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

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

3. 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

4. “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.

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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?

8. 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.

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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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

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

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

15. 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

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

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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,

22. 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

23. 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

24. Resources http://www.nalm.org/