Jack L. Seymour, Mapping Christian Education: Approaches to Christian Learning, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997. 139 pages. ISBN 0-687-00812-3

Reviewed by Ted Witham

To begin at the end of this encouraging “road map for the vast landscape of religious education”, in which four Christian educators each outline a contemporary approach to the way congregations learn and grow, Jack Seymour, Professor of Religious Education at Garrett Seminary in Illinois, sketches the task of Christian education with these words:

Christian education must provide open spaces where people can learn the faith tradition, engage that tradition with issues of life, and seek to live together in ways that are faithful to God.           (p. 118)

The collaborators for this book write of four different signposts surveying Christian education in the nineties:

·        transformation;

·        faith community;

·        spiritual growth, and

·        religious instruction.

Mennonite minister Daniel Schipani tells the story of a congregation that took seriously the issue of racism. They began with a small group who sought their own transformation first, before slowly encouraging the whole church to engage in reconciliation within the church and in the community. For Schipani, education is about enlarging people’s vision, inspiring vocation and deepening virtue. The purpose of the compassionate church is to begin to transform the world with love.

Robert O’Gorman enthusiastically charts the way the faith community is the basis for congregational learning. Learning from the experience of the Base Christian Communities in South America, O’Gorman is also conscious of the limits of small groups, and encourages them to turn outwards from their own lives to the wider community.

For Maria Harris and Gabriel Moran, personal spiritual growth is paramount. Silence, listening, sabbath, study and service all play their part in deepening and enriching the inner life.

Elizabeth Caldwell uses the metaphor of “home making” to describe the frontier of religious instruction. She reflects on the need many express to know more about their faith to better understand their life.

These four exploratory essays surprised me in the degree of overlap. It was like looking at a square paddock from each corner post. Even in a useful summary chart of the four approaches, in which he sets out the differences between the four poles, Seymour is obviously aware not only of their shared tradition, but also of the convergence of where ideas about congregational learning are today. ... so much so that he is able to list four clues which “coalesce” from the four approaches.

1) facing into the world is the task of Christian education;

2) the congregation is the primary setting for Christian education;

3) theological reflection is the methodology; and

4) religious learning occurs in hospitable, just, and open spaces for conversation and truth-telling. (p.121.)

It is not surprising to me, then, if Seymour has accurately portrayed our present situation, that programmes like Education for Ministry (EFM), Alpha and Godly Play are expanding world-wide, and processes like the catechumenate also provide a safe place for people to grow into faith.

Professor Seymour has done us a service by mapping our position in the contemporary world.

First published in the Anglican Messenger  (Perth WA) in 1997