The problem with Christian Education - Part 1

In framing my research I've suggested a disconnect between Christian education anf missiology, but I've also had an underlying question about the capacity of Christian education to help people make sense of and live their faith in the postmodern world. I believe that in many places the theory, methods and resources of Christian education have't helped people to live out their faith. Put simply, there's a parallel between the sense of powerless that citizens have in relation to the big forces that shape their lives (hence a response in consumerism - BTW I don't simply mean consumption) and Christian education for a privatised faith.

Everything that I've ever read by Rick Osmer has been excellent. Deep, thoughtful, scholarly and  foundational. It has been a watershed to come across "Religious Education between Modernization and Gobalization", co-authored with Friedrich Schweitzer.

"We both had come to the conclusion that the most important difficulties faced by religious education in the present were deeply intetwined with long-term cultural and social developments related to processes like modernization snd globalization." (p25)

Both of these guys have been formative in establishing a global network in the field of practical theology. I've previous blogged about Osmer's "The Teaching Ministry of Congregations" here.

First up, this book says that there hasn't been enough contextual study of religious education: it has primarily been about models and philosophy/theology with little regard to context. Hence this study compares the US and Germany. Secondly, the authors suggest that modernization and globalization represent key challenges to the theories and practices of religious education. This is precisely what I've been thinking. So their exploration of what these terms mean has me hooked, particularly the definitions that they have gathered of modernization based on differentiation.

As someone who has come to sociology indirectly (economics in the 70s, some anthropology in the 80s, communication studies in the 90s, cultural studues more recently), this is helping me fill in the blanks. One of the key notions is that modern society has developed different spheres of working, living, learning, knowledge, language (how authors distinguish these differently matters), and that religion in particular has great difficulties in educating within and across these boundaries. The problem is not simply method or resources.

I won't say more just now as my brain is jumping out of its skin with the next bit... (not that i have 'answers' yet...)

Comments

[steve]

Great post Craig. A nut worth cracking, not just theoretically, but practically in terms of how a college would educate in ways that think missiologically and contextually about education,

Wondering about the title of post - should it be "the problem with research into Christian education."

steve
www.emergentkiwi.org.nz

[craigmitchell]

thanks steve. yes you're aprtly right about the title, although the authors (and I) proceed to say that there are problems with CE. maybe I should call it Part 1...