Learning of Catholic theology in the digital age

Lelo J Ngumba,Katherine Arbuckle,Stephen Mutula

doi:10.4102/hts.v75i4.5418

Lelo J Ngumba, Katherine Arbuckle + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i4.5418

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Abstract

This article focuses on the intersections between theological knowledge and the use of the Internet to access study resources for students studying Catholic theology at tertiary institutions. In the 21st century, the use of the Internet to access electronic resources (ERs) is gaining momentum as a tool for obtaining needed information among theology students, to support many aspects of their learning activities. This is mainly because of the proliferation of online theological libraries, as well as the fact that theology students ought to resist the easy path of uncritical passivity and select reliable data from other resources, and welcome it without merely imposing their critical theological opinions and views. Recent literature indicates that the hierarchical nature of Catholic doctrine needs not to exclude openness to the more rhizomatic approaches to knowledge structures that students’ independent accessing of online ER represents. This intersection in learning theology requires a theoretical paradigm shift for adult theology students which can contribute greatly to the enlargement of the theology students’ academic horizon and enriches their minds for an open theological dialogue and discussion with different theological opinions and views.

Highlights

In the early 1960s, when the Internet started in the US Army as an information and communication network, nobody thought and expected that it would have such a great impact on the learning process as it does today
Life is not just a succession of events or experiences: it is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this – in truth, in goodness, and in beauty – that we find happiness and joy. (Paragraph 6)
According to Stuart-Buttle (2013), learning theology by adult students is viewed as the knowing and understanding of Christian doctrine and tradition within a critical search for deepening the understanding of the truths of the faith. This is significant to bear in mind, as this study considers learning by adult students in the intersection between learning of theology and the use of electronic resources (ERs) as a reflective and critical process

Summary

Introduction

In the early 1960s, when the Internet started in the US Army as an information and communication network, nobody thought and expected that it would have such a great impact on the learning process as it does today. The Catholic Church acknowledges that the use of ER can provide opportunities for scholars and learners to find out about and get in touch with different theological views This makes it possible for theologians and theology students to deepen a continuous relationship between religion and media as well as spirituality and community (Campbell 2011; 2012; Diez Bosch 2015; Spadaro 2016); to shape our understanding of religious practice as well as how faith is negotiated within digital culture (Campbell 2013, Campbell & Garner 2016); to carefully consider what it means to teach theology in the digital age (Deberque & Harrison 2015); even our notion of how authorities are defined in networked theology within new media worlds (Diez Bosch et al 2017); to address the question of YouTube as a platform for communication, as well as getting greater understanding of the existent problematic and official attitude of the Catholic Magisterium with regard to the use of alternative theological contents (Soukup 2014). The role of learning theology should be just to suggest appropriate theological materials and resources to help theology students achieve their targeted theological needs (Simpson 2014)

Conclusion

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