Implication #1: I think education should bring out and develop the characteristics of God that we mirror so that each student can fulfill the call of God to live (i.e. function) like God. In other words we should bring out and repair the latent gifts with which God endowed our students. Isn't that amazing!? Let me tell you something - that's the potential within each of our students! When I shared this idea with my wife, she responded, "Yeah, just like a coach." In this sense, teachers act like coaches who develop the athletic gifts within athletes so they can perform in contests successfully. For teachers we develop the image of God within students so they can live life well.
Sounds good, right? Well, I think it is good; but we must tread carefully because this principle can drift subtely to a form of atheism many now call humanism or secular humanism which stems from Englightenment philosophies that will ultimately fail. How should we tread carefully? We must remember that the development of the image of God in man is a redemptive and restorative project; it assumes a deformed and devestated image after the fall into sin that needs renewal. As Hoekema says, "This restoration begins in regeneration...The renewal of the image is continued in what the Bible calls the work of sanctification" (Created in God's Image, 86). Sanctification really is the renewal of the image of God, and education can be a means of renewing the image, a means of sanctification. This distinction can bring focus and insight into the work of a teacher.
My next question: how can we apply this truth practically?
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