Title: Adult Religious Education
Author: Marie A. Gillen and Maurice C. Taylor, ed.
Publisher: Paulist Press

Several months ago a director of Religious Education of a Catholic parish said to me: "Jesus taught adults and played with children, but we [Catholics] have taught children and played bingo with adults. We're examining adult education in ways we've never examined it before."

So if adult education is an untested topic in the Catholic tradition, why would a book on adult religious education from a Catholic perspective be so valuable? Whenever folks begin anew without the trappings of years of we've-always-done-it-this-way-before thinking, they usually see perspectives that have been overlooked. Thus, this book deals first with the "why" behind the "what" of religious education. Why are certain components—perhaps missed for years—crucial to how adults grow in their faith?

This question is what makes the book valuable for Protestants as well as Catholics. As Catholic folks examine issues around religious education from a brand new perspective, Protestants are nudged into thinking about the antiquated ideas that plague Christian education today and keep it from being the life-giving source of nurturing it could be. Protestants will also be challenged to think about adult education beyond the Sunday school model.

To present this fresh perspective, editors Marie Gillen and Maurice Taylor have combined 12 essays about adult religious education covering the background questions as well as the practical dimensions of adult education in the church. Gillen is professor of Adult Education at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Taylor is associate professor of Adult Education at the University of Ottawa. The 12 contributors vary from clergy to academics to adult education trainers to a marriage and family counselor.

Gillen and Taylor have aimed this book at anyone involved in adult education—clerical or lay, full-time and part-time, academics and practitioners. The result is a book you may not want to read it cover to cover, but pick and choose what sparks your interest.

What It Means to Develop One's Faith

The four chapters in Part I, "Understanding the Need for Adult Religious Education," propose a balance between emphasis on felt needs (hot topics and solving problems) and helping adults analyze assumptions, challenge values, and consider new ideas. In this way, religious education is never a simple transmission of faith, but an equipping of adults to have a personal relationship with God. Adult learning is more than adding additional information, but helping adults become spiritual people on a journey of finding meaning in what is happening in their lives.

The church becomes a place where adults experience love and respect and where they can ask questions, even if those questions challenge established ways of doing things. The church promotes a "forum" setting rather than didactic one-way communication of truth.

Thinking Outside the Boxes

Part II, "The Many Dimensions of Adult Religious Education in the Community," maintains that adult education must be "sensitive to the local community that it serves [because] the community provides the content, the needs, the issues and the interests for this evolving field [of adult ed.]." This sensitivity is played out in the art and science of program planning, using several programs in the Catholic church as examples.

A chapter on "liturgical formation" (from an ecumenical perspective) encourages the study of liturgy through critical thinking skills: identifying and challenging assumptions and exploring and imagining alternatives. To show how community further affects adult education, J. Gregory Dunwoody's essay offers a case study on how adult education can be approached in a Native American community.

The principles illustrated in this case study can be easily transferred to any community in which a church finds itself. What fascinated me about this chapter is that the traditional approach to learning humility and respect is to offer a series of 13 lessons on such topics in a formal class setting. Instead, adults can discuss and then implement what it would look like to show humility and respect to a group of people that has been trampled and routinely dismissed. The latter is likely to be truly educational—resulting in the transformation of attitudes and behaviors.

Another chapter on pastoral counseling shows how counseling need not be only a method for putting out fires, but for informing adults and helping them be conformed to Christlikeness.

New Ideas About Making Adult Ed. Work

In Part III, "Improving Practice in Adult Religious Education," the first chapter should be the favorite chapter of any teacher in the classroom. Here is a down-to-earth explanation of learning theories and ideas on establishing a learning climate. Right-brain learning, for example, is much more about being than doing, so that even relaxation and play are important components in learning.

The chapter on resources once again forces us to think outside the box in terms of people (including the learners themselves) being resources instead of just curriculum or books as the primary resources. A chapter on self-directed learning addresses (in Catholic context) what Protestants have thought of as "quiet times" or daily devotions or even personal Bible study. That the church might give more importance and direction to self-directed activities is a fascinating idea adult educators should explore.

Each chapter ends with three to six questions so that the book can be used for discussion and even be suitable for diocesan-level DRE mentoring days. For more information on DRE mentoring, read the article Mentoring Days with Colleagues.

Related Reading:

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