Circe Faith is like Dancing

Moved by faith to grow as a Christian. Training Guide for Developing Religious Competencies
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-3-8192-0347-3
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 3, 310 Seiten

Reihe: DEUS EX MACHINA

"Faith Is Like Dancing - and you determine the way and the rhythm!" Faith does not mean blindly following rules, but rather engaging with your heart, hands and mind: with yourself, with other people and with the world. This training guide for developing religious competencies for Christians as well as teachers and learners in religious education and in child and youth welfare invites reflection: It encourages and accompanies on the way to decisive personal and social skills that everyone needs to be able to live faith and charity authentically. Twelve concrete learning areas show: The ability to engage in dialog, empathy, critical thinking and reflection, gender sensitivity, self-acceptance, ethical action and others can and must be learned - in religious education classes, in self-study, in theology internships, in the community and in everyday life. A book for all those who not only want to learn their faith, but want to live it: flexibly, courageously and with joy in love for others. Because those who truly live their faith do not just dance according to foreign, dogmatic rules, but also move in tune and self-confidently in harmony with the rhythm of their own life: faith is like the joy of dancing! - and this "coordination work" can be learned.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Circe, Eureka

Leseproben

Exercise 2:
Questioning and rethinking gender-sensitive and queer theology independently

This exercise deals with gender-sensitive and queer theology. The aim is to critically question traditional concepts of faith and to develop them further in an inclusive way. Believers and learners should be enabled to reflect on theological knowledge independently and contextually aware, to recognize patriarchal imprints and to creatively reshape them. Central teaching objectives are contextual awareness, critical questioning of traditional interpretations of the Bible, integration of gender-sensitive and queer perspectives and the development of independent theological judgment. The skills taught include theological reflection, critical judgment, dealing with inner images and ideas as well as deconstructive thinking to identify and transform normative theological statements.

This is because personal learning takes place through self-reflection and biographical work, the study of diverse theological voices, historical-critical Bible reading as well as through dialog and practical testing of new theological perspectives. Didactic approaches therefore include an integrative curriculum design, diversity of teaching staff, empowering text work, the use of inclusive language and liturgical experiments as well as case studies on the practical implementation of inclusive theology.

The transformative effect can be seen in a deeper understanding of Christ and the image of God, a more sensitive and empathetic approach to pastoral care and ethics, and an inclusive preaching practice that honors diversity and variety.

• Learning and development objective: The most important competence is the ability to reflect theologically in order to critically question and further develop one's own images of God and Christ as well as traditional understandings of roles . The learning objective is to practise an independent, inclusive and context-conscious theology.
• Good practice example: A biographical reflection exercise in which participants write down their religious biography and impressions of images of God and gender and then reflect on them in a protected dialog. This promotes critical questioning and personal theological growth.
• Church support through: Clergy can act as guides and mentors by openly sharing their own processes of reflection and inclusive approaches to practice, creating spaces for dialog and actively introducing gender-sensitive and queer perspectives into sermons and church work.
• Local budget use: Financial resources can be used in workshops and further training on queer and gender-sensitive theology, for example for fees for external experts, diversity-promoting community events and the creation of inclusive theological materials.
• Adapting the curriculum at school: The religious education curriculum should include queer and gender-sensitive theology as an integral part in order to enable students to critically reflect on traditional theological concepts. Content includes historical-critical Bible reading, inclusive images of God, the diversity of gender and sexual identities as well as practical exercises in empathy and judgment in the context of diversity and justice.

At a time when diversity and justice are increasingly coming into focus, prospective theologians, religious education teachers and those interested in theology are also called upon to shed new light on traditional concepts of faith. Feminist and diversity-oriented approaches have long since gained a foothold in many disciplines; now they need to be implemented and firmly anchored in theology.

In the field of gender-sensitive and queer theology in particular, this means: asking courageous questions, working out patriarchal imprints, reflecting on one's own faith in a context-conscious manner and making theology and one's own writings more inclusive. This article outlines specific teaching objectives that are important for this, describes the skills that need to be developed and how they can be taught using methods, approaches and content. Practical examples are used to show how these skills can be promoted in training and teaching. Finally, it highlights the transformative change in perspective that such reflective theological work entails for the understanding of Christ, the image of God, pastoral care, the church and preaching.

Concrete teaching objectives

What should learners achieve at the end of such a development process? The teaching objectives can be clearly defined:

• Contextual awareness and critical questioning: Learners should be enabled not to view theological statements in isolation, but to consider historical, cultural and social contexts.

They learn to re-evaluate traditional interpretations of the Bible - for example on gender and sexuality - in the light of changing social attitudes. The aim is to develop a theological attitude that does not blindly accept, but questions independently.

• Gender-sensitive perspective: A central learning objective is to anchor gender justice in theology. Learners should recognize how strongly male-dominated images of God and theologies have had an impact for centuries,

and how important it is to include female and non-binary perspectives. They practise identifying and overcoming language and role stereotypes in church teaching.

• Queer inclusion and deconstruction: Participants should develop the ability to theologically deconstruct heteronormativity and exclusionary norms.

This means that they question supposed "normalities" (e.g. bisexuality or traditional family images) from a queer perspective and discover the liberating messages of the Gospel for all people beyond narrow categories.

• Independent theological thinking: Perhaps the most important goal is to strengthen one's own theological judgment and ability to reflect. Prospective theologians should learn to develop their own points of view and make well-founded theological judgments instead of just reproducing predetermined doctrines. They should be able to work according to the principle "not either classical or feminist theology, but both in combination" - in other words, to think integratively and creatively.

These teaching objectives aim to produce mature theologians who live their faith in a reflective manner, actively help to shape an inclusive church and speak of God's love in a justice-sensitive way.

Important skills to be developed

Achieving these goals requires specific skills that are developed step by step. Some of these are

Theological ability to reflect

This refers to the ability to think theologically about one's own faith practice, influences and experiences. Learners should be able to take a reflective distance from their own faith and actions in order to gain new insights.

In concrete terms, this means that they reflect on their own religious biography, their images of God and their understanding of roles in the light of theological findings. Studies show that you can only really take the diversity of concepts of God in others (such as children or church members) seriously if you are aware of the development and plurality of your own images of God.

This self-reflection is the basis for all further learning: those who recognize the limitations of their own perspective are open to growth.

The ability to reflect theologically also includes the willingness to keep learning. As emphasized in the training of religious education teachers, experts should always align their actions with current professional discourse and continuously question themselves through exchange and further training.

Applied to students, this means that they develop an attitude of lifelong learning, constantly examining their own spirituality, biblical interpretation and theology and correcting them if necessary.

Discernment (theological judgment)

The power of judgment is the ability to arrive at an independent theological assessment on the basis of knowledge, reflection and ethical sensitivity. Instead of rashly following authorities or traditions, students learn to weigh up arguments and take a well-founded position. For example, students practise answering controversial questions (such as: How can the church's stance on same-sex partnerships be justified biblically?) independently and formulate a well-founded answer.

Judgment is particularly encouraged when teaching-learning spaces are created in which questions are encouraged and own formulations can be tried out.

Such an approach is practiced at the Evangelisches Stift Tübingen, for example: There, special exercises give students the opportunity to ask questions and formulate their own theological thoughts in order to develop their powers of judgment.

Through such guided discourse, learners realize that there is rarely just one right answer in theology - rather, it is important to recognize the connections between the biblical message, traditional teaching and today's world and to communicate them intelligently. This competence also enables students to make ethically responsible judgments - an aspect that is particularly important for prospective pastors and teachers.

Dealing with inner images and ideas: The image of God

Everyone brings inner images and often unconscious ideas to their studies: images of God (e.g. as a strict father or loving mother),...