Academic rigor in Christian schools: The academic effect of Bible courses and integration of faith and learning in secondary education

This study analyzes the correlation between required years of Bible courses and academic rigor at select private Christian schools. These findings, derived from the author’s doctoral research, show a threshold of under 4 years of required Bible courses for optimal academic perception among these schools. This threshold correlates with a medium to strong effect size and demonstrates a tension between academic strength and integration of faith and learning. This finding calls attention to Christian schools’ need to examine their priorities as both Christian and academic institutions. Theological and practical implications include extensions of the doctrine of sovereignty and curricular design.

The Devil Won, Hands Down

This chapter details the response of segregationists and conservatives to the civil rights movement. It describes the depiction of the movement as violent following the death of Andy Whately, the ostracization of white Southerners who sympathized with demands for justice, like Warren Fortson, and the establishment of private Christian schools in response to integration. In these actions, white conservatives reframed their resistance to racial justice in theological terms that would come to define the Religious Right.

A Survey of Christian Religious Education in the United States

Prior to the landmark Supreme Court decision of June 1963, which banned public prayer from the public schools, Christian religious education was often a routine part of the overt instruction provided by the American public school system. However, in the wake of that legal milestone, even though instruction in the Judeo-Christian interpretation of religious history continued to be taught covertly, American churches began relying more heavily on providing Christian religious education. This article briefly presents Christianity’s contemporary status in the United States and reviews such religious education methods as Sunday school, vacation Bible school, Christian youth groups, catechism, private Christian schools, Youth Sunday, and children’s sermons. The survey concludes with a look at the growing interface between such education and the lessons of psychology as well as training and certifying Christian religious educators.

A Survey of Christian Religious Education in the United States

Prior to the landmark Supreme Court decision of June 1963, which banned public prayer from the public schools, Christian religious education was often a routine part of the overt instruction provided by the American public school system. However, in the wake of that legal milestone, even though instruction in the Judeo-Christian interpretation of religious history continued to be taught covertly, American churches began relying more heavily on providing Christian religious education. This article briefly presents Christianity’s contemporary status in the United States and reviews such religious education methods as Sunday school, vacation Bible school, Christian youth groups, catechism, private Christian schools, Youth Sunday, and children’s sermons. The survey concludes with a look at the growing interface between such education and the lessons of psychology as well as training and certifying Christian religious educators.