Global terms: Teaching & Classroom Practice

Interfaith Week and the importance of excellent Religion and Worldviews teaching

Josh Cass | 14 November, 2023

Each year in November the Interfaith Network for the UK (IFN) convenes and coordinates Interfaith Week. For IFN, Interfaith Week is an opportunity to raise awareness about the UK’s different and distinct faith communities, and to celebrate the contribution which their members make to their neighbourhoods and wider society. In doing so, Interfaith Week creates opportunities to increase understanding between people of different religious and non-religious beliefs. However, for this to occur, IFN notes that there needs to be a foundation of understanding, awareness and respect.

To many people in the Religious Education world, these themes will be extremely familiar. Many educators will recognise that when supporting learning about complex and sensitive issues such as those relating to religion and belief, that there is a need to establish safe and nurturing learning environments which promote respect. Moreover, and with that open and inclusive learning environment established, religion and worldviews classrooms by definition must explore different and distinct religion and belief communities.

Religious Literacy: A tool for better interfaith relations

IFN talks about these kinds of activities as promoting greater religious literacy. Religious literacy is understood as a suite of skills for interpretation and interaction grounded in an understanding of one’s own faith or belief, and the faith or belief of those with whom they are interacting. For IFN this literacy is vital in a diverse society; it is one important factor which increases the likelihood of positive and respectful coexistence. Indeed, this aligns with findings from Culham’s 2022 Religion and Worldviews Parent survey which found that 66% of parents believe that religious education lessons prepare their children effectively for life in multi-religious, multi-secular Britain.

Interfaith Week: A tool for enhancing the teaching of religions in schools

There are many ways in which teachers can use Interfaith Week as an opportunity to dig into issues which align with many religious education syllabuses. For instance, IFN have seen how some schools use Interfaith Week as an opportunity to explore aspects of living together well in religiously diverse societies and the values that underpin them. Other schools have used Interfaith Week to deliver lessons focussing on a particular religion or religious festivals (particularly those which happen around the time of Interfaith Week). In these cases, schools often reach out to their local Interfaith Forum, or local places of worship, to explore how they can add greater richness to the planned activities such as sourcing speakers for assemblies. Where there are schools with different religious ethos’ physically close to one another, Interfaith Week has been an opportunity to do linking activities, which have brought children of different faith traditions together to learn from one another. Where distance might prevent this, some schools have found that they can use video-conferencing to facilitate exchanges between schools.

If you are interested in using Interfaith Week as a way into creative religious education learning opportunities, this report by IFN is a great place to start. Many local interfaith groups will be particularly active during Interfaith Week and receptive to enquiries and requests for help. For that reason, it is a great opportunity for schools to build up links with local faith communities and interfaith activists.

About

Josh is Lead Consultant: Advocacy for Culham St Gabriel's

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Teaching Islam: Creating the ‘Discovering Muslims in Britain’ Resource

Matt Vince | 03 October, 2023

The overall aim of Discovering Muslims in Britain is to support teachers to embed sociological perspectives in the classroom.

The project was inspired by my own research, discussions about the RE/ RVE curriculum in Wales, and the expertise of the Islam-UK Centre at Cardiff University. The project was a response to an emerging desire to represent local, ‘lived’ expressions of religious traditions in the classroom. The sociological approach to the study of Islam and Muslims in the UK that the Islam-UK Centre specialises in lends itself to this kind of analysis, so it seemed like a great opportunity to try and bring this expertise into the RE classroom.

I’ve always thought it odd that there is a lot of research out there that tells teachers what to do, yet distinctly less that attempts to implement ideas for the classroom. Yet there is always a clamour on various RE forums for resources, especially quality resources from a reputable source. Feedback from focus groups showed the need for resources that were practical and accessible for the ‘average’ school and teacher.

We developed both teaching resources and CPD training in an attempt to put research into practice. This is the principle at the core of Discovering Muslims in Britain.

We came across some unexpected surprises. Firstly, we found much wider institutional support than we had expected, from both schools and Cardiff University. This shows us that there is a desire to support projects like this. Secondly we found that creating ‘classroom ready’ resources really means resources that are easily adaptable, we cannot predict each classroom context, teacher, school type and level of expertise. We felt this was a productive solution.

The most crucial question we grappled with is what constitutes ‘legitimate’ knowledge about Islam. There were some anxieties from teachers where accounts of Muslims in the resource seemed to contrast with the “textbook answer”. Such anxieties reflect longstanding tensions between representing “official” and “lived” accounts of religion in the classroom, as well as with scholarship itself. Unpicking these tensions may be a fruitful avenue for further research, and improve the RE curriculum.

After creating the resource, our top tip is to treat the accounts of people, in this case Muslims, as a source of knowledge and evidence about a religious tradition alongside that of the traditional sources of knowledge and wisdom. By comparing and contrasting these sources, and trying to unpick the differences, we can begin to get at differences in context, and how abstract teachings or historical narratives are “made real” today.

In the course of this research we came across some good sources of information about Islam. One that stands out is the Muslim Museum Initiative. The work of the scholars at the Islam-UK Centre is also really useful – check out the Public Seminar Series.

The process has given me valuable insights into teaching about religion generally. Something that really struck us when trying to conceptualise the course is negotiating the tension between teaching about the “core” of Islam, or constructing a kind of fixed framework of concepts to begin to understand what Islam was, and then presenting “lived” Islam as enshrined in the perspectives of Muslim communities. Importantly, shifting the focus from understanding Islam to understanding Muslims also afforded us more room to lead with the idea of Islam as understood and lived by Muslims, and more room to achieve the latter. We hope teachers continue to use and benefit from this resource.

Find the Discovering Muslims in Britain Resource here

About

Matt is an Honorary Research Fellow of Cardiff University's Islam-UK Centre and part of the development team on the Discovering Muslims in Britain project.

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A Multidisciplinary Approach for KS3

Shell Sullivan | 19 September, 2023

Like many in RE, I was inspired by the Commission on RE’s report (CoRE, 2018) and the Ofsted research review (Ofsted, 2021) to introduce more challenge or ‘ambition for all’ into my curriculum, to use Ofsted’s phrase. I applauded the encouragement for RE teachers to teach substantive knowledge in more depth – which I understood as ‘less is more’ – as well as highlighting the need to represent diversity within faiths accurately. I was also excited by the ‘how to know’ element of the Ofsted review, referring to the difference between substantive and disciplinary knowledge, and the development of personal knowledge. However, the team and I weren’t sure what this would look like in the classroom with our younger students. We felt confident that for our GCSE students a more detailed exploration of texts, data and philosophical ideas would really bring their learning to life, but were unsure as to how to do this well with KS3.

Thankfully, many like Dawn Cox, Nikki Mcgee and Joseph Kinnaird, were actively tackling the practical implications of a multi-disciplinary approach at KS3, so we had lots to explore. Encouraged by their success, my team and I began to trial the explicit use of multi-disciplinary language and analysis of sacred texts in the KS3 classroom. Initially we were anxious that students would find the more detailed textual analysis too hard, and instead of feeling challenged, would be overwhelmed. We were proved wrong.

In preparation for a new unit on Genesis 1, I read the inspirational The Bible With and Without Jesus (Brettler and Levine, 2020). We realised we had always considered Genesis 1 and 2 from a Christian viewpoint, and this book showed us that also analysing from a Jewish perspective would add richness and depth. This opened up a fantastic example of diverse worldviews, difficulties with translation and varied interpretations of sacred text for students to dive into. A helpful tip from Lat Blaylock regarding exploring Genesis from a Jewish perspective gave me additional confidence (Marsten, 2000).

I used an approach for making sense of text from a theological perspective called LAaSMo, which is recommended by Canterbury Christchurch in a toolkit for teachers (Bowie, 2020). This approach showed me how to support students in studying the literary form, author, audience, setting, meaning and order of the text, before they evaluated the impact that diverse beliefs have had, and may still have on the lived experience of believers. Again, this was rich and stimulating and opened up a world of understanding that our students managed well.

By the end of the unit students could see how textual and hermeneutical analyses had allowed them to interpret a text from Christian and Jewish perspectives. We found that as well as the new learning, students had also come to understand that there is never one way to make sense of a sacred text, and in fact, there can be quite a range of diverse viewpoints within religious traditions.

Students’ theological understanding, substantiative knowledge and evaluation skills were assessed. We found that they were able to interpret the theological themes and present their own conclusions. We were very interested to see how many made links to beliefs about the environment and subsequent behaviour.

Despite our initial anxiety we were delighted with the results and felt the work was well worth it. Our curriculum has been hugely enriched because of this, as we are excited for the next challenge.

References

Brettler, Marc Zvi and Levine, Amy- Jill (2020) The Bible With and Without Jesus, Harper Collins Australia
Bowie, Robert, E. (editor) (2020) The Practice Guide, Classroom Tools for Sacred Text Scholarship, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2020
Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) (September 2018) ‘Religion and Worldviews: the Way Forward: a National Plan for RE’
Marsten, Justin (2000) ‘Jewish understandings of Genesis 1 to 3’, in Science & Christian Belief, Vol 12, 2000
Ofsted, Research Review for Religious Education (May 2021)

About

I'm Shell Sullivan and I'm RPE Head of Department at Holyrood Academy in Somerset and the Secondary RE advisor for Somerset. I've lived in lovely Devon for nearly 30 years and can't remember a more exciting time to be an RE teacher!

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GCSE Shia Textbook

Zameer Hussain | 05 September, 2023

Our Resource of the Month is a FREE textbook about Shia Islam for GCSE. This is tailored to the GCSE specification, but would be useful for all teachers to gain useful information about Shia Islam.

In this blog, co- author Zameer Hussain talks about the inspiration for writing the book, along with scholar Dr Ahab Bdaiwi.

With the GCSE reforms in 2016 that required diversity to be explored, we felt it was an opportunity to equip and educate teachers about the Shia perspective before teaching about it. For the first time, an in-depth understanding of Shia Islam was required on the GCSE specification, along with Sunni Islam. We had found that Shia Islam wasn’t always accurately portrayed in resources nor was it given much space in textbooks. Therefore we felt such a book was necessary.

The book was authored by myself and Dr Ahab Bdaiwi. Dr Bdaiwi is a well-respected academic in Islamic scholarship and I am a teacher and member of the RE community, with experience in training teachers about Shia Islam. We felt that between us we had the knowledge and credibility, as well as the right balance between academic rigour and understanding of the classroom, to offer a book to teachers.

We consulted with well-respected Shia scholars, such as Ayatollah Fadhil Milani, as well as academics with a specialism in Islam, such as Dr Chris Hewer. We wanted to ensure our writing is accurate and represents Shia Islam in an authentic way. Their feedback was invaluable for our work.

We had a very clear aim that the book should be accessible to teachers and students. Throughout the writing process we constantly asked ourselves the question; can someone pick this book up and feel confident in teaching about key beliefs and practices of Shia Muslims? As well as covering the requirements on the GCSE specification, we wanted to give some background detail to ensure a rich, complex understanding.

As Shia Muslims we are only too happy to help and support teachers in this way. All over the UK teachers will find Shia mosques which welcome school groups and individual teachers as visitors. Tours can be arranged and questions can be asked to scholars. I myself have supported teachers in understanding Shia Islam more for many years and am always interested to hear about teachers’ questions or ideas. Feel free to contact me if you ever want to ask questions about Shia Islam!

Over the years, in training teachers, I have come to a couple of points of understanding for non-Muslim (and non- Shia) teachers. It is important not to pitch Shia Islam as an off-shoot or breakaway from ‘mainstream Islam.’ Shia Islam has its own traditions and history that shouldn’t be framed through a Sunni lens. Of course, it shares much with Sunni Islam but the Shia worldview should be given the same credibility as other traditions. For example, there may be only a Sunni narrative taught around the life of Prophet Muhammad that overlooks a Shia perspective. Shia historians reject the idea that Muhammad didn’t know he was a prophet until the Angel Jibril visited him, for example. I also advise that knowledge about Shia teachings come from credible sources such as literature or websites written by Shia scholars or experts. A good website is https://www.al-islam.org/ which contains lots of Shia literature translated into English and reflects the diversity of opinion within the Shia tradition.

Unfortunately, whether intentional or not, there is a lot of false information online about Shia Muslims. This includes inaccurate claims that Shia see Ali as a prophet, that they worship the Imams and believe the Quran is incomplete and has been tampered with. There are also generalisations that depict the whole Shia community as performing blood-letting during Ashura, when this is not the case.

Some aspects of Shia Islam are not on the GCSE specification that would be great for students to learn about. For example the Ziyarah pilgrimages to the mausoleums of the Imams are very important to Shia Muslims. The spirituality that can be found in Shia Islam is also profound. This can be seen when studying the psalms and supplications that have been passed down from the Imams. Through the study of this prayer literature, there would be an excellent exposition of the way Shia Muslims are taught to conversate with God which gives an insight into Shia theology.

When it comes to learning about Shia Islam, there are some key figures, events and ideas. For example, Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, is one of the most inspirational figures due to his stand against injustice. His life and death are very important to learn about to gain an authentic understanding of what is important in Shia Islam. Additionally, a grasp of the historical events before and after the death of Prophet Muhammad that led to Muslims going in different directions is essential to understand why there are Sunni and Shia Muslims. In modern Shia Islam an exploration of the altruism and servitude displayed on the pilgrimage to Karbala, Iraq, during Arbaeen would offer an excellent understanding; it reflects Islamic ethics and social justice in a profound way. It would also be worthwhile exploring the tradition of Shia poetry that teaches us so much about Shia history.

About

Zameer has been involved in Religious Education and interfaith work since 2013. This has included leading RE departments and supporting teachers nationally with subject knowledge.

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The Benefits for Non-religious Pupils of a Religion and Worldviews Paradigm

Ian Coles | 11 July, 2023

I always feel sympathy for non-religious children sullenly slumped in RE lessons, declaring ‘I’m not religious, I don’t need to know this’. In this blog, I will articulate three reasons why many non-religious pupils struggle to engage with RE following a World Religions paradigm, and how these problems are overcome by following a Worldviews paradigm. While my experience is as a Primary teacher, I am hopeful that this reasoning applies just as much to those in Secondary schools.

Pupils feel invalidated

The World Religions paradigm asks teachers to choose religions for study, meaning non-religious worldviews might be overlooked in an already overcrowded curriculum. For non-religious pupils who know that their teacher has deliberately excluded their worldview, they must question whether the lesson is worth their attention. How a worldviews paradigm can help A Worldviews paradigm begins and ends with people: all people. In a Worldviews classroom religious and non-religious pupils are equally worthy of study. No pupil needs to get the impression that their view on a subject is not welcome or important, simply because it is not drawn from a traditionally religious perspective. When pupils engage with Religion and Worldviews, they may discover that their own worldview shares ways of seeing with other established worldviews. This way of thinking gives children the freedom to interact on a completely different level. It is no longer a case of either believing or not believing; pupils can engage in a much more nuanced way, sharing and adapting their beliefs and values as they travel through the curriculum.

Pupils feel disadvantaged

Following the World Religions paradigm means some pupils are automatically disadvantaged. A pupil may find themselves next to someone in a lesson on Christianity who already has considerable knowledge derived from their parents and out of school activities. However, it is unlikely that the same pupil will find themselves in a History lesson sitting next to, for example, a Roman. With natural disadvantages like this, it is no wonder that some pupils feel that RE is not worth the effort of giving their all. How a worldviews paradigm can help While there will undoubtedly remain a need for children to gain substantive knowledge regarding major world religions and other worldviews, the focus of a Religion and Worldviews approach shifts from gaining knowledge to interacting with knowledge. Non-religious pupils will no longer be disadvantaged through a lack of experience of religion, as their own, unique worldview created by their own experiences and beliefs is now the driving force for their understanding in RE. With a curriculum that is not restricted by the need to focus exclusively on world religions, one approach teachers may take would be to introduce Big Questions at the start of a topic: for example, ‘Is there an afterlife?’. This topic could then begin and end with the children articulating their own understanding and belief, with several different religious and non-religious interpretations explored. While some children may have prior knowledge of a particular taught worldview, this will not be a significant advantage over time as all pupils will engage with rich and complex information in order to address the big questions.

Pupils feel alienated

Many non-religious pupils come from non-religious families, they may even have exclusively non-religious friends. In these cases, religion is not only irrelevant to them, but it may seem irrelevant to everyone that they know. Pupils who find themselves in this situation will inevitably struggle to find purpose and meaning in RE lessons, and therefore are unlikely to commit fully to their studies. How a worldviews paradigm can help As stated, a worldviews paradigm begins and ends with people. A worldviews curriculum would, among other things, highlight the diversity within and across religions, and to do this pupils have to interact with individuals. We are no longer asking our non-religious pupils to engage with the huge, alien concept of ‘religion’. We are introducing them to individuals; individuals who may subscribe to a particular worldview, but real individuals with unique thoughts and feelings that our pupils will be able to relate to. When pupils find a topic relatable they are much more likely to engage with it positively, and therefore by having a people-focused curriculum rather than a religion-focused curriculum, non-religious pupils are much more likely to connect with the teaching.

About

Ian is a primary RE co-ordinator working in North Nottinghamshire, an MA student at St. Mary's, Twickenham and a recipient of the Culham St. Gabriel's Masters scholarship.

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Ethical Veganism in the Curriculum: Religion, Worldviews and the Contemporary World

Dr Heather Marshall | 27 June, 2023

I taught RE for a number of years, and am now the RE PGCE course leader and senior lecturer at Edge Hill University. This role allows me to be active in school education, but also to take a strategic approach to research around Religion and Worldviews. The best part of my job is working with beginner RE teachers, who are not only learning a to navigate the complex technical, emotional and intellectual terrain of the classroom, they are finding themselves as teachers in relation to their school contexts and wider society. In this blog I will present my work on ethical veganism in the curriculum, and suggest that the Religion and Worldviews paradigm has much to offer teachers as they explore the urgent questions of our world today with their pupils.

As an ethical vegan myself, my doctoral research concerns the experiences of vegan children in schools and how far the ‘omnivore norm’ can be challenged through the Religion and Worldviews curriculum. As you can imagine, this takes me to the heart of all sorts of fascinating, and sometimes challenging, ideas. The experience of vegan children in schools is an example of a school’s ‘hidden framework’ (Giroux 2001), the dominant school culture which reflects the dominant culture and power relations of wider society.

There is much rich content that can be brought into the curriculum to make sense of values around the food we eat. Vegetarianism in the Dharmic traditions is encouraged in scripture and modelled by centuries of religious leaders. We can explore the environmental impacts of meat production and the compelling ethical questions raised by our globalised intensive meat industries. Moreover, ethical veganism is a topic which speaks to the future of the planet; sustainability, the climate emergency and human exploitation. These types of questions can be found in religious and non-religious worldviews, which further allows pupils to explore the overlapping, complex and interconnected nature of worldviews in our less Christian but more religiously diverse contemporary society. Western perspectives often draw a clear distinction between humans and non-human animals, while many Eastern religions traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, view all life as interconnected and believe in the principle of ahimsa, which requires avoiding harm to all creatures. An environmental worldview can be inspired by religious or non-religious values, or an eclectic mixture of ancient, contemporary, spiritual and practical concerns.

As Religious Education shifts towards a Religion and Worldviews paradigm, such an examination of ethical veganism is an example of how the curriculum can explore the relationship between religion and worldviews in the contemporary world. Ethical veganism is a rapidly growing philosophical belief rooted in practice and protected under the Equality Act (2010) and European law. It can be perceived as a secular worldview yet for many it is closely intertwined with religious belief and practice. From vegan food served in shops and restaurants to discussions about animal treatment, environmental responsibility, human health, social justice, and of course, religion and beliefs, this topic opens up a wealth of pertinent questions. Just like other religions and worldviews taught in RE, veganism is a dynamic and multi-layered subject of study, fostering lively debates and discussions, critical thinking, and thought-provoking questions. My research shows me children’s strong interest in the animal kingdom and their eager engagement in conversations about animal welfare, ethics, and their treatment. The potential to explore such an urgent and engaging set of topics is an example of how the shift towards a Religion and Worldviews approach could be of great benefit to RE.

For any teachers interested in pursuing these questions with their pupils, the following websites are a good places to start:

Veganism in Education
Animal Interfaith Alliance – Faiths Working Together for Animals
Interfaith Vegan Coalition
NATRE- Veganism as a worldview in RE

Reference:

Giroux, H. (2001). Theory and resistance in education. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey.

About

Heather is Senior Lecturer and RE PGCE Course Lead at Edge Hill University, plus has lots of previous experience of being a classroom RE teacher in Liverpool.

See all posts by Dr Heather Marshall

Making Sense of a Religion and Worldviews Approach in the Primary Curriculum

Rachel Buckby | 18 April, 2023

For some time, I have been interested developing a Religion and Worldviews approach in our curriculum. There is so much that our pupils would respond to, such as the idea of starting with people, not abstract concepts. I know teachers would enjoy looking through different lenses, such as Theology one week, and History another week, and maybe we would introduce children to using the language of ‘disciplinary lenses’ as children love using ‘big words’ and technical vocabulary, alongside age appropriate and more familiar explanations. I am interested in a Religion and Worldviews approach as it offers an authentic view of religious and non-religious lives around the world. Such a curriculum would provide our pupils with the knowledge that the world is a richly diverse community. In this blog I will discuss the elements of our curriculum that can be developed and adapted as we build, slowly, towards a Religion and Worldviews approach.

Pupils have commented that they want to learn about diversity in the world. They have also expressed enthusiasm to make links with other subjects as they learn. A Year 1 pupil showed me how they had linked their learning in RE to Science and History for themselves, and this got me thinking. Perhaps pupils get the impression that RE is stuck in the past. A curriculum approach which starts with people, rather than ancient texts, can embrace contemporary lives and issues.

We already explore diversity, such as the reasons for different baptism traditions, why Orthodox and Reform Jewish groups might have different synagogues and why some Sikhs wear a turban while others do not. Through these differences we explore the idea of diversity generally in human life, including in our school community. Pupils and teachers enjoy these learning experiences so we are starting from a positive point.

We already ask ‘Big Questions’ in every lesson. This established approach means we could ask different sorts of questions about different sorts of knowledge. Where we might ask a rather abstract philosophical question in our current curriculum, following a worldviews approach we could start with people and explore their context, whether geographically or socially, and ask a Big Question about this. We could take a hermeneutical approach and explore different interpretations. Sticking to the Big Questions approach means that although the subject knowledge has changed, the method has not, so teachers will feel secure in their skills. Teachers might find they can explore issues in more depth, make more links and connections and find their own subject knowledge deepening.

The idea of looking through different lenses could also be fruitful. We might use a word like ‘wondering’ to describe thinking philosophically in KS1, to make it accessible for those who find ‘big words’ challenging. At KS2 pupils will enjoy the richer connections to be made when exploring the world through Theology, Philosophy and Social Sciences. The different lenses mean teachers have particular questions to ask, such as about the past, places, people or beliefs, and can take children further into one mode of thinking.

There will no doubt be some anxiety about the change to Religion and Worldviews. Ideas have to be introduced to staff slowly and the reasons for the change made clearly. We can explore together the benefits for pupils’ learning and understanding. Staff need to look at examples, which I will provide. We can trial one unit and feedback, and work together to create quality resources so colleagues do not feel the workload is overwhelming.

I will report back. Watch this space!

About

Rachel Buckby is a primary RE subject lead at a CofE school in Leicester as well as a leading teacher for the diocese of Leicester and us currently taking part in the Culham St Gabriel's leadership programme.

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Ways of Knowing in the Past Part 6

Jennifer Jenkins | 13 April, 2023

Creative Perpetuation

This final blog of the series is a patchwork affair. I want to conclude with a tapestry of the creative ways people have engaged with theological ideas over the centuries. Recitation features in several religious traditions; where the melody, emphasis and pronunciation of the words combines with meaning to communicate rich, nuanced ideas. This is true of the Qur’an. When Binyamin and Yusuf are reunited in Surah Yusuf (Surah 12), Yusuf says “I am your brother”. The ‘am’ is lengthened to convey the emotion of this reconciliation. In surahs where the mercy and compassion of Allah are extolled, the two words flow into each other to emphasise that Allah is ALL merciful and ALL compassionate. The final surah of the Qur’an contains sibilance, with the articulation of the ‘s’ sound conveying the concept of ‘secrets’ as the Quranic scriptures draw to a close. Likewise, Sanskrit is designed to be articulated in melody, so that Vedic texts such as the Bhagavad Gita are sung more than spoken. The traditions and teachings of Sanatan Dharma were passed down orally, with the memorisation of verses greatly aided by the melodic pronunciation and recitation. As well as the recitation and song of oral traditions, dancing has played its part in transmission of beliefs, through sacred stories. More prevalent in the Indic-traditions, I am nevertheless reminded of King David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, the circling of a Jewish bride and the widdershins processions in the liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the Hindu tradition, carefully learned dances convey the epics of Vedic literature and the ecstatic whirling of the Sufi tradition is practiced as a form of active meditation. Theatre can provide a forum for encounter with religious truths. In the morality plays of the medieval and early Tudor periods concepts such as virtues, vices, temptation and human nature were personified. Most commonly the plot followed a trajectory of temptation, fall and redemption. The audience reflected on the importance of confession, repentance and salvation, seen through the Christian sacraments, applying the struggles of the protagonist to their own lives. In the ruins of the old cathedral of St Michael in Coventry outdoor theatre is still performed today. I have seen Shakespeare plays performed by the fabulous theatre group, the Three Inch Fools, in that setting. I often envisage the ‘stage’, a platform of flat stone, being used centuries earlier, with Coventry’s humble folk gathering for a performance of Everyman, where entertainment, morality and a good dose of theology would mingle under the stars. In this six- part blog series, I have explored ‘ways of knowing in the past’. There is so much more to discover. Through literature, art, oral religion, recitation, song, dance and theatre, we can see that people of the past articulated and explored the theology of their belief systems and worldviews. Better than a textbook? I am inclined to think so. I hope you have discovered something useful (and beautiful) for the RE classroom through the time you have devoted to reading my blog series.

About

Jennifer is a former Assistant Head Teacher and RE Subject Leader from Coventry, is RE and Spirituality Officer for Coventry DBE and RE Facilitator for Coventry and Warwickshire. She is excited to be championing RE locally. @kairosbutterfly

See all posts by Jennifer Jenkins

Ways of Knowing in the Past Part 5

Jennifer Jenkins | 11 April, 2023

The Vernacular

Over the centuries, those who had the luck of being educated made efforts to bring their theological learning to the benefits of those less fortunate. In Europe, Christian theological understanding could be complicated and abstract and also expressed in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, providing a further barrier to understanding for those who could not read or write. Over the centuries ways developed to express Christian theology in the ‘vernacular’, the language spoken by ordinary people in a region. Bible stories and the lives of the saints were retold in local languages ordinary people could hear. This was not always welcomed by those in authority. In 1382, John Wycliffe translated the Bible from Latin into English, an act that earned him posthumous excommunication; his body exhumed and burnt. In the 1530s, Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, causing one of the great rifts of the Reformation. However by 1611, the King James version in English was made widely available, suggesting a melting away of objections to accessing Christian theology in the vernacular in Protestant regions. Making Christian teachings more accessible inevitably led to reductionism. Ordinary people worked long, hard hours. As well as illiteracy, they did not have the time to engage in abstract theological meditations. Yet in a religion like Christianity with official doctrine and heresy, people must know what they believed. The church responded. The Heidelberg Catechism, 1563, was composed in Heidelberg, Germany, under the guidance of many theologians. The catechism was designed as a teaching tool, divided into fifty-two sections known as ‘Lord’s Days’, each one of which could form part of a Sunday service. Ordinary people were given weekly access to essential dimensions of Christian theology and ethics. A sixteenth century ‘Alpha Course’ perhaps? It wasn’t just Christianity that developed systems for distributing information with hard-working, uneducated people. On converting to Buddhism, The Indian king Ashoka (reigned from 268- 232 BCE) erected a series of 50- foot pillars in the kingdom to spread Buddhist teaching. The pillars combined teachings of Buddhist compassion with the merits of King Ashoka. Erected at places of pilgrimage, such as the Buddha’s Enlightenment and first sermon, they spread across northern India, to spread the Buddhist religion to the ordinary people of Ashoka’s lands. Guru Nanak also ensured ordinary people could access teaching and holy scriptures for themselves. The Gurmukhi script (meaning: from the mouth of the Guru) is used to write Sikh scriptures. It is the script of the Adi Granth (literally translated as ‘the first book’). The vision for Gurmukhi was a script that could be learned easily and was in the common tongue of the area. It seems that in order to thrive and spread, religions needed to put their theology and ethics into the eyes, ears and hands of the lay people. Over time, literature, poetry, stories and art emerge which meet this aim.

About

Jennifer is a former Assistant Head Teacher and RE Subject Leader from Coventry, is RE and Spirituality Officer for Coventry DBE and RE Facilitator for Coventry and Warwickshire. She is excited to be championing RE locally. @kairosbutterfly

See all posts by Jennifer Jenkins

Ways of Knowing in the Past Part 4

Jennifer Jenkins | 06 April, 2023

Hagiography

Having always enjoyed biographies of inspirational figures, I was interested to find this isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, it seems an important source for theological learning in the past is ‘hagiography’. Hagiography refers to writing about the lives of saints, combining the Greek words ‘hagi’, ‘holy’, and ‘graphy’, ‘writing’. Hagiographic texts are a unique biographical writing form, not offering a strictly historical account of a saint’s life but with the aim of assisting the reader in their own salvation. A hagiography might not mention dates or places of birth, but details which show the saint’s exemplary Christian life, inspiring in others ideas about their own salvation. Hagiographic writing was common in the early church, with collections forming over the centuries. Hagiographies often included the stories of those who had been saved from a life of ‘sin’, such as Moses the Black (saved from a life of violence) and Mary of Egypt (saved from a life of sexual liberty). Check out these two saints; wow! Often in hagiographic writing the saints are portrayed as without sin, suggesting a miraculous dimension to their lives. In Medieval times, the ‘Vitas’, or ‘life stories’, became a source of biblical education for ordinary people. Hagiographies provided an important source of Christian education for ordinary people, along with church windows and story-telling. The merging of Christian belief with earlier mythology is not uncommon. Images of the Egyptian goddess Isis with her son Horus bear a strong resemblance to early Christian icons of the Madonna and Child. A weaving together of saints’ lives and social concerns are visible in the modern age. St Perpetua was an early Christian martyr who was executed alongside Saint Felicity. They died clinging onto each other have been adopted as patron saints of same-sex relationships. Perpetua dreamt she was transformed into a man and this has led to her being adopted by the Christian Trans community as an icon. Hagiographic icons, or images, became a form of theological storytelling. Dating from the 12th & 13th century onwards they depict a saint and scenes from their life. They are ‘read’ much like a book, allowing ordinary people to learn for themselves, even if they cannot read. Hagiographic icons reached their golden era in the fifteenth century. They were particularly popular in Orthodox Russian and Slavic regions, as well as in pre-Protestant Britain. 14th Century icons of St Anthony and St Cuthbert in Carlisle cathedral survived the Reformation, although their faces have been scratched out. They were later painted over by people fearing idolatry, but have been discovered and restored. Through panels such as these, ordinary people learnt about saints, God and themselves.
The panels showing the lives of St Cuthbert & St Anthony of Egypt, the faces scratched out. Images by Jen Jenkins, used with permission.
The panels showing the lives of St Cuthbert & St Anthony of Egypt, the faces scratched out Images by Jen Jenkins, used with permission I wonder what a modern equivalent of hagiography might be for Christians today? Twitter? Pinterest? For medieval Christians the vitas and hagiographies provided information, inspiration and hope. I was interested to read recently that the Indic Traditions have similar stories of spiritual heroes and holy people, to provide a similar role. I wonder why knowing about those who have trod our own spiritual path seems so important? Does it help us to understand the beliefs that shape our lives and worldviews? I also wonder if we are as ready to learn about and from others as those in centuries past.

About

Jennifer is a former Assistant Head Teacher and RE Subject Leader from Coventry, is RE and Spirituality Officer for Coventry DBE and RE Facilitator for Coventry and Warwickshire. She is excited to be championing RE locally. @kairosbutterfly

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