Huntington University: Christian College of the Liberal Arts

Suggested Citation:
[Identification of Item]. Available at the United Brethren Historical Center website; http://www.huntington.
edu/ubhc/publications/ebooks/
virginia/virginiatitle.htm

History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Virginia Conference

by A. P. Funkhouser

CHAPTER XXIV

THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION

Some one has declared that nine-tenths of all education since the founding of Christianity has sprung from the tradition and purposes of the Church. Of course the mathematical character of the statement is for the purpose of giving definiteness to a strong claim. It was the policy of the Church of the Middle Ages to keep the Bible from the mass of the people and to discourage popular education, so that all Christendom might be kept in intellectual slavery to a crafty and thoroughly organized priesthood. The Reformers, including those who appeared before the Reformation of the sixteenth century, were not at all in sympathy with this idea. They believed most firmly that all persons should be able to read and write, although their zeal in the cause of education was primarily religious. They insisted that their people should read the Bible for themselves, so that their faith might rest on a sure foundation. Therefore schools, open to the public generally, sprang up in all the portions of Europe that were deeply influenced by the Protestant Reformation.

But the sect which in 1627 called itself the United Brethren found that "a more enlarged acquaintance with literature and philosophy had, in some instances, paralyzed the zeal of ministers in promoting the edification of their flocks, and, by the false gloss of heathen philosophy, obscured the bright purity of Christian doctrine, which derives all its luster from Christ crucified." These men "laid greater stress on piety, moral conduct, and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, in persons sustaining the pastoral office, than in human learning."

These criticisms are of precisely the same character as those which have been urged by the present United Brethren Church. The higher education of the earlier day consisted very greatly in the study of the dead languages of

215

Greece and Rome. When these languages were living tongues, they were spoken by nations that were pagan, although at the same time quite highly civilized. The ideas presented in their literatures sprang from a heathen and not a Christian source, and to minds imperfectly trained were likely to be prejudicial. And it must be added that until within the last half-century there was no very material change in the course of study in all colleges.

Otterbein was recognized as one of the cultured men of his day, and he used at least five languages, ancient and modern. But to him and those who thought as he did. religion is almost wholly an individual and personal work within the soul. It is only incidentally an affair of the intellect. Otterbein was not a man to believe very much in educational religion, which was almost the only form recognized in the state churches. He could work consistently and harmoniously with persons like Boehm, Guething, and Newcomer, whose education was not above the level of a country school training of to-day. Intellectually, they were not his equals. But in the matter of religion they stood on common ground. It is perhaps because he regarded the work of the established churches as comparatively inefficient that he let his scholarship lie in the background. He preached in much the same manner as his associates, and he never wrote a book. And yet he was the more effective because of his scholarship. Whether the advanced education be a curse or a blessing is after all a personal affair. Nevertheless, Otterbein does not seem to have been a strenuous advocate for higher training in others. He perceived that the preaching most needed by the time in which he lived was of the sort presented by men of his own kind. "There is no evidence that Otterbein ever impressed upon his associates and disciples the necessity of educational training. Did he feel that necessity, or, rather, did he share the popular feeling that scholarship was generally conducive to spiritual coldness and formality? At any rate, he acquiesced in choosing and sending out new preachers whose only claim to ability to teach

216

was that they knew God in a powerful, personal salvation from the power and fear of sin. With some ability to speak in public, with untiring zeal, and an industry that abated not, and with assured support from their own resources, (he pioneers carried on a propaganda that made adherents wherever they went."

"Having fled from the persecutions of those in authority in Europe, who represented, of course, the educated classes, our ancestors felt that the best in life was to be secured in the quiet of domestic home life, apart from the knowledge of the world."

For several decades after Otterbein, the United Brethren ministers had little respect for what they called "'preacher factories." Their prejudice against college training came largely by noticing that in these schools educational qualifications were more esteemed than spirituality. In the ministry of the old churches they also observed that education and a cold formality were closely associated. So they thought it better to rely less on books than on the promptings of the Spirit. This prejudice was held by the laity as well as by the preachers.

It was not until 1865 that the education of ministers was considered with any favor by a General Conference. The establishing of Otterbein University was much resisted for a while, and Lebanon Valley College was not founded until 1876. In theory the United Brethren membership has never opposed higher education, except in its bearing on ministerial preparation. And yet a prejudice against it in a theological sense could not fail to build up a degree of prejudice in a secular sense. This prejudice has in our day been very much overcome.

The demand for a change has grown with a growth of intelligence and knowledge among the masses, and is insistent as they realize that the leader of the religious forces of the community must devote his time and strength to the ministry of the Word. An educated ministry was opposed by the Otterbein people so long as they saw that men who made their living by some form of business, and

217

were without training, culture, or knowledge, were put forward as the teachers of "the people who perish for want of knowledge."

In the present century it is becoming recognized that religion without education sinks to the level of a superstition, and that the proper aim of a liberal education is not culture for the sake of culture, but culture for the sake of service to others.

"The present feeling of indifference to an educated ministry results in a large part from the former pronounced opposition to any culture or special training for the pulpit. The pioneers themselves were uneducated, and having fled from the persecutions of those in authority in Europe, who represented, of course, the educated classes, our ancestors felt that the best in life was to be secured in the quiet of domestic home life, apart from the knowledge of the world. It was this knowledge or learning which they blamed for the wickedness of those who possessed it.

"They were fortified in this position by what they saw in the schools themselves. A bitter fountain sends out bitter waters. And it must be admitted that they were grounds for their conclusions. Even when learning did not seriously affect the religious belief, its deadening effect was to be seen in the cold and lifeless formality of the educated ministry of the existing churches. There was no stirring of the emotions, 'no heart,' in the preaching which appealed to the judgment and reason, and, consequently, what they offered was a 'religion of the head.' This was believed to be fatal to all vital godliness.

"The first member of this conference after Otterbein to be a college graduate was Samuel Evers, who completed the course in Otterbein University and joined the conference in 1857. He founded Pleasant Grove Academy in 1859 and had less than two years of service when death ended his work in January, 1861. Just before this. D. D. Keedy and C. B. Hammack had been students at Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, but the combining of this school with Otterbein at Westerville, Ohio, ended their school

218

work, as they did not follow it to the new location. The next man to complete the college course was J. N. Fries, who in the centennial year received his diploma and degree from Otterbein, and has been for forty years a faithful and successful teacher.

"The necessity for college training was not generally felt. Indeed, up to about this time the old notion that education is not an essential for the minister, was generally held. It was emphasized in my own experience. In the spring of 1872, Boonsboro circuit, to which J. W. Hott had been sent, wanted a junior preacher. The Sunday after the conference, J. W. Howe, presiding elder, and John Ruebush, pastor, visited me at Keezletown, where I was teaching my second school, and spent the day with me, endeavoring to persuade me to accept that appointment and enter at once upon the work of the active ministry. When I urged my ignorance and need of preparation, and told them I was planning to go to college, they re-enforced their position by saying, 'it is a pity to see a man spending the best years of his life in school while the world is being lost.' I was then eighteen. Howe and Ruebush were strong men, and more progressive than many others, and yet they reflected the general opinion. Both men lived to change their ideas entirely on this subject, for a few years later they were my strongest supporters in establishing Shenandoah Institute.

"Evers, Fries, McMullen, Hendrickson, Harper, O. W. Burtner, C. M. Good, W. D. Good, and myself have been graduated from Otterbein, and S. K. Wine and W. O. Fries from Lebanon Valley; and of these only Fries, McMullen, W. D. Good, and the writer are today (1914) members of this conference. After efficient service in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, Wine died at Chambersburg in the prime of life. The others are living and finding fields of usefulness elsewhere. Eleven have taken a course in Bonebrake Seminary: G. P. Hott, J. W. Hicks, L. O. Burtner, A. W. Horn, H. H. Fout, J. E. Fout, W. O. Jones,

*A. P. Funkhouser.

219

L. W. Lutz, and Lan Seng Nam. C. W. Burtner is a Congregationalists pastor in Connecticut, while only A. S. Ham-mack remain a member of this conference. Forty-eight members of the conference have attended Shenandoah Institute, some completing the full course. Some twenty-five years ago, nearly all who entered the conference studied at this school. But in the last twenty years a little less than one-third, and in the last ten years a little less than one in five have attended our conference school. Of our present membership of 58, those who have studied at Dayton, Virginia, number 22.

"J. R. Ridenour, A. D. Freed, C. M. Hott, and P. W. Weller were students in Lebanon Valley College for one or more years."



	Contact Us \| 2303 College Avenue Huntington, IN 46750 \| 1.800.642.6493 \| Copyright 2004