THEOLOGY OF EDUCATION

The recent publication of the first reader in the of education' was designed to stimulate new interest in this form of enquiry, since at present the concept of 'theology of education' sounds comparatively strange both to educationalists, who are familiar with such areas of discourse as 'psychology of education',2 'philosophy of education'3 and 'sociology of education',4 and to theologians, who are familiar with the application of their discipline to many other applied areas of social and personal life. For the of education to be taken seriously, theologians need to be convinced that the subject matter of education is worthy of theological scrutiny and educationalists need to be convinced that the methods of are worthy of serious consideration within the educational arena. In his paper in The Scottish Journal of Theology in 1977,5 John Hull set out to convince the theologian of the former case, while Leslie Francis set out in his paper in The Oxford Review ofEducation in 19836 to convince the educationalist of the latter case. The question of the place of church schools within the state maintained sector of education provides a good testing ground for the development of the of education.7 Just as there is no one simple answer to the question 'what is theology?',8 so there can be no one simple answer to the question 'what is the of education?' Different theological methods will be reflected in different approaches to the of education, as exampled by William Andersen's perspective from biblical theology,9 Barbara Mitrano's from feminist theology,10 Gerard Capaldi's from liberation theology or Randolph Crump-Miller's from process theology.'2 Nevertheless, as a branch of applied or practical theology, the of education needs to operate within certain clearly defined parameters. The constraints on the interface between and education are not dissimilar from those on the interface between and sociology described by Robin Gill.13 The of education must begin by taking its educational context seriously and must conclude by subjecting its empirical claims to appropriate methods of investigation. According to these criteria, the of education when applied to church schools must take into account the historical context through which the church school