Resources

In "Private Irony and Liberal Hope," Richard Rorty points out that redescribing people often humiliates them. Yet unless religious studies courses suppress the importance of the questions they raise, it seems that they directly or indirectly redescribe the students who take them. Hence the dilemma: do we eschew redescription at the price of a weak treatment of our subject, or do we practice redescription at the risk of humiliating our students? This paper reviews five strategies that do not solve the dilemma, then offers a sixth that does – by developing the distinction between proposing descriptions and imposing them.

This article re-examines so-called "experiential approaches" to theology and religious studies. In affirming the need of the educator to attend to both cognitive and affective aspects within teaching and learning, and in using many concrete examples from classroom practice, the article critically engages with Latin American liberation theology and post-liberalism in an attempt to clarify what "experience" is being referenced when "experiential methods" are used. The importance of the concrete worlds of individual students, the responsibility of educators to be conscious of their own power in shaping the educational experience, and the desirability of attending to issues surrounding economic disadvantage within theology and religious studies feature prominently in the study. We conclude that, though no experience is neutral, educational contexts in theology and religious studies can offer exemplary settings for profound self-discovery, exploration, and personal development through the "hermeneutical friction" created by critical examination of the narrative worlds within which we live.

This essay explores and challenges the two primary ethical arguments for assessment, accountability, and professional responsibility, by demonstrating their strengths and exposing their weaknesses, which are rooted in their limited notions of community, contract, and guild respectively. In contrast, I argue for assessment on the basis of an ethic of covenantal obligation which incorporates both accountability and responsibility but grounds them on a broader view of community, a view of the teaching-learning environment as a covenant community replete with mutual obligations and responsibilities, one of which is assessment. While the notion of covenant community has deep roots in American society, its theological underpinnings make the ethic of assessment as covenant obligation most relevant to church-related institutions of higher education, the context in which I teach and learn. I conclude the paper by delineating some principles for ethical assessment practice which follow from a covenantal perspective.

This essay begins with diverse arguments for modifying history of Christianity courses to include the experiences of Asian Christianity. After discussing fundamental assumptions, several problems are articulated. The major portion of the essay describes three different strategies for integrating new materials into current curricular offerings. By conceptualizing the relationships between Asian Christianity and the history of Christianity in terms of (1) parallels, (2) supplements, and (3) challenges, material from theformer can be more readily incorporated into the teaching of the latter. Such strategies can be utilized in different teaching contexts, depending on the needs of students and instructors.

Information technology is bringing change to theological education. Computer-mediated instruction has been employed for teaching basic factual materials and for providing study resources. Information technology has been helpful as an instructional aid using the drill and practice format, but how can it promote learning in more complex areas of knowledge acquisition such as analysis, synthesis, and creative judgment? Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte, N.C. developed an online course to teach Hebrew exegesis. A theory-driven pedagogy was employed that used a Web-based instructional design to promote asynchronous learning, collaborative projects, and peer review. This article presents the rationale and design for the class, a narrative of the class experience, and an evaluation of results. Outcomes of the class experience and suggestions for application of technology to other subject areas are included.

The author uses a variety of Internet-related technologies to support pedagogical approaches where students become conscious of their role in the production of knowledge in a public and critically collaborative environment. These approaches also seek to address theory/practice dichotomies by using the Internet to bridge academic and parish contexts. The article describes and assesses three courses utilizing web-based technology. One course features student portfolios posted on a website with peer- and parish-based reviewers. A second course features student creation of the course text with contributions from external professionals. A third course features a ministry resource website created by students.

The author's experience of reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action in clinical supervision for counseling provides the basis for an analogous experience in the classroom that promotes the teaching of the practice of general pastoral care. A classroom ritual of role play within a specific process for reflection provides the basis for integrating theory and practice.

This paper discusses a problem which is largely, though not exclusively, peculiar to the older universities in Great Britain where, in recent years, many long-established departments of Christian theology have expanded their area of responsibility to include religious studies. However, the author believes that what he has to say is not without relevance to universities and colleges outside of Great Britain which have inherited and continue to maintain a confessional bias in teaching theology and religion.

In view of the current attention being given to "practices," this paper argues that Mortimer Adler and Paulo Freire have developed pedagogical practices that are relevant for the task of teaching theology in a democracy. Emphasizing the connection between education and democratic life, both reject a facile relativism or pragmatism, on the one hand, and an uncritical adherence to either a traditionalist or revolutionary agenda, on the other. Indeed, both present their pedagogies not simply as a means for advocating certain types of religious and ethical practice (whether traditional or revolutionary) but as a means for critically examining those practices in light of the truth and justice – and for believers, the reality of God – they presuppose. This essay examines precisely how they do this and what their relevance might be for the teaching of theology in a democracy where the co-existence of competing religious and ethical claims is a given.

The author makes a case for the contributions of liberal theology to the transformative pedagogy that is essential for the flourishing of human beings in the twenty-first century. First he advocates the retention of liberal theology, but in a postmodern form that is open, critical, experiential, visionary, and culturally transformative. Then he demonstrates points of contact between this revisioned theology and liberal education, particularly those connections manifested in five elements of transformative pedagogy: education and life-formation, the rhythm of education, constructive and interactive knowledge, connected and imaginative teaching, and education as the practice of freedom. The author concludes that a revisioned liberal theology can contribute significantly to the recovery and explication of the religious dimension of education and its incumbent power of transformation.