Culture that
Matters:
Intercultural
Explorations in
Religious
Educations
November 2-4,
2007
Hyatt Harborside
Hotel - Boston,
Massachusetts
We live in an interconnected world where human
groups are discovering each other in new ways. And once again,
culture matters! Through culture each human group mediates the world
and forges an identity within that world. Religions are crucial in
facilitating this process. There is no religious tradition that one
way or the other reflects, explains, justifies, and perpetuate the
cultural patterns of those who participate of that tradition. These
patterns include the cultures represented in the sacred texts but
also the cultural identities of its interpreters. Within those
traditions religious educators function as cultural workers- through
the language and forms of religious faith and practices, a
particular culture is transmitted.
Race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, class, age,
and other indicators of human diversity are not foreign to religious
knowledge and practices but they provide the cultural loci from
which we explain the desired universality of our religious beliefs.
If religious belief and faith experience are intrinsically connected
to the cultural forms that shape our religious identity it is
important to ask: In what ways is faith transmission mediated by
what I find valuable in my culture? How does my cultural identity
influence my thinking about religion and education? Can I reflect on
the distinction between the “content” of faith or tradition and my
own cultural identity? In what ways is what I teach, and the ways I
teach, a reflection of cultural influences and interests? Are there
ways in which your teaching exclude or alienate learners because of
the cultural values upon which is based?
By taking consciousness of our cultural approaches
to religious education we open ourselves to religious knowledge from
other people’s culture. Thus we may ask; What have we encountered
worth incorporating into our evolving religious identity? What can I
find in other cultural expressions that not only make us more
sensitive and tolerant but help us revisit our own understanding of
the life-long process of faith formation?
I invite religious educators to explore these
questions an by doing so to promote intercultural dialogues that
will further enhance our faith knowledge (beyond ethnocentric
theologies) and improve our efforts to educate people in faith
(beyond ethnocentric pedagogies). I invite religious educators to do
so by “making the familiar strange and the strange familiar.” More
than ever culture matters and religious educators are challenged to
make explicit the culture(s) that matter to their efforts of faith
formation and transformation.
Questions
and comments about the theme and offers to assist in the design of
the meeting may be directed to President-Elect, Dr. Jose Irizarry.
Email:
JIrizarr@mccormick.edu
