{"title":"Awaken the Awareness of Transcendence: New Strategies for Catholic Schools in the Netherlands to Deal with Secularization","authors":"Theo van der Zee","doi":"10.31743/vv.16938","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Secularization poses serious challenges for religiously affiliated schools. Catholic schools in the Netherlands find themselves embarrassed regarding their educational endeavor because they are unable or lack the inspiration to talk about this subject in religious terms. This article aims to explore new ways of overcoming this embarrassment. Firstly, an overview is presented of the current situation and of the embarrassment of Catholic schools, in terms of their problematic choice of actions. Based on a critical-dialogical convergence of theological and pedagogical considerations, a Catholic vision on the educational endeavor is subsequently developed that is understood in terms of interruption, the other, and transcendence. From this vision of the educational endeavor, new strategies are presented – at the community level of Catholic schools, and at the individual level of teachers, school leaders, and governors – to promote an openness to receiving new, unexpected insights and possibilities. The receipt of these insights and possibilities is closely related to an awareness of transcendence, in both a secular and a religious sense. The initial findings of recent empirical research on the impact of these strategies are presented.","PeriodicalId":37783,"journal":{"name":"Verbum Vitae","volume":"54 15","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Verbum Vitae","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.31743/vv.16938","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Secularization poses serious challenges for religiously affiliated schools. Catholic schools in the Netherlands find themselves embarrassed regarding their educational endeavor because they are unable or lack the inspiration to talk about this subject in religious terms. This article aims to explore new ways of overcoming this embarrassment. Firstly, an overview is presented of the current situation and of the embarrassment of Catholic schools, in terms of their problematic choice of actions. Based on a critical-dialogical convergence of theological and pedagogical considerations, a Catholic vision on the educational endeavor is subsequently developed that is understood in terms of interruption, the other, and transcendence. From this vision of the educational endeavor, new strategies are presented – at the community level of Catholic schools, and at the individual level of teachers, school leaders, and governors – to promote an openness to receiving new, unexpected insights and possibilities. The receipt of these insights and possibilities is closely related to an awareness of transcendence, in both a secular and a religious sense. The initial findings of recent empirical research on the impact of these strategies are presented.
期刊介绍:
Published since 2002, "Verbum Vitae" is issued biannually by the Institute of Biblical Studies of the Faculty of Theology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. Each issue of the journal includes scholarly articles dedicated to a specific biblical theme and presented in three sections: (I) Old Testament, (II) New Testament, and (III) Patristics and the Life of the Church. The final "Life of the Church" perspective tries to broaden out each issue''s given topic into its multiple connections and implications, mostly dogmatic, moral, pastoral, liturgical, or sociological. The forth section of the journal always consists of reviews of recently published monographs and collections on biblical themes. Because of the journal''s interdisciplinary character, it seeks to include among the contributors not only biblical scholars but also theologians of various specializations.