(p10-11) In Ephesians 6:4, Paul is in fact requiring Christian fathers to provide their children with a 'paideia' of the Lord. What we call education is more strictly a subset of paideia. Formal education is essential to the process of paideia, of course, but the boundaries of paideia are much wider than the boundaries of what we understand as education.
Far more is envolved in this than taking the kids to church or having the occassional time of devotions in the home, as important as such things are. And more to the point, far more is involved than simply providing the kids with a Christian curriculum 9-5 weekdays. {'simply' ... yeah right!!}
Wilson draws on Jaeger's study of paideia. Paideia to the ancient Greeks was an enormous deal, a huge ideological task. They were concerned with nothing less than shaping the ideal man to take his place in the ideal culture! And the point of paideia was to bring that culture about. This paideia word would have ranked alongside words like 'philosphy' in terms of cultural potency. In our culture 'democracy' might get close. We are not talking a take-it-or-leave-it word - like whatever the Greek is for shoelaces!In the ancient word paideia was all-encompassing and involved nothing less than the enculturation of the future citizen. This happened in the class room, but also as he walked along the streets of his city to and from school, it included walking by the temple and the whole of life pretty much!
So, fathers, bring your children up in the enculturation of the Lord right through from the shoes they wear, to the music they listen to, from the films they watch to the way they ride their bike, from what they read to the position they adopt when they pray, from the pictures on their walls to the way they speak to you!
What does this look like? I have no idea. Yet. And so I take 2 Timothy 3:16 to set my course.
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