From religion to spirituality

From religion to spirituality;from knowledge about to encounter with God

“Children are not the people of tomorrow, but are people of today. They have a right to be taken seriously, and to be treated with tenderness and respect. They should be allowed to grow into whoever they were meant to be. 'The unknown person' inside of them is our hope for the future.”

- Janusz Korczak

Background of religious education: a recent shift in the theological

landscape

From fall/redemption outlook to creation-centred

spirituality

Fall/redemption outlook (dominated long centuries of Christian self-understanding)

Fall/redemption: the central place: the cross, Jesus’ passion, death….

Fall/redemption: Chris’s sacrifice – prefigured in Isaac’ story

Fall/redemption: the main emphasis on the past (what did happen in the past) and….

… future: return of Christ and judgment…)

Fall/redemption and the dominant view on God: male, powerful, divine character….

Fall/redemption:

…My God is so big, so strong and so mighty,there's nothing that he cannot do.My God is so big, so strong and so mighty,there's nothing that he cannot do.

Fall/redemption: the kingdom of God: ‘up-there’

Creation-centred spirituality

• God: loving and compassionate Parent• Jesus: vulnerable friend of excluded, poor, weak• Kingdom of God: here, among us• The path to God: care for creation, solidarity with

the poor, rejected and those who suffer

Creation-centred spirituality

• Nature, the visible world, the Bible: all signpost to God who is beyond our imagination

Fall/redemption: who I am?

Creation-centred spirituality: who I am?

Fall/redemption: what is religion?

Religion is what I do in the presence of God

Creation-centred spirituality: what is religion?

My way of life which responds to God’s care for the world, other people and my body, mind and spirit

Creation-centred spirituality: why did Jesus die?

From religion to spirituality;from knowledge about to encounter with God