JEWISH RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

“Few would disagree that if Catholic schools are to continue to develop quantitatively and qualitatively, changes must be wrought.”     

THE TANGIBLES OF JEWISH EDUCATION

As a Rule, when discussing Jewish existence, we use the term survival. Actually, continuity is more accurate. Certainly it is more dynamic. Continuity indicates the state or quality of being continuous. It denotes the fact that Jewish life is an uninterrupted succession of Jewish people and events. Continuity is an absolute condition. Survival, however, indicates an act of surviving or merely lasting longer than others. Survival is something that continues to exist after the cessation of something else. As such, survival is a relative phenomenon. Moreover, continuity implies creative growth; survival connotes bare existence, even decline.     

AMERICAN RACISM: THE NULL CURRICULUM IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Religious educators, in neglecting to account for race in their theories, have ignored the historical legacy of institutional racism. In fact, religious education has demonstrated an inadequate response to race and racism throughout its history. As evidenced by slavery and immigration history in the United States, race must be seen as a sociohistorical and legal construction. Its influence goes beyond the assimilationist ideology taught in early Methodist curricula. The article suggests that the Bible can be a rich multicultural curriculum resource because of its positive treatment of Africans.     

THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREN

Silence needs to be shown to be taught. This is because the nonverbal, which is a different way of referencing the world than symbols, cannot be translated into words. Teaching silence is of special importance today because of the connection between silence and the creation of existential meaning, as well as the functioning of the creative process itself. The loss of silence in our culture will result in the loss of religious meaning and the impairment of creativity. Without deep meaning and the creative process the human species is at risk.     

THE TASK OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

The way one conceives the nature of the educational process and practices it will depend to a large degree upon just exactly how one understands the nature of the person to be educated     

THE IMAGERY OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Communities of faith express in their worship the values and assumptions that shape their worldview. When those values and assumptions contradict or are in conflict with the values and assumptions of the surrounding culture, the act of worship can become an occasion for resistance against the hegemonic domination of that culture. Worship in the context of congregational life awakens peoples discontent, fosters skepticism toward prevailing assumptions, clarifies contradictions at the heart of the community's discontent, articulates ethical alternatives, and develops readiness for struggle and change. This research inquires into whether and how a congregation as a worshiping community functions as a community of resistance against the assumptions of modernity.