CMP Review 2024-05-14

May 14, 2024

“What would Jesus do?” We ask the question appropriately and sincerely. After all, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11 that he imitates Christ. And in Romans 8, he says that God has “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

In 1897, the Rev. H. S. Swithinbank took the familiar question further. “How was Jesus taught?” He asked the question in sincere faith, believing that Christ was once a true human child, not merely a “stained glass window.” And if we can understand how Jesus was taught, perhaps that can inform how we teach our children too.

Swithinbank searched and found the method of education received by our Lord: “it looked to, it radiated from, it was bathed in the light of God, and the Scriptures were its one text-book.” Is there hope that we can find and apply such a method too?

And in a startling closing to his paper, Swithinbank explored what happens when the Son of God grows from boy to man. Four great words chronicle the transition. Words that would be familiar to all who know of the Charlotte Mason method: “I am, I ought, I can, I will.”

Read or listen to Swithinbank’s address here.

@artmiddlekauff