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Frank Ely Gaebelein

By Cheryl L. Fawcett & Jamie Thompson

Protestant

Frank E. Gaebelein (1899-1983). Founder and headmaster of Stony Brook School in New York and an editor for Christianity Today and Eternity magazines. Gaebelein served as editor of Christian Education in a Democracy, (1951), a report of a National Association of Evangelicals study committee on Christian education. His leadership influenced private Christian schools, Christian higher education, and congregational instruction.

Biography

Education and Teaching

Born on March 31, 1899, Frank Ely Gaebelein was reared in Mount Vernon, New York, by German parents who immigrated to the United States in 1879. Frank was the youngest of Arno Clemens and Emma Fredericka (Grimm) Gaebelein’s three sons. (Evory, 1984). The Gaebeleins' daughter, Claudia, died in infancy (Lockerbie, 1972). Frank Gaebelein’s God-fearing home greatly impacted his life and ministry. Even at a young age his father’s passion and outspokenness were shaping him for the Lord.

Our home was a Christian home, not because my father was a noted preacher or because my mother was constantly talking to my brothers and me about Christianity, but because of the good sense with which they lived their faith. They never told me to read the Bible; yet I began to do so very early. I’m sure I learned to give some part of each day to the Scriptures from seeing my father and mother do so. (Gaebelein, 1985, p. 21).

Frank’s conversion to Christianity began during a rose garden walk with a 70-plus-year-old Plymouth Brethren preacher, F. C. Jennings. As they walked Jennings questioned the young boy, “Frank, have you ever thought about your soul? Have you ever thought about being saved…then gently and lovingly he spoke to me about Jesus" (Rausch, 1983, pp. 200-201). A few years later at age 10, Frank prayed with his mother before going to sleep and awakened the next day with a clear assurance that he was indeed saved. Frank considered his conversion an intellectually and spiritually expansive experience not a narrowing one, giving him the desire to embrace truth wherever truth is found.

Arno and Emma Gaebelein embraced and enjoyed sophisticated culture. Their home was filled with a collection of fine art and furniture. Family visits to the theatre and classical concerts were frequent. It is no surprise that much of Frank’s adult life was given to promoting excellence in the arts. The essence of his aesthetic philosophy was captured in his article “The Creator and Creativity” published in Christianity Today in 1976 and again after his death in October, 1984 (Gaebelein, 1984, pp. 33-38).

Music was an integral aspect of the Gaebelein home. Father, Arno, and brother, Paul, frequently played four-hand arrangements of major piano works. Recognizing young Frank’s fascination for the piano, his mother Emma started him on a lifelong love affair with music. Practicing two or three hours a day molded him into a concert pianist (Hull, 1984). Gaebelein pursued his musical interests at New York University’s Bronx campus where he was the piano soloist performing with the University Glee Club (Lockerbie, 1972).

Gaebelein’s personal fascination with literature and writing began early in his life. While attending Mount Vernon High School, Gaebelein served as the editor of the yearbook, assisted by his friend E.B. White, who later became the great essayist and humorist for the New Yorker. Frank earned a B.A. at New York University and was involved with undergraduate musical activities, the college yearbook, the campus newspaper, and the track team (Evory, 1984). His coach remembers that his most significant contribution on the varsity mile relay team came as he shared with his team his Christian faith (Lockerbie, 1972). Gaebelein’s formal schooling was temporarily interrupted in early 1918, when he enlisted in the United States Army's officer-training program. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant commanding a platoon and served his country faithfully until November, 1918 (Gaebelein, 1985).

Upon college graduation in 1920, Gaebelein furthered his education at Harvard University, studying English and comparative literature, and graduating with an A. M. on June 23, 1921 (Evory, 1984). During his time at Harvard, Gaebelein studied under several teachers who made a profound impact on his life, shaping his philosophy of education. John Livingston Lowes and Irving Babbitt gave Gaebelein his first formal introduction to the subject of aesthetics. The greatest impact, however, came from Dean L. B. R. Briggs who pushed Gaebelein toward a teaching and writing style of simplicity, clarity, and precision. Gaebelein had a tendency towards flowery language, probably springing from his love of music and the arts. Briggs evaluated his writing style as “too florid” (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 30). Briggs seeing in him a scholar and teacher worked to hone his writing skill. Briggs encouraged Gaebelein to enter the end-of-year competition for commencement addresses to represent the graduate school, which he won with his speech “In Behalf of Music.” At this point in his life Frank was hesitant and almost stuttering in his speech. After his rhetoric teacher declared him hopeless, Dean Briggs personally undertook preparation of Gaebelein as a polished speaker (Lockerbie, 1972). The investment yielded rich dividends, as much of Gaebelein’s adult life was given to public address in the classroom and in the church.

Shortly after his 22nd birthday, Gaebelein was approached by Dr. John Fleming Carson, visionary and founder of the Stony Brook Assembly, about launching a new Christian college-preparatory school in Long Island, New York. Carson was the pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, New York, the second largest Presbyterian church in America (Lockerbie, 1972). After much prayer and wise counsel, Frank agreed to take up this challenge. In September, 1921, he began organizing Stony Brook School and in 1922 was named headmaster (Evory, 1984). In spite of his inexperience in teaching at the secondary level and not having attended a preparatory school himself, this new venture appealed to him. Thus began his 41 memorable years as headmaster, and another 20 years as headmaster emeritus of Stony Brook Academy (Evory, 1984).

The mission of Stony Brook was “to give accurate teaching upon the Christianity of the Bible and demonstrate that this teaching belongs of right with thorough scholarship and sound education” (Gaebelein, 1985, 30). The curriculum at Stony Brook gave the Bible the greatest supremacy. Gaebelein believed that the Bible was the perfect foundation of a liberal arts or humanities education. In the brochure describing the new academy, Gaebelein wrote that he was determined to provide “in a Christian atmosphere and through Christian teachers, a sound education with a spiritual content, an education that has regard for the souls of our youth as well as for their bodies and their minds. To this end, the study of the English Bible and fundamentals of Christianity will have a place of first importance in the curriculum" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 32). This was a significant undertaking during a time in which public education was becoming more and more secular, baseless, and rootless as it disconnected from its Judeo-Christian values. Public education had ceased to prepare men and women with character, providing them only knowledge. Gaebelein took as the motto for the infant school, “Character before Career" (Lockerbie, 1972, preface). Having consulted with other experienced schoolmasters like Mather Abbott of Lawrenceville School, within one year Gaebelein recruited a faculty, a student body, and formed a curriculum with the Bible as central. The fledgling boarding school was to meet in the summer conference facilities of the Stony Brook Conference. Recruiting a qualified faculty would be challenging for Gaebelein as he sought to build a team that was thoroughly committed to the Christian faith and to its exemplification in their personal lives (Lockerbie, 1972). His first year he hired nine faculty, a nurse, a secretary, and an athletic director to teach an enrolled male student body of 38. The students ranged in age from 8 to 19, coming from eight states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas) plus China (Lockerbie, 1972). Despite its small size, the school fielded a football team that first year, which helped keep morale high.

Gaebelein articulated five guiding principles by which he would nurture the new educational experiment. First, the school would have a low student-to-teacher ratio. Second, teachers would be masters of their subject. Third, the school would maintain a Christian atmosphere consistent with its aim of building character before career. Fourth, spiritual matters would be given first place. Fifth, a balance would be preserved between religious, scholastic, and recreational matters. At the end of its first year, Stony Brook was approved by the Regents of University of New York, a most gratifying milestone (Lockerbie, 1972).

During the second year of Stony Brook’s existence, 1923, Gaebelein married Dorothy Laura Medd (Evory, 1984). “A Vassar graduate, well-bred, refined, utterly gracious, Dorothy Gaebelein was efficiently practical in ways her husband’s genius could hardly approach” (Gaebelein, 1985, p. 33). Gaebelein rode from the campus to her nearby home on horseback courting her until their marriage on December 8, 1923. Dorothy provided the essential balance between hospitality and refuge for her headmaster mate. She did her work quietly and avoided drawing attention to herself. She presided over formal occasions, such as weddings, at Stony Brook. With the help of her sister, Miss Miriam Medd, and other friends in the community, she transformed the “scrubby conference grounds into a campus of varied and park-like design…a natural beauty spot at all seasons" (Lockerbie, 1972). She exercised her quiet authority and example to members of the faculty and their wives and insisted upon courtesy, manners, and decorum, although never at the expense of good humor. The Gaebeleins’ shared love of the arts paved the way for Frank and Dorothy’s collection of beautiful paintings and watercolors.

Together, they parented three children: Dorothy Laura G. Hampton, Donn Medd, and Gretchen Elizabeth Gaebelein Hull (Evory, 1984). They introduced their children to the arts by taking them to meet such concert artists as Michel Piastro, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and Jorge Bolet, a giant of the keyboard. Each child took piano lessons at some point in his or her life, and all loved to hear their dad in concert. Originally intending to study music, Gaebelein was a phenomenal pianist. Their home was one of fond and lively memories. Frank and Dorothy shared almost 57 years together before she died in 1980 (Gaebelein, 1985).

Stony Brook experienced its share of financial struggles as well as its philosophical critics (Rausch, 245). During the Depression, teachers were asked to accept a graduated reduction in cash salary, which brought a good deal of gripping in some quarters but concerted prayer by faculty and students in others. World War II’s military draft robbed many quality faculty from the young school. Financial shortages brought austere times effecting the school’s ability to acquire equipment, supplies, conduct repairs to buildings and grounds, and securing adequate food (due to wartime rationing). Finding and keeping qualified teachers was an ongoing struggle faced by Stony Brook’s headmaster. Low salaries made affordable housing a challenge, and many faculty lived for several years in dormitories with students while struggling to establish their own family identity and privacy. As the school grew numerically, tensions increased between the Summer Bible Conference’s use of facilities and its residential school. While the school occupied the grounds for three-quarters of the year, the total number of summer conference attendees exceeded the number of students (Lockerbie, 1972). Faculty who were forced to vacate their living quarters to make way for summer conferees grew weary of the disrupted lifestyle. In time, private homes were purchased adjacent to Stony Brook property allowing those with longevity to live in quarters separate from students.

In his final years at Stony Brook, Gaebelein withstood strong pressures from the fundamentalist wing of evangelical Christianity. Following the “Fundamentalist-Modernist schism of the 1920’s some of the more contentious fundamentalists took issue with what they considered to be a dangerous trend toward liberalism at Stony Brook" (Lockerbie 1972, p. 100). At issue were codes of external behavior deemed inappropriate for a Christian school student or faculty member – no smoking, drinking, theatre going, dancing, and card playing. Extreme fundamentalists argued that all these activities were sinful in and of themselves. While the outward behaviors required at Stony Brook were very similar, Gaebelein’s rationale regarding the Christian’s abstinence from such activities was based on detriment to health, mindless conformity to culture, and danger to self and others in the community (Lockerbie, 1972).

Gaebelein more closely embodied the “new evangelical” that Harold John Ockenga identified—one who demonstrated "an adherence to orthodoxy and an interest in the sociological problems of the day" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 103). Stony Brook endeavored to avoid the negative standards of fundamentalism, the isolation of parochial Christianity. Some of Gaebelein’s chapel speakers stirred up dissent, but nothing was more controversial than his active role in the Billy Graham Crusade in Madison Square Garden in 1957. A post-crusade regional rally of 6000 on the Stony Brook campus heightened criticism (Lockerbie, 1972). This apparent slide to apostasy led to the discontinuance of summer conferences at Stony Brook Assembly.

During the mid-1950s, Gaebelein labored to regain Stony Brook’s earlier intentions for excellence that had suffered during financial adversity. Faculty salaries were improved from the lowest among 32 independent schools in northeastern United States to being competitive with such schools. Better living conditions, assistance for graduate school, fairer distribution of responsibilities, and a voice in administrative policy making all improved the caliber of the faculty. Concurrently, entrance requirements for students were tightened, college entrance examinations for advanced placement were offered, and homogeneous groupings of students in English, mathematics, and foreign languages yielded excellence in learning (Lockerbie, 1972). Stony Brook received acclaim for its program of assisting graduates in their process of college selection. Scripture memory was a benchmark of the school and caused graduates to have long sections engraved on their memory.

But not all was well; inadequate facilities especially for science labs provided a nagging reminder that the school was not excellent in every way. Most ironic were the absence of a qualified, resident music instructor and the lack of organized intentional dramatic arts at a school founded by one so passionate regarding the arts. Gaebelein acknowledged the defect offering the explanation that “the problem I faced was always one of a shortage of money and the unhappy decision in favor of higher priorities" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 107). While the school struggled with financial resources necessary to have full-time faculty in the arts, it did offer many aesthetic outlets to its students. Distinguished painter Paul King provided Friday night art instruction in a club setting. A professionally printed school newspaper was released every other week. A group met to listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Students were regularly entertained by the headmaster with piano concerts in his private residence. Once a week school-wide full-harmony singing was a constant over four decades. Chapel choir and glee club, boys taking private piano lessons, and visits of guest musicians added to the artistic flavor of the school (Lockerbie, 1972).

Both Frank and his father, Arno, were deeply influenced by C. I. Scofield’s popularization of dispensationalism. Schofield’s dispensations identified seven periods of biblical history or economies in which God dealt differently with humanity (Grogan, 1981). Frank served on the revision committee for the Schofield Bible, much like his father before him on the original translation team. Rubbing shoulders and sharing thoughts with the bright minds of intellectual fundamentalism, Frank developed a passion to represent an intellectually and culturally credible Christian orthodoxy in his modern world. John Nelson Darby, W.J. Erdman, A.T. Pierson, R.A. Torrey, Lewis Sperry Chafer, and F.C. Jennings were among the Gaebelein family acquaintances. Arno, and Frank after him, were both classical dispensational fundamentalists (Rausch, 1983).

Shortly after Frank’s invitation to inaugurate the Stony Brook Academy, he was invited by the Epworth League, a young people’s society, to present a series of lectures to survey the Bible and its doctrines during the height of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy (Rausch, 1983). Frank used those lectures to develop an apologetic for the evangelical point of view. Thus began a lifetime of biblical scholarship. Unlike the mainstream fundamentalists with whom Gaebelein ministered, his fundamentalism was more irenic, more tempered, and more compassionate and moderate. Frank shared in an interview that “my father was a strong believer in grace, not law. So my home was less legalistic than some other fundamentalist ones" (Rausch, 1983, p. 259). Fundamentalists were often characterized as anti-intellectual and anti-American. Frank claimed there was little evidence to substantiate such a claim, especially not among the fundamentalist leaders he personally knew and with whom he fellowshipped. Many of them were graduates of Princeton, Harvard, and Yale (Rausch, 1983).

“The fundamentalist-evangelical movement equated social concern with the ‘the social gospel,’ promoted by the Modernists, which to their mind was what [the apostle] Paul called another gospel…They felt this way because of the modernist denial of evangelical truth… But they didn’t realize the relationship (as many evangelicals do today) of social concern to the Gospel and evangelism,” Frank Gaebelein reported in an interview with Rausch (1983, p. 260). Gaebelein was sensitive to the wider issues of Scripture as they related to social concerns and aesthetic matters. In his thinking, the impetus for social action among evangelical believers was the doctrine of the atonement. Gaebelein charged evangelicals to “recapture a biblical position regarding questions of the environment, women’s roles, nuclear war, and the culture of narcissism" (Wright, 1999).

But in reacting against the modernism of many advocates of the social gospel and in complying with the mores, particularly in racial matters… they missed much of the biblical emphasis on compassionate responsibility for victims of prejudice and exploitation. …And had not awakened to the social implications of biblical ethics here at home — a lack of awareness shared by most Americans of the time. In retrospect, I am distressed that it took me so long to realize that social concern is a vital biblical imperative. (Gaebelein, July 31, 1970, p. 11)

As a 70-year-old correspondent for Christianity Today, Gaebelein covered the Selma, Alabama civil rights march in 1965 led by Martin Luther King. Convinced of the “rightness” of the cause he abandoned his reporter’s role and joined the march, coming under severe criticism (Gaebelein, 1983).

The significant molders of Gaebelein’s thinking and worldview were his father, Arno, his family life as a child, his own rigorous education, Dean L. B. R. Briggs, his wife Dorothy, and the Bible. These influences helped to focus much of his early writing on biblical topics. Besides contributing numerous articles to various religious journals, Gaebelein authored scores of books. Chief among his books are Down Through the Ages (1924), A Brief Survey of Scripture (1929), Facing the Fact of Inspiration (1934), Philemon: The Gospel of Emancipation (1939), Looking Unto Him (1941), The Christian Use of the Bible (1946), The Servant and the Dove (1946), and The Practical Epistle of James (1955), God’s Pattern of Truth (1968), The Christian, the Arts, and Truth: Regaining the Vision of Greatness (1985), and the editing of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary 12-volume set.

D. Bruce Lockerbie (1985) relates that Gaebelein’s first major influential writing project was Christian Education in a Democracy (1951), which explained his desire for a Christian approach to education blending together liberal and fine arts. Gaebelein’s treatise in response to the study of the Harvard Report entitled General Education in a Free Society propelled the world of Christian education forward significantly when he teamed with a group of scholars to write Christian Education in a Democracy (1951) on behalf of the National Association of Evangelicals. Soon after, Gaebelein lectured at Dallas Seminary on the implementation of this perspective on education. Those lectures gave shape to his next book, The Pattern of God’s Truth: Problems of Integration in Christian Education (1954). Public education was becoming more and more lax in its efforts to develop in students a deep sense of moral character due in part to its being “adrift on a sea of moral relativism" (Wright, 1999, p. 535). Gaebelein’s treatise was an “attempt to construct a public philosophy of education that up held the prior integrity of Christian identity…while it also claimed academic relevance to the educational and cultural crisis which gripped the post-war America" (Wright, 1999, p. 535-537).

Gaebelein served as an editor for The New Scofield Reference Bible, coeditor for Christianity Today, and general editor for the Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Thanks to Gaebelein’s diligent effort, the Expositor’s Bible Commentary contributes phenomenally to the study of the Scriptures. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary’s 78 contributors come from many parts of the world and from all denominational backgrounds. Committed to the divine inspiration of the Bible, these professionals have offered students of the Word the best in evangelical scholarship (Gaebelein, 1984).

Gaebelein forged significant paths in the domain of Christian secondary education. He is known as “a Renaissance man” (Gaebelein, 1985, p. 13). Gaebelein was held in awe by many of his students and faculty, blending the roles of scholar, writer, musician, and athlete with vibrant humor (Lockerbie, 1972). Gaebelein’s greatest contribution to Christian education was his call for the “integration” of faith, living, and learning. Gaebelein stated, “The central aim of this school [Stony Brook] is to correlate Christian principles, the great and eternal verities, with education of a type high enough to merit intimacy with such exalted ideals” (Gaebelein, 1985, p. 32). Gaebelein addressed integration on four levels: integration of subject matter, integration in the life of the teacher, integration in the life of the student, and integration at the administrative level (Wright, 1999). Gaebelein was widely known as a Christian humanist because of his insistence that a full education include the arts as well as the sciences and humanities. He promoted the idea that Christians should use their giftedness in painting, preaching, or music to express their love for God (Lockerbie, 1985). He desired others to taste the sweet riches that come from studying art and music. Gaebelein was so committed to the integration of Bible with every subject matter that he proposed the elimination of the Bible department as a separate entity at Stony Brook. He personally blended junior and senior year Bible with English and taught the courses himself (Lockerbie, 1972). His discussion of the integration of math and faith covered unique ground. In Gaebelein’s schematic, the teacher was of utmost importance and was to embody, not just verbally endorse, the integration of faith in life.

In addition to Gaebelein’s contribution to the discipline of Christian education, he also impacted many lives, including hundreds of Stony Brook students. Through Gaebelein’s professional life, he exerted a powerful impact on several influential evangelicals. The list of friends who attended his memorial services at Stony Brook and in Virginia included Billy Graham, Carl Henry, Mark O. Hatfield, Kenneth Kantzer, Harold Lindsell, James M. Boice, Donald Barnhouse, Stephen Olford, and John Perkins (Wright, 1999). His own family were profoundly touched by his life and ministry. His own son, Don M. Gaebelein, succeeded him as headmaster of Stony Brook following his own career in Christian school leadership in the South (Lockerbie, 1972). Gretchen Gaebelein Hull is considered by some to be the intellectual heir of the Gaebelein family as she speaks regarding roles for women in evangelical circles (Wright, 1999). Gaebelein encouraged a young man named Carl F. H. Henry to get a solid education. Heeding these words, Henry eventually became the first editor of Christianity Today and later welcomed Gaebelein as his coeditor (Gaebelein, 1985). Gaebelein served as a private counselor to many senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill. Chief among those influenced was Senator Mark Hatfield, who often sought the wisdom of Gaebelein. Hundreds of Stony Brook Academy alumni credit Dr. Gaebelein with a profound impact on their lives. Dr. James Montgomery Boice, class of 1956, shared his life lesson of perseverance learned through participation on the school’s cross-country team (Lockerbie, 1972). Dr. Bruce Lockerbie, former dean of faculty at Stony Brook School, was also greatly influenced by Gaebelein’s profound wisdom. Gaebelein was Lockerbie’s teacher and friend, as well as his administrative superior. He helped Lockerbie develop into a solid writer, spending precious time critiquing his work. “Dr. Gaebelein has been both an inspiring and a demanding mentor,” shared Lockerbie of his early attempts at writing (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 48). Lockerbie wrote the only complete biography on Frank Gaebelein to date on Stony Brook’s 50th anniversary, providing recollections of the founding, inauguration and formative years in The Way They Should Go (1972).

Over the years, Gaebelein provided leadership and administrative expertise for numerous endeavors. After finishing his education, he assumed the role of organizer and headmaster of Stony Brook School from 1921-1963. This led to his position as headmaster emeritus from 1963-1983. Throughout these years at Stony Brook, Gaebelein also served as an ordained deacon and presbyter at the Reformed Episcopal Church from 1940-1941 (Evory, 1981). Gaebelein described himself as a “moderate Calvinist,” which reflects his Reformed theology influenced by the Dutch Reformed theologians and philosophers Dooyeweerd, Kuyper, Seerveld, and Wolsterstorff (Wright, 1999). Frequently he was engaged as a guest preacher/lecturer at colleges, universities, and theological seminaries. He was a freelance editor and noted writer. Following his formal years at Stony Brook, he joined Carl F. H. Henry as the coeditor of Christianity Today from 1963-1966. From 1969-1972, he served as director of the faculty summer seminar on faith and learning at Wheaton College.

Gaebelein played a significant part in several notable writing projects. Serving as the general editor for The Expositor’s Bible Commentary from 1971-1983, he elevated the nature of biblical scholarship. Following closely in his father’s steps he served as the vice-chairman for Oxford University Press’s preparation of the New Scofield Reference Bible in 1954. His role as the style committee chairman for the New International Version of the Bible in 1968 was another significant contribution to Bible students worldwide.

Gaebelein participated in numerous professional organizations reflecting his greatest loves of Scripture, excellent academics, and nature. His religious professional memberships included the American Academy of Religion, Evangelical Theological Society, Society of Biblical Literature, Evangelical Books, Inc., and American Tract Society as president (Evory, 1981). Membership in Headmasters Association, Council for Religion in Independent Schools, Phi Beta Kappa, Kappa Sigma, Harvard Club (New York), and the Cosmos Club (Washington D.C.) demonstrate his lifelong love of learning. He served as both a trustee and regent of Dallas Theological Seminary (Lockerbie, 1972). Gaebelein’s adoration of the created order is clearly seen in his memberships with the American Alpine Club, Alpine Club of Canada, and the Appalachian Mountain Club (Evory, 1981).

Despite Gaebelein’s lack of formal religious training, many honors were bestowed upon him. He wrote, Although I looked with a certain wistful respect at friends with earned doctorates, I recognized that for me [because of the demands of ministry] my scholarly work could only come through independent study. So, amidst the busy life [of ministry], nine books were written, seven on Bible study and two on the philosophy of Christian Education. So also the preparation for ordination was made through private study just as some years before I had taught myself the elements of New Testament Greek. (Gaebelein, 1970, p. 10)

Three different Christian colleges honored Gaebelein with honorary doctoral degrees. The first two came in 1951, when he received a Litt.D. from Wheaton College and a D.D. from Reformed Theological Seminary (Evory, 1981). In 1960, Houghton College recognized Gaebelein’s contributions and conferred on him a LL.D.

Gaebelein’s final public appearance occurred in October of 1982 in Stony Brook, New York, where he was the guest at the dedication of the Frank E. Gaebelein Hall, the school’s new academic building. This tangible memorial was a fitting tribute to the man who was loved and revered by many and who had contributed so much to the school. Three months later, on January 19, 1983, Frank Ely Gaebelein died at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Doctors said that he never fully recovered from a double bypass surgery they performed in November.

The measure of a ministry is often best determined by what happens after the leader has departed. When Frank Gaebelein presided over his final commencement exercises as headmaster, the faculty remained almost wholly intact. His summation of the first 41 years of Stony Brook was that the experiment had succeeded. “We can say that Stony Brook is the only independent boys’ school of good academic standing that not only holds firmly in teaching and worship to evangelical Christianity, as several other good schools do, but is also committed to a faculty made up wholly of regenerated Christians. As such it is respected by its peers" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 114).

In his earlier years some teachers and students found him to be distant and pensive. The complexities of running a school for which there was no prototype left him little time for petty affairs. At times his mental focus was taken as brusqueness. Some found him aloof, others were deeply touched by his intercession for a personal struggle or by a visit in the infirmary or hospital, and many who reflected on the Tuesday evening fellowship meetings in the headmaster’s home judged him to be deeply in tune with God (Lockerbie, 1972). “A man who has known Frank Gaebelein for more than forty years says, ‘He was stiff and formal as a younger man. I’m happy to see how much more relaxed and personable he has become later in life…Frank Gaebelein seems to be much more broad-minded and flexible. It shows in his improved relationships with people’" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 116). He left the lasting impression as “a man strong in his natural endowments but strongest when at prayer" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 116).

Frank Gaebelein was neither a professional theologian or philosopher nor an academic religious education theorist in the traditional academic sense. He was an amazingly reflective practitioner whose writings on the subject of Christian education demonstrate profound spiritual conviction, enormous erudition, breathtaking breadth of interest, and compelling integrative insight. His was a sanctified wisdom born out of a sustained attentiveness to Scripture, the catholic Christian tradition, and the positive features of both Western civilization and of custodial evangelicalism (Wright, 1999, p. 589).

As Christian educator, visionary, reflective practitioner, concert pianist, mountaineer, speaker, prolific writer, editor and Bible translator, Gaebelein left fingerprints all over his world. His articulation of the integration of faith, living, and learning in regards to Christian education ploughed new territory, providing a basis for on-going dialogue. His sound biblical teaching and writing stirred in evangelicals a desire for scholarship. The continuing influence of Stony Brook Academy as a model for Christian education with a Democracy is undoubtedly his greatest contribution to Christian education. His life and ministry demonstrated how a Christian should enjoy the best of culture, whether it be great literature, grand music, or lofty music.

Gaebelein knew that everything he accomplished came from the overflow of his daily time in the Scriptures. The February 1983 issue of Christianity Today states, “Gaebelein once was asked what counsel he wished to pass on to the next generation of Christians. He replied, ‘Maintain at all costs a daily time of Scripture reading and prayer. As I look back, I see the most formative influence in my life and thought has been my daily contact with Scripture over 60 years.’”


Contributions to Christian Education

A man is often best evaluated by his contemporaries. Frank Ely Gaebelein’s protégé, biographer, and colleague declared him “a Christian educator without peer in this century" (Lockerbie, 1972, p. 47). Robert Ells declared Gaebelein a “leading example of an evangelical educational reformer" (Ells, 1984, p. 13-29). “The evangelical Christian education movement’s most creative thinker and articulate apologist,” says another (McLeod, 1993, p. 43). Ken Gangel and Warren Benson praise Gaebelein’s Pattern of God’s Truth (1954) as “the one significant volume that must be mastered” if one is to grasp the true distinctiveness of evangelical perspectives on education (Gangel & Benson, 1983, p. 358). And finally, “one could perhaps say that Gaebelein’s stature as a statesman of the neo-evangelical movement, at a critical time in its postwar resurgence, allowed him, perhaps more than any other person except Billy Graham, Carl Henry and a few others, to give shape to and define the [evangelical] movement itself" (Wright, 1999, p. 531).

A self-declared generalist and Christian humanist (Gaebelein, 1970, p. 10), Gaebelein’s life forged a three-strand chord with his love of reading, writing, and religion. A prolific writer and editor, his scholarly work came primarily through independent study. Much like his father Arno, Frank wrote, helped translate modern versions of Scripture, and provided leadership in the fundamentalist movement of the mid-nineteen hundreds.

Frank Gaebelein’s spiritual nurture came as he rubbed shoulders with the higher echelons of intellectual fundamentalism at the turn of the century. His father’s role on the translation team of the Scofield Bible provided interaction for Frank with the influential fundamentalists of his time. Frank’s passion was to forge an intellectually and culturally credible Christian orthodoxy in the modern world. He desired to retain the Protestant-American synthesis of the 19th century that appeared to be slipping away at the dawn of the Modern era as socialism, communism, bolshevism and fascism were consuming much of Europe and Asia . Frank claimed to be neither an individualist fundamentalist focused on separation nor an ecumenist who surrendered truth to enhance fellowship. He was deeply committed to fellowship at the practical working level with all that know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Frank’s more irenic than dogmatic dispensationalism garnered him criticism from both sides. To the evangelical, he was compromising with apostasy, and to the new evangelical, he was too much a fundamentalist. Yet he stood firm and called his generation by the power of the pen to engage their increasingly secular culture while remaining fixed on the ultimate truth of the Scriptures.

Frank contributed significantly to evangelical journalism as a freelance writer and later as associate editor and editor of Our Hope magazine, associate editor of Revelation, and consulting editor of Eternity, and as coeditor of Christianity Today (Gaebelein, 1970, p. 10).

His extensive writings focus on his lifetime passions: Biblical scholarship, evangelical and biblical philosophy of education, and compassionate response to the needy and oppressed. Gaebelein authored numerous commentaries on biblical books. His zenith however came as general editor of Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Combining the wisdom and scholarship of 78 biblical scholars into a multi-volume work, he raised the bar for evangelical scholarship.

The Gaebelein family was well known for its love of classical music, paintings, fine furniture, and mountaineering. The Christian, the Arts, and Truth (1985) gave expression to Gaebelein’s love of all things beautiful while serving as a clarion call for Christians to be involved in aesthetics. He also authored numerous journal articles on the Christian’s responsibility regarding the arts.

Possibly his best known and most referenced work originated in a lecture series at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. Later it was refined and presented at Grace College in Indiana. Ultimately the addresses were written in Pattern for God’s Truth: Problems of Integration in Christian Education (1954). This was one of the earliest articulations of the integration of matters of faith and learning. “Gaebelein’s educational theory and practice are premised upon the axiom, which he quoted in virtually all of his writing, and drew from the Reformation doctrine of common grace, that 'All truth is God’s truth'… His lifelong commitment to the Reformation principle led Gaebelein to construct his own brand of Christian humanism and to practice his vocation as a ‘Renaissance generalist’" (Wright, 1999, p. 519). Whether he created the phrase “All truth is God’s truth” or just used it enough to make it become his trademark, Gaebelein championed the beginnings of evangelicals honoring all truth as ultimately from the creator, God. “Gaebelein rightly focused the attention of the evangelical constituency on the priority of revelation and sought to discern the metatheoretical dimensions of Christian education in a democracy, extending the boundaries of Christian education well beyond narrow religious confines to include the whole of life" (Wright, 1999, p. 518).

Spearheading the evangelical response to the Harvard Report, General Education in a Free Society, on behalf of the National Association of Evangelicals, Gaebelein propelled the world of Christian education forward significantly when he lead a group of scholars to write Christian Education in a Democracy (1951). He challenged John Dewey’s popular philosophy of progressive education with education from a Christian world and life-view.

Of all his life accomplishments, the most significant educational contribution of Gaebelein came in the philosophical foundation he laid for the Stony Brook Academy in Long Island, New York. Launched during an anti-intellectual time among fundamentalists, Gaebelein strove to elevate the Christian academy to a level of scholarship and excellence of private college preparatory schools. Stony Brook became the laboratory for the out-working of his burgeoning Christian philosophy of education. His primary contribution was to the Christian school movement as he espoused a Christian faith that engaged its modern American culture. Gaebelein’s conviction that Christ transforms culture was strong. He served 41 years as headmaster and 20 additional years as headmaster emeritus at Stony Brook, riding the wave of good times and times of wanting (Evory, 1981).

Gaebelein would seek to foster a style of evangelical faithfulness which attracted the unbelieving world because of its spiritual depth, intellectual breadth, and visionary height (Wright, 1999). Gaebelein argues that because all truth is God’s truth, it should make no difference whether it is natural or revealed truth, as long as learning relates to life. Gaebelein points out that no man ever makes up truth because it is always around him. All truth that is experienced must be evaluated and critiqued through the grid of biblical truth.

Gaebelein placed a tremendous emphasis on the teacher as one who embodies this integration of culture and Christ. In The Pattern of God’s Truth (1954), Gaebelein states,

Briefly the plan is this. The Christian school that believes all truth to be God’s truth and that is serious about making Christ and the Bible integral to its curriculum must give up the concept of a completely separate Bible department. Instead it must seek and develop devoted Christian teachers who, along with competency in mathematics, science, languages, or social studies, are able also to give instruction in Bible. Such teachers, particularly on the secondary level, need not necessarily be technically trained as Biblical scholars, although such training is valuable…Out of that experience there is bound to come an awareness of the relation of the Word of God to his other subjects. (pp. 48-50)

Gaebelein was not the first to talk of integration of faith and learning or the maxim that “all truth is God’s truth,” but he did bring it alive with a force of conviction which evangelical education needed to hear. Integration became so integral to Gaebelein that it became the new foundation for learning, not something added on in a separate compartment.

Committed to scholarship and rigorous study, Gaebelein was sensitive to the wider issues of Scripture as they relate to social concerns and aesthetics. In Reflections in Retrospect (1970), he says,

But in reacting against the modernism of many advocates of the social gospel and in complying with the mores, particularly in racial matters…they missed much of the biblical emphasis on compassionate responsibility for victims of prejudice and exploitation…and had not awakened to the social implications of biblical ethics here at home—a lack of awareness shared by most Americans of the time. In retrospect, I am distressed that it took me so long to realize that social concern is a vital biblical imperative. (p. 11)

Gaebelein forged the thought processes that find Christian education searching for an overall logic of education which is truly spacious enough to comprehend all knowledge and dynamic enough to develop moral and spiritual maturity in the learner. Frank Gaebelein spelled out a definitive philosophy of Christian education in his Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary. Those lectures were later translated into his much sought after book, The Pattern of God’s Truth (1954).

Scholarship, biblical integration, and compassionate efforts to alleviate the suffering of human needs--these are the three harmonies upon which Gaebelein played out his life symphony. Gaebelein’s balanced life and passionate pursuit of bringing many to salvation and godly maturity has left lasting contributions on the world of Christian school education and the larger world of Christian education proper.

Works Cited

  • Grogan, G. W. (1981). Dispensationalism. In J. D. Douglas (Ed.), The new international dictionary of the Christian church [Revised edition.] (p. 303). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Ells, R. (1984). Creation, redemption, and doing your best: Gaebelein’s approach to learning. In N. DeJong, (Ed.), Christian approaches to learning theory: A symposium (pp. 13-29). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
  • Evory, A. (Ed.). (1981). Frank Gaebelein. In Contemporary authors. Vol.2.[New Revision Series.] Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1970, July 31). Reflections in retrospect, Christianity Today, 14, 9-12.
  • Christianity Today. (1983, February 18). Frank Gaebelein dies at 83. Christianity Today, 27, 27-29.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1985). Introduction. In D. B. Lockerbie (Ed.), The Christian, the arts, and truth: Regaining the vision of greatness. (pp. 13-48). Portland, OR: Multnomah Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1984). The expositor’s Bible commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing house.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1984, Oct. 5). The creator and creativity. Christianity Today, 28, 33-38.
  • Gangel, Kenneth O. and Warren S. Benson. (1983). Christian education: It’s history and philosophy. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Hull, Gretchen Gaebelein. (1984, Sept. 24). Frank Gaebelein: Character before career. Christianity Today, 28, 14-18.
  • Journal of Theological Society. (1984, March). Memorials, Frank E. Gaebelein, Journal of Theological Society, 27 (1). 127-128.
  • Lockerbie, D. Bruce. (1972). The way they should go. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • McLeod, Philip. (1993). The rise of Catholic and evangelical Christian schools in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University,
  • Rausch, David. (1983). Arno C. Gaebelein 1861-1945: Irenic fundamentalist/scholar; including conversations with Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein. [Studies in American Religion, 10]. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
  • Wright, Dana. (1999). Ecclesial theatrics: toward a reconstruction of evangelical Christian theory as dogmatic practical theology. Part II: The Neo-Barthian Critique of Evangelical Christian Education theory. Chapter five: Frank Gaebelein and the “Pattern of God’s Truth” Revisited, pp. 515-616. Unpublished Dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princton, NJ.

Bibliography

Books, Articles

  • Bible. New American Standard, New Schofield study Bible. (Ed.) C.I. Schofield. Frank Gaebelein editorial revision committee. (1967). New York, NY: Oxford University Press
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (n.d.). Exploring the Bible; as study of background and principles. London: Marshall & Scott.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (n.d.). Hosea – Joel and Amos-Obadiah. [Cassette]. Hollywood, CA: Audio Bible Studies, Inc.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (n.d.). Zephaniah-Haggai. [Cassette]. Hollywood, CA: Audio Bible Studies.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (n.d.). Titus – Philemon. [Cassette]. Hollywood, CA: Audio Bible Studies.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1924). Down through the ages: The story of the King James Bible. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1924). Down through the ages: The story of the King James Bible. New York, NY: Our Hope.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1925). Down through the ages: The story of the king James Bible. New York, NY: Macmillian company.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1929). A brief survey of scripture. New York, NY: Our Hope Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1929). Exploring the Bible. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1929). Exploring the Bible: a study of background and principles. 1st ed. New York, NY: Our Hope Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1929). Exploring the Bible: a study of background and principles. 2ndt ed. New York, NY: Our Hope Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1929). Exploring the Bible: a study of background and principles. New York, NY & London: Harper & Brothers.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1929). Exploring the Bible: a study of background and principles. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1933). Exploring the Bible. New York, NY: Our Hope Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1933). The Hollow Queen. Boston, MA: The Christopher Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1933). Facing the fact of Inspiration. Philadelphia, PA: Issued by Revelation.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1934). Facing the fact of Inspiration. Philadelphia, PA: Issued by Revelation.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1935). From a headmaster’s study. Philadephia, PA: Revelation.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1936). Down through the Ages: The story of the King James Bible. New York, NY: Our Hope.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1939). Philemon; The gospel of emancipation: a narrative and devotional commentary. New York, NY: Our Hope Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1941). Looking unto him: A message for each day. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1941). Looking unto him: A message for each day.2nd edition. (revised). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1946). The Christian use of the Bible. Wheaton, IL: Van Kampen Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1946a). The Christian use of the Bible. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1946b). The Servant and the dove; Obadiah and Jonah, their messages and work. New York, NY: Our Hope Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1948). Philemon; The gospel of emancipation: a narrative and devotional commentary. (Revised edition).. Wheaton, IL: Van Kampen Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1950). The meaning of inspiration. Chicago, IL: Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1950). Exploring the Bible: a study of background and principles. 3rd rev. ed., Wheaton, IL: Van Kampen Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1950). The story of the King James Bible. Wheaton, IL: Van Kampen Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1950). Rutherford today. In Samuel Rutherford, 1600-1661. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1951). Christian education in a democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1951). Rutherford today. In Samuel Rutherford, 1600-1661. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1954). The pattern of God’s truth. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1954). The pattern of God’s truth: Problems of integration in Christian Education. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. ( 1954). Die Bedeutung der biblischen Inspiration. Wuppertal: Brockhaus.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1955). The practical epistle of James: Studies in applied Christianity. Great Neck, NY: Channel Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1955). The practical epistle of James. New York, NY: Doniger & Raughley.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1959, May 9). The Bible College in American Education. School and Society, 87, 223.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1959). The story of the Scofield reference Bible, 1909-1959. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • Gaebelein, F., & Baldwin, A., & Harrison, E. (Eds.). (1960). Commitment and the school community. New York, NY: Seabury Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1961, May 8) Christian and intellectual life. Christianity Today, 5, 4-6.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1961). Looking Unto Him: A message for each day. New edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1962, Fall). Towards a Christian philosophy of education: the Bauman Memorial Lectures for 1962. Grace Journal, 3 (3), 3-34.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1962, Feb. 16). Music in Christian education. Christianity Today, 6, 30-32.
  • Gaebelein, F., & Harrison, E., & Swing, W. (Eds.). (1963). Education for decision. National Conference on Religion in Independent Education New York, NY:Seabury Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1964, August 28). The greatest educational force. Christianity Today, 8, 28-29.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1964). E. Hakes (Ed.), Toward a philosophy of Christian education. An Introduction to Evangelical Christian Education. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1966). A Christianity Today Reader. New York, NY: Meredith.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1967). A varied harvest; out of a teacher’s life and thought; A collection of essays. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1967). The new Scofield reference Bible: its background and making. New York, NY: Oxford.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1967). The story of the Scofield reference Bible, 1909-1959. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1968). Christianity Today. New York, NY: Pyramid Books.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1968). Christianity Today. Westwood, NJ: F. H. Revell
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1968). The pattern of God’s truth: problems of integration in Christian education. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1968). The pattern of God’s truth: problems of integration in Christian education. Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1968). The pattern of God’s truth: Problems of integration in Christian education. Whittier, CA: Association of Christian Schools International.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1969). Faith that lives: from the practical epistle of James. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1970). Four minor prophets, Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, and Haggai: Their message for today. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1970, July 31). Reflections in retrospect. Christianity Today 14, 10.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1970). Christian education philosophy. [Cassette]. Columbia SC: Columbia Bible College.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1970). Looking unto Him: A message for each day. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1972). National faith/learning institute first. [Cassette]. Chicago, IL: Christian College Consortium.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1973). The pattern of God’s truth: problems of integration in Christian education. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1974). 19th Annual writer’s conference. [Spoken recording]. Wheaton, IL: Wheaton College, WETN Recording.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1975). From day to day: A message from the bible for each day of the year.. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1976). The Expositor’s Bible commentary: Romans – Galatians, with the New International version of the Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1978). The Expositor’s Bible commentary: Ephesians – Philemon, with the New International version of the Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1979). The Expositor’s Bible commentary: with the New International version of the Holy Bible. London: Pickering and Inglis.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1979). The Expositor’s Bible commentary: with the New International version of the Holy Bible, introductory articles. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, Frank E. (September 6,1979). Challenging Christians to the simple life. Christianity Today, 23, 22-26.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1980). Rutherford today. In Samuel Rutherford, 1600-1661. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1981, February 6). The Bible: Both the source and setting for learning. Christianity Today, 25, 20-23.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1981). The Expositor’s Bible commentary: John – Acts, with the New International version of the Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1981). The Expositor’s Bible commentary: Volume 12: with the New International Version of the Holy Bible, Hebrews – Revelation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1981). The evangelical scholar and the evangelical publisher: how scholars write. [Cassette]. Evangelical Theological Society, 33rd meeting: Toronto, Willowdale, Ontario: Ontario Bible college and Theological Seminary.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1981). Evangelicals and social concern, [Cassette]. Evangelical Theological Society, 33rd meeting: Toronto, Willowdale, Ontario: Ontario Bible College & Theological Seminary.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1981). Expositor’s Bible commentary, Chinese. Zhong zi sheng jing zhu shi/ Ying wen ban zhu bian Qibulan [Jiabolin]; Zhong wen ban bian ji Huang Hansen. Xianggang: Zhong zi chu ban she.
  • Gaebelein, Frank E. (October 2, 1981). Heeding the whole counsel of God. Christianity Today, 25, 28-31.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1982, March). Evangelicals and social action. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 25, 17-22.
  • Gaebellain, Puraengku E. (1983). Eksupojitosu Songgyong yongu chusok. Soul: Kidok Chihyesa.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1984). The Expositor’s Bible commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, with the New International version of the Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1984a, October 5). The creator & creativity. Christianity Today, 28 (14), 33-38.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1984b). The expositor’s Bible commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1985). D. B. Lockerbie (Ed.), The Christian, the arts, and truth: Regaining the vision of greatness. Portland, OR: Multnomah.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1985). The expositor’s Bible commentary: Daniel – Minor Prophets, with the New International Version of the Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1985). The expositor’s Bible commentary: with the New International Version of the Holy Bible, Daniel – Minor Prophets. Grand Rapids, MI: Regency.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1986). What is truth in art?. In Rykan (Ed.), The Christian imagination: Essays on literature and the arts. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1986). The expositor’s Bible commentary: Isaiah – Ezekiel, with the New International Version of the Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1986). The expositor’s Bible commentary, volume 6: with the New International version of the Holy Bible. Winona Lake, IN: BMH
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1986). The expositor’s Bible commentary: with the New International version of the Holy Bible, Isaiah – Ezekiel. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1988). The expositor’s Bible commentary: with the New International version of the Holy Bible, I Kings – Job. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1990). The expositor’s Bible commentary: with the New International version of the Holy Bible, Genesis – Numbers. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (Ed.). (1991). The expositor’s Bible Commentary: with the New International version of the Holy Bible, Psalms – Song of Songs. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F.E. (Ed.) (1992). The expositor’s Bible commentary: Deuteronomy through 2 Samuel with the New International Version of the Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1995). Christian Education in a democracy, with commentary by Derek J. Keenan. Colorado Springs, CO: Association of Christian Schools International.
  • Gaebelein, F. E.(Ed.). (1995-1996). The expositor’s Bible commentary: with the New International version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1997). The expositor’s Bible commentary. [Electronic resource]. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Interactive.
  • Gaebelein, F. E. (1998). The expositor’s Bible commentary. [Electronic resource]. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Interactive.
  • National Association of Evangelicals for United Action. (1951). Christian Education in a democracy; the report of the N.A.E. committee. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • Rausch. David. (1983). Arno Gaebelein, 1861-1945: Irenic Fundamentalist and Scholar. New York, NY: Edwin Mellen. (Interview with Frank Gaebelein at the end of the book)

Reviews of Major Works

  • Anonymous. (1952, April). [Review of Christian Education in a Democracy]. Harvard Divinity Bulletin.17.
  • Author unknown. (1983, March). Gaebelein, educator and author dies. Eternity, 34, 15-16.
  • Akin, Daniel L. (1987, Spring). [Review of The Christian, the arts, and truth]. Criswell Theological Review, 1, 415-416.
  • Bandstra, A. J. (1977, November). [Review of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, v.10]. Calvin Theological Journal, 12, 222-224.
  • Barbieri, L. (1971, January). [Review of Four Minor Prophets]. Moody Monthly, 71, 45.
  • Benson, Warren. (1984). Evangelical philosophies of religious education. In Marvin Taylor (Ed.)., Changing patterns of Religious Education. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.
  • Benson, Warren. (1988). Seeking a biblical base: an evangelical protestant perspective. In Marlene Mayr (Ed.) Does the church really want Religious Education? Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press.
  • Burdick, D. W. (1978, February). [Review of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, v.10]. Eternity, 29, 54-55.
  • Cailliet, Emile. (1951). [Review of Christian Education in a Democracy]. Princeton Seminary Bulletin, 45 (3).
  • Cailliet, E. (1955, January). [Review of the pattern of God’s truth]. Princeton Seminary Bulletin, 48, 49-51.
  • Cailliet, E. (1967, December). [Review of the book A varied harvest]. Christianity Today, 12, 31-32.
  • Clowney, E. P. (1955, May). [Review of The pattern of God’s truth]. Westminster Theological Journal, 17, 201-208.
  • Coleman, W. L. (1978, November). [Review of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, v.11]. Moody Monthly, 79, 84f.
  • Corley, B. (1978, Fall). [Review of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, v.10]. Southwestern Journal of Theology, 21, 106-107.
  • Cully, Kendig B. (1965). Fundamentalism and neo-evangelicalism. The search for Christian Education-Since 1940. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster. 94-112.
  • Cully, Kendig B. (1975). Interview with Frank Gaebelein. Review of Books and Religion, 4 (9).
  • Daanne, James. (1983, Mar). Frank E. Gaebelein, 1899-1983. The Reformed Journal, 33 (3),3-4.
  • Douglas, James Dixon. (1979, January). [Review of Expositor’s Bible commentary: Ephesians through Philemon, v.11]. Concordia Journal, 5,38.
  • Douglas, James Dixon. (1979, April 20). Frank Gaebelein: Striving for excellence: An interview on his eightieth birthday. Christianity Today, 23, 10-13.
  • Douglas, James Dixon. (1979, June 29). [Review of Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Ephesians through Philemon, v.11]. Christianity Today. 23.36.
  • Douglas, James Dixon. (1981, June). [Review of Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Ephesians through Philemon, v. 11]. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 24, 183-4.
  • Douglas, J. D. (1981, June). [Review of Expositor’s Bible commentary: John and Acts, v.9]. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 24, 181-2.
  • Douglas, James Dixon. (1981, June). [Review of Expositor’s Bible commentary, Romans-Galatians, v.10]. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 24, 183-4.
  • Douglas, J. D. (1981, Fall). [Review of Expositor’s Bible commentary].Southwestern Journal of Theology. 24, 107-8.
  • Eells, Robert J. (1984). Creation, redemption, and doing your best: Gaebelein’s approach to learning. In N. de Jong, Christian Approaches to Learning. 13-29.
  • Frank Gaebelein dies at 83. Obituary (1983, Feb. 18) Christianity Today, 27 (4), 27-29.
  • Gangel, Kenneth O. (1986, Oct-Dec). [Review of The Christian, the Arts, and Truth]. Bibliotheca Sacra, 143, 377.
  • Gangel, K.O. & Warren Benson. (1983). Chapter 17, Christian Education: Its History and Philosophy. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
  • Gasque, W. W. (1977, March 8). [Review of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, v.10]. Christianity Today, 21, 41-43.
  • Hitt, R. T. (1968, March). [Review of the book A Varied Harvest]. Eternity, 19, 44-45.
  • Hitt, R. T. (1972, July). [Review of Four Minor Prophets]. Eternity, 23, 47.
  • Hull, Gretchen Gaebelein. (1984, Sept 21). Frank Gaebelein: Character before Career. Christianity Today, 28 (13), 14-18.
  • Lindsey, F. D. (1977, July). [Review of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, v.10]. Bibliotheca Sacra. 134, 262-263.
  • Lockerbie, Bruce. (1972) The Way they Should Go. New York, NY: Oxford.
  • Lockerbie, Bruce. (1994). Frank Gaebelein. In A Passion for Learning: The History of Christian Thought on Education.
  • Lorentzen, M. E. (1967, December). [Review of the book A Christianity Today Reader]. Christianity Today, 12, 32-34.
  • McLeod. Philip. (1993). Ph. D. Dissertation, “The rise of catholic and evangelical Christian schools in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.” Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University.
  • Pazimino, Robert. (1986, Autumn). [Review of The Christian, the arts, and the truth].Christian Education Journal, 7, 90-91.
  • Petersen, William J. (1979, April). A gentleman and a scholar. Eternity, 30, 32-4+
  • Roetzel, C. J. (1978, April). [Review of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, v.10]. Integrity, 32, 191-194.
  • Soderstrom, Karl E. (1983, April 8). Tribute to a great man. Frank Gaebelein’s greatness was rooted in his love for Christ. Christianity Today, 27 (7), 27.
  • Travers, Michael E. (1986, January). [Review of The Christian, the arts, and truth]. Fundamentalist Journal, 5:1, 55.
  • Vanden Bosch, James. (1985, August 9). [Review of The Christian, the arts, and truth]. Christianity Today, 29:11,62-64.
  • Walford, John. (1986, March). [Review of The Christian, the arts, and truth]. Eternity, 37:3, 63.
  • Walker, L. L. (1971, Spring). [Review of Four minor prophets]. Southwestern Journal of Theology, 13, 96-97.
  • Wright, Dana. (1999). Ph. D. Dissertation “Ecclesial Theatrics. Chapter Five. Part II The Neo-Barthian Critique of Evangelical Christian Education Theory. Frank Gaebelein and the‘Pattern of God’s Truth’ Reconsidered.” pp. 515-616.

Excerpts from Publications

Gaebelein, F. E. (1951). Christian education in a democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

“But why have our schools failed in the development of moral character? They have failed because there has been ruled out of them the only dynamic able to produce character tough enough to weather an ethical climate where the winds blow in the direction of moral short cuts and easy self-indulgence. From trying to ‘make God an elective subject,’ public education has now been brought to the pass of refusing to give God even so much as elective status. All this has been in the name of the essential principle of separation of Church and State and in behalf of freedom from authoritarianism. The result is that the Bible, the greatest moral and spiritual source book in the world, has no place on the required reading list of our American youth (pg. 5).
“Education is in important respects no different from any other area of life and thought. When confronted with the deep issues of man’s purpose and destiny, education must return an answer. Like the individual it must render a yes-or-no decision. Those who work out its philosophy and plan its policies must take sides. But at this point the modern mind balks. It hesitates to go all the way in either direction. It will not make a clear-cut decision because it stumbles at commitment. Admiring the fruit of Christianity, it would have the fruit without the root. Therefore American culture suffers from inner conflict. It looks up to a high standard of ethical ideas while turning progressively away from the source of these ideals. It grows eloquent about the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the Golden Rule, and the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount; but when it comes to that whole-souled commitment to the Lord and Saviour through whom alone these ideals come alive in the individual, it declares: ‘We will not have this man to rule over us.’ If this is an age of spiritual uncertainty, the cause is not shrouded in obscurity. To the contrary, it is as plain as the dryly-practical comment of St. James: ‘A double-minded [literally, a ‘two-souled’] man is unstable in all his ways.’ The world of today is manifestly ‘double-minded,’ even to the extent of being ‘two-souled.’ (pg. 21)
“Let us then go on to the clear indicatives of the Christian faith. Upon what foundations must the kind of Christian education that can met both present and future needs rest? This is the question. Though it is theological, it does not follow that it must be discussed in terms of formal theology. Our concern is with education. And education, however elusive its precise definition is concerned with knowledge- not just knowledge in the narrow sense of learning formal subject matter but knowledge in the broad sense of the development of skills, the cultivation of emotional, aesthetic and spiritual responses, and the widening and deepening of general interests. As for Christianity, it too has to do with knowledge, the higher knowledge that leads to life more abundant here and now as well as in the future. In this correspondence we have the warrant for stating the Christian faith in terms relevant to education and at the same time true to Biblical categories. According to a venerable authority on wisdom: ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’; while one greater even than Solomon defines the goal of Christian faith in terms of a higher knowledge: ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who thou hast sent.’ And truth, the ultimate object of educational quest, is defined in the same New Testament passage in four simple words: ‘Thy word is truth.’ ‘Truth’—‘Word.’ These are terms that point to the center of education, while at the same time they focus attention upon Him ‘in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ For when the Procurator of Judea-- no ‘jesting Pilate,’ Bacon notwithstanding-- asked the question of the ages, ‘What is truth?’ he has his answer in the Man who, standing before him in the majesty of His redemptive purpose, had said to His disciples only a few hours before, ‘I am … the truth.’ As He was and is the Truth, so also is He the Word—not of man and of human wisdom, but the incarnate Word of the living God, the One who is both the center and fulfillment of the inspired, written Word. As John put it, filling the terminology of Alexandrian philosophy with divine meaning: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ (pg. 24-25)”

Gaebelein, F. E. (1954). The pattern of God’s truth. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

“The pattern of God’s Truth: Problems of Integration in Christian Education. Perhaps some are wondering what a subject like this has to do with seminary students or faculty, or for that matter with the general Christian reader. ‘Must every minister or missionary, theological student or professor,’ the question is asked, ‘really be concerned with Christian education? Even more, should all Christians be interested in it?’ The Bible answers ‘Yes.’ For it takes only a glance at the hundreds of listing of such words as ‘child’ and ‘children’ that are to be found in a concordance to demonstrate the fact that the Bible has a great deal to say about youth. Some day a thoughtful student of Christian education will make a thorough study of every reference in the Bible to children and will go on to develop inductively the principles of child training set forth in the Word of God. The result of such an investigation may turn out to be a major contribution to Christian thought.
For the present, however, we need look no farther than the fourth chapter of Ephesians to be assured of the relevance of our subject. St. Paul, who has been enumerating the gifts of Christ, mentions in the eleventh verse, ‘pastors and teachers.’ It is evident from the Greek text, says Dean Alford, that in this case the offices were held by the same persons. In short, while apostles, prophets, and evangelists are listed separately, ‘pastors and teachers’ belong together grammatically and also logically.
There is nothing arbitrary about this. Whatever else a pastor does, he deals in some way with youth. There are children in all congregations, if not in every home. Churches have Sunday Schools. Young people from churches to go school, and their attitudes and response to their ministers reflect something of the teaching they are receiving. In missionary work, teaching goes hand in hand with evangelizing. And beyond all this is the fact that both home and community are constantly exercising an informal though often decisive influence upon youth. Among the most effective of all teachers are fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends. In short, teaching, in one form or another, is always going on and is as inescapable as life itself. One of the commonest misconceptions of education is that which limits it to the four walls of the schoolroom or to broaden the figure, to the acreage of the campus. In reality, however education is a continuing process as broad as experience itself, and on in which all who have contact with youth share, either consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, it follows that a ministry not interested in education is only half a ministry, and that we who are called to be ambassadors for Christ cannot but be deeply concerned with something so vitally linked to our cause as Christian education (pg. 5-7).”
“…On one hand, God’s truth is external to Christian education in that it is not dependent upon what education is or does. On the other hand, there is, as integration proceeds, a merging of the internal into the external. Thus the internal, though always subordinate to the external, joins in living union with the external, which remains transcendently beyond it. This is the heart of integration and the crux of the matter (pg. 8-9).”
“From the forgoing we see that Christian integration relates to more than subject matter; it is a question of method as well. Thus we have what might be called the criterion of craftsmanship, using the term in its broad sense of doing a job well. The teacher who gives himself to his work in real dedication, the student who is not content merely to get by but goes beyond what is required—these, provided their motive reaches past self-advancement to the glory of God, are practicing the principle of Christian craftsmanship. And the essence of this principle is that of the Parable of the Talents in which our Lord praises the use rather than the amount of the individual’s enduement (pg. 89).” Truth beyond the classroom “…The whole is greater than any of its parts, and education, wide as its scope is, can never be more than part of the truth. Moreover, when we take God’s truth for our subject, we have a theme so vast that its fullest exposition can reveal only a fraction of its greatness. For His truth embraces not only this world and everything therein, including all history past, present, and future; it also includes the entire universe from its beginning in the inconceivable distant past to its conclusion in the unknowable future… The whole kaleidoscope of activities – clubs and hobbies, literary and debating societies, publications, dramatics, orchestras, bands, and choirs, and last, but very far from least, athletics—these too are part of the education experience. They also have their place within God’s truth and, no less than mathematics or science, history or literature, must be united with it (pg. 84-86).”
“In many ways, the acid test of a Christian school or college is its handling of discipline. The manner in which an erring student is dealt with speaks volumes about the one who deals with him. Here the center of integration shifts to fundamentals such as love, justice, and responsibility—‘and the greatest of these is love.’…Along with compassion for the individual and his needs, there must at times be the fortitude to deal severely with the individual in view of that responsibility for the group which is the ever-present burden of educational authority (pg. 91-92).”
“What finally shall we say of Christian teaching as a vocation? We must say that it is hard work. It has, like all other worth-while endeavor, its drudgery. It is physically and mentally wearing, as well as stimulating, to deal day after day with immature minds. And it is also nervously taxing. Every true teacher understands in a humble way something of what St. Luke said of the Master Teacher; ‘There went virtue out of him.’ The financial rewards are not great in any kind of teaching; in Christian education they are still very small. Above all, teaching is not for those who do not like youth—and not every earnest Christian does like youth.
But for those who are called, for those who have for youth a Christ-like love and sympathy, Christian education is a glorious work. It means dealing with the most important and precious material in the world – growing human souls (pg. 107-8).”

Gaebelein, F. E. (1967). A varied harvest; out of a teacher’s life and thought; A collection of essays. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company.

“Most of the selections first appeared in Christianity Today either as editorials or as articles. A number of them were originally sermons or addresses…It is in these (mountaineering) essays that the inclination of a teacher and preacher to glean illustrations from personal experience crops up (pg. 5-6).” A Strategy for Christian Education. “If education is a national concern, it is even more a Christian one. To a unique extent, Christianity is a teaching religion. It’s founder was called “Teacher”; the twelve to whom he entrusted his mission were pupils, and he commissioned them to go into the world and make pupils of all nations, teaching them to do all he had taught. In America, just as abroad, the church is the alma mater of education. But the mother has been overshadowed by the child. If we liken the kinds of education in our democracy to mountain ranges, the Rockies are the public schools and state-supported colleges, dwarfing the Appalachians of the private schools and colleges. Yet the latter are no mean feature of the educational landscape—not in a day when one out of every seven children is enrolled in a parochial or independent school (pg. 23).”
“There is much unfinished business on the docket of Christian education. The time is overdue for group thinking about Christian involvement in the broader aspects of American education. Now is the time for evangelical educators, representing elementary and secondary schools, liberal arts and Bible colleges, Bible institutes and seminaries, to meet for open-minded discussion of the strategy for Christian education. Such a strategy would relate to such things as the response of Christian education to federal aid in the light of church-state relations, the position of the evangelicals respecting public schools, and the imperative need of arousing Christians to the necessity of greater and more sacrificial support of their schools and colleges (pg. 28-29).”
The educating power of the Bible. “The Bible and education are indissolubly united. To understand something of their relation requires at least passing reference to what each is. The word “education” comes not as commonly supposed, from the Latin educere (to “lead” or “draw forth”) but from educare (to “rear” or “bring up”). The distinction is not minor for the Christian. If education means nothing more than drawing out what is already within the person, then regeneration is unnecessary and the atoning work of christ may be bypassed. But if to “educate” means to “rear” or “bring up” then the creation of new life within the person through the Spirit’s use of the Word of God is recognized, and education becomes in its Christian aspect the nurture of the new man in Christ Jesus (pg. 35).”
The Aesthetic Problem. “In recent years, evangelicalism has been coming of age intellectually…it’s tendency towards anti-intellectualism has declined…but a parallel tendency toward what may be called “anti-aestheticism” remains… Art though aesthetically autonomous, has deep spiritual and moral implications. Like the capacity for worship, the aesthetic sense is one of the characteristics that set man apart from the animals. Evangelicals turn away from art as a side issue or frill at the peril of their own impoverishment and at the cost of ineffectiveness in their witness. For art, which is the expression of truth through beauty, cannot be brushed aside as a luxury. We who know God through his Son, who is altogether lovely, must be concerned that the art we look at, listen to, read and use in the worship of the living God has integrity (pg. 106).”
“…Let us consider, therefore, three proposals toward evangelical answers to the aesthetic problem: (1) the formulation of a Christian theory of aesthetics based first of all upon the insights of the Bible rather than upon extra-biblical sources; (2) the cultivation of good taste and the development of the critical faculty; (3) revision of educational programs to give a more adequate place to the arts (pg. 109).

Gaebelein, F. E. (1985). Introduction. In D. B. Lockerbie (Ed.), The Christian, the arts, and truth: Regaining the vision of greatness. (pp. 13-48). Portland, OR: Multnomah Press.

“In order to put these principles into practice in the most efficient way possible, the Christian school must be humanistic in the best sense of the word. For the Christian point of view is itself in essence humanistic. The fatal misconception of the scholastics of the middle ages, that Christianity is incompatible with liberal education, ought never to be revived. The greatest injury that the Christian institution can render to its faith is to fall, at this late day, into obscurantism. A humanism that would have every essential study taught in the most efficient way possible, that would never yield one jot in the field of scholarship; a humanism that, in its broad application, would help each individual student to solve his own unique intellectual and spiritual problems—this will guide the faculty of the Stony Brook School in their glorious adventure in Christian education—an adventure that will serve the Church of Jesus Christ by conserving the faith of her youth, an adventure that will serve the nation by giving to it, year by year, a body of young men of stalwart character, well-taught and nurtured in the faith (pg. 32-33).”

Books

Gaebelein, F. E. (1951). Christian education in a democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Written for the National Association of Evangelicals. Gaebelein serving as chairman of the committee and champion of the report.

Gaebelein, F. E. (1954). The pattern of God’s truth: Problems of integration in Christian Education. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

Originally “the Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures” at Dallas Theological Seminary in 1952. Part of the “Lectures on Christian Thought and Ministry” for the Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in 1953.

Gaebelein, F. E. (1985). D. B. Lockerbie (Ed.), The Christian, the arts, and truth: Regaining the vision of greatness. Portland, OR: Multnomah.

Gaebelein, Frank E. (1968). Toward a philosophy of Christian education In Hakes, E. J. (Ed.). (1964). An introduction to evangelical Christian Education. Chicago, IL: Moody Press. 37 – 50.

Gaebelein, Frank E. (1962, Fall). Towards a Christian Philosophy of Education. Grace Journal, 3 (3), 3-34.

Delivered as the Bauman Memorial Lectures for 1962 at Grace College and Theological Seminary. Part I: The need and nature of a Christian philosophy of education, Part II: The major premise of Christian Education, Part III: The place of music in Christian education, Part IV: Christian education in relation to teacher and student.

Gaebelein, F. E. (1968). A varied harvest: out of a teacher’s life and thought. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Gangel, K., & Benson, W. (1983). Christian education: Its history & philosophy. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.17, 65, 325, 340-341, 358.

Knight, G. R. (1998). Philosophy & education: An introduction in Christian perspective. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press.170, 205 - 206,211-212, 214, 221, 225.

Lockerbie, D. Bruce. (1972). The way they should go. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

The only complete biography of Gaebelein’s life, written with intricate details, rich anecdotes and commentary from alumni, faculty, and students at the Stony Brook Academy. Written to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the school.


Author Information

Cheryl L. Fawcett

Dr. Cheryl Fawcett is Professor of Christian Education at Christian Heritage College in El Cajon, CA where she teaches youth ministry, women’s ministry and inductive Bible study method courses. Both of her parents early spiritual formation was impacted by the ministry of Jack Wyrtzen. Her dad received Christ as Savior at one of the rallies, and her mother trained at the Hawthorn Bible Institute in New Jersey where Wyrtzen studied for several years. Her own personal exposure to the Word of Life Bible clubs came early in her local church ministry especially during her ministry in the finger lake region of New York State.

Jamie Thompson

No information available.