Following God S Pedagogy

In the 2020 Directory for Catechesis, the Church calls for a renewal of catechesis that focuses on bringing people to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. Solid formation is not only about teaching doctrine, but also, and more importantly, about forming disciples who have encountered and know Christ. In Following God’s Pedagogy, Sister Mary Michael Fox, OP, brings decades of experience in catechesis to offer a unique and proven model for children’s catechesis. She draws upon her deep catechetical experience and thorough research into the nature of the child, divine revelation, and catechetical methodology. She offers timely insight into how the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) offers an approach to children’s catechesis that forms the mind and heart of the child, leading them into a deeper relationship with Christ and a life of discipleship. Bishops, diocesan catechetical directors, and all catechists will discover a way of faith formation of children that is sure to renew and strengthen catechesis for years to come.

In the 2020 Directory for Catechesis, the Church calls for a renewal of catechesis that focuses on bringing people to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. Solid formation is not only about teaching doctrine, but also, and more importantly, about forming disciples who have encountered and know Christ. In Following God’s Pedagogy, Sister Mary Michael Fox, OP, brings decades of experience in catechesis to offer a unique and proven model for children’s catechesis. She draws upon her deep catechetical experience and thorough research into the nature of the child, divine revelation, and catechetical methodology. She offers timely insight into how the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) offers an approach to children’s catechesis that forms the mind and heart of the child, leading them into a deeper relationship with Christ and a life of discipleship. Bishops, diocesan catechetical directors, and all catechists will discover a way of faith formation of children that is sure to renew and strengthen catechesis for years to come.

The "pedagogy of God" lies at the heart of the restoration currently advancing in the area of religious education and catechesis. According to the General Directory for Catechesis, the primary difficulty facing catechesis today is that catechists do not yet have a full understanding of "the conception of catechesis as a school of faith, an initiation and apprenticeship in the entire Christian life."

Theologians today are facing a crisis of identity. Are they members of the academy or the church? Is it still possible to be members of both? In God and the Teaching of Theology, Steven Harris argues a way through the impasse by encompassing both church and academy within the umbrella of the divine economy. To accomplish this, Harris uses St. Paul’s description of this economy in the opening chapters of his first letter to the Corinthians. Through Paul’s discussion of wisdom, the Spirit, and the apostles’ role in sharing that divine wisdom, theologians of the patristic, medieval, and Reformation eras found a description of their own work as educators; they discovered that they too had roles within the same divine economy. This book thus offers a rich description of the teaching of theology as part of God’s own divine pedagogy, stretching from God the teacher himself, through the nature of students and teachers of theology, to the goal of this pedagogy: human salvation in the knowledge of God. In addressing the current identity crisis of theology faculties, Harris looks backward in order to chart a way forward. His book will appeal to academic theologians, and to theological and church educators, pastors, and Christians interested in the relationship between academic study and their faith.

This work addresses Lasallian pedagogical spirituality, defined as the dynamic integration of foundational convictions, basic operative commitments, and consistent practices permeating the teaching dimensions of schools that claim the heritage of St. John Baptist de La Salle and the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The dissertation examines the content of Lasallian pedagogical spirituality and proposes measures for realizing its vitality within Lasallian school life. Particular pedagogical characteristics, components of an overall pedagogical spirituality, are present in the original charism of St. John Baptist de La Salle. The basic operative commitments that underlie those characteristics ought to be integrally realized in a pedagogy that claims to be Lasallian and wholly incorporated in the formation of Lasallian educators. There are three sequential parts to the dissertation: 1) an overview of the St. John Baptist de La Salle's context and personal history, 2) an overview of his literature followed by an analysis of aspects of Lasallian pedagogical spirituality evidenced in that literature according to five pedagogical elements: the teacher, the student, the teacher/student relationship, the activity of teaching, and the school in general, and 3) a contemporary articulation of the Lasallian basic operative commitments that characterize his spirituality today, along with their implications for the formation of Lasallian educators Extrapolating from the life and writings of De La Salle, ten Lasallian operative commitments are proposed. The commitments are presented in the form of attributes that may be applied to Lasallian institutions and their pedagogical components: 1) centered in and nurtured by the life of faith, 2) trusting providence in discerning God's will, 3) with creativity and fortitude, 4) through the agency the Holy Spirit, 5) incarnating Christian paradigms & dynamics, 6) with practical orientation, 7) devoted to education, accessible and comprehensive, 8) committed to the poor, 9) working in association, 10) expressing a lay vocation. The dissertation concludes by presenting teacher formation structures and strategies for introducing Lasallian operative commitments and by providing a Lasallian Mission and Vision Statement.

How do you imagine the unimaginable or touch the untouchable? Through the characteristic use of teaching methods identified in Wisdom Literature, Adrian Hinkle discusses how religious training is described within the Hebrew Bible. Through her vivid discussion of the biblical texts, readers gain insight into teaching methodologies that stimulate new discussions and impact modern church leaders and educators.

The presence of didactic, wisdom-like passages in the Book of Psalms presents a puzzle because it suggests a non-liturgical origin and pedagogical aim distinct from the more dominant psalmic language of lament and praise. Catherine Petrany argues for a literary and theological approach to the question of wisdom's role in the psalms that accounts for its meaningful integration with these other kinds of discourse. The unique contextualization of wisdom motifs in the psalms creates a pedagogical platform unique to the book, one related to but distinct from the pedagogies of the biblical wisdom corpus. Human wisdom speech in the psalms points beyond the classroom to the congregation and asks its hearers to become speakers, that is, to enter into conversation with the divine.