Notes on the Emergence of Protestant Education in Germany

Abstract

The movement of the Germanic peoples from the barbaric state that the Romans found them in during the days of Julius Caesar to the highly civilized and educated condition of today is a long and complex history. At the heart of that development over the centuries was first the shift to Roman culture; then the slow adoption of Roman Catholicism and integration into the Holy Roman Empire; and finally the inception of the Protestant Reformation under the leadership of Martin Luther. Roman Catholicism had introduced some notion of the Christian faith, but did not lead to broad education of the common people. This article explores the historical connection between the biblical principles of the Protestant Reformation—especially the rediscovered doctrine of the priesthood of the believer and the authority of the scriptures—and the movement to universal education in the Protestant Germanic states. The correlation of the two is strongly apparent in German history, and establishes the biblical foundation for universal basic education.