Jesus' stories and parables--the products of his own imagination--are at the core of Christian religious education. Christian religious educators are to encourage their audience to engage their imagination to let Jesus' stories retain their power to form and transform them. Although imagination operates imperceptibly, it is essential to faith…

Engaging with current philosophers and thinkers, this book looks at what are the roots to our human condition. It looks the wisdom that traditional Christianity can bring to a Western culture preoccupied with post-truth, individualism and utilitarian methods of thinking. The desire for a fulfilling life is a common motivation to people, regardless…

As an effective tool used within the evocative method of phenomenological inquiry, this article details the use of the written anecdotes of Godly Play storytellers in Australia to understand children as a means of grace. The phenomenological framework out of which the evocative method emanates is described, and four examples from the author's…

Philosophers of education often view the role of religion in education with suspicion, claiming it to be impossible, indoctrinatory or controversial unless reduced to secular premises and aims. The 'post-secular' and 'decolonial' turns of the new millennium have, however, afforded opportunities to revaluate this predilection. In a social and…

While the resources for biblical interpretation are multiplying, there are no current models for reading biblical texts in community with culturally hybrid persons. Contextual Bible Study (CBS) presents a pedagogical framework to help fill the gap. This article offers an overview of CBS as well as a case study that looks at a reading community (a…

This article is based on research into the phenomenon referred to as the "colonization of the mind." It commences with a discussion of four different backgrounds and concomitant experiences regarding this persistent form of colonization: two with reference to the authors of this article, and two with reference to distinguishable…

There is a "world of difference," anthropologist Epeli Hau'ofa argued, "between viewing the Pacific as 'islands in a far sea' and as 'a sea of islands.'" The distinction between both perspectives, he explained, is exemplified in the two names used for the region: Pacific Islands and Oceania. The former represents a colonial…

A hermeneutic-communicative model of religious education is proposed which is grounded in a Christian anthropology. The human person is presented as a 'fragile hermeneutical space'--consisting of a radical openness to reality, an essential indeterminateness and an ability to transcend his or her own reality. This means that people have an inbuilt…

In the United States, Christianity is the religion of the majority, about 70% of people. Almost 23% are unaffiliated, and slightly less than 7% practice other religions (Sandstrom, 2016). While 7% may not sound like a lot, it means that a growing number of Americans have neighbors, schoolmates, and colleagues who practice diverse, often…

This article brings James Smith's three-volume "Cultural Liturgies" into dialogue with fieldwork in 'Midlands Madrasah', drawing out questions and points of discussion that are applicable to Christian education of children, especially within a church context. The article begins with an overview of madrasah education and the main…

Holistic sexuality education is needed in churches and seminaries to promote sexual inclusion and flourishing as well as combat sexual violence and trauma. The scholarly and pedagogical resources exist to do this work; we need an ethical commitment to integrate them across the curriculum.

Most approaches to vocational exploration present challenges to people who have more than one central cultural identity. In this article, we begin with a framework for understanding hybrid cultural identity focused on the real-life experiences of hybrid people. We then identify three predominant approaches to vocation as well as the challenges…

This article reports findings from a sacred text scholarship project in Religious Education/Religion and Worldviews (RE/RW) lessons. In the "Texts and Teachers" project secondary school teachers found that RE became more "meta" through a more scholarly treatment of texts, and led to "leap moments" with pupils who…

This article is based on results from research that addressed the ways young Black Metal musicians construct their musical learning and socialization. In this article we will focus on one of the strands in that study; a trace of a classic ideal from "Bildung" theory. Using Bildung theory, we explore similarities between the ideals and…

This paper briefly discusses Peter Senge's Continuous Assessment Learning Organization Model for Quality Improvement, and describes how it is implemented in improving the quality of education by Christian Religious Colleges in Indonesia. The main conclusion of this paper is that Christian Religious Colleges in Indonesia must develop an…