited comes from an older translation. The words come from Luther’s 1520 work, “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate.”

I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God’s word becomes corrupt. ... I greatly fear that the universities, unless they teach the Holy Scriptures diligently and impress them on the young students, are wide gates to hell.

Luther, M. (1999, c1966). Vol. 44: Luther's works, vol. 44 : The Christian in Society I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (44:207). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Rob Franck

4 comments:

Rev. Gifford A. Grobien said...: I had never heard a version that included the warning for universities. This reminds me of the crisis of the Enlightenment. The rise and triumph of the status of reason claimed to offer certainty of knowledge (besides deeper and broader knowledge), but the claims of reason also introduced skepticism. This skepticism was supposed to be skepticism of authorities other than reason, but has degenerated today in a skepticism of seemingly everything.

I have appreciated my studies at Notre Dame, an environment where there is at least room at the table for Scripture and tradition, but I am still taken aback at the refusal to give the benefit of the doubt to Scripture, tradition, and traditional explanations of Scripture. The preeminence of reason and the resulting skepticism has not made us wiser men, but ungrounded men.; Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 10:21:00 PM CDT
Rev. Rick Stuckwisch said...: Thanks for tracking down the source of this quote, Brother Franck, and for bringing it to our attention. I agree with Brother Grobien that the reference to universities is instructive. I, too, was subject to some "culture shock" when I transitioned from my M.Div. and S.T.M. work at the seminary to my doctoral studies at the University of Notre Dame; even though my studies there did still involve the Holy Scriptures and Christian doctrine.

At the level of elementary and secondary education, Luther's point is one that parents ought to consider and take seriously. Where there is the option of a Lutheran school available, that should be considered. Where that is not the case -- and even where it is a viable option -- Christian parents should carefully thinkg about the possibility of homeschooling. I realize that approach would not work so well for everyone (and that certain states have made it very difficult, if not illegal; which is travesty of freedom and basic human rights). Yet, parents are (and are to be) the primary educators of their own children; the responsibility is theirs, both for their children's training in the arts and sciences for life in this world, and for their children's catechesis in the Christian faith and life for this world and the next.

It has frustrated me when proponents of Lutheran schools have viewed Lutheran homeschoolers as being opposed to Lutheran education. Quite the opposite is true, at the least in the case of my own family and our many Lutheran homeschooling friends. We homeschool our children in large part for the sake of seeing to it that they are catechized in the Word of God, Lutheran doctrine, piety and practice.

I'm thinking that Emmaus in South Bend may be relatively unique, however, in having as high a percentage of homeschooling families as we do.; Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 8:25:00 PM CDT
Anonymous said...: Thanks for tracking down the source for this quote! Much appreciated :); Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at 9:53:00 AM CST
Anonymous said...: Thanks for tracking down the source, much appreciated :); Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at 9:53:00 AM CST

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The Twenty-Four Elders (and a few living creatures)

Rev. Benjamin Ball
St. Paul, Hamel, Illinois

Rev. Larry Beane
Salem, Gretna, Louisiana

Rev. Paul Beisel
Immanuel, Iowa Falls, Iowa

Rev. Peter Bender
Peace, Sussex, Wisconsin

Rev. Eric Brown
Trinity, Herscher, Illinois

Rev. Heath Curtis
Zion, Carpenter, Illinois

Rev. William Cwirla
Holy Trinity, Hacienda Heights, CA

Rev. Dr. Burnell Eckardt
St. Paul, Kewanee, Illinois

Rev. Erich Fickel
St. Paul, Chesterton, Indiana

Rev. William Foy
Prince of Peace, Valparaiso, Indiana

Rev. John A. Frahm III
Trinity, Boulder Junction, Wisconsin

Rev. Robert Franck
Mount Olive, Duluth, Minnesota

Rev. Dr. Gifford Grobien
CTS, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Rev. Dr. Kent Heimbigner
Charity, Burleson, Texas

Rev. Dr. Steven Hein
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rev. Rich Heinz
St. Johns, Chicago, Illinois

Rev. David Kind
University Lutheran, Minneapolis

Rev. Brent Kuhlman
Trinity, Murdock, Nebraska

Rev. Alan Ludwig, Professor
Lutheran Theological Seminary
Novosibirsk, Russia

Rev. Todd Peperkorn
Holy Cross, Rocklin, California

Rev. J. Richard Sawyer
Good Shepherd, Brandon, Mississippi

Rev. Robert Schaibley, emeritus
Shepherd of the Springs,
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rev. Dr. Richard Stuckwisch
Emmaus, South Bend, Indiana

Rev. Jacob Sutton
Immanuel, Terre Haute, Indiana

Rev. Ralph Tausz
Apostles, Melrose Park, Illinois

Rev. David Jay Webber
Redeemer, Scottsdale, Arizona

Rev. William Weedon
Lutheran Public Radio, Collinsville, IL

Rev. Dr. Georg Williams
Zion, Ainsworth, Nebraska

Rev. Kyle Wright II
St. Matthew, Hamlet, Indiana

Rubrics and Blogistics for the Blackbirds

Unlike the Ten Commandments, these are not written in stone (though some of them are pretty solid). Those who may be reading over our shoulders might also find these interesting.

1. Be reverent and courteous. Piepkorn's fundamental pair of rubrics for the conduct of the Service are likewise pertinent here. It's simply faith toward God and love toward others. All the other rules and rubrics are an application of those principles to specific questions.

2. Our blog is a public forum, and we are all public servants of the Word. Therefore, what we write and the manner in which we write ought to reflect an appropriate decorum. Though you may sometimes wonder, there are people reading what you have to say. The majority of them will mostly be quiet about it, and many will probably never respond with any comments, but they will benefit, and they will appreciate it.

3. Although this is a public forum, don't be self-conscious about your writing, and don't attempt to play to the crowd. Simply address yourself pastorally to the topics you take up for consideration, as you would respond to members of your own parish who are asking about or need to be told such things as pertain to their Christian faith and life.

4. Don't be intentionally provocative or controversial, but don't shy away from engaging topics in a way that challenges the status quo (from and within the parameters of the Word of God and our common confession of the same). By the same token, let us hold each other accountable to the apostolic doctrine. Do not fear correction, nor fear to question; that is the way in which we learn from one other and sharpen one another for the common good.

5. A helpful rule of thumb is akin to Luther's advice on confession: Don't make blogging into a torture, nor seek to invent things worth saying, as though to impress anyone. Instead, if there are matters weighing on your heart or mind, address them with the Word of God from within your office and station in life, and thereby allow your fathers and brothers in Christ to respond with the Word of the Lord from within their own vocations. (Blogging should not be a kind of virtual confessional; this rubric speaks only to the way in which one ought to approach this sort of writing and discussion.)

6. Our blog lands somewhere between an e-mail discussion list and a published theological journal. Less from-the-hip than e-mail groups, but less formal than a publication. Bear in mind that your posts can be edited (or removed) after the fact; so don't agonize over every jot and tittle up front, as though your posts had to be perfect from the outset. That's not to advocate recklessness, but do not be so scrupulous that you hesitate to say anything.

7. Our blog is something like an online Logia, and your posts may be compared to the "Theological Observer" in the CTQ, or the "Public Square" in First Things. Only this forum is much faster and allows for considerably more give and take, not only amongst ourselves but with others, too.

8. Make an effort to post at least once every other month. The more, the better, but don't try to force it. When things come up in the course of your pastoral vocation, consider the possibility of reflecting upon those matters on the blog (with appropriate discretion).

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12. Our cooperative blog is not the place for posting sermons or extended quotations or lists of things or personal family adventures (though in some cases such things may provide the context for theological commentary). If you want to quote something, fine, but do so for the sake of providing your own assessment and constructive critique (whether pro or con).

Four and Twenty+ Blackbirds

15 July 2008

Luther on Education – Source Located

4 comments:

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Four and Twenty+ Blackbirds

15 July 2008

Luther on Education – Source Located

4 comments:

Facebook Page

The Twenty-Four Elders (and a few living creatures)

The Twenty-Four Topics

Blog Archive

The Mutual Conversation of the Brethren

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, et al.

On the Windowsill

Regular Readers

Contact the Administrator

Rubrics and Blogistics for the Blackbirds

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