2009 Reviews

Review of Robert W. Pazmiño, Foundational Issues in Christian Education: An Introduction in Evangelical Perspective, 3rd edition

Vaughan, Matthew

This is a book review of Robert W. Pazmiño, "Foundational Issues in Christian Education: An Introduction in Evangelical Perspective," 3rd edition.
Robert W. Pazmino's Foundational Issues in Christian Education: An Introduction in Evangelical Perspective was rereleased in 2008, twenty years after its original publication in 1988. Pazmino structures the book around seven "foundational issues" facing the modern American Christian educator. I follow Robert Drovdahl's lead in outlining the book: Drovdahl argues that the sections on Biblical, theological and philosophical considerations (chapters 1-3) offer "transcultural" insights informing Pazmino's view of education; the historical, sociological, and psychological chapters (4-6) offer "contextual/cultural insight into Christian education"; and Pazmino's section dealing with curriculum offers direction for the content of education. The whole book, therefore, is one large enumeration of "Points to Ponder" (which is the title he gives the discussion questions posed at the end of each chapter of the third edition). Of all of the foundations, questions regarding the primacy of the biblical text itself were most central to his overarching structure.
The 2008 edition is the third edition of this text, and some of the material has been updated. The main contribution of the third edition is the pair of short (about ten pages each) appendices that conclude the book. These appendices deal with the issue of postmodernism in the American church.