I grew up in a family that went to church, but didn’t make a fuss about it. My parents primarily sought a place with an excellent music program and literate preaching. They also were in full flight from the high-pressure evangelism they had known as children. They were the progressives of their day. I went […]
Margaret Ann Crain Read More »
Herrenhausen Conference: October 4-6, 2016, Hanover, Germany The long-held belief in the secularization thesis and the subsequent expectation that religion would gradually lose its societal relevance in public and scientific discourse led to religion being treated rather as a side issue. This has changed fundamentally in the wake of growing religious pluralization. In this respect,
Religious Pluralisation – A Challenge for Modern Societies Read More »
When I was eleven my father died suddenly of a heart attack; within a week my mother moved my 14-year-old sister and me from Des Moines to Mason City, Iowa. There a pastor and a welcoming congregation brought us to Church, Sunday School, confirmation classes, and often to someone’s home for Sunday dinner. We didn’t
Norma Cook Everist Read More »
A metaphor of John Steinbeck’s captures for me the formative power of communities of faith and public life. Why, he asks, should we be surprised when formed in Christian community we have the shape of a cross? Given my history, why should anyone also be surprised I became a religious educator? My religious formation began
Early in my decade long career in secondary education when I taught both English and Religion, some of my students who I had for both subjects told me I was teaching the same thing in both classes. At first I thought their comments typical of adolescent bantering. After all, I prepared carefully for my classes,
As a very young theology student in an old Irish seminary, I was reading the then recently published documents of the Second Vatican Council (circa 1966). I hit upon the statement in Gaudium et Spes that the greatest error of our age is “the gap that Christians maintain between the lives they live and the
Join over 200 passionate, faithful leaders at FTE’s 2016 Christian Leadership Forum June 1-4, 2016 at the Georgia Tech Conference Center. Come exchange ideas, address challenges within your ministry, and explore how you might ignite young leaders in your midst to boldly lead differently through the church. If you are a pastor, chaplain, campus minister, leader of
FTE Christian Leadership Forum Read More »
As a young child I spent Sundays in Sunday School and worship in a dignified tall steeple Protestant church. The theological emphasis at the time was finding God in nature, and I learned to experience the Divine in the rocks and trees around me. At the age of ten my family and I moved and
Judith Johnson-Siebold Read More »
I felt a call to the Christian ministry by the end of my Senior year in high school, and I was influenced at Wesleyan University by John Darr and Bill Spurrier, who were chaplains, led services, taught courses, and provided leadership in the Christian Association and the pre-ministerial club. Since I was intending to go
I came to religious education from teaching religion in a Catholic high school. As a member of the teaching order of Christian Brothers, one taught a daily religion class. I was given the opportunity to go to any university of my choice to study for a doctorate in religious education. I chose to go to
