The history and philosophy of religious education in the Christian and Missionary Alliance

This study investigates the development of religious education forms and philosophy over the 100-year history of an evangelical denomination. It describes how the social and religious context of the movement's early years were reflected in its educational endeavors, and uncovers the means by which the movement sought to educate its people and initiate others into its beliefs and its missionary cause. It also traces the ways early decisions and choices of the movement affected it religious education practice in ensuing decades.;The following hypotheses were confirmed: (1) While in principle the Alliance affirmed the importance of Christian education to the advancement of its goals, and in fact carried on diverse and successful educational efforts, official policies and actions at critical periods hindered the progress of religious education in the movement. (2) The absence of a well-articulated philosophy of religious education has resulted in a blurring of doctrinal distinctives in Christian education practice. These findings are seen to be a result of a basic conflict in the denomination concerning the predominance of its mission of world evangelization over its historic message, known as the Fourfold Gospel.;The hypotheses were tested by historical inquiry into primary sources--the movement's official journal, its annual reports and other official documents, the writings of founder A. B. Simpson, and past and current Christian education materials, curricula, and statements of philosophy. These were considered in the context of religious, educational, and sociological literature of the period. The study is pertinent to several areas of scholarship: to social and religious history as it traces the transformation of a social-reform missionary society into a denomination; to educational historians as an example of a movement which diffused its teachings through an ecology of non-schooling educational forms; to religious education historians as they attempt to integrate the experience of evangelicals into the history of the religious education movement. It is also pertinent to Christian educators seeking to understand the problems of discipling adult converts and transmitting a personal experience of Christian faith across the generations.