Methods of Christian Education and Theology

Extract

The appropriateness of an article of this kind in a theological journal, even in a journal which recognises the importance of good religious education and sees it as a sphere of theological concern, may be open to question. For methods may seem to be of limited interest and importance to the educator himself, and certainly to be excluded by their very nature from any dialogue into which the theologian might wish to enter with him. A division has, in fact, been made between ‘method’ and ‘content’, as if these two existed in complete detachment from each other. ‘Content’ is regarded as the more important and of proper theological interest, inasmuch as the framing of catechisms or the drawing up of catechetical programmes or church curricula involves right understanding and right statement of the Bible witness. ‘Method’, if thought of at all, is regarded as neutral and unworthy of serious theological consideration. Such positions at least deserve re-examining, and their re-examination may help to justify this theme in this journal.