How Studying Christian Education Lead me to Deeper Faith and Revealed a lifelong love of Teaching

Wednesday 8th May 2019

Studying Christian education allows one to become a teacher who helps others reach a deeper understanding of God, and, happily, deepens the faith of the teacher in the process.

When a passion for teaching combines with a passion for God, Christians not only grow as teachers, their faith in God grows deeper.



I studied psychology at university, and after completing my undergraduate degree, I started a PhD. At that time, I was offered some casual teaching for first-year psychology tutorials.  It was then that I experienced one of the great surprises of my life – I discovered that I loved teaching.

This was quite unexpected – it’s not that I thought I would dislike teaching, but I was completely unprepared for how passionately I enjoyed helping others to learn. I had discovered a part of my inner being that I hadn’t really known was there. It was exhilarating and a bit daunting.

Many teachers have a similar feeling – a deep commitment to teaching that goes far beyond it simply being a job – it is part of their essence as a human being.

In a similar way, my Christian faith is also part of my essence as a human being. I have a passionate belief in God and what He has done to save us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This faith affects all aspects of my life.

But I was slow to bring these two passions together – for many years they “ran parallel” within me. I had not thought very deeply about how my passion for teaching might be affected by my Christian faith.

Then I began to read the writings of great Christian thinkers over the ages about education – such as Augustine, the great North African philosopher of the 4th century – as well as numerous contemporary discussions of Christian education. I discovered many new ideas about how Christian faith and teaching connect.

In the Bible, Paul encourages Christians to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). For Christians who love teaching, studying Christian education is a very practical way of “renewing your mind” – of growing in intellectual understanding that complements a passion for teaching.

As I understood this, I learned another surprising lesson – when a passion for teaching combines with a passion for God, Christians not only grow as teachers, their faith in God grows deeper. This is why postgraduate study as a Christian teacher can be so rewarding.

As Augustine said, God has made us to know Him, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him.

Written by James Dalziel

James Dalziel joined Morling College in April 2016 as Dean of Education, and is a Professor of the University of Divinity. James is a member of the Academic Board of the Australian College of Theology, and a Research Fellow at The Excellence Centre at Pacific Hills Christian School. He leads the development of the open source “LAMS” (Learning Activity Management System) software – a Learning Design system used in schools and universities around the world. James has over 80 publications – including his recent edited book “Learning Design: Conceptualizing a Framework for Teaching and Learning Online” (Routledge, 2016).

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