REA 2015 Annual Meeting

Imagination, Revelation and Transformation: That’s What Happens When Art Participates in Religious Education
Francisca Ireland-Verwoerd (Boston University)

Workshop. [Notes] When art is a participant – instead of a tool – in religious education, new ways of thinking and knowing can occur. The pedagogy of this approach is one of hospitality in several movements: “Come on in,” “Bon appetite,” “After dinner conversation,” and “Next time at your place.” Entertaining art as a valued guest, we will learn from art, from each other and about ourselves as we engage in the conversation together. By connecting meaning in art and meaning making through art to our own experiences (imagination), unique insights (revelation) can lead to change and growth (transformation).

Imagining Digital Catechesis: How It Clicked in One Parish
Lope Lesigues (Fordham University)

Workshop. [Notes] This workshop on Digital Catechesis will present the Catholic imagination in action. It will outline the pedagogical crisis caused by the declining population of elementary-level students in religious education from 1970 to 2014, and show how to reverse the current downward trend. A pictorial (and when possible, actual) tour of the FFF website will show potential for such reversal, viz., by using the digital platform as a decentered methodology giving voice to 'digital natives' and by creating a space for partnering virtuality with face-to-face, family-based interactions.

Mining the Gap: Neuroscience and Emotional Memory as Tools for Imagining the Journey from Information to Meaning
Jason Whitehead (Iliff School of Theology)
Holly J. Inglis (Wellshire Presbyterian Church)

Workshop. [Notes] Pastoral theologian Carrie Doehring (2010), when speaking about method in relationship to neuroscience and theology, cautioned theologians to “mind the gap” (p. 93) as we draw conclusions or ideas from scientific research. In this workshop, we will seek to “mine the gap” between information and meaning, and neuroscience and theology by engaging in a praxis-oriented educational workshop. Key to this approach is understanding the genesis of imagination and how it might be practically used to open preconceived beliefs to novel possibilities in both higher education and communities of faith.