Leadership Academy 2012 Education as Formation: Christian Education as a Pedagogy of Desire Session 1 of 4

In his first session from the 2012 Leadership Academy, Dr. James Smith challenges that Christian education is not simply the development of a biblical worldview, but a training and aiming of the heart toward God. As humans created to love God, sin misdirects the aims of our heart and in a fallen world we develop a love and desire for things of the world. Christian education is not the dissemination of Christian ideas then, but the formation of desire for God. Dr. Smith posits that action comes not from intellectual thought but most often from love and desire. Sanctification then is the redirection of our desires toward God. In light of this, the goal of Christian education must be the intentional training and formation of students' hearts to be lovers of God.