Adult Religious Education with Trauma in View: Imagining in FracturesCallid Keefe-Perry (Boston University School of Theology)Research Interest Group. [
paper] This paper claims that the experience of trauma is both woefully unacknowledged and that, wherever it is present, its influence is profound. Consequently, it asks how adult religious educators can best proceed given the realities of trauma and its effects. How can we facilitate deepening a person's relationship with God and others when trauma has damaged a person's capacity to relate? Suggestions are made for future work by integrating trauma analysis from Judith Herman and Bessel van der Kolk with theological insights from Mary Elizabeth Moore and Rebecca Chopp.
The Sacraments Reappropriated: Imagination EmbodiedRobert O'Gorman (Loyola University Chicago, emeritus)Research Interest Group. [
Paper] Focusing of our theme, The Power of Imagining (“the life giving possibilities of education in faith”), this paper reexamines our sacramental religious education. Paul Tillich has cautioned us: “The relationship of man to the ultimate undergoes changes. Contents of ultimate concern vanish or are replaced by others… Symbols which for a certain period, or in a certain place, expressed the truth of faith for a certain group now only remind of the faith of the past. They have lost their truths…” Our present understanding of the cosmos and the human has radically challenged our religious education.
