276 GENERAL RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 



be cast off. It is true that our age questions much that our fathers 

 regarded as beyond question; we have grown sensitive toward the 

 right of each soul to its own free thoughts and aspirations; we have 

 become more gracious toward parties and sects that oppose us; 

 we are, perhaps, more modest in the presence of the mysteries of 

 existence; but we are still human. We believe, we aspire, we find 

 the support and reality of life where our fathers found them. Why, 

 then, should we not turn the mind of the child toward that which 

 is most real to us? Rather, how, unless we do so, can we imagine 

 that we are adjusting the child to his environment? 



Suppose that we look at education from the viewpoint of the 

 child rather than from that of the environment. The educational 

 process is then regarded as development of the individual, as the 

 full bringing out of his germinal powers. As under the environ- 

 mental view we asked what is the environment to which the plastic 

 child is to be adjusted, so under the developmental conception we 

 ask what is the self that is to be unfolded, and when may it be 

 regarded as fully developed? 



The history of man shows that religion is neither a phenomenon of 

 decay nor an incident of the childhood of the race. The emergence 

 of man from animality was an advance toward religion as well as 

 toward morality. The progress of culture has included, practically 

 everywhere, advance in religion. In the whole history of civiliza- 

 tion there is nothing more alive than religion. It is " closer . . . 

 than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet "' to the world's 

 poetry, music, art, morality, and social progress. As far as history 

 can show us, the development of man includes development in 

 religion as well as in the other elements of culture. 



Similar answer comes from the study of mental structure and 

 growth. The place occupied by the religious impulse in the edifice 

 of mind is at least as fundamental as that occupied by the social 

 instinct or the moral, intellectual, and esthetic ideals. Toward 

 some centre of ideal unity all acts of thought are directed; in all 

 our practical strivings of the higher orders there is an upward push 

 through a world of fragments and discords toward unity, and har- 

 mony, and perfect fellowship. It is as natural for a human being 

 to develop these ideals, to feel these impulses and aspirations, to " call 

 to what he feels is Lord of all," as to grow into patriotism or the 

 appreciation of literature. 



Viewing education as the development of the child's germinal 

 powers, then, we conclude that education as such is necessarily 

 religious, just as it is necessarily physical, ethical, and social. 



Indeed, every serious effort to define education leads in the same 

 direction. Education is preparation for complete living; but a 

 being who is capable, as man is, of infinite aspiration, cannot live 



