Adolescent Pedagogy As Seen Through the Theological Lens of Latino Spirituality
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La Salle University La Salle University Digital Commons Th.D. Dissertations Scholarship 5-2020 Entregado a los Estudiantes: Adolescent Pedagogy As Seen Through the Theological Lens of Latino Spirituality Christian Arellano La Salle University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/religion_thd Recommended Citation Arellano, Christian, "Entregado a los Estudiantes: Adolescent Pedagogy As Seen Through the Theological Lens of Latino Spirituality" (2020). Th.D. Dissertations. 12. https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/religion_thd/12 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Scholarship at La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Th.D. Dissertations by an authorized administrator of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. La Salle University School of Arts and Sciences Graduate Program in Theology and Ministry Dissertation Entregado a los Estudiantes: Adolescent Pedagogy as seen through the Theological Lens of Latino Spirituality By Christian Arellano (B.A., La Salle University, 2003, Religion/ Secondary Education M.A, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, Theology) Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology 2020 WE, THE UNDERSIGNED MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE, HAVE APPROVED THIS THESIS Entregado a los Estudiantes: Adolescent Pedagogy as seen through the Theological Lens of Latino Spirituality By Christian Arellano COMMITTEE MEMBERS _____Bro. John Crawford, F.S.C. – signed electronically _________________________________________________________________________ Bro. John Crawford, F.S.C., Ph.D. (Mentor) La Salle University ____Fr.. Kenneth Hallahan, Ph.D. – signed electronically __________________________________________________________________________ Fr. Kenneth Hallahan, Ph.D. (1st Reader) La Salle University _______Fr. Francis Berna, Ph.D. – signed electronically _______________________________________________________________________ Fr. Francis Berna, Ph.D. (2nd Reader) La Salle University La Salle University, Philadelphia May 2020 Abstract The Catholic secondary educational system has not considered a new challenge in implementing cultural pedagogy as its primary form of transmitting dogmatic truth to its students despite the widespread presence of modern immigrants who are not concentrated in specific parishes. Taking into consideration that Hispanic/Latinos comprise a large share of the Catholic population in America, this issue is important. The traditional forms of teaching religion in the secondary school system primarily emphasize a Euro-American style that neglects the spiritual and religious dynamics of Hispanic/Latinos. Since divine revelation does not favor a particular cultural perspective or lifestyle, all cultural pathways that enhance faith formation must be explored in the classroom. Furthermore, it is essential that religion teachers enhance their students’ awareness about their vocational calling to the three-fold mission of Jesus: to be priest, prophet, and king. This primary task is the way in which all members of the church participate in building the kingdom of God on earth. To be effective, the characterization of Jesus’s three-fold mission must be interpreted through the Hispanic/Latino adolescents’ cultural lens. I propose a pedagogical strategy, which I term entregarse, that addresses the need to incorporate modern forms of student-centered techniques that enhance Hispanic/Latino adolescents’ vocational awareness consistent with their spiritual and cultural identity. Some of these techniques include class conversations, cooperative learning, online researching, interviews, and class presentations. A practical application of the dynamics of entregarse is presented by way of lesson plans. Each lesson plan follows a format that is designed to guide religion teachers in enabling their students to recognize and practice their three-fold baptismal call. Contents Introduction Entregado a los Estudiantes: Adolescent Pedagogy as seen through the Theological Lens of Latino Spirituality 1 Chapter 1 Christians are Called to Enter into Jesus’ own Roles of Priest, Prophet, and King 6 Chapter 2 The Call to be Priest 41 Chapter 3 The Call to be Prophet 77 Chapter 4 The Call to be King 113 Chapter 5 From Theory to Practice: Applying the dynamics of Entregarse into a Classroom Setting 146 Chapter 6 Implementing the Dynamics of Entregarse to a Mixed Classroom 180 1 Introduction As a Hispanic religion teacher, I am sensitive to the vast cultural perspectives that illuminate the spiritual dimensions of God’s immensity. However, in my fifteen years of educating high school students in the field of religion, I have recognized that the classroom approaches, objectives, and educational content that are available are not adequately preparing Catholic students for a life in a Church that is culturally diversified. As studies have continually indicated, the current and future demographics of the Catholic Church in America are and will be culturally proportioned with Hispanic/Latinos making up the majority of Catholics.1 The Church’s current pedagogical approach to faith formation lacks in dynamics, strategies, and tactics that are culturally and spiritually enriching to all students. The current educational approaches fail in creating a classroom setting that welcomes cultural reciprocity as a means of learning to revere each other’s cultural encounters with God. While it is necessary that religious instruction focuses on the revealed truths that guide us to eternal communion with God, it is also imperative that classroom lessons reveal the unique identity of the various Catholic cultural communities that the students will encounter. For example, high school religion textbooks may have brief commentaries on the theological and spiritual significance of the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. However, rather than compressing content that represents a significant historical encounter with the divine for the mestizo community, such instances should be more fully developed to assist students in understanding the spiritual values of the Hispanic/Latino community. A lack of cultural and spiritual awareness weakens and/or separates our relationship with other Catholic cultural communities. This end opposes St. Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 1 Hosffman Ospino, “Ten Ways Hispanics Are Redefining American Catholicism,” America: The Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture, November 13, 2017, 18-23. 2 12: 12-14 which states, “There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so, we are formed into one body. It did not matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves, or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So, the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.” Strengthening the understanding of all Catholics to the unique cultural religious expressions of the Hispanic/Latino community can result in unifying the many parts of the Body of Christ and making the institutional Church stronger. In Chapter 1, I demonstrate that the universality of the Catholic Church is maintained and enriched through the practice of our baptismal vocation, which manifests the unique holiness of all the parts of the body. In other words, our baptismal vocations are mutually valuable and illustrate God’s holiness in the world without regard to the age, position, or culture of the believers. Vatican II asserts what later popes would reconfirm: the mission to sanctify the secular world is given to all the baptized members of the Church through a three-fold responsibility to take on Jesus’ roles of priest, prophet, and king. Highly regarded Church leaders, scholars, and ministerial leaders, such as Pope Francis, Walter Brueggemann, and Father Gregory Boyle, have contributed to our understanding of the physical and spiritual qualities that are necessary in order to respond to our three-fold mission. Pope Francis reminds the Church faithful that its priestly vocation is also a call to encounter God, to submit to the original message of the kerygma as well as to the experience of the faithful community, to become vulnerable for the sake of compassion, and to practice everyday gestures and virtues which are representative of a Christian life.2 Walter Brueggemann’s book, The Prophetic Imagination, discloses that at the heart of the prophetic mission in the Old Testament is to galvanize the faithful community’s consciousness against leaders who have misused their power by marginalizing those considered expendable. This same 2 Pope Francis mentions these Christian qualities in his book The People Wish to See Jesus. 3 mission is transmitted to the faithful community in baptism and is to be practiced within the particular communities with whom they come in contact. Father Gregory Boyle’s holistic approach to working with Latino gang members in East Los Angeles unveils ministerial dynamics that correspond with Jesus’ own kingly mission, the creation of a community of kinship for the marginalized members of society in an effort to establish God’s kingdom on earth. All of the physical and spiritual attributes that are recognized in the works of these writers must be transmitted into the pedagogical practices and attitudes of high school religion teachers in order for them to carry out their vocational obligations. By practicing the three-fold mission