The Sciences and Christian Formation: Helping Today’s Students Find Deeper Faith in a Science-Dominated World

The perceived conflict between science and Christianity continues to be a strong and prevalent narrative, both inside and outside the church. As three long-time science professors in Christian higher education, we have seen firsthand how this conflict orientation threatens both Christian faith and science education. National surveys confirm that many millennial Christians feel a tension between their faith and the discoveries of science, and some leave Christianity over science or the church’s response to it. This article presents an overview of approaches and resources for bringing healthy conversations to campus, including theological principles to frame the discussion, ways to keep the conversation civil and constructive, models for the curriculum and co-curriculum, and roles for administrators. In the midst of controversial issues, educators who work within the context of Christian colleges and universities can disciple students to deeper faith in a science-dominated culture.     

The Ministering Community as Context for Religious Education: A Case Study of St. Gabriel's Catholic Parish

Friendship renewal is offered as both content and context for Christian religious education. In the first section, four marks of genuine friendship are used to elaborate on the meaning of friendship: a shared story, embodied love and intimacy, committed reciprocity, and a shared vision that enables generativity. In the second section, it is suggested that friendship renewal provides an efficacious vehicle for renewing the life and mission of the church. Friendship enables bridges to be built across cultural divides and empowers the church to become a befriending community. In the final section, friendship renewal is discussed in relation to the what, why, where, and when questions regarding Christian religious education.     

The lived ethics of abstinence: Christian young men’s experiences of romantic relationships

Relationships and sex education (RSE), as set out in the recent Bill making RSE compulsory for all English schools, should be appropriate to the religious background of pupils. This paper suggests that this appropriateness is best found by gaining the best understanding about religious young people’s lived experiences of relationships and sexuality. Our in-depth qualitative research with three Christian young men aged 17–18 from a large charismatic evangelical church in the Midlands region of England investigated experiences of romantic relationships, focusing on the ‘ethical moments’ in which Christian ethical principles of sexual abstinence are negotiated. By attending closely to both the theological and the non-religious discursive resources that these negotiations draw upon, we demonstrate the different ways in which abstinence becomes meaningful in study participants' lifeworlds. We conclude that a sex education based on ethics in practice might engage best with religious young people.     

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.     

THE CLUE TO CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: UNITING THEOLOGY AND EDUCATION, 1950 TO THE PRESENT

Christian religious educators in the Religious Education Association are challenged to reclaim their theological nerve and their partnership in public conversations about the educational practices of U.S. society. Beginning with the work of Randolph Crump Miller in the 1950s, this essay traces through the pages of Religious Education the dialogue about the partnership of education and theology. A practical theology of education is offered where the teaching and forming of Christian identity is complemented with a public theological examination of educational practices and meanings in the wider culture.     

基督教文化与巴黎大学的历史发展

在法国高等教育的发展历程中,宗教文化发挥了非常重要的作用。法国的学校教育肇始于早期基督教的教会学校,巴黎大学这一高等教育组织便与主教座堂学校有着深刻的历史联系。在巴黎大学诞生前后,其发展常受到教会力量的干预,其精神特质深受基督教文化的影响;中世纪后期,宗教领域的变化也波及了巴黎大学,新兴教会在教育方式上给了巴黎大学一定的引导。据此,笔者认为巴黎大学乃至法国高等教育的历史本质是一种宗教文化。     

REVIEW ESSAY

This article presents a holistic ecclesial vision that emerges from the academic, practical, and ecumenical work of Letty Russell, Professor of the Practice of Theology at Yale University Divinity School. This vision facilitates a systemic design (purpose, function, and structure) of the Christian church which promotes the church to be a transforming agency in post‐modern society. The discussion moves from an overview of a systemic understanding of the church through Russell's educational, theological, and sociological contributions to the possibility of integrating these contributions into an organismic image. Finally, the article suggests a fluid theoretical model necessary for the church to be proactive in to days changing world.     

信徒的诞生——一个村庄里基督教群体的宗教教育

基于对甘肃省一个基督徒较为集中的村庄的田野研究,探讨了乡村青少年基督徒在社会化过程中,教会、家庭的宗教教育及其与普通学校教育之间的博弈对青少年宗教信仰形成的影响。结果表明,主日学校在青少年信仰教育方面显现出某些优势,世俗化、城市化和市场经济的发展对家庭宗教教育产生的影响表现为截然相反的两个方面,相比之下,由于学校自身的一些局限,在一定程度上弱化了其在学生信仰教育方面的主导地位。     

Education,health and social welfare in the late colonial context: the International Missionary Council and educational transition in the interwar years with specific reference to colonial Africa

Mission schools in Africa in the first half of the twentieth century were in many ways microcosms of the great educational debates of the times. The objectives of policies regarding access, governance and curriculum were part of a historical evolution of mission education but they were also increasingly a reflection of significant new trends that were to reshape the theory and practice of colonial education. New forms of educational research and professional expertise were to play an ever‐increasing role in shaping the forms and content of the education provided. The brief of the mission churches was to meet with the increasing demand for schooling. Church and state gradually expanded their cooperation in the field as the costs of education outstripped the resources of the missions and the demand for mass education came to be linked to nationalist demands for political and economic rights. This paper is concerned to map the background to those international influences that shaped the policy and practices of mission education and the increasing engagement of colonial governments with the field of education. It addresses the question of the worldwide Protestant mission church’s response to the changing political, social and economic environment of the first half of the twentieth century. In particular it seeks to explore how mission initiatives shaped thinking about education in Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America by the 1930s. It also attempts to situate those issues within a wider educational framework by linking them to the emergent debate concerning pragmatism and utilitarianism in regard to progressive education in the USA and the quest for social democratic education in the United Kingdom and Europe as part of a response to socialism, nationalism and totalitarianism. In short, the paper explores the influence of the Christian mission churches with regard to social policy, in general, and the provision of education, in particular, during the interwar years, with special reference to areas influenced by the work of the International Missionary Council. At a time when there was a crisis of support for ‘foreign missions’ how did the debates between fundamentalist‐evangelicals and supporters of a ‘social gospel’ transform themselves into debates regarding the role of missions in non‐Western societies? And how did these essentially ecclesiastical/theological issues come to influence public policy, specifically educational policy, in the long term? The conclusions are that mission churches had a very significant influence on the shaping of educational thinking in the colonial and imperial context at a time when state influence in the sector was still often quite weak. The origins of the conference and research culture that has informed educational policy since the establishment of the United Nations Organization had its roots in the broad context of the Charter of the League of Nations, with a meeting of religious and secular goals, prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Between 1910 and 1939 there was a significant history of educational reform and community development that has only been partially documented in relation to its global significance. This is an attempt to build a framework for understanding the nature of those changes and what was achieved. The investigation is conducted through an exploration of the three great World Mission Conferences of the International Missionary Council (IMC) held at Edinburgh (1910), Jerusalem (1928) and Tambaram, India (1938). The attempts of Christian churches to engage with dramatic social changes associated with industrialisation, urbanisation, poverty, cultural change and the rise of anti‐colonialism, with specific regard to the field of educational policy, are documented and analysed.     

金陵大学宗教教育述略

中国近代基督教教会大学是特定历史时期的产物,教会背景使得它们对宗教教育有着天然的追求,但它们毕竞生存在中国的环境中。金陵大学作为基督教教会大学中唯一的一所A类大学,是在华基督教教会大学的重要代表。对它的宗教教育发展过程的研究,从一个侧面反映出基督教教会大学在中国土地上的生存状态及其对于中国现代教育的意义。     

Changing Patterns of Church College Identity and Mission

This article, presented at the conference on ‘The Church Dimension of Higher Education’ held at Canterbury, 4‐6 September 2000, suggests that church sponsored colleges in the UK are currently experiencing a problem in surviving as distinctly ‘Christian’ bodies. Secularisation, the desire to be inclusive and pluralist, as well as other factors, such as merging with larger institutions, have distanced some colleges from their original aims. Survival has often driven secularisation. After examining some of the claims that church colleges make about their religious identities, the article argues in favour of a continued role for such colleges as rigorous academic institutions whose programmes are informed by Christian insights and values. Church related colleges need to continually redefine how their mission is best expressed in the light of changed circumstances and agendas.     

THE UNIVERSITY PASTORATE MOVEMENT∗

Building on the author's experience in leadership development in Roman Catholic parishes and recent work in the field of congregational studies, this essay examines the religious educator's role as a catalyst in the transformation of the culture of the local church. As an alternative to an instructional/schooling approach to religious education, the paper proposes a model of congregational education directed specifically to the transformation of the corporate life of the faith community by its members working together to reshape concrete behaviors, structures, and roles in order to carry out the church's mission and ministry.

This argument is developed through a discussion of foundational assumptions about the significance of congregational life for the church's educational mission and a brief case study illustrating central dynamics in the process of congregational education. The paper concludes with observations about the range of skills required of congregational educators, especially their ability to understand and evaluate the complex dynamics of congregational life in a disciplined way.     

Whose confession? Which tradition?

For over 30 years official disapproval of confessional approaches to religious education in community (formerly county) schools has been the norm. However such forms of religious education persist. Some arguments put forward in favour of non- confessional religious education are now shown to be weak. Confessional religious education is now thought (generally) to be appropriate in church schools. These facts raise the possibility of a return to confessional religious education in non-church schools. Non-confessionalism is founded on a contradiction: that education can proceed without ‘confessing’ anything and is therefore inherently unstable. In fact many different types of ‘confessions’ operate in religious education. Yet pressure continues to be put on Christian teachers to dismantle their confessional approach. This is unfair and an attempt is made to show that such teachers have much to offer the future of religious education in a society which contains many religions.     

CHURCH WORKERS IN STATE UNIVERSITIES

This paper presents a theological base identified as a Christ‐with‐culture stance and its implications for religious education in Japan as a multireligious society. Affirming multiple revelations of God in various religious traditions, a Christ‐with‐culture stance recognizes Christ as the “Christian criterial revelation” to discern truths of God. Japanese Christians can employ Buddhist and Shinto traditions in the Christian worship service as a part of their own religious traditions and participate in different religious ceremonies to share a common life with non‐Christians, thus integrating their identity as religious multilingual persons who can be bridges between people of diverse religions.     

DIFFERENT BODIES,ONE BODY: INCLUSIVE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND THE ROLE OF THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATOR

Barriers exist at a variety of levels that either impede or prohibit persons with disabilities from full participation within the worship, education, and mission of congregations. Placing the emerging body of literature on inclusion in congregations in conversation with a case study of one particular congregation, the author examines the sources and strategies of one church’s efforts at becoming more inclusive. The role of the Director of Christian Education, Martha Bess DeWitt, is presented, with the focus on her participation, leadership, and reflection on hospitality as central to the church’s move toward intentional inclusion of people with disabilities. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. -Leviticus 19:18     

MARGINALIZATION AND RENEWAL: EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract This article addresses three periods of evangelical Christian education development in the twentieth century. The early part of the century was a time of loss of influence and marginalization within the broader religious education movement. The middle part of the century saw an explosion of parachurch educational ministry efforts to assist the evangelical movement and renewed efforts to develop professional organizations and curricular resources for the church. The last part of the century has seen a growth of influence of evangelical educational writers, publishers, schools, and megachurches on the shape of Christian education today. Current assessment, hopes for the future, and gifts to the broader religious education community are reviewed.     

Text and Context: the Passion of the Christ and Other Jesus Films

Looking back on his vocational journey, the author explores three “conversations” among academic and local church religious educators originating in teaching practice that culminate in a discussion of religious education as a field of study. These conversations focus attention on teaching in the transformation of persons and communities, on community as context and agency of teaching, and on public life as the setting for teaching to live responsibly into the providential intent of God. From this perspective religious education is described as an inherently theological practice emerging from the engagement of teachers and students in faith communities at the edges of our collective ignorance of the “intent of God” and at the intersection of our various religious traditions.     

论中世纪巴黎大学社会角色及其冲突

中世纪巴黎大学与社会之间的关系问题在高等教育研究中具有重要意义.引入社会角色概念,分析中世纪巴黎大学可以看到:诞生之初,大学与教会之间存在广泛的互动关系;大学满足了教会对宗教人才与信仰知识的期望;大学在行为模式方面具有极强的宗教性.在随后的发展中,世俗权力对大学控制不断增强;世俗希望大学培养世俗人才以抗衡教会;大学在行为模式上也趋于世俗化.巴黎大学处于宗教角色与世俗角色冲突之中,然而这种冲突却对大学自治、学术自由、组织结构等发挥着积极作用.     

Comparative Moments: A Comparative Theological Orientation for Theological Education

Abstract

This article argues for the deep integration of encounters with religious diversity into theological education. Some seminaries and theological schools, like Emmanuel College in the Toronto School of Theology, have made it a matter of institutional mission to prepare students to provide leadership and spiritual care in contexts of religious pluralism. The article draws upon the emerging field of comparative theology to propose methods and resources for this integration at the level of the introductory theology course.     

Christian Families,Educative Lenses,and Incarnational Roots 1

The Christian family is a deeply rooted theological way of being in the world with others. It is a functional domain from where initial and life-long lessons emerge. In rich ways, it helps foster human identity, development, ethical formation, autonomy, and communal responsibility amid a greater understanding of Christ's actualizing presence in the daily rhythms of life. The author presents the notion of family as incarnationally rooted in Christ's humanity and as an educative lens into better living the Gospel with others. The focus is on today's Christian families with young children and the implications for the religious education of these families within the rich tradition of the Church as a human organization.