Subgerencia de Infraestructura

A conformity orientation is characterised by a closed narrative concept. The „great story’ o f the Christian tradition is expected to be handed down. When Christian adult education is undertaken from this orienta­ tion, the goal o f religious education is the appropriation o f the established Christian tradition by the participants. The direction o f religious identity development is fixed, i.e., from the outside in. The content o f the reli­ gious identity that is formed in this process may, however, vary and may emphasise intra-personal, inter-personal or supra-personal aspects.

a Conformity: intra-personal

Where the goal o f religious education is the appropriation o f the Chris­ tian tradition, the pedagogical orientation is one o f conformity. Within this orientation, emphasis can be on intra-personal identity, as is the case in kerygmatic catechesis. This form o f catechesis is seen, for example, in the kerygmatic theology o f Jungmann (1936), in which Jesus Christ is placed at the centre o f the Christian faith. The Christ mystery and the proclamation o f this mystery are central (Van der Ven, 1982, p.380-382). In Christ, the message o f the gospel takes on a more personal form, and therefore can be more readily related to the concrete life world o f the participants. The idea behind this proclamation o f the message is that it is an appeal to the faith o f the participants, to which they must give a per­ sonal response. The personal faith confession o f the catechist plays an important role here. When the catechist reveals how she has been person­ ally touched by the message, her faith is „transmitted’ to the participants. Ultimately, the goal o f kergymatic catechesis is personal surrender to Jesus Christ (De Jong, 2002; Hemel, 1986, p.78-94).

An example o f kergymatic adult catechesis in the Netherlands is pro­ vided by W. Bless. Bless refers, for example, to the New Catechism, in which revelation is not seen as a system o f clear and well-defined truths, but as a message (Bless, 1971, p.95-125). In the process, there is a shift from a rational approach to faith as a mystery:

There is a level within us, deeper than reason, more personal than emotion, more human than the unconscious [...] There Jesus speaks to us when He asks about faith (Bless. 1971, p.102-103).

W e see that in this instance, the education process is aimed at developing an intra-personal identity, and that it does so from a conformity orienta­ tion. The intention is not to encourage the self to write its unique reli­ gious narrative. The Christian narrative is transmitted from above as the „great story’. The individual is expected to adopt or appropriate that nar­ rative as his own. Christ offers a model o f being human, and participants come to know themselves as religious selves in relation to that model. Religious identity consists in this personal relationship with Christ as Redeemer and Saviour. Hence we speak o f an intra-personal form of identity. The outward form (for example devotional praxis) is secondary; the personal relationship with Jesus as the Christ is primary.

b Conformity: inter-personal

Education that pursues conformity as its goal orientation can also be con­ cerned primarily with inter-personal religious identity. This is the case, for example, with hermeneutic adult education. In hermeneutic cateche­ sis, an effort is made to make the Christian tradition and the Bible rele­ vant to today (Hemel, 1986, p.78-94). Because o f the distance between the world o f the Bible and that o f today, the meaning o f biblical texts can be unlocked only by indirect means. This means seeking the contempo­ rary meaning o f the Bible text, which is found by looking at the life con­ text o f the participants. Biblical texts can help people better understand themselves and the world in a religious sense, for example by suggesting the right questions to ask about their present-day situation. In this way, hermeneutic interpretation, which goals to unlock the contemporary meaning o f a Bible text, can close the gap between Christian tradition and present-day experience (Van der Ven, 1982, p.386-390). People’s particular questions, such as those about the meaning o f life, can be an­ swered on the basis o f the tradition. It is important to be aware, however that these answers are specific to a particular time and thus need to be reviewed in terms o f the past as well as the present. In hermeneutic cate­ chesis, the meaning o f the pre-determined Christian narrative is unlocked

by interpreting tradition in the language o f today’s experience (Konijn, 1973, p.19-25, 46f).2

Hermeneutic catechesis focuses on inter-personal identity because this bridging between traditions and present-day understanding o f faith is not an individual activity, but a social process o f interpreting the meaning of the Christian tradition as it applies to today’s individuals and today’s situation. The pedagogical goal orientation is one o f conformity. In the process o f transmission, the authority o f the Christian tradition is ac­ cepted, and the content o f the Christian narrative is not questioned.

c Conformity: supra-personal

Within the conformity orientation, it is also possible to focus mainly on the dimension o f supra-personal identity. This kind o f approach can be found in neo-scholastic catechesis. The neo-scholastic approach rests on proclamation o f the Truth, as guaranteed by the church’s doctrinal au­ thority. Acceptance o f these Catholic religious truths and the authority of the church as the guardian thereof is one way for humans to achieve sal­ vation and redemption. Deharbe’s so-called question-and-answer cate­ chism from 1847, for example, asks what we must do to be saved. The answers are prescribed and must be learned by rote (Van der Ven, 1982, p.369-382). The goal o f the neo-scholastic model is to form a Christian identity based on the appropriation o f a system o f institutionally an­ chored ideas and beliefs. A systematic and comprehensive instruction in the tenets o f faith is therefore essential (Hemel, 1986, p.78-94).

The individual’s life story is constructed in accordance with prescribed truths. Christian doctrine is presented as an all encompassing, eternal and

unchangeable narrative, as

the

by reproducing this narrative. Because the ‘collective voice’ must be taken over by the individual, we speak o f a supra-personal identity. Here we see once again the closed narrative concept o f a conformity goal ori­ entation. In keeping with this orientation, identity formation is seen as a process that occurs from the outside in: the person accepts the faith teachings o f the church, and becomes a ‘sounding board’ o f this pre­ scribed Truth.

2 S. Konijn (1973) refers to the New Catechism to emphasize that in a changed context,

2.4.2 Christian adult education from a self-determination