Hypothesis: Faith trends today and Church Curriculum Session 07 Michael Pascual, M.A.

Goal Look into the insight of Christopher Smith’s Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

THESIS For teenage religion and spirituality in the United States, “the de facto dominant religion among contemporary teenagers in the US is what is called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” Summarizing the observations from their research

“Codified” (their creed sounds like this) A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and most world religions The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he is needed to resolve a problem Good people go to heaven when they die Emerging from their interviews with U.S. teens More prominent among Catholic and (mainline) Protestant youth, more than a little visible among black and conservative Protestants, Jewish teens, other religious types of teens and even “nonreligious” teenagers in the US.

Reminder No teenager would actually use the terminology “Moralistic Therapeutic Deist” to describe themselves. But it describes their views so well! Let’s look at each word breakdown

MORALISTIC Approach to life “I believe in, well, my whole religion is where you try to be good and, ah, if you’re not good then you should just try to get better, that’s all.” “Just don’t be an asshole, that’s all.” Central to living a good and happy life being a good, moral person. Being moral in this faith means being the kind of person who other people will like, fulfilling one’s personal potential, and not being socially disruptive or interpersonally obnoxious.

Therapeutic Feeling good about oneself is an essential aspect of living a moral life. “When I became a Christian I was just praying, and it always made me feel better.” As long as one is happy, why bother with being able to talk about the belief content of one’s faith? SIN?

Deism God exists, created the world and defines our moral order, but not one who is particularly personally involved in our affairs- especially affairs in which we would prefer not to have God involved.

Note: Deism This is a slight revision from the 18th century version The watchmaker God is conveniently involved when we call upon him.

Notes on all this Not all youth are subscribed to this, but a good number of them do Not just restricted to youth, prominent among adults as well It’s like the modern-day Gnosticism Cannot stand on its own, but instead attaches itself to other religions

The ultimate conclusions from Soul Searching The religion and spirituality of ordinary teenagers around the country reflect the world of adult religion, especially parental religion. Christian Smith observes that only a minority of US teenagers are naturally absorbing “by osmosis” the traditional substantive content and character of the religious traditions to which they claim to belong. The language (and experience) of traditional religious langague is being supplanted by the language of happiness, niceness and an earned heavenly reward. Note: more info needed regarding American Judaism and Mormonism.

In general “Christianity is at least degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith.” – Christian Smith

Fashion Me A People: A curriculum in the Church Presentation based on the book by Maria Harris

HER GOAL To propose a vision of Church as educator that encompasses its total teaching mission

The Church: A People with an Educational Vocation What meaning of education will serve us best in realizing the vocation of the Church? Attempts to recognize the limits of the current understanding of Education and push for a shift

Attempts to re-define education vs schooling Education as formgiving The molding of clay Consider, FAITH FORMATION vs RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

She reflects on the different forms of the Church’s educational ministry (Acts 2:42, 44-47) GREEK TERM TRANSLATE APPLICATION (PAGE 43) KOINONIA COMMUNION BY ENGAGING IN THE FORMS OF COMMUNITY AND COMMUNION LEITURGIA WORSHIP BY ENGAGING IN THE FORMS OF PRAYER AND WORSHIP AND SPIRITUALITY KERYGMA PREACH BY ATTENTION TO AND PRACTICING AND INCARNATING THE KERYGMA, “JESUS IS RISEN,” IN THE SPEECH OF OUR OWN LIVES, ESPECIALLY THE SPEECH OF ADVOCACY DIAKONIA SERVICE BY ATTENTION TO OUR OWN SERVICE AND REACHING OUT TO OTHERS, PERSONALLY AND COMMUNALLY, LOCALLY, AND GLOBALLY DIDACHE TEACH BY ATTENTION TO THE MOST APPROPRIATE FORMS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (INCLUDING SCHOOLING) IN OUR OWN COMMUNITIES Compares to other values: Community, work, knowledge and wisdom Compares to other structures: family, job, schooling and leisure These ordinary universal forms are what educate us in everyday life. Apply it to Church, especially as seen in Acts 2, we can come to this model.

Education as priest, prophet and political Priestly, work of remembering, hallowing, blessing Prophetic, Justice outreach and service tied to teaching, learning and prayer Political, beyond the parish structure Maria Harris sees this interplay as a reflection of EDUCATION AS PRIESTLY, PROPHETIC, AND POLITICAL. Priestly, work of remembering, hallowing, blessing Prophetic, We say and do the work of justice in outreach and service associated with teaching, learning and prayer Political (kingly), as it continues over a lifetime, it extends beyond the borders of the parish structure. COMMUNION WORSHIP PREACH SERVICE TEACH

Her proposed SHIFT honors the interplay of the forms FORMER PRESENT AGENT The individual and/or official THE WHOLE COMMUNITY ACTIVITY Instructing and/or indoctrinating Educating and empowering PARTICIPANTS Children The whole community DIRECTION To know the lore and obey the laws To engage in ministry, in the midst of the world So education has to be more than a passive member that “prays, pays and obeys”, but full conscious and active participation.

But this education shift of Church needs a new understanding of curriculum CURRICULUM – Latin – currere (to run) A course to be run Recognize curriculum has different meanings, especially in its application Consider cultural shifts today in Church Baltimore Catechism in the past

Her proposal of five principles of Curriculum Design As church people, we must consistently distinguish between the curriculum of education and the curriculum of schooling The curriculum of educational ministry is multiple Subject matter has many layers The curriculum must be priestly, prophetic, and political The Curriculum must take into account three forms: The explicit curriculum The implicit curriculum The NULL curriculum Relgious education vs faith formation NOT just bible studies, catechesis, pastor’s classes, or sacramental prep. Subject matter is more than facts and knowledge, it leads to understanding (consider “understanding by design model”. Paulo Freire Needs to interplay the different forms, otherwise its segmented,

The three forms of curriculum EXPLICIT = what is actually presented IMPLICIT = the patterns or organization or procedures that frame the implementation of the explicit curriculum NULL = what’s is left out (can say a lot) GODSPELL example who gets what part, the confidence or lack of confidence of the performers, the personality of the director

THINK, PAIR, SHARE What are three examples of the explicit (implicit, null) curriculum in our church? What is “taught” by each of these examples? Is what is “taught” in harmony with what is assumed or expected by the whole community? What is explicit (implicit, null) in our procedures and methods as a church, our processes and ways of doing things: In teaching, in worship, in community, in advocacy, word, prophetic speech, and in outreach

Resources http://www.nalm.org/ http://www.ncyama.org/about/emergemodels.htm