THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR TRAINING RELIGIOUS LEADERS IN THE PRESENT AGE

This analysis of the works of Bettelheim finds three areas of intersection with religious education: identity formation, moral education, and the role of fantasy and ritual. Bettelheim's theory of identity formation came from reflection on his personal experience as a concentration camp survivor. He claimed that prisoners in the camps lost their identity. He sought to inversely foster identity formation in autistic children by creating an environment that built autonomy as opposed to the environment of the camps. His studies on the role of the environment in the formation of selfhood lead to conclusions on identity formation in religious education. Bettelheim critiqued moral education and advocated the teaching of morality by example. Morality should not be imposed as a system of rules, but should follow from love. This paper identifies how Bettelheim's explanation of the ways in which fantasy works to facilitate the formation of the self through meaning attainment is important for religious education.     

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.     

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.