‘All Our Time’

Abstract

Taking a cue from recent scholarship in Britain, this article explores the role of women as agents for religious change in Catholic classrooms in the mid-twentieth century. It takes examples from Melbourne, Australia where teachers had been influenced by the Young Christian Workers (YCW) Jocist method of ‘see, reflect, act’ and Cardijn’s inductive, Incarnational theology that challenged the traditional dualism between private faith and public life. In a democratisation of faith commitment, their method of theological reflection invigorated young people with a sense of their responsibility as disciples. Classroom teachers influenced by Jocist formation moved first through strategies designed to communicate relationship with Jesus, then an understanding of salvation history and then through approaches that enabled and encouraged engagement with reflection on experience. The everyday reality of Jesus not as an otherworldly friend but as a potential agent of social transformation is a significant shift from devotional styles of Catholic spirituality.