CAPPING CEREMONY

Evening Star, Issue 24192, 12 May 1942, Page 6

CAPPING CEREMONY

EDUCATION AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH ADDRESS BY REV. H. J. RYBURH -T “ If through the teaching and the practice of the Christian faith in a, community such as that made possible in ft residential college those forgotten ideas of ‘ service ’ and '.vocation ’ are brought back into education that college will have rendered a service of incalculable value, not only to education, but to the lifo of the nation,” said the Rev. H. J. Kyburn, M.A., Master of Knox College, when he delivered the oration in the Town Hall this afternoon to the graduates at the ceremony of the conferring of degrees, which was conducted by the University of Otago, Mr Ryhurn taking as his subject ‘ The Place of a Residential College in the University.’ “The outstanding fact with regard to education in New Zealand is the almost complete separation which has been effected between the Christian Church and the Christian faith on the one hand and our educational system on the other, a separation which vhas gone as far as and possibly further than in any other part of the British Commonwealth,” said Mr Ryburn. “ Whatever may he said of the reasons that led to that separation, and some of them wore no doubt sound, the institution of which I am the head was founded in the belief that such a state of affairs is highly unsatisfactory, and that something had to be done to remedy it. While it may be very desirable to emancipate the educational system from ecclesiastical control, to divorce education from religious faith is to do great disservice to both. Knox College was founded " for the glory of God, the promotion of His Kingdom, and the advancement of sound learning.’ U was founded as an act of religions faith in a. profound belief in the sovereignty of God over all human life in all its aspects, and in the conviction that only in a recognition of that sovereignty can sound learning be advanced.” CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION. Mr Ryburn said that a residential college made its real contribution to education simply by being a community of students and teachers. By a “ community ” he meant more thaiv a mere aggregation of men under the roof. He meant an association of people in which the individual members were firmly linked' to yacli other by a recognition of their dependence upon, and responsibility for one another, and, moreover, whose sense of dependence and responsibility was firmly grounded in a dependence upon and responsibility towards the Creator and Source of all life. Such a community was at once the means and the end of true education. While it might be, possible to approximate to such an ideal of community in a variety of ways, he would humbly submit .that the ultimate basis of such a community was the Christian faith and the Christian life. Certainly it was out of the Christian faith that, the idea and practice of such community life had emerged. “I would not deny that there may he a place, for hostels conducted under secular auspices in connection with the University, but those who think of this matter merely in terms of the need for providing board and lodgings for students, urgent as that need may be, have not begun to appreciate the issues involved,” Mr Ryburn declared. “ If the problem is merely one of providing a place for students to live in, it is a question whether private lodgings may not lie preferable in many respects to large institutions. Certainly to found a residential institution for students is to incur a risk, the risk of that institution exercising an influence other than beneficial upon the life of the University. That risk is a very real one. “ Whatever may be said of similar institutions, the college of which I am the head sets before itself the aim of being in some sense a Christian community. Bv that I mean a community in which God "in Christ is honoured in corporate worship,' Christian truth is taught, and some attempt is made to practise the Christian virtues; a community in which divine authority is reverenced and human authority therefore respected; a community in which responsibility before God, and hence towards one” neighbour, is assumed. Such a community, I maintain, can make a valuable contribution to education by being simply what it claims to be, a Christian community. DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY. “Life in such a, community is in itself a valuable educational experience. Ido not suggest that this community life can take tile place of what we usually mean by academic teaching, but it can provide the atmosphere in which academic teaching can come to fruition in developed personality The nearest natural analogy to the kind of community life I have in mind is to he found in the life of the home, and it is here that education begins. The more nearly the life of our educational institutions approximates to that of the home, the more truly educational will they become. “With some diffidence I would submit the opinion that our modern educational institutions are largely the artificial product of the age of reason, and that modern education, by concentrating on the rational aspect of man’s nature to the almost complete ignoring of his irrational nature, tends to create a cleavage between the intellectual life of students, on the one hand, and their emotional and personal life on the other. Many typical products of the University, while highly intelligent, and knowing many facts and theories, are emotionally uneducated, and hence, lacking in what-we vaguely describe as ; personality. 1 Such people make a poor showing in the rough and tumble of practical living. They are fortunate if they can find a haven of refuge in some sequestered academic sphere, but if they are obliged to live out in the cold, hard world their lot is a sorry one. “ Possibly emotional immaturity is a penalty that has to be paid for the privilege of what we call higher education, but I believe that the price being paid at present is too high. It ought to be possible to send out of our universities not merely men and women with ideas, mere high-brows, but men and women of emotional and hence moral stability, men and women of common sense and practical ability, men and women who are capable of effecting successful personal relationships with their fellowmen. “ Life in community is, I believe, the only way in which such integrated personality can be produced, provided—and this proviso is fundamental —the basis of such life in community is a right one. The mere aggregating of individuals in some sorb of common dwelling place does not necessarily produce integrated personality. Indeed, it is well known that such aggregation may result in rapid moral disintegration in certain cases. Where a residential college is founded as an act of Christian faith and administered as such, 1 believe it is possible to achieve such a spirit that its community life will in itself exercise an educating influence of the very highest quality. . “ But not only is community life of the sort that I have indicated a means of education, it is the end of education as I understand it. Can there bo any more .worthy aim of education than to render young people fit to live in society in mutual dependence upon and responsibility towards each other. Secular education lias to answer the charge of- having failed to provide any real basis for life in community. Modern society is cleft from lop to bottom on tho question of the relation of the individual to society. In the realms of politics and economics, individualists and collectivists stand arrayed in uncompromising opposition. In this land of ours, (he home of a boasled secular education, even a grave threat to our national integrity has scarcely been able to heal this breach.

“ Nor docs it seem possible for education to provide such a basis for community life so long as it lacks direction and proceeds upon the basis of no discernible philosophy. Modern education appears to oscillate uneasily between the ideal of learning for learning’s sake, on the one hand, and on the other learning for the sake of life. In pursuit of the former ideal education easily degenerates into an arid, self-centred, and useless intellectualism. sometimes called • pure scholarship.’ In pursuit of the latter, it easily degenerates into a mere technical training scarcely worthy of the name of education; a mere teaching of ihc tricks of I lie trade, designed in furnish an entrance inlo a more or less lucrative profession Modern secular education cannot escape from this dilemma so

long as it is largely based upon a false estimate of man himself, as an independent autonomous and self-sufficient being. BASIS FOR COMMUNITY EXISTENCE. “ I should be less than honest it I did not admit that the Christian churches, themselves largely influenced by the same false estimate of man, have also lamentably failed to provide a secure basis for existence in community. But for all that, I believe the Christian faith has it within herself to provide the only secure basis for community existence through a rediscovery of her historic understanding of man, as a being living in . dependence upon and in responsibility towards his Creator, and lienee in dependence upon and in responsibility towards his brother man.” SENSE OF VOCATION. Stating that " vocation ” was a thoroughly religious conception, Mr Ryburn said that its meaning had been secularised and debased. Only in the form of its English equivalent, “Call,” had it retained its religious significance, but here almost exclusively in connection with the profession of the Christian ministry. “ The eager rush of students towards the more lucrative professions, together with the extreme dearth of students for the Christian ministry, testifies to the lack of a sense of vocation among modern university students,” Mr Ryburn proceeded. “In no sphere is that lack more acute than in the sphere of politics. I take it as part of the aim of a residential college, founded upon a Christian basis, to inspire lier members with a sense of vocation, whatever their chosen line of study may bo. Already Knox College can couqt among her past students three Cabinet Ministers. 1 look forward to tlie day when there will be a Prime Minister among them, one who will accept his high office as a genuine vocation, one who will' not be ashamed of the faith of his fathers, and one who will carry out the duties pertaining to his office in the fear of God and not of man. “ If through living in a community based upon the Christian faith university students can learn the meaning of mutual dependence and mutual responsibility, if they ftio inspired to carry with them imo the larger world the spirit of service, and if they can go forth to their chosen occupations as to vocations, they will already have gone far towards that reconstruction of human society which every thinking man and woman realises to be our most urgent task to-day. This, I take it, is the real contribution of a residential college to the life of the University and of the nation,”