Abstract
This article addresses doubts about the viability, and hence future, of religious education. The researcher utilized structural analysis based on the questions: What central concepts and commitments have provided structure for the field of religious education as it has developed over time? How have social and cultural factors and changes in social and cultural context shaped the ways the structuring concepts and commitments of religious education have been embraced? To what extent can an understanding of the structuring concepts and commitments of the field enable us to make sense of the contemporary doubts about religious education? Additionally, the methodology of field mapping was used to map the models and approaches to religious education that have developed over time. The researcher found, and these findings are presented in this article, that structural analysis informed by field mapping can enable us to understand both the strengths and limitations of contemporary religious education. The researcher concluded that, based on a structural analysis of the field, religious educators can and should respond to the present crisis in religious education by defining the purpose and scope of religious education more clearly. The analysis in the final section of this article is based on that conclusion.
Highlights
The researcher utilized structural analysis based on the questions: What central concepts and commitments have provided structure for the field of religious education as it has developed over time? How have social and cultural factors and changes in social and cultural context shaped the ways the structuring concepts and commitments of religious education have been embraced? To what extent can an understanding of the structuring concepts and commitments of the field enable us to make sense of the contemporary doubts about religious education? the methodology of field mapping was used to map the models and approaches to religious education that have developed over time
The first was when a senior scholar asked it at the 1996 meeting of the Association of Professors and Researchers of Religious Education (APPRE) in New Orleans
Religions 2018, 9, 407 and Catholic religious communities; the fewer professionally trained religious educators leading parish/congregational religious education programs and teaching religion in grade and high school settings; less of an emphasis on educating people to carry their faith into public life and the global community in some religious education programs; the decline in the number of academic degree programs and academic positions in religious education in recent decades; the absorption of academic degree programs in religious education into programs in practical theology or theology/religious studies and practice; and a loss of a sense of identity in the field of religious education. (Many of the reasons for raising doubts about the future of religion were explored by (O’Gorman 2015; Foster 2015; and Gilmour 2015).)
Summary
“What is the future of religious education?” I have encountered this question many times over the years. New members of APPRE were told we could “push the boundaries” and help carry the religious education movement forward by asking the question. I have periodically encountered questions such as these Those doing the asking have expressed genuine doubts about the future of religious education. They have pointed to such things as: children’s religious education being replaced by children’s ministry/spirituality programs and youth ministry, or being absorbed into general pastoral ministry in some congregations; the loss of volunteer religious educators, especially women in both Protestant. I discuss how, ironically, this concern for the future is connected to questions and doubts about the future of religious education.
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