D N Aspin; Church Schools, Religious Education and the Multi-ethnic Community, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 17, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 229–24.

Nigel Blake; Church Schools, Religious Education and the Multi-ethnic Community: a reply to David Aspin, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 17, Issue 2.

Wallace, Max This paper poses a paradox: the post-Gonski situation appears uncertain for mainly low socio-economic status government schools as the apparent government- in-waiting, the Coalition, have made a number of ominous statements as to whether they will follow through on the Gillard government's embrace of the Gonski funding reform.

In Africa, and in Zimbabwe in particular, education has played a critical role in transforming society through missionaries who brought education as inseparable from Christianity. This article argues that mission school education was a pillar of transformation and that mission schools functioned as centres of integration facilitation where learners discovered how to contribute in the change of their biosphere. It further argues that Zimbabwean mission schools are still bearing fruit in various contexts as seedbeds of social transformation. For (...) Zimbabwe, education was and is still the hub of social transformation. Using a desk research approach of historical analysis and participant observation, this article explores how Zimbabwean Methodism transforms society by remaining within the academic niche that continues to facilitate societal transformation. It also discusses how the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (MCZ) has influenced universal transformation processes through mission schools. The article concludes that mission schools are positive contributors to social transformation in Zimbabwe today, and that no transformation can be argued to have taken place without them.Contribution: This study contributes to the ongoing academic niche that facilitates social transformation through mission schools in society. This also feeds into fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goal 4 of quality education which is contributed by mission schools. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Walking the Bodhisattva Path/Walking the Christ PathU.S. Conference of Catholic BishopsCatholics and Buddhists brought together by Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, the San Francisco Zen Center, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) met 20-23 March 2003 in the first of an anticipated series of four annual dialogues. Abbot Heng Lyu, the monks and nuns, and members of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association hosted the dialogue at the (...) City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, California. The community had transformed their Confucius Hall into a chapel, with a large, newly constructed wooden cross on a wall above an altar facing out from a raised platform, so the Catholic delegation would have a space for worship. A special poster announcing the theme of the conference, "Walking the Bodhisattva Path/Walking the Christ Path," showing a Buddhist dharma wheel at one foot of a bridge and a Celtic cross at the other foot, had been created by the hosting community.The daily schedule for the dialogue did not interfere with the monastic routine at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which included early morning chanting (4:00-5:00 am), daily rituals in the Buddha Hall, and the single large meal for monastics before noon to which all participants were invited. Catholics and Buddhists meeting in the dialogue began each day with an optional forty-five minutes of quiet sitting together in the monastery meditation hall, each following their own form of meditation and prayer. There was a Eucharist on Friday and Saturday evenings for the Catholics and to which the Buddhists were invited, and additional meals of breakfast and supper throughout the meeting at the City's Jyun Kang Restaurant.Fourteen Buddhists and fourteen Catholics participated in the formal discussions. Each participant spoke on what it means to them to follow Christ or the way of the Bodhisattvas or enlightened beings. In addition to speaking, each participant distributed a short passage, usually from a traditional text, on this topic. Several passages from Master Dogen's Shobogenzo and the Gospel of John were among those shared by the group. Other passages shared were taken from the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Shurangama Sutra and from the other gospels and the writings of Zen master HakuinZenji, the Dalai Lama, Korean Zen Master I-sahn Hye-yeon, the teachings of Master [End Page 247] Hsuan Hua, Shantideva, Origen, St. Ignatius, St. Benedict, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross, and Chiara Lubich. A minute of silence separated the fifteen-minute segments for each presentation. With so large a group, most of the time in the formal sessions involved listening to series of presentations; however, during discussion periods the participants asked several challenging questions of one another.Some participants noted the tension they felt between belonging to a particular religious group and the need to let go of any consequential narrowness. The goal of the discussion was to promote understanding of the differences and similarities between Christianity and Buddhism. At one point, the participants noted several concerns about mutual enrichment: whether Buddhist methods can be separated from Buddhism and Christian methods from Christianity, and what specific aspects of Christian practice truly enrich Buddhists and which Buddhist practices likewise enrich Christians. Several times participants discussed their understanding of terms such as transformation, grace, the incarnation and the passion of Jesus, discernment of spirits, prayer, Buddha-nature, and related terms. There was consensus that Buddhists and Catholics can practically help one another regarding mental cultivation and religious precepts. They expressed this consensus in their choice of the topic forthe next dialogue, "Transformation of Hearts and Minds: Chan/Zen-Catholic Approaches to Precepts."The group agreed to reconvene in 2004 to respond to six presentations, three from each side, on different aspects of this topic.Chairing the sessions were Rev. Heng Sure for the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, Rev. Taigen Dan Leighton for the San Francisco Zen Center, and Bishop John Webster for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Their three organizations are the sponsors of the Northern California Chan/Zen-Catholic Dialogue. Chan and Zen are respectively the Chinese and Japanese terms for the meditation school... (shrink)

Originally published 1971, this volume unravels the complicated history of the religious question in British education. The background of the key Acts of Parliament which established the "dual" system – of Church and Local Authority school – is examined. The changing policies of different religious groupings are analyzed, and their outcome in legislation brought out.

The problem of church-religious and spiritual subjects in school subjects, in the educational process of different educational units is not limited to the questions of the introduction or non-introduction of Christian ethics, ethics of faith, religious studies or theology. There is no relevant oral and printed discussion. However, scholars and educators have so far received the same meticulous attention to the fact that, in addition to these special subjects, other humanities have been taught and read in the schools, (...) which deal with issues of faith, religion, spirituality - directly or indirectly, in connection with one or another. historical events or in the composition of various works of art, also not neutral in terms of formation of world outlook and confessional prejudices or preferences. (shrink)

NADOT M. Nursing Inquiry 2010; 17: 118–127The world’s first secular autonomous nursing school against the power of the churchesSecular healthcare practices were standardized well before the churches’ established their influence over the nursing profession. Indeed, such practices, resting on the tripartite axiom of domus, familia, hominem, were already established in hospitals during the middle ages. It was not until the last third of the eighteenth century that the Catholic Church imposed its culture on secular health institutions; the Protestant (...) class='Hi'>church followed suit in 1836. In reaction to the encroachment of religious orders on civil society and the amalgam of religious denominations favored, for example, by the devout Florence Nightingale (supported, in 1854, by Sir Sidney Herbert, the influential Puseyite), it is on 20 July 1859 that the great Swiss nineteenth century pedagogue and recipient of the Académie française Gold Medal, Valérie de Gasparin-Boissier (1813–94), proposed a model of secular healthcare training for nurses that would become a counter-model set in opposition to religious health institutions. Forerunner of later schools, the world’s first secular autonomous Nursing School was founded in Lausanne, Switzerland. Its mission was to bring decisive changes to the statutes of nurses’ training, which were then still based on six principles not far removed from those of religious communities at the time: commitment for life, the Rule of St Augustine, obedience, celibacy, the renouncement of salary, and the uniform. (shrink)

Church youth work is the activities and programs organized by churches for young people. These activities aim to contribute to the religious, spiritual and social development of young people. Church youth work brings young people together and supports them in areas such as religious education, spiritual development, community service, leadership development and active participation in the religious community. It is seen that youth work, which was previously a part of family work, has been organized as a different field (...) of work over time. Churches carry out activities in this field through an organizational structure called youth ministry. Churches generally have a certain systematic and work program in their youth work. Most churches organize their youth programs according to the relevant educational levels. Churches tend to create smaller sub-groups within the youth program and divide young people by grade level. These divisions are usually at the middle and high school level, but youth groups extend to university students and are often referred to as "college and career". Higher education seems to be emphasized in youth work. Many theological faculties offer different postgraduate programs to meet various needs. The quality of youth work is largely determined by the academic studies conducted in this field. Practical theology, which is established as an academic discipline in faculties of theology, both provides the theoretical background that shapes the practice of these studies and provides training to train qualified personnel in the field. The approach to youth ministry can vary, taking into account the different views on the subject, the places where this ministry is provided and the characteristics of people. There are different paradigms in church youth work, especially for young people living in cities. These are called traditional, liberal, activist and prophet-centered youth paradigms. Another pillar of church youth work is spiritual counseling services. Recently, churches have started to employ professional spiritual counselors. Spiritual counseling, a concept that emphasizes the Christian cultural origins of counseling, is now included in youth work. Spiritual counseling is seen as a professional guidance fed by religious and spiritual sources. Church spiritual counselors listen to the problems faced by young people, support them and try to understand them. Spiritual counselors provide guidance based on religious teachings and values to support the personal development of young people. Spiritual counseling conducted by churches can take various forms. These include individual counseling, group counseling, family counseling, online counseling, retreats and workshops. The personnel who carry out the youth work of the churches are also called youth leaders. Accordingly, it is seen that various leadership models in the literature are discussed in this context. Some leadership models that are thought to inspire youth work are: Servant leadership, ethical leadership, spiritual leadership and transformational leadership. In this research, these leadership models are discussed in the context of church youth work. This research aims to reveal the basic approaches and principles in this field by focusing on the studies in the context of non-formal religious education in Catholic Churches. Although it varies from region to region or from church to church, the main problem of this study is to examine the youth work of the Catholic Church in the context of non-formal religious education in general. The research data were obtained through document analysis method. On this occasion, it is thought that this study will also be useful in the context of a comparative evaluation of non-formal religious education in our country. (shrink)

In this paper I will deal with the question of the religious education in the public schools in Romania, from the point of view of the relationship between Church and State. My quantitative and qualitative analysis of the bills concerning religious education, the way in which law has been applied and some of the consequences of this application wants to circumscribe the meaning of some concepts such as religious liberty and the new religious forms. The basic consequence of (...) this I hope will be the redefining of the notion of public space and of the role played by religion with its characteristic aspects: the relationship between state and religious organizations. This will clearly show the essential bond between two main aspects of religious liberty: the formal aspect - legal and institutional - and the informal aspect – an aspect connected to the personal and social attitudes regarding the new forms of religious behaviour. (shrink)

The present study analyses education policy in Slovakia and determines the role of the church in education governance and the church–state relationship in education policy. The church–state relationship is also evident in the specific constellations of the national curriculum. The study highlights the de-secularisation trend in education policy and curricula and identifies the links between religious and nationalist education content, which are largely a relic of the historical era of Slovak statehood building. It also analyses Ethical Education, (...) which is a specific school subject in Slovakia that has been shaped by a particular church–state ‘ideological governing form’. (shrink)

The increased attention of the Orthodox Church to issues of medical education in our country was the result of the fact that in the 1990s it once again became one of the most active forces in our society. The connection between the church and the medical community, which goes back to a time when the doctoring of the mind and bodily health was in fact the work of the same people, cannot leave the church indifferent to the (...) professional formation of healthcare workers. The Soviet era saw the forced de-Christianization of the medical profession and measures taken to abolish medical ethics rooted in the Hippocratic Oath and the Gospel commandments. The restoration of dialogue between church and medicine began after the collapse of the Soviet state, but it is still insufficiently regular. Currently, factors complicating this dialogue are liberal medical legislation and capitalist economies in health care. The former, by legalizing abortion, artificial insemination, and sterilization, absolves the doctor of moral responsibility in matters concerning the management of human life; the latter encourages him to view his profession not as a service, but as a means of making money from other people’s suffering. If the dialogue between church and medicine were to be carried on permanently within the walls of medical schools, it would strengthen the spiritual and moral foundations of the medical profession, upon which it has always existed. One of the most significant forms of this dialogue should undoubtedly be the teaching of biomedical ethics, which should be grounded in modern theology and the values of traditional spiritual cultures of Russia. (shrink)

The problem of religious education is not new to Ukrainian religious studies. The latter was raised in connection with the decree of the Minister of Education and Science on the introduction of the subject "Theology" in higher educational establishments of Ukraine. However, as is often the case in Ukraine, the decree remained only on paper. At the same time, the topic of religious education was discussed in various circles in the circles of religious scholars. Now they are discussing this again. (...) And these discussions are of a different nature, since the desire of the President without serious public discussion was started by the Ministry of Education and Science: since September 1 this academic year the course "Ethics of Faith" has already been introduced in some public schools in Ukraine. Discussions and controversies are already heard in parallel with the decision made and can actually change only the content of the subject, but not the decision on its teaching. That is, it is still debatable that children should be taught in public schools, but the fact that if a new subject does not appear on September 1, there will be almost no doubt after the new year. (shrink)

The paper examines the impact of the Nigerian education and the extent to which it contributes towards the promotion of peace and justice with specific reference to Catholic schools. The paper argues that the role of Catholic Church in providing education has immensely contributed to the growth and development of education in Nigeria. Due to the church‟s focused intervention, approximately 649 elementary schools, 384 secondary schools and 16 tertiary institutions have been established in Nigeria. Relying (...) on documentary method of data collection and descriptive analytic approach, this study explains that Catholic schools have a significant role towards achieving a peaceful and equitable society in Nigeria. The article recommends more engaged efforts by other non-state institutions towards the building of developed educational institutions that will help in promoting peace and justice in Nigeria. (shrink)

Schools of Faith represents a diversity of essays from scholars in several continents. The contributors, all leading theologians and ethicists, offer reflections on historical and contemporary themes which are significant for wider debates in theological education and church life in today's world. The range of contributor and content provides a fitting tribute to the work of Iain R. Torrance over many years. Amid the numerous subjects discussed, the authors focus on liturgy, textual criticism, public theology, the ethics of (...) war, Christian doctrine, divine action, ecumenism, inter-faith dialogue, spiritual formation, the office of the minister, and the interface between religion and literature. The multi-faceted nature of this collection signifies its importance for historical, systematic and practical theology. (shrink)

During Women’s month in South Africa (August), a group of Sunday school children from the rural congregation of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), Middelburg- Nasaret, got together to read the narratives of the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus and the healing of the woman suffering from a blood disease. The exercise which appears to be quite innocent is in a sense subversive in its hidden script. In the Reformed tradition, the pulpit as a centre of (...) reading and preaching the Word has become the ‘holy of holiest’ which nobody, leave alone children, except the ordained minister could occupy. This is of course contrary to the intention of the Reformation to return the Bible to the people and have the people return to the Bible. The reading exercise of this article goes beyond all exegetical and theological presuppositions, unsettling conventional interpretations of Scripture. The children allow their real life experiences in the township of having witnessed, among others, child and women abuse to inform their reading of Mark 5:21–43. In the process they avoid a linear reading of the Bible which is based on the explication-application scheme of matters. Put differently, instead of doing a deductive reading of the portion, i.e. trying to explain or exegete the text clinically and then applying it to their context, they read it inductively, resulting in a hope sharing and hope giving understanding of the rising from the dead of the 12-year-old girl and the healing of the woman with a blood disease. A major spin-off of such reading of the Bible by children is the unlocking of refreshingly new avenues of reading the Bible and interpreting the text. (shrink)

The urgency of the topic is due to the lack of research on the problem of the school curriculum with regard to the special elective course "Fundamentals of Christian ethics", its curriculum, the professionalism of teachers, the role of students in education, certain religious uniqueness in polyconfessional Ukraine, and comparison with religious studies in public, private or church schools of some Western European countries.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:330 BOOK REVIEWS is the power through which the Holy Spirit creates and nurtures the church, which is the source of all authority in the church, and which is the norm for all that the church teaches and practices. Only then will the use and abuse of power within the contemporary church be addressed in theologically sound and healthy ways. Only then will ecclesiastical divisions (...) be healed and the common mission of the church pursued with faithful commitment. Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Chicago, Illinois KURT K. HENDEL The Church in Latin America 1492-1992. Edited by ENRIQUE DussEL. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1992. Pp. x + 501. $49.95 (cloth). This volume is the result of an exemplary effort to stimulate the study of the history of Latin American churches, to communicate the results of historical scholarship across national lines, and to bring many persons of diverse tendencies and religious backgrounds together in a unified enterprise. Cooperation at the Latin American level has been made difficult at times due to repression, internal wars, and opposition by conservative church leaders. Heroic efforts by Enrique Dussel and the Commission for the Study of Church History in Latin America brought forth an eleven-volume General History of the Church in Latin America. The present volume benefits from this magnanimous enterprise and includes many contributors to the larger series. The result is a singlevolume history of the churches, Catholic and Protestant, with many strengths and weaknesses. The editor structured the work to provide a chronological survey of the region in its first section, one which is succinct and useful for understanding the distant roots of the Catholic church. The middle section takes up regional histories and generally succeeds in conveying well the history up to the contemporary period. Including the treatment of the church in Chile, however, with that in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay does not work well. Their civic cultures and ecclesiastical histories differ greatly, especially in this century. The final part devotes itself to special topics and becomes less historical than descriptive and evaluative. Here themes such as theology of liberation, Afro-American slavery, and religious orders receive special attention. This section offers much less reliable guidance to Latin American history, in my view. BOOK REVIEWS 331 One of the distinctive marks of the collaboration has been a determined effort (although not uniformally carried out) to recount history from the underside, from the point of view of the poor and oppressed, as well as from the perspective of religious and secular elite members who are thought to make history. This is an admirable and egalitarian ideal, but much basic research from this point of view has not been done. Within this section, Moises Sandoval provides a view of Hispanic Catholicism in the United States. He manages to sustain a view from the grassroots. The chapter, one of the best in the volume, could be required reading for any student of Nor,th American history. A few chapters may be marred by revisionist frameworks. The chapter on Protestantism is one. In my view, Jean Pierre Bastian's ideo· logical simplification does not allow him to give adequate consideration to the contemporary theological iand ecclesiological convictions behind notably diverse Protestant positions. Pentecostals account for 75-90 percent of Protestants in most Latin American countries; yet much of the history of Protestant churches in Latin America, as Bastian has re· counted it, has been irrelevant for explaining Pentecostal growth. This is not a minor consideration, since,the volume lacks a sense that Pentecostal churches are major religious organizations within Latin America. Similar tendencies mar the work of some Catholic writers who are wedded to the discourse of the " historical process of liberation." Such discourse leads to extravagant characterizations, as by Jose Comblin. He writes in the chapter on the church and human rights: "New democracies are totally unstable. Development has stagnated. There is no future in sight " (pp. 452-453). Comblin, a highly regiarded theologian, not a social scientist or historian, does not account for the great expansion (more than 2,000) of human rights organizations in Latin America. Many of these groups are tied to the church and came into existence largely... (shrink)

Last week the Government announced that it is to add a clause to its current education bill requiring that schools should promote marriage and "other stable relationships" as ideals, and should encourage pupils to delay engaging in sex until they are older. The proposal is a sop to those, chief among them the churches, who oppose repeal of the notorious Clause 28 which forbids "promotion of homosexuality" by public bodies.

Theological study and teaching at Oxford prior to the First World War have been characterized as unambitious and lacking in critical rigour. In contrast to the constructive theological endeavours of biblical scholars at Cambridge or the bold revisionism of F.D. Maurice at King's College London, Oxford's theological teaching and research are perceived through the lens of E.B. Pusey and his High Church colleagues. Prior to the First World War, however, circumstances and personalities coincided to produce a radical set of (...) proposals from the Board of the Faculty of Theology under the leadership of Henry Scott Holland, Regius Professor of Divinity from 1910 until his death in 1918. Had Oxford's graduate legislative assembly, Convocation, not comprehensively rejected the reforms approved by the resident MAs, Oxford's Faculty might have been transformed into an influential centre of comparative religion. In this article, the prevailing accounts of Oxonian ‘narrowness’ are challenged through an account of this seminal moment in the history of the Faculty. Using correspondence from the Bodleian Library Special Collections, minutes and reports from the Oxford University Archives, pamphlet material and national, ecclesiastical, and University journals, the article seeks to identify the reasoning behind the proposed reforms and the significance of that reasoning for the history of modern theology in England. In so doing, it is suggested that the standard characterization of theological life at Oxford in the ‘long nineteenth century’ merits revision and further clarification. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:THE DOMINICAN SCHOOL OF SALAMANCA AND THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF AMERICA: SOME BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES THOMAS F. O'MEARA. O.P. University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana SALAMANCA, northwest of Madrid and Avila and not far from Spain's border with Portugal, preserves the atmosphere of a medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque university even as it develops the schools and clinics of a contemporary center of studies. There are associations with Teresa (...) of Avila, who spent the night there just after her reform was approved by Rome, with the young Cervantes, with Luis de Leon and Ignatius Loyola, and with John of the Cross, who was a student there. A bridge from the time of Trajan spans the river Tormes, and the Romanesque cathedral still reserves a chapel for the Mozarabic rite. The University of Salamanca The city brings to mind sixteenth century Dominicans like Francisco de Vitoria, often called the founder of international law, and Domingo Bafiez, confessor to Teresa of Avila. The Order of Friars Preachers, however, came to Salamanca in 1222 at the same time that Dominic's missions were taking root in·Paris and Bologna; the friars founded a priory and soon a school under the patronage of St. Stephen (San Esteban). The " Dominican School of Salamanca " means formally the line of great theologians reaching from Diego de Deza at the end of the fifteenth century to Tomas de Lemos, a main protagonist in Rome in 1607 in the controversy over grace entitled De Auxiliis. Today, after seven and a half centuries of existence, the Salamancan SSS 556 THOMAS F. o'MEARA, O.P. Dominicans remain a vital community, active m teaching, research and publishing. My attention was directed to the Dominicans at Salamanca by two volumes of essays reporting on congresses concerning the "Dominicans and the Discovery of the New World." My interest was not church history but the history of theologies of how grace might exist outside of explicit faith and sacramental baptism. The following report is a bibliographical survey of recent research on a theological era and school. Focusing on the thought of the theologians stimulated by the experiences of the missionaries in the Indies, it treats the Dominicans during the first decades after the voyages of Columbus. In the 1480s, as it entered its golden age, the University of Salamanca had a hundred professors and almost 7000 students. University records begin late, but they show that in 1546/47, one hundred thirty-four Dominicans were studying at the university, and in 1598/99, eighty. J. L. Espinel has written. a historical guide to the Dominican buildings and institutions.1 The great period of the Dominican school at the University began with Diego de Deza ( 1480-1486), professor and archbishop of Seville, and Matias de Paz (1518-1519), a professor of Scripture. Francisco de Vitoria (1526-1546) and Domingo de Soto (15321549 ) were its most gifted thinkers, but the school's achievements continued with Melchior Cano (1546-1552), Juan de la Pefia (1561-1565) and Domingo Banez (1581-1604). These t San Esteban de Salamanca, Historia y Gufa, Siglos, XIII-XX (Salamanca: Editorial San Esteban, 1978); see also R. Hernandez, "Convento y estudio de San Esteban," La Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca: Universidad, 1989), pp. 369ff.; A. Martin Melquiades, "La Escuela de teologia de Salamanca," Atti del Congresso internazionale, Tommaso d'Aquino nel suo settimo centenario, Tommaso d'Aquino nella storia del pensiero, 1 :2 (Naples: Edizione Domenicane Italiane, 1975), pp. 242ff. A Salamancan Dominican of the 1930s, Vicente Beltran de Heredia, pioneered research in the history of the university and in the writings of the Dominican speculative masters. His writings can be found in past issues of Ciencia Tomista (CT), and some of his books and several recent collections of his most important essays are available from Editorial San Esteban. Similarly initial research in the United States can be found in the writings of Lewis Hanke. SALAMANCA AND THE SPANISH CONQUEST 557 are joined by lesser figures like Pedro de Sotomayor (15601564 ), Mancia de Corpus Christi (1564-1576), and Bartolome de Medina (1576-1581). The occupants of the chair in theology of the liturgical hour of prime from Vitoria in 1526 to Bafiez's... (shrink)

Trafficking in persons is a multi-sided phenomenon accompanying the current migration flows, therefore, the actions that must be undertaken in order to prevent, combat the phenomenon as well as to assist the victims of trafficking require a large partnership between all the actors involved: international organisations, governmental institutions and representatives of civil society. The special psychological, ethical issues raised especially by trafficking prevention and assistance to victims make the church and various religious organisations play a very important role in (...) the corresponding networks at both international and national level. Even if the integration of the church in the networks fighting against trafficking in persons has been quite largely addressed worldwide, there are but few studies undertaken in Romania in this area. Our paper opens the room for dialogue among the researchers interested in this topic from an interdisciplinary perspective to discuss the possibilities to establish sustainable partnerships between the state and the church against rafficking in persons. With this aim in view, we have first carried out a quantitative analysis of the scope and dynamics of trafficking in persons in Romania focusing on the victims’ profile by exploitation type. The main socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, schooling, area of origin) have been considered in order to identify the vulnerability factors related to the risk involved by trafficking, both at national and regional level. We have also examined the responses in legislative and institutional terms, with a special emphasis on the collaboration between the state and the church in preventing and combating trafficking in persons. Of special relevance are the conclusions resulted from the field research undertaken in the area covered by the Diocese of Maramures and Satu Mare. (shrink)

This article presents the development of elementary schools supported by the Orthodox Church in Transylvania between 1868 and 1921. Until 1918, Transylvania belonged to Hungary. In 1918, it was united with the Kingdom of Romania. As Hungary was a particularly complex state in ethnic and confessional terms before 1918, the school system developed under the coordination and financing of the churches. The government intended to gradually replace them with schools run by communities or state. It was not (...) until the end of the 19th century that radical measures were taken. The situation was fully resolved just after the unification of Transylvania with Romania when Romanian Orthodox denominational schools were nationalised and transformed into state schools. Contribution: Although summary works on the history of education in Romania or various research on the history of schools at the local level have appeared in Romanian, the impact of governmental and legislative decisions in Hungary on Orthodox confessional education in Transylvania has not been analysed. In German, the historian Joachim von Puttkamer has dealt with this perspective but especially concerning the schools in the Slovak areas of Greater Hungary. This PhD thesis of the author, P Brusanowski, was the first approach in this direction regarding the Romanians in Transylvania. The article presents for the first time in English a short analysis of the relationship of the Orthodox Church authorities in Transylvania to the educational policy decisions of the central authorities in Budapest. The parallel use of the reports of the Ministry of Education to the Hungarian Parliament, and the reports of the school councils of the executive body of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania to the ecclesiastical legislative forum, is an important part of this article. (shrink)

Previous studies suggest that small rural schools experience a range of challenges relating to their size, financial difficulties and geographical isolation, as well as potential opportunities relating to their position within their communities. In Northern Ireland, these schools are situated within the comparatively rare context of a religiously divided school system. However, research on these schools in this jurisdiction is scarce. The notion of consociationalism is highlighted as central to an understanding of the prevailing schooling system and (...) the peace process in Northern Ireland as a post-conflict society. Set against this backdrop, the paper reports on a survey of principals of small rural schools in Northern Ireland; the challenges they face and their engagement with the communities they serve. The findings reveal how these small rural primary schools, while encountering many similar challenges to such schools globally, continue to play a central consociational role in serving their respective divided communities. Their relationship with the Church is seen as particularly important. The findings raise important broader questions as to the extent to which the current system of schooling is able to contribute to the building of a more integrated society. (shrink)

Educational leaders in Ontario’s publicly-funded Catholic schools typically resist establishing Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) on grounds that they contradict Catholic moral teaching and so cause scandal in the school. While the protection of GSAs in these schools is derived from recent provincial legislation, the government intervention has the potential to exacerbate religious-secular tensions in the school and society. This paper assumes that, in the Catholic Church’s current political climate, the only justifications for GSAs that will gain genuine traction (...) and possibly deflate this tension descend from within Catholicism’s own tradition of thought and educational practice. The first part of the argument critiques the Catholic hierarchy’s traditional, narrow conception of scandal, and replaces it with a revised, broader conception from within Catholic theology in which the traditional marginalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) students is the true scandal. These two frameworks are used to analyze inconsistencies between the resistance Catholic schools show toward LGBTQ students wanting to establish GSAs, and the welcoming attitude they display toward pregnant and parenting students. The second part of the argument reveals that the main reason for this difference is that Church officials perceive all LGBTQ organizations as threats to their authority, and this perception is extended to GSAs. This internal critique provides sufficient reason to reverse the current negative Catholic evaluations of GSAs. (shrink)

Academies were introduced by Labour in 2000 and first opened their doors in 2002, but during Labour’s time in power the nature of the Academies changed. At first they were designed to replace existing failing schools but, by 2004, the expectation had widened to provide for entirely new schools where there was a demand for new places. From 2010, under the coalition government, two new types of Academy were introduced. While the original Academies were based on the idea (...) of closing poor schools and replacing them by dramatically redesigned and restructured ones, the _2010 Academies Act _allowed existing highly successful state-maintained schools to apply to become Academies as well. Further, while Labour had restricted Academy status to secondary schools, the Coalition extended it to primary and special schools. The result is that there has been a dramatic increase in the number and diversity of Academies. In addition to this, the 2010 Act introduced Free Schools, wherein groups of parents, teachers, or other sponsors can apply to start their own state-maintained, but officially ‘independent’, schools. These schools can either be completely new or the result of existing private schools applying to become state-maintained. The results of these changes remain under-researched. This book puts forward new research that examines the history and nature of Academies and Free Schools, the processes by which they have come into existence, and their effects in terms of social justice. The contributors do not all speak with one voice, but rather present a diversity of views on these important topics. Included in the collection are the results of research on pupil outcomes and socio-economic segregation; issues of identity and ethos in church academies; the problems of establishing free schools; the history of policy on Academies; and a comparison between Swedish independent schools and Academies and Free Schools. This book was originally published as a special issue of _Research Papers in Education. _. (shrink)

In this paper, I explore the effects of religious denomination and patterns of church-going on the construction of political values for high-school students. I argue that religion plays a role in the formation of political attitudes among teenagers and it influences their political participation. I examine whether this relationship is constructed along denominational lines. From a theoretical perspective, previous research heralded the compatibility between Western Christianity and the democratic form of government. Samuel Huntington, in his famous Clash of Civilization, (...) argued that there is a natural symbiosis between Western Christianity and democratic forms of government, going insofar as to separate the world into religious civilizations. While, this approach essentializes religion as a fixed and immutable entity, Huntington also neglects the importance of dynamic historical, political and social contexts that can, and, in fact, do affect the functioning of religion in different countries, and hence their ability and willingness to accommodate democracy. Much research followed the Clash of Civilizations, either qualifying the central argument, by showing evidence of support for procedural democracy in most of the World, but without its liberal component or even arriving at the opposite conclusion that irrespective of religion, every country is “democratizable”. While I do not attempt to disconfirm fundamental huntingtonian thinking, I do raise the questions of how context can and does influence the intimate relationship between religion and politics. The analysis is conducted on survey data collected by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at Babes-Bolyai University with subjects of 14-15 years old, and the results show that, while Greek Orthodox students do not seem to differ in their political values form their Catholic and Protestant counterparts, they are more prone to participate politically. Nevertheless, their active participatory behavior is only more pronounced in what voting is concerned, an opposite effect being recorder for any other acts of political participation. (shrink)

This article began as a paper read at the ‘Embedded Memory and the Theological Contours of Division’ seminar held at Trinity College, Dublin in December 2011. I should like to thank Professor Linda Hogan of the Irish School of Ecumenics at Trinity for the opportunity of rehearsing these ideas in that forum.

The theme of the church's impact on culture does not ignore, but rather rounds out the Chicago school's earlier and opposite preoccupation with the cultural-environmental factors in the development of the church. Brauer sees the socio-historical method which is identified with the Chicago school as "the first serious attempt in America to make church history a responsible scientific discipline at home in the university." These essays by faculty and alumni of Chicago Divinity School are presented chronologically and (...) cover ancient, medieval, reformation, and modern church history. Specifically, the essays cover: the use of the prefix auto- in early Christian Theology; the period of Constantine; the fourth and fifth century relation between Christianity and Judaeism; some medieval reforming critiques; the importance of the church in the rise of Moscow; a new line on the problem of the sources of conciliarism in the fifteenth century; and various reformation essays including one by J. T. McNeil, one on Anabaptism, one on religion and science in the reformation, and one on reformation humanism. The final essays include studies of Oliver Cromwell, Schleiermacher, Joseph Miloslav Hurban, and one on Harnack.--S. O. H. (shrink)

Head of Rugby School for over a decade, Thomas Arnold became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in the final year of his life. Known for his controversial ideas on schooling and religion, he was a prominent and influential figure in the history of British education. First published in 1844, this two-volume work presents a diverse collection of Arnold's correspondence, compiled by his friend and former pupil Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster. Interspersed with biographical commentary by Stanley, the (...) letters in Volume 1 illuminate Arnold's early life and work, and his career at Rugby up to 1835. In them he discusses his ideas for reform in both teaching and religion, revealing his unfailing dedication to both. Offering insights into the role of school and church in the early nineteenth century, Arnold's writings continue to interest scholars of both religion and education. (shrink)

Head of Rugby School for over a decade, Thomas Arnold became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in the final year of his life. Known for his controversial ideas on schooling and religion, he was a prominent and influential figure in the history of British education. First published in 1844, this two-volume work presents a diverse collection of Arnold's correspondence, compiled by his friend and former pupil Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster. Interspersed with biographical commentary by Stanley, the (...) letters in Volume 1 illuminate Arnold's early life and work, and his career at Rugby up to 1835. In them he discusses his ideas for reform in both teaching and religion, revealing his unfailing dedication to both. Offering insights into the role of school and church in the early nineteenth century, Arnold's writings continue to interest scholars of both religion and education. (shrink)

The study of the cultural activity of the Spiritual missions of the Russian Orthodox Church in various regions of Russia is one of the urgent tasks in the context of the problematic field of the theory of regionalism, cultural studies and socio-philosophical knowledge. Russian settlements on the territory of the Yenisei River basin and the entry of ethnic groups and territories of Yakutia and Buryatia into the Russian Empire has become one of the most important stages of the integration (...) of the ethnic groups of Siberia into a single statehood. The Irkutsk Spiritual Mission received a more perfect organization, institutionalized by increasing the number of missionary camps, which for successful Christian activities carried out among pagans allowed the formation of school educational institutions for the education and upbringing of a new Buryat generation of children in the doctrinal Orthodox canons, and Russian cultural traditions. In this regard, one of the key tasks of the missionaries was to establish a rational view of further life in new Christian-type formations, which was realized in socio-cultural activities: providing medical care to sick representatives of other ethnic groups, a friendly attitude to people of a different faith and a sincere desire to guide them on the path of righteousness, etc. It should be noted that the largest share of foreigners in this territory belonged to Buddhists, which was reflected in the influence of lamas on doctrinal issues, including economic ones. Since Buddhism in the Russian Empire belonged to the section of tolerant religions, direct (administrative) pressure on it was impossible. There remained funds of an exclusively spiritual nature, to which Orthodox missionary work was directed. Today in the Russian Federation, Buddhism, as well as Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as some other faiths belong to the category of traditional religions, which organizationally operate within the framework of the modern Russian Constitution. (shrink)

Modern medical ethics developed in America after mid-century chiefly at theological schools, but discourse on bioethics soon moved to the pluralist-secular settings of the academy and the clinic, where it acquired a philosophical and intentionally non-religious cast. An effort was made, on the grounds of ‘liberal culture’ and ‘late Enlightenment rationality’ to find a framework for inquiry which aspired to the universal. Today, while that language persists, it coexists with, challenges, and is challenged by forms of ethical analysis and (...) advocacy which take into consideration the ‘thickness’ of complicating narrative and reasoning based in the many religious traditions. It has become incumbent upon advocates of those traditions to propose ‘publicly accessible’ argument. Keywords: bioethics, church, religion, theology CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

The constitutional provision for the separation of the Church and the State has been in existence for over 200 years. They are now referring to it, no longer remembering how it came about. The fact is that the French Revolution of 1789 was anti-feudal and anticlerical. It separated the affairs of the state from the ecclesiastical so that bishops and cardinals would govern the Church, not the state. The 1917 revolution in Russia also tore the triumvirate of "statehood, (...) orthodoxy, nationality." The state and the Church should have existed separately. The Bolsheviks rejected the old state and the Church, but in their legislation in 1919 the Decree recorded the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church. Because they disregarded law, morality and religion and absolutized the state, the state, and especially its punitive organs, trampled on morality, ethics, religion, clergy and their defenders... (shrink)

Head of Rugby School for over a decade, Thomas Arnold became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in the final year of his life. Known for his controversial ideas on schooling and religion, he was a prominent and influential figure in the history of British education. First published in 1844, this two-volume work presents a diverse collection of Arnold's correspondence, compiled by his friend and former pupil Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster. Interspersed with biographical commentary by Stanley, the (...) letters in Volume 2 illustrate Arnold's theological position through his correspondence with various church figures. Other letters further reveal his views on education, politics and public affairs, and document his year at Oxford. Included at the end of the volume is a supplement from 1847 which provides additional material that was unavailable at the time of the first edition. (shrink)

It is often argued that religious schools and colleges promote intolerance, divisiveness, and fanaticism and that they violate the principle of academic freedom. Some writers also suggest that economic support for religious schools by the state violates the principle of the separation of church and state. Elmer Thiessen provides a philosophical defence of religious schools and colleges against these and other standard objections. He concludes with a radical proposal: a pluralistic educational system will better prepare students (...) for citizenship in pluralist liberal democracies than a monopolistic state-maintained school system. In placing his argument within the context of liberal-democratic values Thiessen gives concrete examples of objections to religious schools and offers practical suggestions that follow from the philosophical treatment of the problem. In Defence of Religious Schools and Colleges bridges the gap between philosophical argument and educational practice. It will be of interest not only to philosophers and educational theorists but also to practitioners in education. Academics, policy makers, political theorists, lay-people, teachers, administrators, and parents – those who object to religious schools and colleges and those who find themselves trying to answer the objections – will benefit from reading this book. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 519 The Church: Learning and Teaching. By LADISLAS ORSY, S.J. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1987. Pp. 172. $14.95. This work develops (and repeats) some of the ideas in Orsy's ar· ticle, "Magisterium: Assent and Dissent," TS 48 (1987), 473-497. One of the most neuralgic issues in the Church today is the relation· ship between the magisterium and theologians. This extended essay, notable for its (...) irenic tone, broadens the topic to a consideration of the whole church in its activity of learning and teaching. Its stated purpose is to " clarify some of the foundational concepts and to present a framework in which the interplay between the teaching authority and the whole community can be understood." In the heat of debate when lines are drawn, and each side is in danger of becoming myopic because of the intensity of focus on a given issue, each risks losing sight of the larger dialogic relationship between God and human person. To its credit, this essay counteracts this risk by describing the pattern of encounter between God and the human person. Orsy reminds us that the church in its teaching and learning responds to a mystery which always eludes absolute order and clarity even through both occur under the guidance of the Spirit. Within this dialogic interplay, the function of the episcopate is to witness to the word that God has spoken, a word always predominantly ineffable, while the task of the theologians is to penetrate into the meaning of the word through systematic theological reflection. In the three remaining chapters, Orsy discusses teaching authority, assent and dissent, and Catholic universities and academic freedom. He calls for a new hermeneutic for the interpretation of encyclicals in order to differentiate between statements of doctrine universally held, opinions of theological schools, and statements that may later be found to he erroneous. He points out the ambiguities associated with the term "ordinary magisterium," citing texts where it is the equivalent of "non-infallible," and others where it simply refers rto the manner in which a doctrine is taught. Departing from Dulles' suggestion for a dual magisterium, Orsy sketches the problems associated with the concept of a magisterium of theologians. He then cautions us against an over-simplification of the difference between fallible and non-infallible teaching which fails to account for the organic unity of Christian doctrine. As there is a dialogic interaction between God's word and human response, so is there an interplay between the bishops' witness to the truth in the Spirit and the recognition of this truth on the part of the people of God who then surrender in an act of faith. The exact nature of this obsequium fidei, however, is problematic. Orsy's identification 5!l0 BOOK REVIEWS of obsequium as a seminal locution in Lumen Gentium circumvents the dispute as to whether it means "respect" or "submission." Orsy attempts to defuse much of the emotional charge associated with the term " dissent " by noting that it is a much stronger dialectical term than such European expressions as opinion difjerent or anderer Meinung. He cautions that " to state simply that dissent from non-infallibly held doctrine is legitimate, is simplistic and incorrect " since one must note the relationship of the non-infallible doctrine to the infallible core. He concludes,that the best climate for a healthy relationship between theologians and bishops is mutual trust, a reasonable margin for honest mistakes, a recognition of limits on the part of theologians with a corresponding resolution never to call a final truth what is in reality a hypothesis. Orsy notes that history witnesses to the perils of theologians being subject to correction by their peers only. He points out that theologians should perhaps return to the practice of investigating questions rather than defending theses. The dangers associated with dissent include the possibility of the propositional dissent of a theologian becoming a feeder to a deeper attitudinal dissent in others or in some other way threatening the peace or unity of the church. It is difficult to see how anyone can take issue with such a balanced approach to this sensitive topic. In order to indicate how a university can... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:In Search of the Good: A Life in Bioethics by Daniel Callahan, and: Why the Church Needs Bioethics: A Guide to the Wise Engagement with Life’s Challenges ed. by John F. Kilner, and: Respecting Life: Theology and Bioethics by Neil MesserAndrea Vicini SJIn Search of the Good: A Life in Bioethics By Daniel Callahan (edited by Arthur Caplan) CAMBRIDGE, MA: MIT PRESS, 2012. XVII + 206 PP. (...) $29.00Why the Church Needs Bioethics: A Guide to the Wise Engagement with Life’s Challenges Edited by John F. Kilner GRAND RAPIDS: ZONDERVAN, 2011. 304 PP. $26.99Respecting Life: Theology and Bioethics By Neil Messer LONDON: SCM PRESS, 2011. XI + 236 PP. $36.20With their specific styles, targeted readerships, and overall goals, these three volumes provide diverse but synergic ways to articulate and expand bioethical reflection in today’s society. Daniel Callahan is undoubtedly one of the founders of the field of bioethics. In Search of the Good: A Life in Bioethics is a fascinating memoir where, in a very engaging and personal way, Callahan unveils his intellectual development, career, and major interests. At the same time, he provides a critical lens to examine the history of bioethics in the United States. It shows his “abiding fascination with the human nature, scope, and validity of ethics as part of human life, and a similar strong interest in the ways that the scientific knowledge of medicine influences how we think about our health and mortality and shapes the ways we live our lives” (xvi). In particular, he describes how his philosophical training, and philosophical mind, led him to address the burgeoning ethical questions in biology and medicine and, thereby, to contribute to the founding of today’s bioethics.By sharing his intellectual journey with great honesty and transparency, Callahan guides his readers from his initial philosophical questioning to the later critical developments that have shaped bioethics as a theoretical and practical discipline in the last forty years. The list of topics that he has studied is impressive—from birth control to heart transplants, from end-of-life issues to embryonic stem cell research, and from market-driven health care to medical rationing. Drawing on his time as editor of the famous liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal in the 1960s, Callahan narrates his 1969 founding of the Hastings Center in cooperation with the author and psychiatrist Willard Gaylin. He describes the [End Page 196] stages in the life of this first bioethics research institution in the world, focusing on the years of its success (1980–86) and then on the routinization of its charisma (1986–96). More recent years have seen Callahan questioning medical progress and stressing the urgency of critically examining the goals of today’s medicine, even including discussion topics that are often avoided.Bioethics scholars and students will enjoy In Search of the Good. They will be able to integrate their own historical study of this discipline with Callahan’s personal memoir, which gives a human face to issues and debates. Moreover, bioethicists will be stimulated to reassess their own intellectual engagement and reflect on the future developments of this interdisciplinary discipline whose “roots lie in the humanities” (167).John Kilner, director of bioethics programs and professor of bioethics and contemporary culture at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, takes a broader approach in Why the Church Needs Bioethics. The volume includes contributions from an interdisciplinary group of thirty-one Christian leaders with diverse expertise, ranging from medicine, business, and law to biblical studies, theology, counseling, and intercultural and pastoral ministry. Nineteen leaders contributed essays, and twelve offered their critiques to earlier drafts. This collaborative effort is praiseworthy, but at the same time it leaves readers desiring more cohesive reflections and a synthetic theological voice.The volume considers three cases emblematic of major human quests: reproductive technologies for a better birth; enhancing drugs for a better life; and end-of-life care for a better death. Each case is discussed by experts from three different disciplines—biblical theology, practical theology, and other secular professions (business, law, or health care)—followed by a specifically bioethical essay. The volume ends with two conclusive contributions discussing how preaching and wisdom... (shrink)