The possible impact of Reformed theology on education as a science, with special reference to the situation in South Africa (1940–)

Abstract

The research reported in this article focused on the possibility of reformational theology having an impact on Education as a scientific discipline. Based on an interpretivist–constructivist theoretical approach and with the aid of a hermeneutic that differentiates between three manifestations of theology (Theology as a discipline in its own right, philosophic theology as a branch of Philosophy and personal theology as part of a personal world and life view), and also based on an overview of the history of education, particularly in South Africa between the 1940s and 1990s, it is tentatively concluded that Theology as a discipline seems to have had only an indirect impact on Education as a scholarly discipline; educationists, particularly philosophers of Education, occasionally immersed themselves in philosophical theology as part of their subject philosophy. Educationists have also seemed to have taken cognisance of the impact of their own and educators’ personal theology as part of their personal world and life views.

Keywords

• theology
• reformational theology
• christian scholarship
• education
• subject philosophy
• life and world view