Religious Upbringing in the Pedagogy of John Paul II

The Person and the Challenges. The Journal of Theology, Education, Canon Law and Social Studies Inspired by Pope John Paul II, 2012

The purpose of this study is to outline the sources and aspects of the timesurpassing topicality of the Pope's vision of integral education apparent in his anthropological, permeated with faith, refl ection on man. In his vision, the internal perception conditions the integral education of man. The research confi rms the thesis that the Pope's pedagogy assumes an "adequate anthropology" and opens the human heart to the objective order of truth, including truth about Christ as "the centre of the universe and of history" (Redemptor hominis, 1) and to the fundamental truth about man. The Pope's pedagogy with its anthropological grounding is topical due to the fact that it offers, contemporary times permitting, a complete vision of human education. This vision goes against the culture of lost faith, dehumanisation, nihilism, and existential cynicism, and also against axiological relativism. In this vision, science, technology, art, peace, justice, God, true religion, nature, grace, faith, hope and love are not in complementary distribution, but complement each other. The timeless source of the topical quality of the Pope's pedagogical message appears to reside in the compatibility and completeness of the human image it provides. It investigates the complex matter of education and the individual story of shaping personalities of outstanding individuals. With due respect and unanticipated amazement, it also provides an outline of the Catholic interpretation of education and the human condition.

The present article focuses on the spiritual life of the Catholic teacher. This spirituality carries with it both an interior and an exterior operation. First, regarding the interior, the teacher must live out his/her calling as a path to holiness; second, flowing forth from this interior disposition, and as an essential element to their special calling, he/she must also embrace the exterior mission of leading others to holiness through education. The Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum educationis, helps to illuminate the structure of this spirituality and, when read in light of the Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen gentium) and its “universal call to holiness” (LG 39), the calling of “teacher” is manifestly seen as both a personal path to holiness and a great service to the Church.

Education in the Context of Christian Humanism. Reflections Based on the Teaching of Benedict XVI, 2021

Education should be placed in the context of Christian humanism. For Benedict XVI the relationship with God is the main element stimulating our personal growth. Faith encompassing the entire human existence creates a permanent life foundation, directs and gives a full meaning to life. Education should be directed towards the formation of original personality. In this process a young person plays a principal role, whereas the educator is an auxiliary factor. In the context of a crisis of education the Pope proposes the conditions of authentic education, such as the climate of love, sensitivity to truth and suffering, discovering the balance between discipline and freedom, the influence of role models, responsible treatment of education and hope coming from faith.

Scottish Journal of Theology, 1983

Christian theology, because of its concern with ‘all things’, is sometimes able to provide salvific insights into academic areas far removed from theological syllabuses. In this article I take one such example and show how theology can make a rich contribution to the understanding of another discipline. The example is education.

Journal of Catholic Education, 2019

Christian Education Journal: Research on Educational Ministry

Religious Education, 2015

There are many historical, political, cultural and religious factors that have influenced the life of Latvian people, Latvian culture and society, as well as the development of the Latvian Catholic Church. The progress in science and technology has changed the way people relate to each other, their system of beliefs and values, thus creating new dilemmas also for religious educators. Bringing together theory and praxis in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, this article will explore how adult religious educators in Latvia are challenged to expand the understanding of religious education taking into account people's needs and life experiences, encouraging them not only to participate actively in the liturgy and appreciate the power of community but also engage in critical thinking and dialogue on faith and social issues. This article is based on wisdom and knowledge of scholars of adult education and adult religious educators such as Mezirow, Brookfield, English, Swidler, McKenzie, Regan, and. Groome as well as the results of two qualitative research studies conducted in 2004 and 2012 in different parishes of Latvia, all contributing to the discussion on how adult religious education can be an effective tool for creating inclusive parish communities to which contemporary people want to belong and participate.

2019

It is commonplace for Catholic schools to claim to educate the "whole" person in the Catholic faith, yet exactly what this means and how to accomplish it is harder to say. Though these matters of holistic formation and Catholic identity are always important, they are especially so at present given ongoing efforts to implement the U.S. bishops' Framework for a high school religion curriculum. With these concerns in mind, this article aims to offer a traditionally-grounded, actionable answer to the following questions: Who do we hope our students will become? How do we help them toward that goal? The first half of the paper identifies and describes in detail four anthropological dimensions that have emerged as constants in Christians' attempts to articulate what we mean by the "whole" person. The latter half of the paper draws upon the work of a host of educational authorities and the author's personal classroom experience in order to suggest general pedagogical keys that might guide teaching practices and development of student formation outcomes.

2006

This thesis sets out to answer a central question: is it possible to engage in the Christian religious education of adults without resorting to indoctrination? It looks first to the concepts in the literature connected to the Christian religious education of adults. This literature deals with education overall, the education of adults in particular, and then education as it relates to faith. The concepts of indoctrination, preaching and nurture are then examined as they relate to education. A visual representation of the relationship between these concepts is offered, showing that there is a progression from indoctrination, through preaching, nurture, to education understood in a pure sense, which has only the intention of facilitating (any) worthwhile learning. Alongside this work based on conceptual analysis from the literature, field work undertaken in a Roman Catholic Diocese in England and Wales is used to support the research. The field work is an illustrative snapshot, rather than representative; its purpose is to illuminate the conclusions reached in the first part of the research. In both the questionnaire and interview section of the field work, data was obtained from three groups of respondents: administrators, tutors and participants. This grouping covers all those involved in the Christian religious education of adults in the diocese, and allows triangulation of data. The results of the field work is then related back to the chart proposed from the literature review, and conclusions drawn about gaps in the literature and proposals made for further study. Overall, the data from the field work support the conclusions of the first part of the research, with minor adjustments. 1 (See: Committee for Catechesis and Adult Christian Education 2000; Congregation for the Clergy 1997). The other acronym commonly used of this process in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, CCD; this is almost always aimed at school age children who do not attend parochial (faith-based) schools. 2 It is my experience that work with adults is much less structured in the Roman Catholic Church than work with children. There are any number of work schemes for teaching young children, and many to choose from when preparing people for Confirmation (usually between the ages of 11 and 16 in this country). However, schemes of work to be used with adults are few and far between in the UK.

1986

An attempt was made to describe the experience of Christian religious education for its participants. This research is both ethnographic and hermeneutic. Thick descriptions gathered from ethnographic methods like participant observation, in-depth interviews, and journal keeping served as text for analysis. Weekly visits of one to four hours were made to each school, home, or community setting over the course of one school year. It became evident that for the two students (David and Rena) studied, activities in the home and school played a mom important role in structuring their experiences than did activities in church, youth groups, or their community. Five themes emerged from the research: (1) Story; (2) Community; (3) Growth; (4) Meaning; and (5) God. The findings within each theme were understood as being in dialectical tension with theoretical dispositions. This relationship between findings and theory meant that two questions had to be asked: "How does the life-world of the students inform the initial theory?"; and "What has been affirmed or rebutted in the experience of David and Rena as a result of the theory?" The research is concluded with a definition formed by interpretation of the research themes. That is, Christian religious education is attending to and cooperating with God's activities with others. Such education is characterized by love, trust, responsibility, and discipleship. Its goal is to promote right relationships with God and others. (BZ)

The current context of youth education promotes a model based solely on the transmission of information. One insists on the quantity and universality of the subjects and loses sight of the value of knowledge for life. Before this bareness of value and emotion, youth religious education has maintained since ancient times a catechetical model that integrates information with lifestyle. The initiated one is not conditional upon the information, according to the contemporary model, but the information contributes with other elements to the formation of personality in order to cultivate its characteristic dimensions.

Routledge eBooks, 2016

The reflections in this chapter were catalysed by the paper given at the International Conference on Catholic Education held in 2015 by Prof. Lieven Boeve that can be found in Chapter 7 of this collected volume. That process of development began in the form of a response to his paper at the Conference itself, and has continued as I have reflected further on the contents of his chapter. Here, I seek to put Boeve's context and my own into dialogue with each other, very much in the spirit of the Dialogue Schools project that he is working on for the Bishops Conference in Flanders. My aim, in these reflections, is to shed light on the similarities of our two situations, and also what is distinctive about them, so as to further the project of Catholic education in both contexts. I begin by looking at the current situation of Catholic education, and of the place of the church in a wider sense, in Belgian and British society. Recent studies have shown a decline in trust in churches in both of our countries, whilst it seems that there is still a lot of confidence in Catholic education. What this means for the project of Catholic education in Flanders in particular is something that Boeve raises, and I engage with his account of this pairing of mistrust and confidence as being paradoxical, suggesting that what it is that people have trust and confidence in may help unlock the relation between the two. I consider what it means to live in a post-secular and post-Christian culture in the light of Boeve's analysis, and how this offers two important possibilities at this point in history. On the one hand, it helps us to recognise the breakdown of the secularisation thesis that was dominant in the modern era. On the other, it offers us the potential to craft a relation between belief and unbelief in new and creative ways, which can better serve the educational development of young people in our two countries, and perhaps more widely, too. What this amounts to is seeing education as an invitation to a community of identity formation, in which each of the participants can journey towards fullness of life, whilst accompanying others on their journey seeking meaning and fulfilment.