In his second essay for Rochester Retrospect*, Dr. Keith Huey, professor of religion, looks at Alexander Campbell’s philosophy of education. If you missed Huey’s first essay about Campbell and Barton Stone, founders of the Stone-Campbell movement, click here to read it before you delve deeper into Campbell’s educational outlook.
Although Campbell never attended a full collegiate program, he was “extremely well-educated and possessed a prodigious intellect,” Huey writes.
Campbell lived from 1788-1866 and he was critical of the educational status quo for that time period. He wrote about several important issues, including the “inadequacy of all the present systems of education, literary and moral.”
As an anti-clerical populist, Campbell had little interest in training students for professional ministry, and instead, he sought to promote a diverse range of scholarship, what Huey calls the “Liberal Arts.” Campbell called for “the instruction of youth in the various branches of science and literature, the useful arts and the learned and foreign languages.”
Quest for non-sectarian moral training
In keeping with his definition of liberal arts, Campbell was concerned about the issue of moral development. In 1841 he stated that “intellectual without moral culture is a curse to each and every community . . . a national calamity rather than a public benefaction.”
“In his quest for moral education, Campbell was inclined to trust the state and was suspicious about church involvement. Huey writes that Campbell believed the state “could deliver the right kind of educational (and moral) system, but they needed to stand completely clear from sectarian interference.” He suggested that residents should pay a modest school tax that would go toward a state university and proposed that teachers should be trained and licensed by the new university.
Campbell was willing to accept state-sponsored centralized education because he wanted to build an alternative to clerical and sectarian influence. He was “driven to commit his ambitious proposals to the hands of civil servants who were rational, broadminded, and objective – like him,” Huey writes.
Huey acknowledges it is difficult for us to imagine the Bible as a public-school textbook since the doctrine of church-state separation has evolved since those days. Campbell, though, attempted to uphold the principle of Bible reading without sacrificing the principles of the Constitution. Campbell was confident in using the Bible, which he called “the wisest, most trustworthy, and impartial book ever written,” as the key to moral education.
Three lessons going forward
Huey concludes his essay by applauding the “impressive list of liberal arts institutions” founded by the Churches of Christ and finds three lessons for those who live, work and teach in the movement Campbell inspired:
- We should not limit our passions to ‘spiritual’ activism, but should also pursue peace, justice and knowledge here on earth.
- We should continue Campbell’s support of the liberal arts and give dignity to a broad spectrum of disciplines.
- We should believe in the moral potential that comes with every vocation and a Christian university should nurture vocational possibilities for every field of study.
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*Rochester Christian University explored its current identity and mission as rooted in its origins as part of a grant funded by the Council of Independent Colleges. This effort took place in 2022 and was called Rochester Retrospect. A steering committee commissioned the writing of eight essays.
Click on the links below to read Dr. Keith Huey’s full essay and the other Rochester Retrospect essays:
- American Origins of Churches of Christ by Dr. Keith Huey
- An Ecumenical Christian University: From “Christians Only” to “The Only Christians” and Beyond by Dr. Naomi Walters
- No Creed but the Bible: The Story of Scripture in Churches of Christ by Dr. Mark Love
- Alexander Campbell, Liberal Arts, and Integrative Learning by Dr. Keith Huey
- The “Apocalyptic Tradition” in Churches of Christ: A Countercultural Remembrance and Challenge by Dr. David Greer
- Missions to Missional: Rochester University’s Story in Churches of Christ from Otis Gatewood to Brian Stogner by Dr. Beth Bowers
- Learning Virtues for a Church of Christ University by Dr. Mark Love
- Rochester University: A Distinctive University – In Its Heritage and Its Future by Dr. Brian Stogner
