Ep. 17 - Sheep Among the Wolves

The Everlasting Education

This is Episode 17 of The Everlasting Education Podcast, a Kepler Education Production.

In this episode, Scott and Joffre read and discuss Abraham Kuyper's treatise, Sheep Among the Wolves.

Abraham Kuyper was a leader in the movement for education reform in the Netherlands during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A prolific intellectual, Kuyper also founded a political party (the Anti-Revolutionary Party), a denomination, and a university. Additionally, he led the movement to reform elementary schools, served as prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901-1905, and was a prolific writer. In addition to confessional studies, historical works, journalistic works, and political treatise, he also wrote more than 1300 devotional and theological treatises in his lifetime.

Sheep Among the Wolves is an example of Kuyper's views on Christian parents' responsibility to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and not send them to schools where the values of the home are not represented. It is true that Jesus sent his disciples into the world as sheep among the wolves—but not until they had been raised to maturity. As Kuyper so eloquently asserts, parents who send their sheep among the wolves before they are actually ready are not only unwise but also demonstrate their own immaturity in Christ.