Living Fountains or Broken Cisterns: An Educational Problem for Protestants

The author argues that genuine education derives from divine wisdom and that Protestantism and republicanism flourished where religious instruction and true pedagogical principles prevailed. Tracing education from Eden and Abraham through Israel, the pagan world, the early church, the Middle Ages, and the Reformation, the work examines how religious teaching shaped social institutions and how the papacy and later reactions altered educational aims. It treats Christ as the exemplar teacher, contrasts spiritual living-water wisdom with worldly learning, and applies these conclusions to American schooling, concluding that reclaiming Christian principles in instruction is essential for moral and civic renewal.