Why not all "Christian" textbooks?

From time to time, a current or prospective school parent will review the curricula we use and wonder why we don't use all Christian materials. The question is a valid one. We are a Christian school, after all, and we see the development of a biblical worldview among our students as a key component of what we endeavor to do.

There are several reasons for not using all Christian material. The content quality of some textbooks can be disappointing (e.g., Science, where difficult questions are often avoided), the occasional revisionism of facts (e.g., History, where certain events can be either overlooked or softened; it happens not just in liberal books) are just some of the contributing factors in our curricular selection.

But the overarching reason we do not use all Christian materials is rooted in the philosophical and theological conviction that all truth is God's truth. This means two things. One is that God (the trinue God of the Bible) is the source of all truth. Two is that God often uses those from some sort of non-Christian philosophy of life to reveal that truth. Thus, unbelievers can speak truth as much as believers can speak untruth. And truth should be embraced wherever it is found.

Church Father St. Augustine spoke of this in his On Christian Teaching (Book II.72): "A person who is a good and true Christian should realize that truth belongs to his Lord, wherever it is found, gathering and acknowledging it even in pagan literature, but rejecting superstitious vanities and deploring and avoiding those who 'though they knew God did not glorify him as God or give thanks but became enfeebled in their own thoughts and plunged their senseless minds into darkness. Claiming to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the image of corruptible mortals and animals and reptiles' [Rom. 1:21-2]."

So, then, how do we approach curricula as a Christian school? We seek material that will help us help students to think God's thoughts after him, to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, to see the world as God does. What does that look like? Those are thoughts for other posts.