CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY IMPLICATIONS FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

Spirituality has changed over time in conjunction with new cultural and social contexts. There is a need to accept and understand the contemporary context where only a minority of students will become engaged in parish life. “The problem today is to find the art of drawing religion out of people rather than pumping it into them…The Holy Spirit is in people. The art is to help them become who they are.” ( Karl Rahner, 2000)

How do we stop the decline in religiosity and traditional spirituality? How can a formula be created to help reverse the drift away from the Church? How do we acknowledge the changed spiritual situation? How do we help young people identify, interpret and evaluate the contemporary spiritual & moral issues that confront the? “…helping young people learn how to identify, interpret and evaluate contemporary spiritual/moral issues needs to become a more prominent part of religious education, especially in the senior years; and this has implications for both content and pedagogy ” (Rossiter, 2002, pg. 130)

CULTURAL MEANINGS IDEAS AND SELF INTERPRETATION ReligiousCulturalpoliticalSocialSpiritualfeelingsvalues “It is like the ‘atmosphere of meaning’ that people are continuously ‘breathing in’ and it is like the immediate ‘thinking/feeling environment’ they inhabit” (Rossiter, 2010, pg134) The Cycle of Spirituality The Spiritual moment (awakening, awareness) -Attending -Inquiring (Ranson, 2002)

CHURCH Centrality of God Obedience and fear Political power Unquestioning acceptance TRADITIONAL SPIRITUALITY LIMITED VARIATION LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF SACRED WRITINGS CERTAINTY

“When a community abdicates the role of storytelling to the mass media, particularly commercial media, a focus on wellbeing or the good life is diminished to stories about feeling good” Eckersley et al. (2006, pg. 35) Alternative, popular cultural meanings about life that are largely independent of religious views facilitate options for thinking. The individuals frame of reference is positioned as more significant.

“Our Western crisis in religious faith is partly a crisis of language and representation. It is not that we have lost our capacity for spiritual feeling…but we have lost our ability to locate this feeling in old theological forms. The old religious worldview no longer resonates with the understandings of the young of the secular world in which they live” (Tacey, 2000 cited in Liddy, 2002, pg.14) “...we are the creatures who recognise ourselves as 'adrift' or as 'trapped' or as 'stranded' or as being in some precarious relationship to this world; and as users of language, we are the ones who not only take in the world's 'objects' but build them up in our minds, and use them... to keep from feeling alone, and to gain for ourselves a sense of where we came from and where we are and where we are going.” (Coles, 1990, cited in Liddy, 2002, pg.15). “sit lightly to institution even if we drink deeply from our tradition” (Schneider, 2003, pg181) Movement of people into developing cities Separation of church and state Move from predominantly religious art Rise of science, scientific thought and the enlightenment Influence of the human sciences on behaviour Education Technology communicating cultural meanings Secularisation of spirituality in Europe, (Rossiter, 2010, pg139)

Traditional societies, TRADITIONAL SPIRITUALITY Personal meaning is a social given Religious belief as a map for life Religious authority and obedience Image of God dominant Strong family and community ties Limited knowledge of the world outside Life is predictable Westernised societies, CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY DIY constructed spirituality Searching for meaning Cultural agnosticism about meaning, purpose and certainty in life Life more varied and comfortable Experiential truth Individuals as their own spiritual authority Uncertainty about God Individualism Knowledge of outside world Rapid social change Authenticity? Choice? Choice is what students are accustomed to, it is their lived reality. Can a religious education curriculum be authentic if it is rigid and doesn’t adequately accept variance? What choice do teachers have if the normative curriculum context sits in the left column?

STUDENTTEACHER “…long before we do anything explicitly religious at all, we have to do something about the fire that burns within us” (Rolheiser R.,1999, p. 5)) What questions are they asking and what experiences are they seeking? (Kessler and Coles) Understand their capacity foe “relational consciousness” and nurture their unique spiritual disposition (Hay and Nye) Provide a tactile environment that evokes the felt sense and ensures students draw on their bodies as a primal sense of wisdom (Hyde) Begin with students own world view, their personal framework of meaning (Hyde and Ranson) Create a space to nurture spirituality (Hyde) What is the purpose of life? Listen and then respond (Coles) Support your own inner life (Palmer and Parker) Understand who you are so that the in classroom space is vital and alive (Intrator) Help young people learn how to identify, interpret and evaluate contemporary spiritual/moral issues (Rossiter) Teach authentically by creating a community of truth that is derived from your integrity and identity (Palmer)

“…change the focus from trying to eliminate and replace contemporary spirituality towards trying to diagnose and address the needs constructively- responding to the opportunity to enhance young people’s spirituality whether it is religious or not.” Rossiter, 2010, pp

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