Barry Hill Teaching Faith In Schools Summary

“Teaching faith to assist the “salvation” process is a lofty ideal for schools”; this is one of the main statements of Teaching Faith in the Twenty First Century: Pointers for Christian Schools, by its author Barry Hill (pg. 18). In this article, Hill attempts firstly to describe faith itself by unraveling the etymology and historic definitions of the word faith. The definitions that the author uses are referrals from several 20-century writers, as well as from seven different languages at distinct historical timespans. Based on the most common definitions of faith, Hill constructs and displays nine different aspects of faith and later what he calls the six “faces of faith in schools” (pg. 21). Through this entire endeavor, the author reaches into another of his main conclusions, that “genuine faith means to “live in the active voice” in the conversation with God” (pg. 19).

Hill’s main concern seems to be the diagnostics of all faith aspects and the orientations of its attributes which he states “start to point to how we might teach faith in schools” (pg. 20). While analyzing the etymology …show more content…
Very surprisingly Hill fails to quote one of the best sources and referrals of biblical faith: Hebrews chapter 11. This creates a great hole in the whole structure of the article which weakens it and diminishing drastically its Christian value. Apart from this Hill very adequately insists in the importance of showing our faith with good deeds, godly character, spirituality, prioritizing values, and maintaining a Christian worldview; Hill stresses that all these faith “faces” will show the veracity and practicality of our faith putting “commitment into action” (pg.