RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY***

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY

by

HENRY F. COPE

General Secretary of the Religious Education Association

The University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois Copyright 1915 by The University of Chicago All Rights Reserved Published April 1915 Second Impression September 1915 Third Impression March 1916 Fourth Impression June 1917 Fifth Impression August 1920 Sixth Impression July 1922 Seventh Impression September 1922 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

The University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois

The Baker and Taylor Company New York

The Cambridge University Press London

The Maruzen-Kabushiki-Kaisha Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Sendai

The Mission Book Company Shanghai

PREFACE

In the work of religious education, with which the present series of books is concerned, the life of the family rightly occupies a central place. The church has always realized its duty to exhort parents to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but very little has ever been done to enable parents to study systematically and scientifically the problem of religious education in the family. Today parents' classes are being formed in many churches; Christian Associations, women's clubs, and institutes are studying the subject; individual parents are becoming more and more interested in the rational performance of their high duties. And there is a general desire for guidance. As the full bibliography at the end of this volume and the references in connection with each chapter indicate, there is available a very large literature dealing with the various elements of the problem. But a guidebook to organize all this material and to stimulate independent thought and endeavor is desirable.

To afford this guidance the present volume has been prepared. It is equally adapted for the thoughtful study of the father and mother who are seeking help in the moral and religious development of their own family, and for classes in churches, institutes, and neighborhoods, where the important problems of the family are to be studied and discussed. It would be well to begin the use of the book by reading the suggestions for class work at the end of the volume.

With a confident hope that religion in the family is not to be a wistful memory of the past but a most vital force in the making of the better day that is coming, this volume is offered as a contribution and a summons.

The Editors

New Year's Day, 1915

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I. An Interpretation of the Family 1

II. The Present Status of Family Life 10

III. The Permanent Elements in Family Life 27

IV. The Religious Place of the Family 37

V. The Meaning Of Religious Education in the Family 46

VI. The Child's Religious Ideas 60

VII. Directed Activity 75

VIII. The Home as a School 87

IX. The Child's Ideal Life 101

X. Stories and Reading 110

XI. The Use of the Bible in the Home 119

XII. Family Worship 126

XIII. Sunday in the Home 145

XIV. The Ministry of the Table 164

XV. The Boy and Girl in the Family 173

XVI. The Needs of Youth 183

XVII. The Family and the Church 198

XVIII. Children and the School 212

XIX. Dealing with Moral Crises 218

XX. Dealing with Moral Crises (_Continued_) 231

XXI. Dealing with Moral Crises (_Continued_) 240

XXII. Dealing with Moral Crises (_Concluded_) 249

XXIII. The Personal Factors in Religious Education 259

XXIV. Looking to the Future 268

Suggestions for Class Work 281

A Book List 290

Index 297

CHAPTER I

AN INTERPRETATION OF THE FAMILY

§ 1. TAKING THE HOME IN RELIGIOUS TERMS

The ills of the modern home are symptomatic. Divorce, childless families, irreverent children, and the decadence of the old type of separate home life are signs of forgotten ideals, lost motives, and insufficient purposes. Where the home is only an opportunity for self-indulgence, it easily becomes a cheap boarding-house, a sleeping-shelf, an implement for social advantage. While it is true that general economic developments have effected marked changes in domestic economy, the happiness and efficiency of the family do not depend wholly on the parlor, the kitchen, or the clothes closet. Rather, everything depends on whether the home and family are considered in worthy and adequate terms.

Homes are wrecked