Cultural story-telling

I have argued previously that the Creation Mandate is a cultural mandate. What we call "education" (and the Bible terms discipleship or teaching) is the way we transfer that cultural mandate to others and equip them to continue its advancement.

Fernhout explains it this way, as quoted in the notes of my Wesley Institute Diploma of Education Biblical Studies course:

"If education is, at bottom, a process of cultural story-telling . . . then the educational engagement of Christians should be imbued with, penetrated by the biblical story and its life-world. Each new generation of Christians needs to be steeped in that story so that their lives can tell the same story as the biblical story . . . Christians are to live in the biblical story as the community whose story it is, and from that indwelling they try to understand and cope with events int heir time in order to carry the story forward."

It is vital to understand the world through the biblical text, and to do this students must both know the text and how to apply it. Significantly, much of what we call "education" today does not disciple students to apply the biblical story. In fact, it disciples students through the lens of alternate stories. It should not be a surprise when students grow up to live those stories, or try to combine them with the biblical story.