FOREWORD

Secular Clergy?

It may be helpful to consider the functions of the school-teacher alongside those of the Christian pastor-teacher. We may ask, for example, whether school-teachers are in some senses the clergy of a secular religion, and how the secular gospel parallels the Christian Gospel. What is the basis of the secular wisdom, and to whom or what does it witness?

Those who work in the classroom are increasingly finding welfare responsibilities taking a larger priority alongside the instructional. Are the modern clergy also operating more in their role as deacons than as pastor-teachers, and what implications does this have? What relationship does biblical counselling have with pastoring and teaching?