Hodge, Charles. The Education Question. [Philadelphia]: Reprint from the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, ca. 1850. Reprint. [9088]
Printed wrapper, 9 x 5 3/4, light soil to wrapper, 31 clean pp. Good. Pamphlet.
The author sets out to prove five points: 1. Of the absolute necessity of universal popular education, 2. That this education should be religious; that is, not only that religion should in some way be inculcated, but that it should be made a regular part of the course of instruction in all our non-professional educational institutions, 3. That the obligation to secure for the young this combined secular and religious training, is common to parents, to the State, and to the Church....It rests equally on all. 4. That in the existing state of our country, the Church can no more resign the work of education exclusively to the State, than the State cane leave it exclusively to the parents or to the Church. 5. That in the performance of this great duty, the Church cannot rely on the separate agency of her members, but is bound to act collectively, or in her organized capacity.
"We are fully persuaded that the attempt to banish religion and the Bible from common schools, which owes its origin and success to Papists, infidels, and scheming politicians, which is opposed to the practice of all Christian countries, to the judgment of all the great statesmen of the forming period of our country, and to the general usage of our forefathers, Presbyterian and Puritan, will, if persisted in, result in the overthrow of the whole system of popular education...If our public men, for the sake of conciliating the Papists, or of avoiding trouble, undertake to say that Protestant Christianity, in this Protestant and Christian country, shall not be taught in our public schools, we may venture to predict that they and their schools will be summarily overthrown." - p. 8.
Charles Hodge, D.D. (1797-1878), American scholar and theologian, born in Philadelphia; Presbyterian clergyman; professor at Princeton (1822-77); a leading figure in Calvinist, or Reformed, theology and the conservative wing of the Presbyterian church; founded and edited the Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review.
