The devastating impacts of climate change on daily life are becoming more and more apparent. These challenging times call for religious educators in all contexts to help faith communities bring the lens of climate justice to all aspects of faith formation. In this article, the Religious Education Association (REA) 2024 program chairs share…

Based on autoethnographic descriptions of recent climate events in Germany, Greece, and England, three colleagues describe these events' impact on daily life and their implications for religious education in European schools. The argument oscillates between struggling for climate justice and enduring its aporias. In the aporetic (learning) space,…

A growing number of new faith communities in North America are emerging as part of the Wild Church Network. These outdoor church expressions seek to re-acquaint, re-cover, and re-member their faith communities as loving participants of the larger community of Creation. This paper explores theological foundations and spiritual practices grounding…

Should the state provide religious education in public schools; if yes, what form should it take? I argue that alertness to epistemic injustices that religious persons can suffer can help us answer those questions and can provide grounds for fostering religious literacy. I argue that, if religious persons can suffer testimonial injustice, we…

The Synod of Catholic Bishop's 1971 document, "Justice in the World," articulates boldly that "action on behalf of justice is a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel." Fifty years old, it is timely to assess this document today especially as religious educators address the many forms of inequality in the world.…

This essay offers a glimpse into what is possible when religious educators traverse the walls of the justice system and work with students-incarcerated to curate spaces of hope, grace, and transformation in prison. Herein I present both a dream and a challenge to the future of religious education to live into a life-saving mission to offer the…

This article consists of remarks made during a panel at the 2017 annual meeting of the Religious Education Association in St. Louis, MO. From his vantage point as a former law enforcement agent, the author explores issues of ethical dilemmas present in policing; the current situation of militarized police forces; community policing and its…

This essay explores a tension in the Catholic theological classroom brought about when teachers aim at dismantling racial injustice with resources from antiracist pedagogy. Where Catholic social thinkers package together reflection, judgment, and action, antiracist educators recommend forestalling the last step--action. The essay's primary aim is…

The persistence of white privilege and escalating racism in the United States challenges religious educators to analyze the roots and destructive potential of both. This article draws on historical and contemporary analyses in dialogue with personal reflection and the oral histories of two leaders who seek to recognize and live beyond their own…

Historically, Blacks have out of necessity prioritized survival in educating their younger generations for existence in the racially hostile and divided context of the U.S. This education and religious education has occurred formally and informally in homes, schools, community organizations, and in congregations. This paper examines three aspects…

At the heart of the Christian experience lies the conviction that justice and freedom are essential to build communities where God's love is authentically experienced by all. Such conviction emerges as part of an intentional process of faith formation that begins at home and must be constantly nurtured throughout the life cycle. This article…

The very complicated nature of interpretation, in general, and ambiguities involved in Derrida's writings, in particular, makes it very difficult to hold what Derrida means by deconstruction. As Biesta and Miedema (2011, 105) state: "One of the main challenges here is to get the interpretation of Derrida's writings 'right.'" Surely, by putting…

This study attempts to explore Israeli and American teachers' perceptions based on their ethical dilemmas in Jewish schools. A cross-national study was undertaken in Jewish schools, examining fifty teachers from Israel and fifty-one teachers from the United States. Designed with team-based simulations, this study revealed strong similarities…

This article offers a response to two provocative questions about the relationship of theology to religious education posed by Norma Thompson in her Presidential address given at the annual meeting of APRRE in 1978. I offer contemporary answers to these questions from the perspective of a theological educator. First, I show how feminist theory and…

This article describes a countercultural approach to autobiography in comparison with three dominant uses of autobiography in religious education. It defines countercultural autobiographies as stories from the underside of society meant as tools for education for justice and as invitations for transformative dialogue in institutional and societal…