"Sometimes I believe in God, but..." - about youth, faith and (divine)service.
Description
The church's challenge has always been, - in word and in action - to preach and to teach the Gospel in a certain manner that creates meaning, faith and the desire to live a life that follows the ways of Christ. This kind of preaching takes place in a tension-field between the general understanding of the needs, the values, the worldly image and the life values that signify the local context we as a church are a part of and the very specific values, needs and "life-stories" that every individual carries with them.
Goals
Viewed in this context, the course has as goal to give the students the necessary understandings to:
• Understand the general sociological and psychological developments' factors that make the over orderly frames in the lives and children and youth.
• Understand the factors that have meaning in the development of children's and youths faith.
• With a background in religious and psychological developments' perspectives, evaluate the current thinking and practice in the churches child- and youthwork - a thinking and practice that often has its background in a very different historical and cultural context.
• Reflect on the challenges that the church faces in their services - which is the preaching, educating and nurturing of the souls to children and youth in the 21. century.
• Develop a thinking and practice around preaching, educating and nurturing of the souls that is in consideration with the specific context that they are a part of.
These understandings can be obtained through:
• An introduction to the development of the mainstream society that makes up the frames that young people live their lives in.
• An introduction to a number of general psychological developments' perspectives on children's and youths lives, in closer detail to development- and transitional fazes, identity development and emotional development, the meaning of relationships, socializing and sexuality.
• An introduction to and analyzing of different Sunday services and education methods.
• A description and analyzing of current ways of expression within the youth culture, for example, ways of communicating and ways of having fellowship.
Evaluation:
The students will write - with a base in a theological reflection and understanding of the current mainstream societies' context - for example, ways of fellowship and ways of communicating within youth culture - an assignment of 4-6000 words in which students reason and evaluate the church's current thinking and practice around Sunday service and/or education in connection to youth, together with coming up with a grounded proposal for changes that makes the current out standing ways of the church, relevant in connection to the current mainstream in youth culture.
Volume
Points: 10 study points
200-level
Curriculum volume: ca. 900 pages
Curriculum literature
· Birkedal, Erling: Noen gange tror jeg på Gud, men...? En undersøkelse av gudstro og erfaring med religiøs praksis i en tidlig ungdomsalder. Tapir, Oslo 2001. (290 pages)
· Fowler, James: Faithful Change. The personal and public Challenges of Postmodern Life. Abingdon Press, Nashville 1996. (338 pages)
· Willer, Thomas & Østergaard, Søren: Jeg tror på det hele - Gud,skæbnen og de syv bud, Unitas Forlag, København 2004 (181 pages)
· Wennell & Østergaard, Søren (red.): Når himmel og jord mødes. Om unge og gudstjeneste. Youth Ressources, København 2002. (124 pages)
Teacher
Simon Hall, MA, Oasis Trust
Date
Course is offered in the autumn of 2007 |
