Hello to all,
Thanks for visiting the blog! As a neophyte to this form of communication, I’m commencing my post with a certain degree of trepidation—but I look forward to your responses.
If you’ve read my essay in the latest Religious Education journal (May-June 2009), you know that I’m very interested in the relationship between religious education and practical theology. I understand the latter not as simply “applied theology” in the traditional areas of pastoral care, worship and so on, but as a mutually interpretive activity between the faith tradition and contemporary experience and culture for the sake of personal and social transformation (drawing on sources such as David Tracy). I see PT and RE as very similar and closely related, and I see my own role as both “practical theologian” and “religious educator.”
Do you agree? Why or why not?
And, why does this rather abstract issue matter for us? I think it’s one way of illuminating the significance of theological assumptions in our practices of religious education on one hand, and the ways that RE practices in turn will reshape those theological premises about the nature of God, God’s activity in the world, and our responses to it, on the other.
Here’s a story to spark our thinking about this:
A church youth group was setting up in a forest clearing for dinner and a
campfire when one of the boys discovered that he’d lost his penknife, which was
of great value to him. Other activities ceased, and the group helped him
to look for it for a long time without success. Frustration and
discouragement set in. Finally, the group’s adult leader gathered the
teens around her.
If you were the youth leader, what would you do? And how would your responses be shaped by your identity as practical theologian or religious educator? In particular, what theological and educational assumptions and practices would guide you?
Feel free to respond to any piece of this entry, or offer a new lens to focus the discussion. Happy blogging!
