REA2015

REA Annual Meeting 2015

Connecting, Disrupting, Transforming:
Imagination’s Power as the Heart of Religious Education

The theme of imagination has been woven into our past Religious Education Association Annual Meetings. In 2011 we imagined the possibilities for religious education that are opened up by advancements in neuroscience and a focus on brain-based learning. In 2012, we imagined how religious education can contribute to fostering greater social justice, liberation, and civil/human rights. In 2013 we imagined the role of religion in public life. At our 2014 Annual Meeting we examined how people learn violence (learn to accept and even perpetuate violence) and, then, we imagined ways we as educators and religious educators can contribute to the unlearning of violence.

I lift up the theme of imagination and draw it from the background to the center. Drawing insight from the work of Mary Elizabeth Moore, I suggest that imagination not identity is at the center of the field of religious education. (See Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore, “Imagination at the Center: Identity on the Margins.” Process Studies 34:2 (2005): 192-210.) Stated differently, I suggest that rather than focus on the identity of the REA and the field of religious education, we focus on how a common commitment to imagining the life giving possibilities of education in faith is at the core of who we are as religious educators.

— Harold (Bud) Horell
REA Annual Meeting 2015 Program Chair

Thanks for a great meeting!

Our 2015 annual meeting was held November 6-8 at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Our call for papers provides deeper insight into the theme for the meeting.

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The Religious Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion is an incor­po­ra­tion of the ven­er­a­ble 100 year old Reli­gious Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (REA), who have gath­ered semi-annually, pub­lished, and taught reli­gious edu­ca­tion dur­ing this past cen­tury, and the Asso­ci­a­tion of Pro­fes­sors and Researchers in Reli­gious Edu­ca­tion (APRRE), a group of pro­fes­sors, scholars and researchers who for the past 30 years have gath­ered annu­ally as a guild of schol­ars build­ing and shar­ing a body of the­ory and research.

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