Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158495
M. Nichols
Theological distance education is frequently criticised on the grounds that it is not formationally equivalent to on-campus provision. This study presents the findings of primary research into the formational experiences of ten on-campus and ten distance education students studying the same undergraduate theology or ministry degree programme at Laidlaw College, a theological education provider in New Zealand. Analysis of interviews finds clear evidence of formational activity and transformative learning across both student groups. Distance respondents had stronger ecclesial connections than on-campus ones, and an equivalent transformative experience. Findings suggest that the context of church fellowship provides a suitable formational context for theological distance education.
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Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158505
John P. Falcone
Jane Regan of Boston College, USA, has for many years offered catechists a vision of Christian education that encompasses the whole parish: a vision that can transform the way they understand faith formation and enhance the way they do their jobs. In Forming a Community of Faith she offers a new guide to parish-based adult faith formation that Roman Catholics will value, and that Christian educators from other traditions may mine for insights and practical guidance. Targeted to lay and ordained parish leaders, the book is user-friendly and well designed for group reading and structured discussion. It includes helpful formatting (headings and diagrams); “Questions for Reflection and Conversation” at the end of each major section to help readers link content with their own experience; and summaries of key points to “Keep in Mind” at the end of each chapter. Almost every page contains at least one pithy phrase or sentence that can be unpacked to spur rich discussions on adult faith, parish education, and Christian practice in secular life. Footnotes point to key scholarship and to online resources of great practical use. The book spans five easily digestible chapters. Chapter one frames adult faith formation around two main themes. These are “the challenge to teach as Jesus did”, i.e., fostering gospel living and Christian mission for peace and justice; and “the reality of post-modernity”, i.e., taking seriously pluralism, individual stories, and the suspicion of largescale institutions that shapes many churchgoers’ sensibilities today. Chapter two is a close reading of Roman Catholic church documents. It fleshes out the links between “evangelization” and “catechesis”, between the call to live lives of Christian discipleship (at home, at work, and in the parish) and the training that church educators are called to provide. Here Regan urges parish educators to shift their “primary question” from “What are the children learning (and how can the grownups be helpful)?” to “What do adults need to be talking about in order to recognize and to be signs of God’s presence to their families and to the world?” (p. 36). Chapter three unpacks the form and content of mature, adult Christian faith. Adult faith is “living, explicit, and fruitful;” it is Jesus-centered; it flourishes in Christian community; it grows and adapts, so it needs to be nurtured; it learns from conversation, especially conversations that focus on Scripture, on church teaching, and on the lives and viewpoints of other people; it prepares believers to be priestly, prophetic, and political in their mission as disciples in the world. Chapter four is a tour de force on how to structure fruitful conversations and how to ask fruitful questions with adults. Are the conversations in our educational programs “sustained, engaged, and critical”? Do our questions, by their shape and their underlying assumptions, open up conversations or shut them down? Do we allot at least as much time for conversation
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Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158503
Benjamin D. Espinoza
While the modern church remembers Dietrich Bonhoeffer for his theological prowess, leadership in the Confessing Church, and co-conspiring to assassinate Hitler, few remember him as a theological ed...
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Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158497
Neville J. Emslie
This article discusses the theory and practice of transformative learning in the particular context of ministry formation. Parochial ministry is exceedingly complex, it accesses and presses in on matters to do with selfhood, identity, vocation, relationships, life and death, celebrations and crises, leadership, service, spirituality, and religious forms and emphases. These issues of being can become tools for transformative learning. The article argues for a specialised form of training for curates such that they can become critically reflective learners, open to discourse and with genuine desire to negotiate new frames of reference for the sake of those to whom they minister and for their own religious and spiritual development. This work proposes that application of transformative learning theory, and in particular a hermeneutical model of transformative learning, can provide the specialised form of training necessary to form and train effective ministers for the Church of England.
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Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158507
Angus Ritchie
Community organizing offers Christians a new way of engaging in the public square. When the church engages in that space there is always a prima facie tension to be negotiated—between holding to th...
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Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158496
John P. Falcone
Teaching Bible to empower believers for Christian ministry is best done from a “situated” perspective that is contextual, rhetorical, artistic, and reasoned. A situated pedagogy integrates “transformative learning” into broader practices of Christian faith and formation. This kind of training is rhetorical: it pays attention to the ways that words function in Scripture, in life, in church, and in the world. It is artistic: it treats Scripture, scholarship, and social analysis as raw materials or as “points of departure” for creative reworkings of the Christian tradition. It primes students to turn scriptural knowledge into specific, Scripture-based interventions that are fit for purpose. It also encourages and equips them to discern whether these reworkings align with the will of God's Spirit. An emic rationale for this pedagogy is constructed by analyzing the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus calls his disciples to rework and re-purpose scriptural texts, and the Gospel writer, Matthew has put these instructions into practice in the text. This rationale is ecumenical in that it rests equally well on critical-grammatical and critical-historical readings of its supporting biblical texts. Suggestions are offered for parish-based adult educators who want to approach the Bible in this contextual, rhetorical way.
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Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158493
A. Jolley, I. Jones
The Birmingham Mission Apprentice Scheme is an innovative initiative of Church of England Birmingham, designed to offer an alternative pathway into missional leadership within challenging urban parishes. Mission Apprentices learn by growing an area of mission within their own parish context and also by meeting together for a fortnightly learning programme. This article evaluates the experience of the Scheme in relation to three areas of educational research: first, what constitutes effective formation for missional leadership; second, the nature of contemporary “apprenticeships”; and third, the nature and function of “communities of practice”. In each case, the article explores the extent to which the Birmingham Mission Apprentice Scheme reflects current thinking, but also considers in what ways these three bodies of research suggest possible improvements to the Scheme. In so doing, it highlights some of the critical success factors in what was achieved — including the value of forming Mission Apprentices into a learning community, and the critical importance of learning through responsibility and experimentation. The experience of the Scheme also raises questions about processes for training and deployment of leaders for highly urbanised parishes.
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Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158506
M. Hoelzl
Without any doubt, the best part of the book is the cover. The portrait of Charles Taylor on the front of the cover of Smith’s book could have been easily used in Roman times to emboss a coin during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Philosopher King. It is with such a similar admiration and devotion the author gives an interpretation of Charles Taylor’s “monumental” A Secular Age, a book that offers a genealogy of the secular and an archaeology of our angst (sic)’. Moreover, as the author asserts, “this is also meant to be a kind of how-to manual-guidance on how (not) to live in a secular age” (p. ix). James K.A. Smith’s book is written as a guide through the “forest” of Charles Taylor’s book A Secular Age, published in 2007. It is an offspring of a seminar Professor Smith held at Calvin College, Michigan. Designed for pastors and church planters the author writes: “I believe Taylor’s analysis can help pastors and church planters understand better the contexts in which they proclaim the gospel. In many ways, Taylor’s Secular Age (sic) amounts to a cultural anthropology for urban mission” (p. xi). The book intends to afforest Taylor’s thoughts of secularisation theories and tries to digest key elements of the concept of secularisation, ready-made for practitioners and their business. Charts, tables, text boxes, sketches, and references to a vast number of popular songs are designed to break down Taylor’s argument into a more legible and intelligible format. The author has decided to present his understanding of Charles Taylor as a manual, a handbook to work and wrestle through Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. One can read Smith’s book either as an interpretation of Charles Taylor’s work and classify it as a contribution to secularisation theory in the tradition of the good theological practice of writing commentaries to the gospel, or, as an exhortation for believers not to despair in times of advanced secularity. The book by James K.A. Smith is not an academic book, despite the misleading references to postmodern thinkers in footnotes, it is, first of all a pastoral book. A book in which Taylor’s work is analysed according to the normative imperative of spreading the gospel. Therefore, James K.A. Smith’s How (not) to be Secular is prone to suggesting shortcuts which, in the end, distort the accurate apprehension of a secular age. I recommend reading Charles Taylor’s book first, bearing in mind Marcus Aurelius’ stoic advice: ‘Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth’.
毫无疑问，这本书最精彩的部分是封面。史密斯书封面上查尔斯·泰勒的肖像，在哲学家国王马可·奥勒留统治时期的罗马时代，很容易被用来浮雕硬币。正是带着这样一种类似的钦佩和奉献，作者对查尔斯·泰勒的“不朽的”《世俗时代》进行了解读，这本书提供了世俗的谱系和我们焦虑的考古学。此外，正如作者所断言的，“这也意味着一种如何(不)生活在世俗时代的指南手册”(第ix页)。詹姆斯·k·a·史密斯的书是作为查尔斯·泰勒2007年出版的《世俗时代》一书的“森林”的指南而写的。它是史密斯教授在密歇根州卡尔文学院举办的研讨会的产物。专为牧师和植堂者设计的作者写道:“我相信泰勒的分析可以帮助牧师和植堂者更好地理解他们宣讲福音的环境。在许多方面，泰勒的《世俗化时代》(原文如此)相当于城市传教的文化人类学”(第11页)。这本书旨在强调泰勒的世俗化理论思想，并试图消化世俗化概念的关键要素，为实践者和他们的业务做好准备。图表、表格、文本框、草图以及对大量流行歌曲的参考都被设计成一种更清晰易懂的形式来分解泰勒的论点。作者决定以一本手册的形式呈现他对查尔斯·泰勒的理解，一本帮助读者理解查尔斯·泰勒的《世俗时代》的手册。人们可以把史密斯的书看作是对查尔斯·泰勒作品的解读，并将其归类为对世俗化理论的贡献，这是一种为福音写注释的良好神学实践的传统，或者是对信徒的劝诫，在高度世俗化的时代不要绝望。詹姆斯·k·a·史密斯写的这本书不是一本学术书籍，尽管在脚注中有对后现代思想家的误导性引用，但它首先是一本牧歌书。在这本书中，泰勒的作品是根据传播福音的规范要求来分析的。因此，詹姆斯·k·a·史密斯(James K.A. Smith)的《如何(不)世俗》(How to be Secular)一书倾向于提出一些捷径，最终扭曲了对世俗时代的准确理解。我建议先读查尔斯·泰勒的书，记住马可·奥勒留斯的禁欲主义建议:“我们听到的一切都是一个观点，而不是事实。”我们看到的一切都是一个视角，而不是真相。”
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Pub Date : 2016-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17407141.2016.1158502
N. Wright
strategies for coping with the stresses that arise from their engagement with scriptures that they read as problematic. Ina ter Avest offers the results of qualitative research conducted in several European countries which investigated learners’ responses to diversity in RE in secondary education. Part III explores the impact of migration on religious and gender identity (re-)formation in the diaspora. Several chapters in this section focus on Islam in Western contexts; two chapters consider formal education in Israel, specifically its opportunities and challenges for Palestinian and Druze women. The only substantial material on men is found in Part IV which engages sexuality, masculinity, the body and gendered space. Two qualitative studies investigate homophobic bullying in Catholic high schools in the US, and Australian teenage boys’ spirituality and religiosity, respectively. The final short section focuses on the themes of human and gender rights, equality, and secularism. Readers might find much contentious food for thought in Lynn Davies’ recommendation of what she calls “inclusive secular education” as a means of “challenging the more subordinating aspects of particular religious —and cultural interpretations—of what adherence to a faith entails” (p. 339). The strength of the collection lies in the authors’ attention to the diverse and often contradictory ways in which gender, religion and education intersect and challenge each other. Definitions of oppression and liberation, and their tools and agents are usefully interrogated from a number of disciplinary perspectives. The wealth of specific geographic and thematic case studies will be of interest to educators, academics, and students working in particular contexts. Therefore I commend the publisher’s offer of individual chapters for paid download because it makes this volume more affordable and more accessible.
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Pub Date : 2015-11-01DOI: 10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000043
Elizabeth Jordan
Abstract This article is one contribution to the discussion of discipleship encouraged by the Archbishop's Council in the Church of England. It contains the substance of a talk given on ‘the theology of discipleship’ to a day conference on 29 April 2015 organized by the Ministry Division and the Anglican Adult Education Network. The article also contains an examination of the sources of that theology and shows how sharing in worship and study of the Bible with Christian disciples have shaped the ideas which were presented. It is thus an example of ‘relational epistemology’, the knowledge gained through participation in the relational life of God and the Church.
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