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ERIC Number: EJ1393846
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Jul
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1442-018X
EISSN: EISSN-2199-4625
Spirituality as Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education (SMSC). Using Julia Kristeva to Rethink a Spirituality of Education
O'Donnell, Kevin
Journal of Religious Education, v71 n2 p109-122 Jul 2023
Spirituality is impossible to define, but numerous, common themes can be discerned. I suggest a model of spirituality based upon the oeuvre of Julia Kristeva, the Bulgarian/French philosopher, semiologist, and psychoanalyst. She is an atheist who has a great respect for belief. Her therapeutic work reveals compassion and a desire for the creation of a safe, psychic space between analyst and client. This is only possible with the existence of language, the love that can face oneself and recognise the Other. Also, without a sense of the beyond-the-self, then the other three themes could not work together. Language is a human construction, and a Kristevean model of spirituality is derived from poststructuralism/postmodernism. There needs to be a constant reminder that we do not possess fully objective truths or a private language. Language is formed by both the social contract and the interior desire to think, feel and wonder. The inner life is impossible without external relationships, a reality that can only ever be filtered through our interpretation. To use terms of my own coinage, there is 'interiority with reciprocity', where events are 'encounters through interpretation'. Such an inclusive interplay, in a Kristevean model, is spirituality, allowing the Moral, the Social and the Cultural to be part of the dynamic of spirituality. What 'spiritual' might mean in SMSC is a form of interiority, but this is inseparable from inter-relationship. Modelling SMSC as spirituality can have creative effects on not only Religious Education (RE) but the whole curriculum.
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2123/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A