‘Faith without ideology is dead’: what are the implications for Religious Education in Catholic schools and colleges of taking this assertion seriously? An essay for teachers of the subject to consider

Abstract

The article seeks to explore a number of ‘double binds' in the theory and practice of Catholic religious education. There is a disparity between the goal of education, as a universal practice of human development, and faith formation, which is more correctly understood as an intentional, ‘elitist' formation of a minority elite. How to make sense of this ‘asymmetry'? With the help of two Jesuit theologians, Karl Rahner and Juan Luis Segundo, the asymmetry can be appreciated, not as a dilemma to be resolved, but as an anthropological constant. Rahner writes of ‘anonymous Christianity', Segundo gives a distinctive account of ‘faith and ideologies’ in need of each other. Taken together, these two theologians help us to re-calibrate our understanding of what Catholic educators are seeking to achieve.

Keywords:

• Rahner
• Segundo
• faith and ideology
• anonymous Christianity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The term ‘double bind’ is associated with the educational theorist Gregory Bateson and his colleagues, seeking to construct a theory of schizophrenia. It denotes the simultaneous imposition of incompatible commands which renders an individual incapable of action (Bateson et al. 1956).

2 The reasons for this shift lie primarily in the education policy shifts championed in the government of Margaret Thatcher, during the 1980’s. These culminated with the introduction of a National Curriculum and a public examination qualification that replaced the Ordinary Level and Certificate of Secondary Education qualifications (through the Education Reform Act 1988). A new qualification of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) was established, and it became the norm for students to take GCSEs examination in 10 or 11 subjects. In preceding decades, students took a handful of O Levels. After 1988, in Catholic schools, it became routine to enter all students for the GCSE Religious Studies examination. Some of the long term effects of this changed situation, many of negative, are explored in further detail in Whittle (2018a, 2018b, and 2018c).

3 This old saying, emphasising action, refers to the widely acknowledged truism that handing on the faith is not a transmission of credal statements, but rather the formation of a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is the power of witness (actions) over words which communicates most powerfully to modern people (see Pope Paul VI 1975, Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 41).

4 The Religious Dimension of Catholic Education (1988), see paragraphs 66–68.

5 In England and Wales, it has over the last three decades become routine for Catholic secondary schools to have full time chaplains (overwhelmingly lay people). In Ireland the chaplains still tend to be ordained, and given this their involvement in the school is often part-time because it is combined with parish ministry.

6 These are formally stated in Pius XI’s encyclical Divini Illius Magistri (1929), namely to support the parents of Catholic children by helping them to educate their child in a way which coheres with their religious beliefs – their faith.

7 There are two sets of issues here. First, serious concerns over the profound vagueness of these slogans (see Whittle 2015, 85–87). Second, the theological concern that in this humanistic reformulation, reference to God may be gently jettisoned.

8 Uruguay is a comparatively secularised country compared to Peru and Brazil, home of mainstream liberation theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez, and Leonardo Boff. For a response to Uruguay’s ‘brutal secularisation’, see Adriana Aristimuño (2020). Segundo’s work in Uruguay was largely in adult educational formation.

9 Cited in Hennelly (1997, 26).

10 Juan Luis Segundo, Faith and Ideology (Segundo 2006); also ‘Ideologies and Faith’, chapter 4 of Liberation of Theology (Segundo 1976, 97–124).

11 Karl Rahner’s achievement consists in addressing head-on, and with honesty, the questions posed for Christian belief by the philosophical challenges of enlightenment modernity. His response is a radical re-formulation of the relationship between nature and grace; his thinking was deeply influential upon the work of the Second Vatican Council, especially Gaudium et Spes (1965), the Constitution on the Church in the World of Today.

12 These words of Jesus (Matthew 22.14) conclude the parable of the wedding feast, in which a guest is first admitted to the feast, but then expelled for not wearing a wedding garment. According to the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the garment symbolises ‘a converted life full of good deeds … Matthew distinguishes between the initial call of salvation and final election and perseverance.’ (NJBC 1990, 665).

13 This is why Segundo expresses scepticism about Paolo Freire’s famous ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’, which draws an analogy between literacy and political ‘conscientisation’ (Freire 2007). The analogy is a false one, says Segundo, as they are two very dissimilar processes. A literacy rate of 98% within a population is a feasible goal; a similar percentage becoming politically conscious and committed really is not.

14 There are many examples, of Jesus’ condemnation of piety which is at odds with human flourishing. He contrasts a pharisee and a publican at prayer (Luke 18.9-14); the first is religiously observant, but it is the second, who acknowledges his sinfulness, who ‘went down to his house justified’. Other examples would include the many controversies about true sabbath fidelity, for example in chapter 12 of Matthew’s gospel. Jesus cites the Hebrew scriptures: ‘What I desire is mercy, and not sacrifice’ (Matthew 12.7).

15 Rahner understands by ‘anonymous Christian’ a person who lives in the grace of God and attains salvation outside of explicitly constituted Christianity, for example in another faith tradition. Because this person follows their conscience, they attain salvation and live in the grace of God; ‘of him I must say that he is an anonymous Christian; if not, I would have to presuppose that there is a genuine path to salvation that really attains that goal, but that simply has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. But I cannot do that.’ (Rahner 1986, 207).

16 Examples of such can be found, argues Whittle, within the curriculum for mathematics (the concept of infinity), physics (the cosmology of the ‘new physics’), history (causality in historical events), and above all philosophy. With this question-and-answer format, discussion of ultimate meaning is opened up to every person, not just the believer.

17 See ‘The Hermeneutic Circle’, chapter 1 of Liberation of Theology (Segundo 1976, 7–38).

18 Capaldi (1990, 69–71).

19 ‘Encryption’ here simply refers to the act of making digital information, television channels, and so on, secure and inaccessible to someone who does not have the correct code. For discussion of Rahner’s concern, that talk of God after the Second Vatican Council was in danger of becoming ecclesially encrypted- too ‘churchy’- see Kirwan (2017).

20 Ecclesiologenesis is the term used by Leonardo Boff to describe the emergence of a ‘post-Constantinian’ church’ in the base communities of Latin America (Boff 1986).

21 Capaldi (1990, 69). The ‘learning to learn’ in this definition refers to the concept of ‘deutero-learning’, which Segundo develops from Gregory Bateson.

22 The assertion that ‘the story does not easily hang together’ is an uncomfortable one. In one sense, Segundo’s argument about asymmetry is a version of the ‘scandal of particularity’. This is the shocking claim that the ultimate destiny of every human being who has ever lived is tied up with the life and death of a Palestinian Jew who lived two thousand years ago. The faith claims of Christianity are especially difficult to maintain in the modern era, when the Christian is faced with plenty of alternative religious- and non-religious- options. On this, see Charles Taylor’s monumental and challenging study A Secular Age (Taylor 2007).

23 See also, Jürgen Habermas, An Awareness of What Is Missing (Habermas 2010).

24 The authors are fully aware that this is a high risk strategy, on a number of counts. Firstly, Segundo’s use of the term ‘ideology’ as a positive and necessary component of Christian commitment is a potential cause of confusion, as we are more used to negative connotations. Secondly, the perspective here looks utopian. Individual RE teachers cannot be expected to implement such an approach unless a whole series of other agents first accept it: parents, teacher associations, bishops, government, and the Catholic Church itself. It is perhaps best to consider the views explored here as a provocation to discussion (similar, in fact, to the provocative nature of J.L. Segundo’s theology), rather than specific proposals ready for implementation. Reactions as to how this vision can be turned into a practical reality in the curriculum will be warmly welcomed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Kirwan

Michael Kirwan SJ is a British Jesuit priest, teaching and researching in theology at the Loyola Institute, Trinity College, Dublin. He is the author of ‘Theology and Education’ in S. Whittle (ed.), Vatican II and New Thinking About Catholic Education (2017); ‘Catholic Schools as an Expression of Political Theology’, in S. Whittle (ed.), Researching Catholic Education: Contemporary Perspectives (2018); and ‘Catholic Faith Education: a Jesuit Theological Critique’, in S. Whittle (ed.), Irish and British Reflections on Catholic Education (forthcoming 2021).

Sean Whittle

Sean Whittle is a Visiting Research Fellow at St Mary’s University in Twickenham. He is also a Research Associate with the CRDCE, with Professor Gerald Grace. He also held a Fellowship at Heythrop College, University of London. Alongside these academic roles he works part-time as a secondary school RE teacher at Gumley House FCJ Catholic School in West London. In 2021 two further edited volumes will be published by Sean Whittle: Irish and British Reflections on Catholic Education: Foundations, Identity, Leadership Issues and Religious Education in Catholic Schools (Springer) and New Thinking, New Scholarship and New Research in Catholic Education: Responses to the work of Professor Gerald Grace (Routledge/T&F).