Christians Who Changed Their World (7)

This is part of an on-going series of articles about largely unknown Christians who had an enormous impact on society by faithfully living out their biblical worldview in various areas of life.

Attitudes toward work
Hugh of Saint Victor was a teacher at the Abbey of St. Victor, an Augustinian priory in Paris. In his book the Didascalicon, which explained basic Christianity, he said that there are three kinds of knowledge that help us improve ourselves and lead us to God: theoretical philosophy, comprised of theology, mathematics, and physics; practical philosophy, comprised of ethics, economics, and politics; and “mechanical” or “illiberal” philosophy, including such skills as technology, carpentry, agriculture, and medicine.

Christians Who Changed Their World (6)

This is part of an on-going series of articles about largely unknown Christians who had an enormous impact on society by faithfully living out their Biblical worldview in various areas of life.

Growing demand for books
Because of the work of Geert Groote and the Brethren of the Common Life, literacy rates were growing in northern Europe during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The desire to promote church reform and personal piety drove them to found schools, which then became an increasingly important part of literate culture in Germany and the Low Countries.

Christians Who Changed Their World (5)

This is part of an on-going series of articles about largely unknown Christians who had an enormous impact on society by faithfully living out their biblical worldview in various areas of life.

Missions in India: The beginnings
In the 1700s, the Indian subcontinent was divided into a large number of independent states. European countries had established colonies at a number of locations around the region, but by far the most important colonial power was not a nation but a company.

Christian Living in an Age of Science (9)

We live in a world which is penetrated through and through by science... The world today is made, it is powered by science; and for any man to abdicate interest in science is to walk with open eyes towards slavery.

– J. Bronowski, Science and Human Values

As we have seen, science and technology pervade every nook and cranny of contemporary life. We cannot escape them. Indeed, we have Biblical warrant for taking an active interest in science and making the most, for the Kingdom purposes of God, of all the benefits science and technology make available.

Christians Who Changed Their World (4)

This is part of an ongoing series of articles about largely unknown Christians who had an enormous impact on society by faithfully living out their biblical worldview in various areas of life.

Religion and education in early America
As had been the case in Europe, schools in the American colonies were founded almost entirely by churches or other organizations. This is most obvious at the university level: Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Brown, all were founded as religious institutions.

Christians Who Changed Their World (3)

This is part of an ongoing series of articles about largely unknown Christians who had an enormous impact on society by faithfully living out their biblical worldview in various areas of life. The first set of articles focuses on education.

Dark ages
The 1300s were a devastating period in European history. Climate shifts were causing major disruptions to the weather, leading to large scale famine. Epidemic diseases were breaking out across Europe. The papacy had moved from Rome to Avignon, and a war had broken out between France and England that would last more than a century.