Pub Date : 2023-03-15DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2198407
B. Hyde
Abstract That childhood is important in and of itself is a key ideal that should shape religious education and childhood religious formation more broadly. However, the neoliberal values of western society have influenced religious education, such that we tend to focus on who the child is becoming in terms of a future potential, instead of who the child is now. This essay questions this practice, calling on religious educators to honor children’s being and their ontological spirituality.
{"title":"Children of the ‘Now’: Dispelling Some Neoliberal Assumptions in Christian Religious Education","authors":"B. Hyde","doi":"10.1080/00344087.2023.2198407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2023.2198407","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract That childhood is important in and of itself is a key ideal that should shape religious education and childhood religious formation more broadly. However, the neoliberal values of western society have influenced religious education, such that we tend to focus on who the child is becoming in terms of a future potential, instead of who the child is now. This essay questions this practice, calling on religious educators to honor children’s being and their ontological spirituality.","PeriodicalId":45654,"journal":{"name":"RELIGIOUS EDUCATION","volume":"1 1","pages":"105 - 108"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82865247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-13DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2184962
Perry L. Glanzer, T. Cockle, Jessica Martin, Scott C. Alexander
Abstract Faith-based colleges and universities in America have historically been described as “church-related.” Unfortunately, this classification is too one-dimensional, revealing virtually nothing about how faith-based identity influences the mission, rhetoric, curriculum, or policies of institutions. Although scholars have advanced sophisticated typologies of Protestant and Catholic institutions, we propose that we still need a new means of empirical analysis to determine the degree to which the faith identity of an institution influences important administrative, curricular, and co-curricular decisions. We then apply our Operationalizing Faith Identity Guide (OFIG) to Protestant institutions in the United States to demonstrate the helpfulness of its application.
{"title":"Getting Rid of “Church-Related” Colleges and Universities: Applying a New Operationalizing Faith Identity Guide to Protestant Higher Education","authors":"Perry L. Glanzer, T. Cockle, Jessica Martin, Scott C. Alexander","doi":"10.1080/00344087.2023.2184962","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2023.2184962","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Faith-based colleges and universities in America have historically been described as “church-related.” Unfortunately, this classification is too one-dimensional, revealing virtually nothing about how faith-based identity influences the mission, rhetoric, curriculum, or policies of institutions. Although scholars have advanced sophisticated typologies of Protestant and Catholic institutions, we propose that we still need a new means of empirical analysis to determine the degree to which the faith identity of an institution influences important administrative, curricular, and co-curricular decisions. We then apply our Operationalizing Faith Identity Guide (OFIG) to Protestant institutions in the United States to demonstrate the helpfulness of its application.","PeriodicalId":45654,"journal":{"name":"RELIGIOUS EDUCATION","volume":"10 1","pages":"146 - 172"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88580469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-06DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2184022
Jerome W. Berryman
{"title":"Wondering about Whose Children They Are","authors":"Jerome W. Berryman","doi":"10.1080/00344087.2023.2184022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2023.2184022","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45654,"journal":{"name":"RELIGIOUS EDUCATION","volume":"118 1","pages":"94 - 96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87620748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-06DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2184026
Rode Molla
I was born and raised in the northern part of Ethiopia in a town called Kombolcha. My mother worked full-time, and my father was a pastor, so my brothers and I were mainly cared for and supported by our aunties, grandmother, and the whole neighborhood; those layers of relationships and connections made me believe that I belonged to my close family, congregation, neighbors, and community. My Sunday school, preschool, and elementary school teachers and the people I met in the market, at weddings, or on the way to school or church impacted my formation and identity. And, of course, all the healthcare workers and public leaders who contributed to the safety and wellness of my family and community also made me feel nurtured, accepted, and recognized. Now, I am working as the Berryman Family Chair for Children’s Spirituality and Nurture at Virginia Theological Seminary, so my scholarship emerges from my lived experience in which I advocate for addressing children’s holistic needs for nurturing their spirituality in their given contexts. Therefore, in this article, I question children’s ministries and educational approaches that portray children as passive recipients and which limit their spirituality to a few hours of Sunday morning practice. These churches, educational programs, and curriculums claim that their programs, including Sunday school ministry, can shape how children live and practice their life now and in the future. However, children’s embodied and lived experiences, the surrounding social, political, and cultural structures, and vocational experiences and practices are not considered in how children shape their agency or spirituality. I claim that children’s lived experiences, relationships, and feelings in personal, social, and political spaces impact how they construct or live their spirituality both within a religious context and outside one. Following Eva Poluha’s four paradigms of childhood studies,1 I claim that children are subjective agents, and diverse people, places, and spaces that make them feel they belong or feel rejected impact how they form, construct, and reconstruct their agency. I define children’s agency as their spirituality. And, children’s spirituality is holistic, including their social, spiritual, political, and material needs, desires, feelings, and developments. My aim is not only to claim children’s agency but to propose an interdisciplinary approach that will enable us to explore how diverse spaces, voices, and communities impact the agency and subjectivity of children. The interdisciplinary approach to studying children’s spirituality questions static and unshakable ways of ministry and education through the lived experiences of children. I define this
{"title":"Children’s Experiences Matter: An Interdisciplinary Approach","authors":"Rode Molla","doi":"10.1080/00344087.2023.2184026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2023.2184026","url":null,"abstract":"I was born and raised in the northern part of Ethiopia in a town called Kombolcha. My mother worked full-time, and my father was a pastor, so my brothers and I were mainly cared for and supported by our aunties, grandmother, and the whole neighborhood; those layers of relationships and connections made me believe that I belonged to my close family, congregation, neighbors, and community. My Sunday school, preschool, and elementary school teachers and the people I met in the market, at weddings, or on the way to school or church impacted my formation and identity. And, of course, all the healthcare workers and public leaders who contributed to the safety and wellness of my family and community also made me feel nurtured, accepted, and recognized. Now, I am working as the Berryman Family Chair for Children’s Spirituality and Nurture at Virginia Theological Seminary, so my scholarship emerges from my lived experience in which I advocate for addressing children’s holistic needs for nurturing their spirituality in their given contexts. Therefore, in this article, I question children’s ministries and educational approaches that portray children as passive recipients and which limit their spirituality to a few hours of Sunday morning practice. These churches, educational programs, and curriculums claim that their programs, including Sunday school ministry, can shape how children live and practice their life now and in the future. However, children’s embodied and lived experiences, the surrounding social, political, and cultural structures, and vocational experiences and practices are not considered in how children shape their agency or spirituality. I claim that children’s lived experiences, relationships, and feelings in personal, social, and political spaces impact how they construct or live their spirituality both within a religious context and outside one. Following Eva Poluha’s four paradigms of childhood studies,1 I claim that children are subjective agents, and diverse people, places, and spaces that make them feel they belong or feel rejected impact how they form, construct, and reconstruct their agency. I define children’s agency as their spirituality. And, children’s spirituality is holistic, including their social, spiritual, political, and material needs, desires, feelings, and developments. My aim is not only to claim children’s agency but to propose an interdisciplinary approach that will enable us to explore how diverse spaces, voices, and communities impact the agency and subjectivity of children. The interdisciplinary approach to studying children’s spirituality questions static and unshakable ways of ministry and education through the lived experiences of children. I define this","PeriodicalId":45654,"journal":{"name":"RELIGIOUS EDUCATION","volume":"22 1","pages":"113 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83335769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-03DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2184025
Tony Eaude
I am honored to contribute to your discussions of “Whose Children are They?” My background is as an English man born in 1953, previously a teacher and headteacher in a Church of England elementary school and now an academic interested in young children’s spirituality—and associated ideas—for some 25 years. I am more of a generalist than a religious educator and not a member of a faith community. So, I may seem somewhat ill-equipped for the task, but sometimes an outsider can provide useful perspectives on familiar themes. This is a reflection on my journey and how this has altered, and hopefully enriched, my understanding of spirituality, of children, and of how their spiritual growth should be nurtured. I thank many colleagues, from backgrounds and disciplines different from my own, who have accompanied me, notably in the International Association of Children’s Spirituality. The context in which young children grow up is more complex and confusing than when I was a child. There has, for better or worse, been a decline in religious affiliation, at least in the UK, though religion remains a key element of many children’s identities. It is harder for children, especially for those from fragmented and disadvantaged communities, to have a sense of belonging. There are powerful pressures from media and advertising which contribute to individualism and narcissism. And there is less time and space for play, reflection, and the arts and humanities in a culture of immediacy and performativity. I started to consider young children’s spirituality in depth in the late 1990s as a result of puzzling over some of the more troubled children I taught, and what they seemed to lack. This and my doctoral research led me to see children’s spirituality as involving a search for identity, meaning, and purpose which can be “tethered” to religion or not; and for connectedness to other people, the world around, and (for some) a transcendent Being (or God), drawing on Hay and Nye’s work. A comment from a friend at that time has reverberated ever since—that these are existential questions and so why call them spiritual, with its connotations of religion? In Eaude (2019), I argued that there is much to learn about spirituality from religious traditions, but the latter do not have exclusive rights over what spirituality entails. The spiritual is only one of many interconnected dimensions of the whole child, albeit an important one, whatever the child’s background. This search is universal, but how it takes place is strongly influenced by culture. It involves trying to find answers to questions of which many may be difficult and
{"title":"Reflections from an English Perspective on Nurturing Young Children’s Spiritual Growth and Implications for Religious Education","authors":"Tony Eaude","doi":"10.1080/00344087.2023.2184025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2023.2184025","url":null,"abstract":"I am honored to contribute to your discussions of “Whose Children are They?” My background is as an English man born in 1953, previously a teacher and headteacher in a Church of England elementary school and now an academic interested in young children’s spirituality—and associated ideas—for some 25 years. I am more of a generalist than a religious educator and not a member of a faith community. So, I may seem somewhat ill-equipped for the task, but sometimes an outsider can provide useful perspectives on familiar themes. This is a reflection on my journey and how this has altered, and hopefully enriched, my understanding of spirituality, of children, and of how their spiritual growth should be nurtured. I thank many colleagues, from backgrounds and disciplines different from my own, who have accompanied me, notably in the International Association of Children’s Spirituality. The context in which young children grow up is more complex and confusing than when I was a child. There has, for better or worse, been a decline in religious affiliation, at least in the UK, though religion remains a key element of many children’s identities. It is harder for children, especially for those from fragmented and disadvantaged communities, to have a sense of belonging. There are powerful pressures from media and advertising which contribute to individualism and narcissism. And there is less time and space for play, reflection, and the arts and humanities in a culture of immediacy and performativity. I started to consider young children’s spirituality in depth in the late 1990s as a result of puzzling over some of the more troubled children I taught, and what they seemed to lack. This and my doctoral research led me to see children’s spirituality as involving a search for identity, meaning, and purpose which can be “tethered” to religion or not; and for connectedness to other people, the world around, and (for some) a transcendent Being (or God), drawing on Hay and Nye’s work. A comment from a friend at that time has reverberated ever since—that these are existential questions and so why call them spiritual, with its connotations of religion? In Eaude (2019), I argued that there is much to learn about spirituality from religious traditions, but the latter do not have exclusive rights over what spirituality entails. The spiritual is only one of many interconnected dimensions of the whole child, albeit an important one, whatever the child’s background. This search is universal, but how it takes place is strongly influenced by culture. It involves trying to find answers to questions of which many may be difficult and","PeriodicalId":45654,"journal":{"name":"RELIGIOUS EDUCATION","volume":"18 1","pages":"101 - 104"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78727899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-21DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2181916
Gilles Beauchamp
Abstract Should the state provide religious education in public schools; if yes, what form should it take? I argue that alertness to epistemic injustices that religious persons can suffer can help us answer those questions and can provide grounds for fostering religious literacy. I argue that, if religious persons can suffer testimonial injustice, we should reject inadequate religious education and that, if religious persons can suffer hermeneutical injustice, we should also reject an absence of religious education. That leaves us with the remaining option to have a proper form of religious education which I suggest religious literacy can provide.
{"title":"Epistemic injustice as a ground for religious education in public schools","authors":"Gilles Beauchamp","doi":"10.1080/00344087.2023.2181916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2023.2181916","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Should the state provide religious education in public schools; if yes, what form should it take? I argue that alertness to epistemic injustices that religious persons can suffer can help us answer those questions and can provide grounds for fostering religious literacy. I argue that, if religious persons can suffer testimonial injustice, we should reject inadequate religious education and that, if religious persons can suffer hermeneutical injustice, we should also reject an absence of religious education. That leaves us with the remaining option to have a proper form of religious education which I suggest religious literacy can provide.","PeriodicalId":45654,"journal":{"name":"RELIGIOUS EDUCATION","volume":"261 1","pages":"119 - 132"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73535476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-16DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2180194
Asad A. Choudhary
{"title":"A History of Islamic Schooling in North America: Mapping Growth and Evolution","authors":"Asad A. Choudhary","doi":"10.1080/00344087.2023.2180194","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2023.2180194","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45654,"journal":{"name":"RELIGIOUS EDUCATION","volume":"22 1","pages":"173 - 174"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74458396","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-10DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2175958
K.H. (Ina) ter Avest
The cover of this publication shows the world-famous picture of the earth seen from the moon. According to the author, “This book is a theory-guided attempt to give an in-depth analysis of some of the pressing problems of our time as they emerge at the interface of self and society. I believe we are in need of rethinking the relationship between self, other, and the natural environment as a response to the limitations of the Western self-ideal” (p. 1). To this end, Hermans distinguishes five main themes—Other-in-the-Self, Living in I-prisons and We-prisons, The Experience of Uncertainty, The Re-enchantment of the World, and Expanded View on Well-Being—into which he journeys over seven chapters. Each chapter starts with an overview of relevant literature, not only in Hermans’ own domain (psychology) but also in other domains (like sociology and ecology), followed by practical implications, and concluding with a summary. The book can be seen as a personal search initiated by the concepts of “imprisonment” and “(self-)liberation” and rooted in Hermans’ childhood experiences during World War II. The author is an erudite scholar, and with this publication he offers readers a treasury of information, some of which is included in preliminary ways in his earlier publications. The intended audience of this book consists of academic researchers in the fields of psychology, philosophy, sociology, political theory, cultural anthropology, literary science, and theology. According to the author, the book has practical implications for the fields of education, counseling, and psychotherapy. Scholars who are already familiar with Hermans’ work may be surprised with the addition of a new concept in the “society of mind,” that is, the “we-position.” This refers to the position and voice of collective others in relation to the concept of “double consciousness” of two I-positions: the I-position opposing the we-position, and the I-position withdrawing in its own bubble. Central to the process of positioning is Hermans’ understanding of dialogue as “a process in which participants are involved in creating coherence between initially different points of views. This communication is organized in such a way that it creates new meanings that emerge from the innovative potentials of dialogue” (p. 99). Dialogue—its potentials and limits—and the processes of de-, reand counter-positioning are introduced as means for self-liberation. A strength of this publication is in the journey on which Hermans invites readers to join him, a journey from Greek philosophers via European theologians to today’s issues of climate change and pandemics and, eventually, to a solution by way of psycho-education into the theory of the dialogical self. Hermans’ publication is recommended for religious education scholars and teachers with an interest the socio-psychology of the self. Hermans offers a well-wrought argument in favor of the dialogical self-theory and its core concepts of
{"title":"Liberation in the Face of Uncertainty: A New Development in Dialogical Self Theory","authors":"K.H. (Ina) ter Avest","doi":"10.1080/00344087.2023.2175958","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2023.2175958","url":null,"abstract":"The cover of this publication shows the world-famous picture of the earth seen from the moon. According to the author, “This book is a theory-guided attempt to give an in-depth analysis of some of the pressing problems of our time as they emerge at the interface of self and society. I believe we are in need of rethinking the relationship between self, other, and the natural environment as a response to the limitations of the Western self-ideal” (p. 1). To this end, Hermans distinguishes five main themes—Other-in-the-Self, Living in I-prisons and We-prisons, The Experience of Uncertainty, The Re-enchantment of the World, and Expanded View on Well-Being—into which he journeys over seven chapters. Each chapter starts with an overview of relevant literature, not only in Hermans’ own domain (psychology) but also in other domains (like sociology and ecology), followed by practical implications, and concluding with a summary. The book can be seen as a personal search initiated by the concepts of “imprisonment” and “(self-)liberation” and rooted in Hermans’ childhood experiences during World War II. The author is an erudite scholar, and with this publication he offers readers a treasury of information, some of which is included in preliminary ways in his earlier publications. The intended audience of this book consists of academic researchers in the fields of psychology, philosophy, sociology, political theory, cultural anthropology, literary science, and theology. According to the author, the book has practical implications for the fields of education, counseling, and psychotherapy. Scholars who are already familiar with Hermans’ work may be surprised with the addition of a new concept in the “society of mind,” that is, the “we-position.” This refers to the position and voice of collective others in relation to the concept of “double consciousness” of two I-positions: the I-position opposing the we-position, and the I-position withdrawing in its own bubble. Central to the process of positioning is Hermans’ understanding of dialogue as “a process in which participants are involved in creating coherence between initially different points of views. This communication is organized in such a way that it creates new meanings that emerge from the innovative potentials of dialogue” (p. 99). Dialogue—its potentials and limits—and the processes of de-, reand counter-positioning are introduced as means for self-liberation. A strength of this publication is in the journey on which Hermans invites readers to join him, a journey from Greek philosophers via European theologians to today’s issues of climate change and pandemics and, eventually, to a solution by way of psycho-education into the theory of the dialogical self. Hermans’ publication is recommended for religious education scholars and teachers with an interest the socio-psychology of the self. Hermans offers a well-wrought argument in favor of the dialogical self-theory and its core concepts of","PeriodicalId":45654,"journal":{"name":"RELIGIOUS EDUCATION","volume":"18 1","pages":"175 - 176"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74254271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2023.2175510
J. Mercer
This statement by the Japanese Zen master Shunryu Suzuki shows up frequently in contemporary educational literature across multiple contexts, from medicine and dance, to engineering and, yes, theological and religious education (see for example O’Hare 1992; Lelwica 2009; Weisse 2019). In such diverse educational appropriations, the Zen concept of the “beginner’s mind” often equates to openness and a hunger to learn, while also gesturing toward the presence of an originary wisdom that preexists teaching, striving for knowledge, and the specializations of expertise. The contemplative education movement, which stresses mind/body connections and the educational efficacy of bringing mindfulness practices into classrooms, also invokes the idea of the beginner’s mind as a way of being fully present to one’s experience in the here-and-now. It is a non-defensive posture for learning in which participants open themselves to the experiencing (a classroom encounter, a text, an idea, or a practice) as if for the first time. To experience phenomena as if for the first time can be a wonderful thing indeed. Any parent or grandparent knows the truth of this from watching a child’s delight in their first snowfall or their joy at discovering the creation of sound by banging on an upside-down cooking pot, situations that draw the observing adults themselves into experiencing these marvels anew! But such examples belie a different side of being a beginner, namely the inherent vulnerability of a novice’s position. Think of an initial effort to navigate a meal as a visitor in a totally new cultural context, one’s earliest experiences of teaching, or a first professional paper presentation at an academic guild meeting. Along with the potential for wonder, excitement, and exhilaration, first time experiences may also make one vulnerable to fear, embarrassment, or anxiety. Thus, although the idea of bringing a beginner’s mind to educational experiences sounds relatively straightforward, taking up a novice’s stance may be a much more layered phenomenon than it appears at first glance because it is not only about the content of knowing. It is also about the affective and embodied experience of knowers. Perhaps that is where the spiritual concept of beginner’s mind can be a helpful posture for teaching: maybe I can only invite students to bring a beginner’s mind to the classroom if I teach with a beginner’s mind, including a sense of what I will call “beginner’s vulnerability” rooted in the bodily memory of being a new teacher. Let me put myself in the position of being a new teacher for a moment. Stripping away the protective armor of many years’ experience and the self-confidence of previous successes, my hands may shake, my heart pound, and my voice sound with a tremor right along with the joy and pleasure I also encounter with teaching. Religious education that cultivates a beginner’s mind requires teachers to be open to each group and each learner as if experiencing thi
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