The Creation, Implementation and Evaluation of an Evangelical Curriculum to Meet the Ontario Ministry of Education's Requirements for the Comparative World Religions Course (HRT3M) at the Peoples Christian Academy in Markham Ontario Canada

Abstract

This project was undertaken for the purpose of developing and implementing and then evaluating a course of study which would fulfill the Ontario Ministry of Education's curriculum requirements for Comparative World Religions (HRT3M) while also fulfilling the mandate of the Peoples Christian Academy to provide an excellent, Christ-centered education from an evangelical Christian perspective. After research and creation, the course of study was taught over the course of one academic year. It was then evaluated for its evangelical Christian orientation and its relevance by a panel of Christian educators and a panel of Christian students, respectively. The Ontario Ministry of Education subsequently undertook an inspection of the course' content and delivery. This course of study provides a unique offering to the already healthy availability of resources in the field of comparative world religions. First, this is the only course of study in this subject available to Ontario high school students that is evangelical in its orientation and outlook. While there are other materials from an evangelical Christian orientation, none are designed for Ontario high school students. Second, this course of study is prepared from a posture that takes the possibility of God's general revelation seriously, even the possibility of God's general revelation in non-Christian religious traditions. However, as the Apostle Paul notes in the opening paragraphs of his letter to the church in Rome, general revelation alone is insufficient for salvation. Third, this course of study seeks to equip students with not only knowledge of other religious traditions but with the intellectual, philosophical and theological resources to meaningfully respond to the claims of those in other religious traditions by introducing students to the school of apologetics known as presuppositionalism. While suggesting that there may be genuine revelation of the true God in other religions and also maintaining the need to equip students to defend the Christian worldview might seem to be antithetical goals, they are not. Paul's discourse with the Athenians in Acts 17 provides the reader with both frameworks in that Paul affirms what is good and right, and thus God-ordained, in the Athenian beliefs while at the same time moving them beyond their belief system to show them the true and the living God. This project was testing whether or not the curriculum developed could successfully meet the Ontario Ministry of Education's requirements for a course of study, be appreciated, affirmed and endorsed by an expert panel of Christian educators from Ontario and be found to be engaging and beneficial in the education of a cross-section of high school students. The outcome of this research was an endorsement of the curriculum by the expert panel of educators and students.