Religious Education Program Research Articles

Sexuality Education and the Catholic Teenager: A Report

This article reports on findings of a study of sexuality education in a Catholic diocese. The sample included seniors enrolled in either Catholic high schools or parish religious education programs. The range of findings include data about students’ knowledge of sexuality, their understanding of Catholic Church teaching about sexuality, their attitudes and values in regard to sexuality, who and what influences their attitudes and values, their sexual behaviors, and their experience of sexuality education. Recommendations for parents and formal sexuality education programs are offered.

New Approaches to Religious Education Programs for the Mentally Retarded

SUMMARY The program of religious education at the Kansas Neurological Institute drew its life from the children, adolescents and adults with mental retardation as they decorated the chapel and were involved in the simple, concrete, and repetitive services. In addition, the adolescents initiated service through singing in community nursing homes, mentoring younger children, and worship. Religious education is done on a case-by-case basis, since students are at such varied skill levels. In doing this, it has remained flexible, helping blind students to become acquainted enough with the chapel and material to feel comfortable.

CHILDREN'S FEARS ABOUT PERSONAL AGING

The present study was designed to investigate the effect age has on children's attitudes toward personalaging and if anxiety over aging was a contributing factor in the development of these attitudes. A total of 206 students (108 males and 98 females), ranging in age from 9-17 participated in this study.The participants were drawn from a religious education program for public school students and a parochial elementary school in a central Massachusetts town. The participants showed little real concern over the prospect of aging. Some differences were seen on the four subsets of the scale used. The participant's age was the most salient predictor in the assessment of attitudes toward personal aging. A close relationship with a grandparent contributed to positive attitudes and lessened fear of older adults.

Ecology, Spirituality and Eckhart: on Loving the World

I am acutely aware tonight of the bodily absence of Peter Talbot Willcox, my friend of many years and second chairman of the Eckhart Society. I well remember back in 1992 browbeating him into taking· on that task, among the many others he shouldered, despite his professed lack of expertise in matters Eckhartian, academic, and, indeed, Roman Catholic, not to mention Dominican. Among his many interests and, in fact, passions, if I may so describe them, was a profound concern with the environment. On several occasions I participated in conferences Peter organized on the subject, especially in league with Teddy Goldsmith, the editor of The Ecologist, one of Peter's many friends. While teaching in Oxford, I was privileged to be included among the core group of the Friends of the Centre, which Peter organized and out of which there developed another of his brain children, the Religious Education and Environment Programme, a project to introduce environmental studies into the British religious education curriculum. There was much more to Peter's passions, not least his work for the World Congress of Faiths. But as I came to know and work with Peter what impressed me most personally about his insatiable quest to get at the heart of things in a theoretical and especially a practical way was his struggle to bring Eckhart and environmental concern together. As we strolled around his lovely gardens at Thanescroft one evening, he confided to me his

CAMPUS MINISTRIES AND NEW PARADIGMS FOR EDUCATING RELIGIOUSLY

This article summarizes a study of campus ministries and religious groups that asked how faith is expressed today, if college students view faith as irrelevant, and what programs are effective and needed. The survey encompassed public and private universities, four major faith groups—Jewish, Catholic, evangelical, and mainline Protestant—and each region of the United States. The article discusses marginality and relevance as well as effectiveness of the religious education programs, and concludes with a study of one project, the Religious Youth Service, which appears to be effective. The RYS draws on service‐learning and interfaith dialogue and could become an effective paradigm for educating religiously in a religiously plural world.

The Catechism Yesterday and Today: The Evolution of a Genre by Berard L. Marthaler, O.F.M. Conv.

book reviews287 The Catechism Yesterday and Today: The Evolution of a Genre. By Berard L. Marthaler, O.F.M.Conv. (CoUegevUle, Minnesota:The Liturgical Press. 1995. Pp. 176. $15.95.) The pubUcation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church has generated widespread interest in and has occasioned the plurification of books, articles, commentaries, and studies on the catechism and catechisms. Every age has its catechism. However, for the first 1200 years the Church had no catechism as we know it today. "Catechism" meant catechesis; that is, the content of Christian teaching, handed down orally and calling for a response of faith. It demanded a conversion, a turning over of one's Ufe and love to God. It was a lifelong process centered around the Uturgy, the celebration of the seasons and feasts of the church year and memorized prayers such as the Creed, the Our Father, and the Ten Commandments, and emphasizing the virtues of faith, hope, and charity. GraduaUy by the end ofthe Middle Ages and especiaUy after the Reformation and after the invention of printing the Catechism came to mean a book, a short, concise, accurate summary of the central truths of faith—smaU catechisms for the instruction of chUdren and the uneducated and large ones for pastors and preachers. Father Berard Marthaler, the Warren-Blanding professor of reUgion in the CathoUc University of America and editor of Living Light, has provided us a clear study of catechisms used throughout the Ufe of the Church, an exceUent history of the development of this genre, dividing the work into fifteen short chapters from its first use as a tool for catechesis in the Middle Ages. He discusses Reformation catechisms, the Catechism of the CouncU of Trent, catechisms ofthe Counter-Reformation, English, Irish, LatinAmerican,andAmerican catechisms prior to Vatican Council II, the Dutch, German, and French catechisms , afterVatican Council II, the Catechetical DUectory and finaUy The Catechism ofthe Catholic Church. Father Marthaler has devoted a Ufetime to the study and teaching of reUgious education.This pubUcation is a distillation ofyears of research on the history of catechisms. It is fascinating how often in history the same issues keep coming up. Catechisms were seen as guardians of orthodoxy, a means of keeping the Christian faithful on the straight and narrow path to salvation, and even used for political purposes.Another frequent theme was the desirability ofunUormity and a common language and at the same time the need to keep the distinction between those teachings that are revealed by God and those that are theological opinions or appUcations of those teachings. One smaU point: I would have liked to see something in the study about that special American type of catechism—the graded textbook series which is al- 288BOOK REVIEWS most universaUy used in Catholic schools and religious education programs for the instruction of chüdren and youth. Marthaler stresses the monumental importance of the Catechism of the CouncU ofTrent, which together with the Roman Missal did much to shape the spirit and language and the theology of theTridentine Church. Perhaps today's renewal of the Uturgy and the new Catechism ofthe Catholic Church wiU have a simüar effect on the postconcUiar era. Father Marthaler's book is in every way a helpful and readable analysis of the "evolution of a genre." Most Reverend Raymond A. Lucker Bishop ofNew Ulm America Pontificia, III. Documentipontifia nelTArchivio Segreto Vaticano riguardanti l'evangelizzazione dell'America: 1592-1644. Edited by Josef Metzler, with the coUaboration of Giuseppina RoselU. [CoUectanea Archivi Vaticani, 38; Pontificio Comitato di Scienze Storiche, Atti e Documenti, 5.] (Vatican City: Librería EditriceVaticana. 1995. Pp. 861.) The first two volumes of this series, America Pontificia, embracing the years 1493-1592, contain a valuable coUection of papal documents relating to the evangelization of the New World. Drawn from the Secret Vatican Archive, they are pubUshed in their Latin original and were reviewed by Stafford Poole, CM., ante, LXXVIII (October, 1992), 601-606 (see also LXXLX [July 19931,602-603). This third volume, embracing the years 1592-1644, is structured dtfferently however, as it comprises summaries in ItaUan of 1409 documents that are of lesser value, as a survey wiU show. Only those of...

Social Attachment to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church among Young Adults

As part of a ten-year longitudinal study on youth retention in the church, 755 young adults with Seventh-day Adventist backgrounds were surveyed to explore factors that relate to social attachment to the religious community. The sample was distributed throughout the United States and Canada. A reliable Social Attachment Scale was constructed from six items measuring commitment to Jesus, religious faith, the local congregation, and the denomination as well as frequency of attendance at worship services. Attachment was found to be predicted by perceptions of the religious education program in the church, personal involvement in congregational activity, lack of conflict in church areas, and remembrances of childhood experiences with local church leaders. The first two areas proved to be the most important as demonstrated by multiple regression analysis. It is iKM unusual for religious communities to see young people reared in their fellowship drop out of the body of believers as they move through adolescence and into early adulthood. In his study of church dropouts based on a Gallup survey of unchurched Americans, Roozen (1980) estimated that about 46% of Americans drop out of church participation at some time in their lives, with the peak dropout rate occurring during the teenage years. In a classic study on church growth and decline, Hoge and Roozen (1979) concluded that the downturn in membership of mainline denominations during the 1960s and 1970s was not caused by the departure of large numbers of older adults from the churches. Rather, it resulted from the failure of young adults within mainline Protestantism to become committed members and thus replace the faithful older numbers. Wuthnow (1976) in reviewing Gallup poll data from the 19S0s through the middle 1970s found that the greatest decline in church attendance after 1957 was among those under 30 years of age. He concluded that the downward shift in religious commitment was at least partly attributable to the emergence of the youth counterculture of the 1960s. Roof (1981) also found that the defections from churches were disproportionately high among young adults. He agreed with Wuthnow that significant cultural changes were in large part responsible for this trend. This is especially true among college students. Yankelovich (1981) pointed out that a large array of lifestyle values shifted during the 1960s and that this movement was led by college-educa ted young adults. Extensive

Religious education, 1960-1993: an annotated bibliography

Foreword by G. E. Gorman Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction Recent Religious Education: A Critical Survey Foundations of Religious Education Educational Theory Administration of Religious Education Program, Curriculum, and Method Religion and the School Religion and Higher Education Reference Works Name Index Subject Index Title Index

Conservative Government and Support for the Religious Institution: Religious Education in English Schools

Conservative Government and Support for the Religious Institution: Religious Education in English Schools

The Diversity of Experience in the Religious Upbringing of Children from Christian Families in Britain

Unlike the 1944 Education Act, the 1988 Education Reform Act permits the study of different Christian denominations. The research reported gives information on aspects of Christianity in the experience of a group of eight to thirteen year old children from different denominational and ethnic backgrounds in Coventry. Using ethnographic field data, the article outlines some children's perceptions of the Holy Spirit, Baptism, Holy Communion and Saints, the responses illustrating a diversity of practices and belief, but showing a unity of belief in ‘God and Jesus’ and a general involvement in public worship. Each child's particular experience of Christian upbringing could be plotted on the four axes of ethnicity, denomination, belief and ritual practice. It is suggested that curriculum material based on Christian children's experience could be included in studies of Christianity forming part of religious education programmes in schools.

CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN ONTARIO, OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE 1990s: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER EDUCATION

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsLorna M. A. BowmanLorna Bowman is a professor of religious education and director of religious education programs in the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto and the Toronto School of Theology.

Buddhism and the Religious Studies Approach to Religious Education in the Secondary School

In this article we shall, first of all, outline what we understand as the Religious Studies Approach to Religious Education. Then we shall argue that this approach requires Buddhism to be included in a school's religious education programme, whether publicly examined or not, if that programme is legitimately to be described as ‘Religious Studies’. We will then proceed to consider reasons why many educators have thought Buddhism to be unsuitable for inclusion in syllabuses for the under‐sixteens, hopefully demonstrating why such reasons are unconvincing. Finally, we will conclude with some suggestions about how a teacher or syllabus designer might proceed if he or she wished to develop a course or examination syllabus dealing with the Buddhist tradition.

Moral and Religious Education for Nigeria

Abstract The paper considers moral and religious education programmes appropriate for Nigeria. Starting with a brief analysis of the current crisis in moral, spiritual and political beliefs, the paper progresses by analysing traditional Nigerian education and the approach to moral education which it advocated. It then analyses the epistemological underpinnings of traditional moral education as well as the social institutions supporting it. A brief section outlining certain shortcomings in traditional education follows. This is then followed by a consideration of contemporary approaches to both moral and religious education by focussing on the question of the possible independence of moral from religious education. Having agreed with certain writers that the two are independent, the paper concludes with a sub‐section on the aims of moral education as a distinct activity.

The Golden Rule: Two Versions and Two Views

Abstract The Golden Rule appears in two versions, the negative one viewed by Confucius as a moral prescription and the positive one viewed by Jesus as a religious prescription. Students in a sixth grade classroom in an American public school studied both versions, exploring the fundamental issues underlying them. After reviewing their investigation of the question, ‘How do I follow the Golden Rule, either in its positive or negative version?’, considerations follow regarding the different approaches to another question, ‘Should I follow the Golden Rule, either in its positive or negative version?’, within the context of a moral or a religious education programme.

What Shall We Teach in Our Religious Education Programme?

What Shall We Teach in Our Religious Education Programme?

Religious Education in the Schools

For many years, the courts have been trying to decide the appropriate relationship of the church and religion to the schools and education. The dominant religious group in the community has usually pressed for the inclusion of some form of worship and religious education in the school system. This has ranged all the way from reading of the Bible as a morning exercise to direct support by tax funds of parochial schools.1 Since most of the programs express the will of the great majority of the citizens of the school districts, relatively few actions have been commenced to restrain or limit these programs. Further, since state constitutions have had the more specific provisions on the separation of church and state, few cases have reached the Supreme Court of the United States. Beginning shortly after the turn of the century, the churches, faced with a declining attendance at the Sunday school, urged the inclusion of religious education in the school program.2 They argued that the secularization of education results in inadequate preparation for life, for it ignores the important part which religion plays in the experience of individuals in the United States.3 Separating the teaching of religion and religious ideals entirely from the school system and assigning this important aspect of education to after-school time or to Saturday or Sunday leads the child to regard this aspect of his education as unimportant. Thus the purpose of the weekday church school is stated by the Vermont Council of Churches as follows: To round out a more satisfactory educational experience of the pupil by guiding him in a discovery of the spiritual and Christian elements of life.4 The churches therefore insist that a satisfactory religious education program is one which is carried on in public school time.5 This is necessary if the child is to understand the essential unity of his education and the part which religion

Negro Youth and the Religious Education Program of the Church

In church circles there is, perhaps, no term which is more loosely used or less adequately comprehended than term To many it is but a new name for unchanged programs, techniques, and methods. They have appropriated name without concerning themselves with its content. Considering Protestant Church as a whole, and especially individual smaller churches in this group, seldom in practice does religious education seem to carry meaning which it actually does have in theory. Religious education is more than a name. In a real sense it is an educational vehicle for interpretation and application of religion. Thus, it is a movement whose proportions and possibilities are limitless. As a movement, a vehicle, a technique, a philosophy, it carries its own definite convictions concerning nature of thing which it is called upon to do and machinery necessary for fulfilling its objectives. It demands for successful carrying out of its work high standards of excellence in matter of leadership, methods, curriculum, and equipment. The very name, religious education, suggests that there is a dual relationship, a double allegiance so that both religion and education must each serve purposes of other. The basic aim is not only to bring to service of religion total resources of education, but also to bring to education motivating and centralizing influence of religion. It is religion and education inextricably bound together in a common cause touching life of individual. It is too early to give a dogmatic and limited definition of religious education. What it is at any given period of history depends solely upon what education and religion are respectively conceived of as being at corresponding periods. In early life of our country education was basically thought of as being administration of strict discipline through rigid mental processes. Religion was, correspondingly, mainly concerned with propagation of definite creeds and doctrines for disciplinary purposes. In such a situation religious education in its crude form was technique by which mind, through memorization and catechism, was crammed with uninteresting doctrinal content believed to have disciplinary value. Later education was conceived of as impartation of a selected body of book knowledge and learning without particular regard for individual interests and needs. Religion, likewise, became primarily concerned with Bible knowledge, and religious education then became method by which this knowledge could best be acquired. Today education is looked upon as the continuous and progressive reconstruction of experience. Religion,