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Education Matters: Cook thinks and rethinks theology
While teaching Theology, Apologetics and Church History at Cary Christian School, Dell Cook said his students' questions and thoughts have often made him go back and rethink his own worldview.
Cook attended seminary after college and became interested in advanced theological work. While working on his second masters degree, he learned his first child was on the way and began wondering how best to educate his children. He read, "Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning" by Douglas Wilson, which captured his imagination, and decided he wanted to be involved in a specific type of education. After teaching in St. Augustine, Fla., he moved his family to Cary in 2000 to teach fourth grade, and two years later, high school theology.
Q: Tell me a bit about each of the three courses you teach.
Church History, or Christian History, picks up where the Book of Acts leaves off. We discuss the people, ideas and moments in history that have shaped who we are as Christians.
Apologetics teaches students about answering objections to Christian truth claims. One book we use in class is [UNC-CH professor] Bart Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus," which gives a description of perceived contradictions in the Bible. We talk about whether the contradictions he brings up are justified and how students might respond to these challenges.
Theology discusses our attempts at understanding God. When I first started teaching the class, I took things step by step. I since have chosen a more narrative approach. Scripture does not play out like a textbook - it tells a story.
Q: In your eight years of teaching high school, how have the students changed you?
The students always challenge me - they can be very provocative. One time, in Apologetics, we were dealing with the problem of evil, talking about the classic questions: How does evil still exist in the world? Why doesn't God get rid of it? One answer is that God wants man to truly love Him, and He gives man free will - allowing room for man to choose. Most students listened and nodded. But one said, "I get that, to a degree. But why can't God create a being that just loves? In Heaven, there is just love; and God created Heaven. And there is no possibility of Jesus not loving the Father."
That student's questioning made me go back. I re-thought my answers about pain and suffering and evil. He made me re-structure my own thinking about them.
Q: How do you stay current in your field?
I read a series of blogs and articles that lead to specific books. I read Touchstone Magazine, a great resource. I listen to Mars Hill Audio, a series of interviews taking up the question of culture, community, etc.; and [I read] World Magazine, which is like Time but from a Christian perspective.
Q: You have traveled to Costa Rica with the senior class the past two years. What have you taken away from the experience?
The thing that impresses me the most with the kids is that they will do what you ask them to do. If you want to set the bar high, they will levitate towards that. We tend to ask too little of teenagers.
I try to help them see the skills that they are learning in the classroom are not detached from the rest of their lives - the classes are not just hoops to jump through to get to a career. I always refer to what Paul said in Philippians: "Love abounds in knowledge, wisdom and discernment." We have to be able to use the instruments around us to make other peoples' lives better.