This will undoubtedly come as a shock to a lot of folks reading this post, but an examination at the history of college and university education reveals that Christianity played the key role in the history and development of higher education in the Western world, according to J. Warner Wallace in his latest book, “Person of Interest.”
Wallace is the former Los Angeles Police detective who specialized in cracking murder cases that had defied being solved for decades. He got so good at it that he was often featured on NBC’s “Dateline” new feature program. He’s now the founder and president of coldcasechristianity.org and one of Christianity’s most effective apologists.
With “Person of Interest,” Wallace sets out to demonstrate that without depending on the New Testament scriptures, Jesus is the dominant personality in all human history. That’s saying something, but Wallace does it and in the process compiles an amazing amount of historical facts that demonstrate the profound influence Jesus and Christianity have had on the world we live in today.
Higher education is one of the areas that Wallace focuses on and it is fascinating to see and read these facts, which are rarely, if ever, mentioned in classrooms today. The truth is Christianity sparked “a movement driven by ‘People of the Book’ who wanted to share their book with others. This revolution initiated a series of events that led directly to the creation of humanity’s greatest educational institution, the modern university,” Wallace writes.
Very early in the history of the church, Christian leaders began emphasizing the importance of teaching men and women to read, so they could read and study the Word of God, in both the Old and New Testaments.
“It wasn’t long before Christian students were being taught more than theology and godly living. Ignatius of Antioch [a student of John the Apostle] encouraged teachers in Christian communities to ‘bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and teach them the Holy Scriptures and also trades, that they may not indulge in idleness,’” according to Wallace.