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Life to the Full: the Changing Landscape of Contemporary Spirituality – Implications for Catholic School Religious Education

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Life to the Full: the Changing Landscape of Contemporary Spirituality – Implications for Catholic School Religious Education Cover photograph: It’s even different for 3 year olds The TV is on, but behind the child’s back. The books of culture are available, including the religious ones; but they are closed. And she is exploring the world at her fingertips. First published 2018 By the Agora for Spiritual, Moral and Religious Education (ASMRE) 67 Milroy Avenue, Kensington NSW 2033, Australia. Printed by PRINT2DAY PTY LTD 295-299 Pennant Hills Road Thornleigh NSW 2120 www.print2day.com.au Copyright © Graham Rossiter 2018 All rights are reserved under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments. This book is available for free download and distribution. Limited numbers of hard copy are available from the publisher. National library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data Rossiter, Graham Life to the full: The changing landscape of contemporary spirituality – implications for Catholic school religious education Bibliography: For educators and tertiary students in education ISBN 978-0-9808681-5-9 Religious education Catholic schools Spirituality Personal development TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents iii Foreword by Br Gerard Rummery vi Preface and Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1 Introduction: Outlining a preferred view of the nature and purposes of Australian 1 Catholic school Religious Education Classroom religious education as part of the spiritual/religious dimension to Catholic 1 schooling The nature and purposes of classroom religious education 1 The context and identity of Catholic school religious education 2 Student statistics for Australian Catholic schools and the religious disposition of students 3 Catholic Church expectations of Catholic school religious education 4 Part A The changing landscape of contemporary spirituality – a ‘need to know’ for 6 Religious Educators Chapter 2 Three fundamental terms: Religion, Faith and Spirituality – as related to 7 Religious Education Studying Religion as a focal point for religious education: A brief summary 8 An introductory summary of some Christian understandings of religious faith 9 Some questions that arise about the meaning and psychological function of religious faith 10 Some further questions about faith that have implications for religious education 11 How does faith function in contemporary secularised culture? 11 How does faith deal with the uncertainty in spiritual knowledge proposed by cultural 11 postmodernity? Faith, theology and religious education 13 What it means to educate young people’s faith 15 Spirituality: Why it is a useful construct for interpreting the spiritual and moral dimensions 15 to culture, and also why it is useful for religious education Spirituality as a central bridging construct between religious and secular thinking about 17 what it means to educate for personal development Conclusion 18 Chapter 3 The new challenge: Understanding how and why secularisation developed – 20 traditional Medieval Christian spirituality as the initial historical marker Change in cultural meanings: A scheme for interpreting how and why spirituality has 20 changed Sociological Systems for understanding secularisation 21 A portrait of the cultural meanings in a traditional religious spirituality – in Medieval 24 Christianity in Europe Chapter 4 The contrasts: Change factors that influenced the development of a relatively 27 secular, individualistic spirituality Changes away from a traditional religious spirituality understood in terms of change in 27 cultural meanings Cultural meanings associated with a relatively secular, eclectic, individualistic spirituality 29 Summary: Contrasting portraits of traditional religious and secular spirituality 32 Picture of a traditional Medieval Christian spirituality 32 Picture of a contemporary, individualistic, secular, subjective spirituality 33 Healthy spirituality: Criteria for the identification and evaluation of spirituality 35 Conclusion: A starting point for considering implications for Catholic school religious 36 education iii LIFE TO THE FULL Chapter 5 Secularisation? Or a different ‘religion’ called consumerist lifestyle? – The 38 research literature The context, appraising the values underpinning contemporary consumerist lifestyle 39 Use of the term mise-en-scène as an analytical construct 39 Why start with medieval spirituality? 40 What the research literature in religion, the media and advertising has to say about the 41 possible ‘religious’ function of consumerist lifestyle Studies on the relationships between media, culture and religion 41 Studies in advertising and marketing: What are they saying about religion, culture and 46 the media? Studies in advertising and marketing: What can marketers learn from religions to 47 enhance business? Conclusion 48 Chapter 6 Decoding the mise-en-scène of contemporary consumerist lifestyle: A pedagogy 50 for religious education Contrasting the mise-en-scène in medieval Christian spirituality with that of contemporary 50 consumerist lifestyle How the mise-en-scène of traditional, medieval Christian spirituality was sustained by 51 religious artefacts The popular cultural imagery in contemporary Westernised societies that mediates a 52 different mise-en-scène: A research pedagogy for comparing ‘religious’ functions of medieval Christianity with aspects of contemporary consumerist lifestyle. Looking into some of the results of the research pedagogy 53 Summary of contrasts: Mise-en-scène in traditional and contemporary spiritualities 60 Some implications for religious education 61 Chapter 7 An example critique of some of the beliefs and values in ‘consumerist religion’ 63 Teasing out the mise-en-scène of contemporary lifestyle with a view to informing educators 63 From bespoke for the wealthy towards designer status for whosoever can afford it 63 Why do people shop to buy designer status? 64 What is wrong with having designer branded goods? 65 How visual imagery resonates with the contemporary consumerist mise-en-scène and 66 conditions people’s thinking and behaviour Changing media ‘diet’ and exposure to the mythology of consumerist lifestyle 69 Finding the balance 69 Critical interpretation and evaluation of lifestyles: Implications for religious education 70 Conclusion: Pedagogical significance of the contrasts in the visual elements to traditional 71 and contemporary spiritualities Chapter 8 Contrasts between children's spirituality and adolescent spirituality: Some 73 questions for religious education at primary school level Children’s spirituality and primary school religious education 74 Adolescent spirituality and religious education 74 Perspective on interrelationships between children’s and youth spirituality 75 What is the principal starting point for interpreting children’s spirituality? 75 Hearing about god for the first time – content and pedagogical implications 77 Progression from children’s to adolescent spirituality 78 Summary conclusions: Some implications for primary school religious education 80 Part B Issues for Catholic school Religious Education 83 Chapter 9 Continuing language problems for Catholic school Religious Education 84 Introduction 84 How religion teachers understood their dual commitments to the church and to the personal 86 development of their students The historical pattern in the use of key words for Australian Catholic school religious 87 education Brief overview of ecclesiastical terms that have been applied to Catholic school religious 90 education Special attention to the use of the term ‘faith formation’ 91 Conclusions and recommendations 92 iv CONTENTS Chapter The need for a critical, dialogical, inquiring pedagogy and issue-related content 95 10 – re-orienting the Catholic school religion curriculum How a religiously sponsored education might enhance a relatively secular youth spirituality 96 – probing the relationships between the spiritual and the religious General implications for religious education in the changed landscape of spirituality 96 1. Access to young people’s inheritance of cultural religious meanings: Studying the 97 religious tradition 2. Critical interpretation and evaluation of culture 97 Implications for pedagogy and content 99 Relationships between primary and secondary school religious education 101 Conclusion 102 Chapter Perspective on the Catholic identity of Catholic schools, and educating young 105 11 people in personal identity development Introduction 106 Some sociological background to the interest in institutional religious identity:- 106 What drives the interest in identity? Examples of factors precipitating institutional identity anxiety. Comments on implications for the discourse on the Catholic identity of schools. Signposting the literature and practice related to the Catholic identity of schools 110 Some ideas/themes that could be given more emphasis in the discourse on the Catholic 113 identity of Catholic schools Appraising the various components to the construct ‘Catholic identity’ of schools 112 Personal identity development in relation to institutional identity 114 Institutional identity as a reference point for personal identity development 115 What it means to educate in identity 116 Catholic school identity related to the joint church-state partnership and contribution to 117 the common good The Enhancing Catholic School Identity Project 117 Summary conclusion 120 Final theological reflection: Identity issues in the New Testament communities and with 121 the historical Jesus Part C Leadership in demonstrating a spiritual and moral dimension to Australian 125 school education
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