Christian Nurture

by Horace Bushnell

As recently as 1981, Boardman W. Kathan, the distinguished historian, called Christian Nurture "one of the most influential books ever to be published in America." Published in this form in 1860, Christian Nurture led all other choices in a poll of Christian educators' listings of which writings they considered indispensable in their field.
A cause of controversy in its day, infuriating the right-wing monthly Christian Observatory and other conservatives, it was a book literally "banned in Boston." Bushnell's heterodoxy consisted of a theory of steady, daily Christian nurture for children and an insistence on the rite of infant baptism. He was accused of, among other things, "jeopardizing the immortal souls of parents as well as children."
After the initial tempest, and time, Christian Nurture has become a classic. It is full of good advice and of a sense of the child as important in God's eyes. It appeals for good family communication, it takes strong stands against child abuse, and, with rare insight into the psychology of infancy, it recognizes a need for early encouragement of a child's spirit, representing an understanding rare in Bushnell's day that childhood is not preparation for life but an integral part of it.

407 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1876

About the author

Horace Bushnell (April 14, 1802 – February 17, 1876) was an American Congregational minister and theologian.

Reviews

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Not this edition though.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this on Kindle and enjoyed it so much I ordered one with poundage.

This book was so good because Bushnell takes the opposite tack to the vast majority of Christian parenting books. Rather than highlight all the hardships, heavy lifting, uncertainties, and qualifications that make parents feel like raising their kids to love God and walk with him is an exploding minefield, Bushnell takes the Bible's promises, lobs them up off the glass, catches and slams them home. It's fun to watch.

The book could be summarized as "I will be your God, and you will be my people" applied to the family. Like he did with Abraham, God calls men and women and their households into covenant with him. Bushnell is not sentimental about kids or about how hard parenting can be, so he avoids presumption. The only way kids follow the Lord is by faith, but faith works by love in raising them. He addresses baptism and church membership, the problem of denying children the Lord's Supper, Christian education, holidays, hypocrisy, the Sabbath ("a day of humanity"), family prayer and all sort of possible objections.

In such a thorough and serious book, one of the best thing is the impression Bushnell gives of the light, joyful, and gracious environment of the Christian home. You wouldn't know it by looking at picture to your upper left, but if he put into practice what he wrote, this is a happy man whose house you'd be glad to visit. Christians who are serious about discipleship often create a laborious and fussy atmosphere--let's make the kids memorize the Catechism all day on Sunday! Bushnell reveals this for what it is: disobedient and counterproductive.

The only regret about this book is that it's 300 pages long with 130-year-old 19th century prose. That will scare many off who would benefit enormously from it. Take up and read.

[Edward]

As Williston Walker wrote in an introduction to the edition of 1916, Bushnell 'strove to correct [the one­sidedness of the revival impulse] and to vindicate for Christian childhood its normal place in the Kingdom of God. In so doing he adopted positions consonant with the great historic experience of the church, however little in agreement with the local American outlook of his time.' In fact, Bushnell's eloquent and weighty book, notwithstanding its serious deficiencies, is of abiding value and deserves a wide readership today, especially among ministers. It exists virtually alone as a full­scale examination of the nurture of covenant children in its theological, psychological, [ C. Hodge expressed a special appreciation for Bushnell's development of the power of parental influence upon a child­­by 'the look, the voice, the handling'­­even before the development of the child's reasoning. Essays and Reviews, p. 312, cited in Schenck, p. 143. R.L. Dabney developed some of these same themes in a splendid sermon, preached in 1879, 'Parental Responsibilities,' reprinted in Discussions: Evangelical and Theological, vol. 1, London, 1967, pp. 676­693.] and sociological aspects.

http://www.faithtacoma.org/doctrine/c...

[Brian]

Such an important foundation into the understanding of growing in the faith.