TEACHING CHRISTIANITY
Sta,—Mr. E. E. Reynolds in his striking article on " Teaching Christianity," published in your issue of February 12th, asks questions which seem to demand a reply. He wants systematic instruction for adults "in the principles of Christianity in the same way in which a local education authority or the W.E.A."—or, he might have added, the University Extension Movement—" offers courses in economics or history." He suggests that " the method should be the well-tried one of lecture followed by discussion and tutorial work." He adds that "no doubt ministers are already over:busy, and indeed not all of them have the right abilities or training to be teachers," and that " laymen might well prove more successful and some would be glad to undertake instructional work of this type." He also says that 9 the best place in a district " would " certainly not be a church," and advocates that, like the Apostles, the Churches should go out to the people, " to the adults, not to the children," and not merely expect the people to come to the churches. He ends by stating that " the need now is for teachers— perhaps for a new lay order of men and women living in the world as others, but prepared to teach the principles of Christianity."
I have quoted so much of Mr. Reynolds' actual wording because it might in effect have been taken from any of the propaganda leaflets of the Association for Adult Religious Education which from 1924 up to the outbreak of war in 1939 has been trying to foster the doing of this very work by local education authorities, the W.E.A. and, most of all, by the Universities themselves through their University Extension Departments. Interdenominational classes by well-qualified and Univer- sity teachers, men and women of any denomination, have for the last fifteen years _before the war actually beery held in increasing numbers in many parts of the country. The subjects chosen have been mainly the Literary, Historical and Comparative Study of the Bible—after all the Eons et origo of the principles of Christianity as the accepted litera- ture of the Christian Churches in every age. But classes have also been held on the Philosophy, Psychology and Comparative Study of Religion and on the History and Theology of the Christian Church. The one demand has been that such classes should be conducted in the same impartial spirit of scientific study that is given to all other subjects. Members of such classes, who have numbered several thousand, most of them themselves engaged in educational work of different kinds, have increasingly borne witness by their attendances and zeal in preparing for the various certificates and diplomas offered by the Universities for such studies, to the value of such teaching both to themselves and to those whom they were themselves called upon to teach.
It has been the aim of the Association for Adult Religious Education to promote and make known what can now be obtained in this sphere not only from the Universities but from the local education authorities and other educational agencies of the country. All desiring further information are asked to communicate direct with any of the twenty-one Universities of England and Wales or with the Association for Adult Religious Education, war-time address, Laurel Cottage, Clun, Shropshire.
—Yours faithfully, MARJORY S. WEST, Hon. Org. Secretary.
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