Did My Religious Education Teach Me to Hate My Family’s Religiosidad? An Autobiographical Analysis of My Religious and Theological Education

Abstract

This article begins with a brief autobiographical depiction of my religious education. It then charts the ways in which the inadequacies of that religious education caused me to treat my family's traditional religious expressions with suspicion rather than appreciation, undergirding coloniality as a phenomenon within my religious education. My graduate theological education helped to rectify this phenomenon, revealing important contributions for religious educators as a protection against the erasure of cultural identities.     

Vision and Optimism: Empowering New Educators

Abstract

When people of faith participate in movements for social change, how are their religious and moral identities formed, challenged, and transformed? Although they have explicit and tangible goals as they participate in advocacy, protest, and boycotts, religious social activists also, James Jasper argues, craft “lives worth living” (1997). This article examines the identity-shaping power of religious participation in social movements, in conversation with scholarship in religious education and social movement theory; describes the relationship between social activism and theological imagination; and proposes some explicit practices for nurturing religious and moral formation.     

Christian religious education and the development of moral virtues: a neo-Thomistic approach

ABSTRACT

This article explores the implications for Christian religious education of the theory of moral virtues formulated by Thomas Aquinas and developed by the contemporary Neo-Thomists. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part introduces Thomistic virtue theory and presents cardinal virtues crucial for Thomistic ethics: prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude, as the reference points for moral education. This part also includes analysis of the relationship between cardinal and theological virtues, leading to the conclusion that Christian religious education also requires the development of theological virtues. The second part explores, through Thomistic theory, what factors condition the development of a person’s moral character (i.e. his/her moral virtues) and what those factors mean for supporting moral education within Christian religious education, initially within the context of Polish schooling. Particular attention is given to three issues: introducing the concept of responsibility for community members, introducing knowledge of moral virtues, and building a relationship with God.     

Deliberative Democratic Theological Education: A Proposal for Youth Ministry That Builds Peace

Abstract

Drawing on research in deliberative pedagogy, this paper will develop in depth one piece of a larger project that envisions peace education as an essential component of youth ministry. The paper proposes a sacred pedagogy that engages theological concepts through deliberative, democratic discussion, teaching young people skills in engaging across difference as well as habits of deliberative theological thinking for a lifetime of spiritual growth. The specific example of engaging the problem of how we image Jesus will serve as an illustration of the potential for a series of curricular materials for use in congregational youth settings.     

Mis-Education,A Recurring Theme? Transforming Black Religious and Theological Education

Abstract

Educating ministers and religious educators with the skills to connect with a variety of congregations and communities is a difficult task. Looking specifically at theological and religious education with African Americans, there are historical criticisms of mis-education. Mis-education defined by Carter G. Woodson describes a process of educating that becomes more of a liability than asset by devaluing the religion and traditions of the masses of African Americans. This article reviews education resources (sermons and Sunday school literature) in African American churches along with the perspectives of seminary students to explore if Woodson's claims of mis-education persist.     

Empirical research: Challenges and impulses for Islamic religious education

ABSTRACT

The following article describes how empirical research can give new impulses to Islamic religious education. These impulses could lead to a reconciliation of the Islamic religious heritage with the fast-changing reality of Muslims in non-Muslim countries and societies. Due to the presence of Muslim children in public schools and the urgent question of their religious education, as an academic discipline, Islamic religious pedagogy (Islamische Religionspädagogik) has acquired a pioneering role among the various Islamic theological disciplines. On a scientific level, it has already taken its first steps in the scientific landscape in Germany and Austria and has established diverse references to modern science. Islamic religious pedagogy, as a young scientific discipline, necessarily requires empirical research to provide sound foundations for the quality of Islamic religious education and for a better understanding of religious educational processes. This calls for a dialogue between empirical educational research and theology and cannot be achieved based on purely theoretical assumptions.     

Addressing White Supremacy on Campus: Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Theological Education

Abstract

Students in colleges and universities across the United States are being exposed to overtly white supremacist groups on campus. These groups dub themselves “identitarians” and attempt to influence students to support a white nationalist ideology through claims of reverse racism that threaten the lives of people of color. Theologically, this ideology also presents an obstacle for instruction: the existence of a competing Imago Dei that ties itself to white supremacy, dehumanizing persons of color. This article encourages the use of anti-racist pedagogies in theological education as a corrective to this competing Imago Dei.     

From Pioneer to Partner: Dismantling White Normativity in Ethnographic Theology

Abstract

In this racially-charged time, religious educators are engaging in research that transgresses traditional (white) norms. Such research can not only dismantle white normativity through the subjects investigated; it can also be practiced in ways that are transgressive. This article uses a particular experience of ethnographic theological research in diverse cultural contexts as a case study for learning about three postures that subvert white normativity built into assumptions and practices of ethnographic research. Using a two-pronged, auto-ethnographic approach to analyzing this case, three nuanced postures become critically apparent: improvised flexibility, the ability to change lenses, and immersive reflexivity.     

Social worlds and religious education in Poland: towards the elimination of disharmony

ABSTRACT

The goal of this article is to present the coherence between the human social world and religious education in Poland. The motive for taking up this subject is the cultural context relating to the problem of attitudes towards refugees. Reconstruction of the worlds of life demands to be expanded to include the religious education context in order to adapt the education practice to the requirements and expectations of the social environment. This has been achieved based on secondary analysis of the source texts (pedagogical, sociological and theological) and existing research results, which refer directly to the practice of lifelong religious education and concern applications in the area of shaping social competences and the developmental effort of Polish thinking and understanding. These include: (1) Dissemination of the pedagogical category of decentration; (2) Resignation in the practice of religious education from universalistic apriority and realistic ontology, and the implementation of hermeneutics of understanding to religious education and a new model – supra-confessional, pluralistic model open to the knowledge of other religions and beliefs systems; and (3) Develop competences for an internal dialogue. For the practice of lifelong learning, this means abandoning the alienated learning culture and carrying out this process within the community.     

Learning in Encounter and Addressing Normativity in Religious Education Faculties/Programs

Abstract

Working with normative considerations is an important part of empirical research in religious education (RE) and in the formation of practical theologians, in general, and of religious educators in RE faculties/programs, in particular. What does sufficient reflection on normativity look like in teaching religious educators? From a practical theological perspective, directions for working with normativity in RE faculties/programs are provided and discussed. These directions entail pedagogical and theological reflection on the levels of four layers of normativity: (1) discourse in religious practice, (2) the professional theory of practice, (3) the academic theory of practice, and (4) the metatheoretical foundation of observations of and research in practices. The author illustrates the argument with a discussion of the concept of learning in encounter.     

Considering the Ordo as Pedagogical Context for Religious Education With Christian High School Youth

The Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation attempts to join Freirean educational theory on contextual pedagogies with ancient Christian practices of the ordo toward the formation and theological education of Protestant Christian high school students. This article describes and reflects on the character and ultimately the success of this odd coupling. While attempting to demonstrate how the ordo as pedagogy may be made inviting to adolescent contexts and to evoke and value the particularities of their experiences, including their experiences of difference, this article also asserts that the ordo provides the additional benefit (sometimes absent from contextual pedagogies utilized by religious educators) of offering ample resources for theological formation, reflection, and construction.     

EDUCATING MEN WITH REFERENCE TO SOCIAL LEGISLATION

Abstract

A paramount task of religious education should be the exposing and redressing of social injustice. Two of the pervasive and perduring evils of our time are sexism and racism. With their insights into theological authenticity and their skills in both shaping attitudes and inspiring actions, religious educators are in potent positions to effect liberationist change. To do so, they must become comprehensively informed and profoundly committed. They must become transformed teachers of transforming truth.

I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of their massive religious education buildings. Over and over I found myself asking, What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?     

My Wildest Dream: A Letter to My Black Son

Abstract

This article is a letter to my son. In this letter I tell him the truth of my reality in theological education, as one filled with sexism, racism, and various other experiences. I express my fears for him in this world as a black boy who will grow into a black man. I also discuss my hope for his future and the future of theological education. I discuss how I believe that playing, changing the rules, and having good friends to play with could aid in creating a better future not only for him but theological education as well.     

Spirituality Amid Dogma? Some Approaches to Educating for Religious Belief within in a State Religious School in Israel

The religious school, where young people are brought into religious life and practice, the development of a religious belief system is often neglected. Religiousness is often instilled as a linear end product, a monolithic corpus of ideas to be singularly transmitted and subsequently owned by youth. However, educational research by Gareth Matthews, Nel Noddings, and others suggests that youth are thirsting for opportunities to grapple, question, and wrestle with profound theological and philosophical issues—a process that leads to a richer religious identity. This article, based on three years of ethnographic research, looks at the way in which four teachers from one religious girls' high school in Israel executed theological education, from indoctrination with a pretty face, to the theological Bunsen burner. The dynamic between teachers' voices and students' voices sheds light on adolescent religious identity, and offers vital insights for religious education.     

HOLDING ONTO HOPE: ADDRESSING THEOLOGICAL CONFLICT THROUGH CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Today deep theological differences threaten to divide Protestant denominations. In turn, these differences often mute church education and block mission. This article seeks to offer glimpses for addressing that theological controversy. It is an exercise in historical retrieval examining a generative period in the history of Christian religious education, that is, the theological conflict between the liberal religious education movement and neo-orthodoxy in the 1930s through 1950s. As Christian educators moved through this earlier conflict, underlying theological commitments and theological practices emerged that offered a faithful politics of hope calling the church to mission.     

PRESENT NEEDS IN YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK

This collaborative article examines hybridity as intercultural threads to weave theological discourses and pedagogical practices. Through narrating their life stories, the authors open up a space for dialogue in agenda and agency of doing religious education. It identifies dualism and homogeneous purity as stumbling blocks to hybrid theology and religious education. The authors explore theological glimpses of hybridity found in such religious traditions as Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Finally, it proposes a hybrid space for threshold religious education as a faithful way to embrace today's changing and fluid contexts where people migrate and cross their geographical, cultural, and national boundaries.     

GIRLFRIEND THEOLOGY: GOD‐TALK ACROSS RELIGIOUS BORDERS

Abstract

Girlfriend Theology is a method of religious education by which women who have found power, voice, and authority might nurture resilience in adolescent girls within faith communities. This essay relates one portion of a larger project involving ethnographic research with fifteen females. These females gathered in small groups and followed a four‐part method that began with one person telling a story from her life. This paper shares one of these ninety‐minute story sessions in which a religiously diverse group engages in God‐talk. From four such Girlfriend Theology sessions arose seven theological assertions—statements about God, humanity, and communities of faith—that sometimes affirmed and sometimes challenged traditional interpretations. These assertions reflect emancipatory theological motifs when analyzed through the lens of womanist, mujerista, and Asian‐feminist theology. This essay draws connections between the story session reported and two of the seven theological assertions of Girlfriend Theology.

What would it mean for a girl—against the stories read, chanted, or murmured to her—to choose to tell the truth of her life aloud to another person at the very point at when she is invited into the larger cultural story of womanhood—that is, at . . . adolescence?

—Lyn Mikel Brown, Telling a Girl's Life     

English as a Site of Evangelical Contact: A Critical Ethnography of Missionary English Teaching between South and North Koreans

ABSTRACT

Drawing from a larger ethnography of North Korean young adults learning English in Christian educational programs in South Korea, this article explores the power relations between evangelicals and minority people and the political economy of missionary English teaching. This article follows Christian educational programs that provided various forms of resources—including English teaching—to North Korean young adults to examine how access to resources was regulated in relation to learner identity. Building on the sociolinguistic framework of political economy of language and emerging research on religion and second language learning, this study illustrates the integration of Christianity and English, and the intersection of religion, nationalism, and neoliberalism. The findings elucidate how English works as a secular resource in religious spaces, thus serving as a site of religious contact between people of divergent goals. Issues of professional ethics are also discussed.     

The living art of religious education: a paradigm of hermeneutics and dialogue for RE at faith schools today

ABSTRACT

In light of ongoing debates about religious education as hermeneutical, this contribution proposes a ‘hermeneutical-communicative’ (HCM) paradigm for RE through the development of a twofold reflection: (a) a critical (re-)evaluation of the theological and anthropological foundations for RE in light of (b) a context marked by religious and philosophical diversity, disaffiliation and ‘areligiosity’. In this way, the HCM approach proposes an identity for RE that lies at the intersection of ‘hermeneutical’ and ‘dialogical’. Drawing upon theologies of interreligious dialogue, this contribution first analyses four paradigms for RE (exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism, particularism) and then advocates for a hermeneutical-communicative approach characterised by an emphasis on interreligious ‘literacy’, philosophical and religious hospitality and inter-hermeneutical dialogue. Such a paradigm results in a number of implications for practice, including sensitivity to ‘big questions’ in life, engagement with the Gospels and the faith tradition, respect and appreciation for other avenues in the search for meaning and identity, and attention to the personal growth of young people.