 |
 Joseph Sittler was not only
an educator; he was also an advocate for education, and never in
contrast to his faith but as a necessary part of his faith. He believed,
passionately, that "the truth about human existence and history is the
only theater in which the gospel makes sense. The church has a central
stake in the truth because its gospel makes no sense in its absence."
Sittler had a particular interest in the liberal arts colleges of the
church and spoke often on their campuses. But he never saw them as
sheltering environments to protect our youth from the unpleasantness of
the world. He used to say, "The Church has no stake in babysitting
innocence" and he had no tolerance for restricting access to knowledge,
no matter how dark and disturbing. He asked: "How shall one know what
redemption is if the shape and substance of damnation are not made known
too? If I do not know (the) forms of damnation, how will I be able to
expand the gospel of the divine redemption beyond the cozy
interpretation of snuggling up with Jesus." Joe loved knowledge of all
kinds — from poetry to the frontiers of science, and he marveled at the
expansion of scientific knowledge in his own lifetime. In an anecdote he
used several times, he told of sometimes accompanying a young neighbor
girl as she passed his home en route to school while Joe was setting out
for work. One day he asked to see the book she was carrying, and it
turned out to be her geography book. He marveled that the frontispiece
of his school geography book had been a picture of a McCormick reaper;
but in Ann's book there was, instead, a photo of the Milky Way. That was
for him a symbol of the explosion of scientific knowledge that so
fascinated him.
A sample of materials on Education
available from the Archives
-
The Emergence of Value (California Lutheran University), Audiotape
(10/22/76)
-
Faith and Culture: Presentations to faculty and
administrators of Lutheran Colleges,
Audiotape (5/29-31/79)
-
The Liberal Arts and the Formation of Judgment
(Bethany College, Kansas)
Also in text form, Audiotape (5/20/84)
-
Running with the Hounds
(no date) Book, available
online
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