E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Karina Aleksandrova, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team The Abingdon Religious Education Texts David B. Downey, General Editor Community Training School Series Norman E. Richardson, Editor HOW TO TEACH RELIGION Principles and Methods by GEORGE HERBERT BETTS THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI 1926 DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO HAVE IN THEIR KEEPING THE RELIGIOUS DESTINY OF AMERICA--THE TWO MILLION TEACHERS IN OUR CHURCH SCHOOLS. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE TEACHER HIMSELF 13 Importance of the teacher--Three types of teachers--The personal factor in teaching religion--Developing the power of personality--The cultivatable factors in personality--A scale for determining personality--The teacher's mastery of subject-matter--Methods of growth--Fields of mastery demanded--Service and rewards--Problems and questions. II. THE GREAT OBJECTIVE 30 Two great objectives in teaching--Making sure of the greater objective--Teaching children _versus_ teaching subject-matter--Subject-matter as a means instead of an end--Success in instruction to be measured in terms of modified life, not of material covered--The goal of a constantly developing Christian character and experience--Problems for discussion. III. THE FOURFOLD FOUNDATION 42 What the fourfold foundation consists of: (1) right _aims_, (2) right _materials_ to reach these aims, (3) right _organization_ of this material for instruction, (4) right _presentation_ in instruction--The aim of teaching religion is (1) fruitful knowledge, (2) right religious attitudes and growing consciousness of God, (3) power and will to live righteously--Selecting subject-matter to meet these ends--Principles of organization of material--The problem of effective presentation--Questions for discussion. IV. RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH 58 Not all religious knowledge of equal value--What determines value of knowledge--Kind of knowledge needed by child--Developing the child's idea of God--Harm from wrong concepts of God--Giving the child the right concept of religion--The qualities by which religion should be defined to the child--The child's knowledge of the Bible; of the church; of religious forms of expression--Problems and questions. V. RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES TO BE CULTIVATED 76