Science in Christian Perspective

Letter to the Editor

Wanted: A Bibliography on Pedagogy
Darius Othniel Blaisdell 
1005 Sixth Street Corpus Christi, 
Texas 78404

From: JASA 23 (June 1971): 76.
I received the recent copies of The Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation and have read enough in them to subscribe to them. Enclosed please find a money order for one year's subscription. This is the group and publication I have desired for several years. I am not a scientist but I might be classed as one who desires to be a scientific religious educator, using the word scientific in accordance with your definition of science on p. 262 of Encounter Between Christianity and Science. Also since I spent almost twenty years in the schoolroom, as a retired teacher I do substitute teaching in the Public Schools of Corpus Christi almost every school day.

I believe to get God back into the lives of the people is the same as before the Reformation when the Bible was carried into the homes of the people by the Lollards in England. This can he accomplished today by the re-establishment of the Family Altar. But how can this be done when there is to my knowledge no scientifically organized set of commentaries, Bible readings, or books of instructions for the parents or children in the home? What can be expected of the child who is instructed according to scientifically proved educational methods in the public schools and comes to study the Bible according to methods of the seventeenth century? And is expected to accept the theology of that same century which he knows will not stand scientific investigation and is not in keeping with the scientific information which he reads in his school hooks and the daily newspaper? The only encyclopedia which can be used is The Living Bible Encyclopedia in Story and Pictures, (1968) H. S. Stuttman Co. Inc., New York, N.Y. 10016 in 16 volumes and costs about $50.00.

My old Seminary professor, Dr. A. T. Robertson, Prof. of New Testament Greek and Life of Christ at that time, used to tell us that if we could not find a book we wanted we were to write one. That is what I fool led of the Lord to do. It will he in three hooks; one will be on pedagogy or how to teach based on modern scientific principles of pedagogy. The other will be on theology for modern man which will he in keeping with modern scientific facts. The third will he a set of Bible Lessons for use by the individual or a corporate group in Bible study, as the Family Altar, Sunday School classes, Prayer Groups, and any type of Bible classes. These Bible lessons will not be to teach any particular creed of a Church or religious group but will be based on common Christian principles, scientifically oriented.

I have written the part on the Bible, and on God for the book on theology. I am collecting material for the creation of the cosmos as a chapter in theology and for my Bible lessons. I need a Bibliography by an educator in pedagogy to prepare the chapters for how to teach the different age groups. If there is a member of this Affiliation who has such a Bibliography I will appreciate a copy and his recommendation of a single volume for each age group as I do not have time to read his entire Bibliography.

I realize this is a tremendous undertaking but by the grace and help of God I can do it.