The Inadequacy of Education Reform: John Amos Comenius

Among so many other things, 2020 marked the 350th anniversary of the death of the Czech philosopher, theologian, and educator, Jan Amos Komenský, known in English as John Amos Comenius. The 17th century in Europe was marred by wars and plagues but also marked a central point in what we know today as the Renaissance. The Renaissance, coming before the European Enlightenment, was a time of re-birth. Ideas, inventiveness and global exploration flourished. Science and literature were thriving and ideas were flowing freely now that the printing press was in common use. Despite these advances, Comenius, who was a bishop in the Moravian church and a scholar of particular renown, found himself suffering persecution which led him to flee to escape his home and homeland, or adopted homeland, on more than one occasion. This did not stop him from writing dozens of books, including school textbooks, becoming a leading scholar of his age, and producing a framework for a Christian education that was to influence Christian and secular schools past and present.Comenius's Great Didactic describes his vision for a genuinely Christian education and includes an extensive course of instruction for teachers who would not only work to reform education but to transform its very foundation. As such, there is much that Christian teachers today can learn from his writing, his thinking, his theology, and his suggested education practice. This book takes an overview of some of Comenius's work, placing it in the educational context of Renaissance Europe, connecting to other education reformers, and outlining from his Didactic some of the ideas he promoted. The book focuses on Comenius's biblical and radical ideas, arguing that he was, indeed, Christian education's Renaissance prophet.