Redemptive Reading and/as Theological Education in the Academy TodayTimothy Hanchin (Villanova University)Research Interest Group. [
Paper] The spirituality of Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae demonstrates that the Christian hermeneutical habitus is to make the best of one’s interlocutor as “redemptive reading,” which exceeds tolerance and sympathetic reading. Aquinas graciously welcomed his objectors in genuine conversation because he appreciated how they helped him understand his position more clearly. Redemptive reading engages theological educators in a prophetic act of transformative pedagogy within the university ordered by the fact-value dichotomy, the hyper-specialization of disciplines, and the commodification of education.
When Critical Pedagogy and Engaged Spirituality Meet: Generating and Sustaining Hope for Social Change in Religious EducationBoyung Lee (Pacific School of Religion)Research Interest Group. [
Paper] Hope as hopping in expectation involves both external and internal actions of those who hope for a better world. Changing hopeless conditions can generate hope, but staying hopeful in hopeless situations requires more that external changes. It calls for a pedagogy that nurtures both spiritual strength and social change. This paper explores a pedagogy of hope by intersecting critical pedagogy, philosophy and praxis of education that seeks deployment of emancipatory knowledge, and engaged spirituality that nurtures people in their deepest sense to enable them to engage in social justice actions.
