Christian formation

a catequese está à procura de uma identidade sua na missão da igreja e acima de tudo nos contextos de nova evangelização. cheguei à conclusão de  que a sua missão prioritária – mas não a única – é a de favorecer o acolhimento da proposta cristã a partir dos dinamismos culturais próprios das pessoas e
dos grupos humanos. A expressão receptio  é entendida nesta perspetiva. apesar de ser uma expressão teológica, é apropriada para exprimir todo o processo intrapsíquico e intracultural através do qual a pessoa se constrói a si mesma. Processo cultural que se torna condição ou caminho pastoral em contexto de apropriação livre da experiência religiosa. esta é entendida como aquilo que completa a ação evangelizadora da traditio e, precisamente por isso, é a condição de uma autêntica redditio que é o objetivo do processo catecumenal.

L. Meddi, Educare la risposta della fede. La receptio fidei compito della catechesi di “Nuova Evangelizzazione”, «Urbaniana University Journal», 56 (2013) 3, 117-161; L. Meddi, Educar la respuesta de fe. La receptio fidei tarea de la catequesis de “Nueva Evangelización”, «Sinite», 56 (2015) 168, 73-126

Los muchos nombres de la catcquesis. Este  libro quiere ser una  introducción  al  estudio de  la  catequesis.  En tal sentido  es  una  catequética.  Ofrece  un  panorama  argumentado  de  la evolución de su definición en el siglo xx y una toma de posición respecto de su  futuro.  El  centro de este estudio es  la  relación  entre definición  de la  tarea  misionera  y  su  elaboración  teológico-pastoral  (práctica).  En efecto,  se quiere dar respuesta  a  muchas  preguntas sobre  la  actual  difi­
cultad de la  Iglesia contemporánea  para desarrollar la  misión formativa.
En  primer  lugar,  se  lo  quiere  hacer  en  referencia  al  contexto  europeo, pero,  probablemente,  las  reflexiones  también  son  válidas  para  otros contextos eclesiales en  los que se manifiesta  el fenómeno de  la seculari­zación,  que,  tal  vez,  debe  interpretarse como  una  colocación  diferente
de la experiencia  religiosa en  el corazón de  las  personas.
De  buen  grado  he  de  reconocer que  el  texto  nació  por el  impulso  de algunos profesores y amigos que acogieron favorablemente mi obra  pre­cedente  titulada  "La  catechesi oltre  il catechismo.  Saggi di catechetica fondamentale".  [La  catequesis  más  allá  del  catecismo.  Ensayos  de  catequética fundamental]  (2018),  pidiéndome,  sin  embargo,  que  lo tradujera a  un  lenguaje menos técnico y más discursiyo.

INDICE
Introducción. Los muchos nombres de la catequesis
Capítulo 1. El nacimiento de la catequesis contemporánea
Capítulo 2. La educación de los cristianos en los varios posconcilios
Capítulo 3. La tarea de la catequesis en la misión de la Iglesia
Capítulo 4. Teología de la catequesis: dejar actuar al Espíritu de Dios
Capítulo 5. Antropología catequética: el papel de la persona y sus dinamismos
Capítulo 6. El contexto eclesial de la catequesis
Capítulo 7. El itinerario de la catequesis
Capítulo 8. La comunicación del mensaje
Capítulo 9. El acompañamiento para la respuesta de fe
Capítulo 10. La mistagogia y la formación de la vida cristiana
Capítulo 11. La iniciación cristiana de los adolescentes
Capítulo 12. Las prácticas catequísticas

The article illustrates how community relationships can influence an individual's behavior. Humans develop their moral selves within the framework of communities and relationships, and so it is not right to reduce moral formation to a solitary intellectual act or a process disconnected from community involvement. Belonging to diverse communities, including family, religious congregations, educational institutions, and even virtual communities, and affiliation with them can transcend physical proximity. The liturgical acts within religious communities contribute to moral formation by reminding individuals of their Christian identity and moral responsibilities. The article emphasizes the multifaceted ways in which communities impact the moral development of individuals, from the transmission of values and narratives to the influence of moral role models and accountability mechanisms.

Kingdom Calling offers a compelling theological grounding for the vocation, ministry and discipleship of the whole people of God. Building creatively on previous studies, it challenges all of us to change so that the whole church can serve the whole mission of God in the whole of life. Kingdom Calling provides a thorough diagnosis of the theological factors that have prevented such a vision being realised over previous decades.
These factors are embedded in the social realities of our everyday life and in the sometimeshidden assumptions that shape our thinking in the church. By setting out a sustained proposal for the renewal of our theological imagination, the report points the way to address some deep running fault lines in our common life.

Written in an accessible style, Kingdom Calling looks in turn at the vocation, ministry and discipleship of all God’s people, asking what kind of theological thinking and imagining might most help us to flourish together. It affirms and celebrates the vital lay and ordained ministry roles that support the church in God’s mission, and it identifies changes in practice that can better foster the
vocation, ministry and discipleship of the whole people of God.

This exploratory study addresses the lack of attention to interpersonal physical touch (IPT) in
Protestant Christian formation. It combines insights from the Reformation tradition and pre- Christendom to develop a practical and participatory theological anthropology of touch. Additional resources from Dykstra and Bass ground this research in a “Christian practices” approach to discipleship and human flourishing. The threefold argument for attention to IPT is then compared to the experiences of research participants in two exercises: a “touch awareness exercise” during a worship gathering in 2019 and a “virtual church touch awareness exercise” during the mandatory shutdown of physical gatherings due to the pandemic in 2020. Participant interviews revealed a tentative sequential pattern among participants for engaging in IPT in the worship gathering: negotiating barriers, whether social, liturgical, or spatial; seeking permissions to navigate these barriers; and experiencing or providing alleviation, whether relief or aid for oneself or another. Participants disclosed that a shared history of Christian practices with others directly enhances the IPT expressed and received in the worship gathering, producing a mediated “felt” sense of fellowship and affirmation of worth and acceptance. In contrast, the inherent lack of IPT in virtual church contexts presented notable challenges for participants to find alleviation, affirmation, and connection with others. This thesis argues that IPT in church worship gatherings is vital for making known to worshippers the koinonia they share with one another by the Spirit. As an application, this research suggests reviving physical expressions of “peace-making” in contemporary worship gatherings.

Spis treści
Formacja chrześcijańska – czy ma sens dzisiaj? Christian formation – does it make sense today?

ks. Dominik Kiełb
Pojęcie formacji chrześcijańskiej 15

ks. Michał Powęska
Jezus jako Wychowawca dla Szymona Piotra. Ewangelia Markowa a pedagogika dialogu 29

ks. Adam Pawlak
Wymiar pedagogiczny Dialogów Grzegorza Wielkiego 47

ks. Dawid Dudziak
Wychowanie duchownych do podjęcia posługi misyjnej według papieża Grzegorza Wielkiego 69

ks. Wojciech Witowski
Formacja mnichów iroszkockich według wybranych kanonów ksiąg pokutnych 85

ks. Michał Ludewicz
„Formacja do papiestwa”. Droga na Stolicę Piotrową w wybranych żywotach biskupów Rzymu z VIII-IX w. zawartych w Liber Pontificalis 103

ks. Łukasz Libowski
Kajdany, więzienie, uzda, jarzmo, pęta.
Hugona ze Świętego Wiktora rozumienie karności, czyli wykład zawartości drugiej części jego traktatu De institutione novitiorum (rozdziały X-XXI) 127

ks. Piotr Wilk
Wychowawca w miłości. Ryszard ze św. Wiktora, „De quatuor gradibus violentae amoris” – wstęp, przekład, komentarz 151

ks. Paweł Ślawski
Wykorzystanie modlitw eucharystycznych o tajemnicy pojednania w formacji liturgicznej i kształtowaniu postaw chrześcijańskich 191

ks. Radosław Banaś
Psychologiczne aspekty muzyki liturgicznej a wychowanie do dojrzałego przeżywania Eucharystii 203

ks. Roman Hopej Duszpastersko-formacyjny wymiar kultu Najświętszego Serca Pana Jezusa 221

ks. Michał Pierzchała
Znaczenie świadectwa wiary dla formacji chrześcijańskiej w rodzinie 245

ks. Jarosław Młodecki
Formacja chrześcijańska świeckich w świetle posynodalnej adhortacji apostolskiej Christifideles laici Jana Pawła II 267

Dariusz Cichoń
Katecheza jako forma formacji chrześcijańskiej w ujęciu ks. Franciszka Blachnickiego 279




Table of Contents
Christian formation – does it make sense today? (Polish) 9 (English) 12

Dominik Kiełb
The concept of Christian formation 15

Michał Powęska
Jesus as Pedagogue for Simon Peter. The Gospel of Mark and the pedagogy of dialogue 29

Adam Pawlak
The pedagogical aspect of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great 47

Dawid Dudziak
Formation of clergy to undertake missionary service according to Pope Gregory the Great 69

Wojciech Witowski
Formation of Iro-Scottish monks based on selected canons of penitential books 85

Michał Ludewicz
“Formation for the Papacy”. The Way to the See of St. Peter in selected lives of Roman bishops from VIII to IX centuries from the Liber Pontificalis 103

Łukasz Libowski
Shackles, prison, bridle, yoke, bonds. Hugh of Saint Victor’s understanding of discipline, i.e. an exposition of the second part of his treatise De institutione novitiorum (chapters X-XXI) 127

Piotr Wilk
The Educator to Love. Richard of St. Victor’s “De quatuor gradibus violentae amoris” – introduction, translation, commentary 151

Paweł Ślawski
Use of Eucharistic prayers on the mystery of reconciliation in liturgical formation and formation of Christian attitudes 191

Radosław Banaś
Psychological aspects of liturgical music and education to conscious participation in Eucharist 203

Roman Hopej
The pastoral and formative dimension of devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus 221

Michał Pierzchała
The importance of the testimony of faith for Christian formation in the family 245

Jarosław Młodecki
Christian formation of lay people in the light of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici by John Paul II 267

Dariusz Cichoń
Catechesis as a form of Christian formation as reflected by Fr. Franciszek Blachnicki 279

Pentecostal churches have high expectations of their schools of
higher education, and justifiably so. Intellectual and spiritual formation
of the next generation of ministers and lay persons is imperative. So it is
a hopeful sign that, while many churches have surrendered their schools
to an increasingly secular education culture, for the most part Pentecostal churches have worked to keep the Pentecostal academy vitally connected and institutionally responsible.

The presence of πίστις in the list of spiritual gifts in1 Cor 12:8-10 is problematic. Should not faith be the common basis of the charisms and not a particular gift? What means “faith” in 1 Cor 12:9, given that Paul includes it among the nine manifestations of the Spirit? How to understand and to translate it? Evidently, “faith” points here not simple adherence, but a very precise form of πίστις. In fact, Paul places wisdom, knowledge and “faith” in rapid succession, making them the three principal dimensions of the teaching charisms. As reflected in the repetition of the same gifts in the sequence of 13:2. Some Jewish texts talk about rabbis able to change the point of view of people whose convictions were as immovable as a mountain. They were nicknamed “mountain mover” (oker harim). Thanks to the support of rabbinic literature it becomes possible to explain the presence of πίστις among the teaching gifts in 1 Cor 12:9 and 13:2, offering a translation, certainly broad but more atte...

The prayer of a Christian is the subject of his daily care in the process of spiritual development. We can say that without it and its dynamic development it is not possible for the spiritual progress of the Christian and the Church in which he or she lives. It is also a very extensive subject of research and scientific work in the field of theology and especially the theology of spirituality. Hence, it must be treated in a multi-faceted and multi-directional way. Among all the different categories of prayer, community prayer and common prayer are very important. This distinction is necessary because it reveals to us the truth that every prayer has a communal character, but it is not always common. However, prayer celebrated together is the source of Christian life and the Church, and it is the clearest and most readable testimony of faith.

Transescents, young people typically in the age range from ten to fourteen, also known as middle school aged children, embody specific needs in the process of education. In the context of religious education programming within Christian congregations, traditional curriculum models have historically corresponded to the 􏰆banking model􏰇 of ed􏰀ca􏰁ion, and e􏰄en con􏰁emporar􏰂 models 􏰀sed in man􏰂 congregations still utilize such a delivery model. In this project, both the scholarly voices of the religious education experts, as well as the scholarly voices of the public school K12 education reform models, will be reviewed and then placed in a practical theology dialogue with one another in an attempt to listen for ways they may be drawn together. Through the method of Whitehead and Whitehead, the study attends, asserts, and pastorally responds to this engagement. In the end, a practical theology model of re- envisioning Christian religious education flows from the pastoral response.

Faith is a gift of God-an act of divine grace-rather than a set of beliefs or a well-developed cognitive understanding of spiritual things. As Pope Benedict XVI says in "Gospel, Catechesis, catechism", "Do not presuppose the faith but propose it… faith is not maintained automatically. It is not "finished business" that we can simply take for granted. The life of faith has to be constantly renewed. And since faith is an act that comprehends all dimensions of our existence, it also requires constantly renewed reflections and witness. The study shows the difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. To determine the Christian formation of students of Columban College, Inc. in Olongapo City as the basis for Faith enhancement. It utilized the descriptive design of research using college students coming from different programs as the respondents. The researcher used a survey-questionnaire to generate significant responses from the respondents. Christian Formation is more than handing on of religious instruction. Its goal is growth in faith, which implies both formation and transformation, leading one to live out the Gospel as part of a believing community. Christian formation is a lifelong process. Everyone, including the parents, the catechists, and Religion teachers has been always a learner. The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium states that "At its heart, the identity of the Catholic School in its role in the evangelizing mission of the Church and directed to the complete formation of the students". (CCE, 11)

Being mentally healthy is one of the best feelings in the world. Just knowing that you are not under any kind of stress is already a breath of fresh air. Every student goes through a very stressful time of their lives every time another academic year starts. A student's mental health is often frowned upon because adults say that all they do is sit around all day listening to their lectures. But in all honesty, being mentally tired is the worst feeling in the world. The purpose of this study is to provide an assessment of mental health issues and academic performance of senior high school students. The researcher used a survey-questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale that has been modified and adapted from several authorities in the field of Educational Psychology. The study shows that senior high school students have a positive mental health assessment in school, home, personal and health. Some inconsistencies in their response to the mental health assessment in school may be attributed to the needed enhancement of their difficulty in math and other major subjects. Thus, it is recommended that the curriculum must be enhanced, particularly that of the math and other minor subjects so that it will abreast to the interest of the students without sacrificing the curriculum prescribed by DepEd. Moreover, to re-visit the teaching strategies that will encourage students to enjoy learning.

Research in the field of communication apprehension (CA) has been ongoing for many years now. CA is the fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with others. This study investigated the main factors that lead to CA in the first-year college students in a teacher education institution and suggested some solutions to cope with the students' CA and improve their communication abilities. The participants of the study were the 17 first-year college students in a teacher education institution, who were officially enrolled in the English subject. The data on the students' level of oral CA were gathered using the McCroskey's Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24). Findings divulged that first-year college students demonstrate varying degrees of levels of oral CAs. This study could provide a basis for language professor to deem speaking actions that could be best offered to students who are challenged with oral communication apprehensions. Moreover, this could help students to scrutinize their oral communication apprehensions and find ways to address and surmount it. It cannot be denied and overlooked that English is the most universal language spoken everywhere. In most countries, a top priority is given to English expertise and English language education for individual career or interests, as well as national improvement and globalization.

The experience of hearing God’s voice is one of the defining aspects of Pentecostal spirituality. While most Christian traditions maintain a belief in a personal and communicative deity, the Pentecostal concept of hearing God’s voice is distinct by its expectation of contemporary encounters that are phenomenologically consistent with and qualitatively equivalent to the biblical characters. Pentecostal Christians value revelatory experiences for their ability to “strengthen, encourage and comfort” the church as they did in New Testament times (1 Cor 14:3,4). However, the function of revelatory experiences in contemporary Pentecostal practise has been questioned.

At the same time, recent studies in missiology and ecclesiology and the renewed emphasis on the concept of missio Dei (the mission of God) has served to reorient the church’s mission from the activity of the church to the activity of God via the Spirit. Drawing on the findings of my PhD studies in three Australian Pentecostal churches, this paper seeks to bring the voices of missional theology into dialogue with Pentecostal revelatory experience in order to reflect on its function in practise. This paper will analyse and discuss the role of the Holy Spirit in ministry and mission. Missional theology provides a framework by which the function of revelatory experience can be understood and responded to in the pastoral setting. It shows that the outcomes of Pentecostal revelatory experience are consistent with the mission of the triune God, demonstrated through the ministry of Jesus and via the voice of the Spirit in the church today.

Christianity functions as a seedbed for the epistemological divide over race in the United States. Building on Willie James Jennings’ call to consider who we have been formed not to see and to whom we belong, this paper urges theological schools to implement theory and practices of seeing and belonging across racial and ethnic lines that will form future leaders to enact beloved community in the church and society. Even as educators from the public sphere have issued a call to multicultural education, much of theological education continues to engage in monologue without a variety of racial and ethnic perspectives. This represents a critical issue of formation for persons being prepared to fill pastorates in a racialized nation, where the 2016 presidential election further exposed a deeply seated white supremacist ideology. Theological schools must attend to this formational task at both the theoretical and practical levels of the curriculum.

This research was done in the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, in the Diocese of Kajo-Keji. The reason is that this church has a vast membership of which a large percentage are inactive members. At the same time we see that the diocesan leadership of the church has made evangelism and discipleship priorities in the mission of the church.
Another factor is that this church has experienced very different contexts: its members have lived in exile and they now experience freedom in an independent country. I wanted to know what language diocesan leaders use to describe growing and declining participation in their church. Why are people not discipled, and how can this situation be changed? Are the answers to these questions framed in a different narrative than the one used in Europe about secularization?

This paper is actually a letter written to parents of ten students whom I (and three others) led through a rite of passage designed as an initiation to become disciples of Jesus Christ. The underlying assumption of this paper and the initiation experience itself is not that such a rite can serve as the constitutive basis of the initiate's status as a disciple; rather, the experience was designed with the goal of becoming a decisive reference point in the self-identity of the initiate's that would serve in their memory as the organizing principle for how they would henceforth understand themselves interior to the category of disciple. In addition to the reflection, worship, and prayer times (discussed in this document), my hope was to accomplish this by creating an experience of a prolonged contrasting tension between one's subjective experience with the objective world, that is, through pain confronted by beauty. This experience lends itself, I believe, to the posture of a disciple's faith, since through it we discover, as it were, the end of ourselves and the beginning of God, indeed the smallness of ourselves and the grandeur of God's creation. In other words, we learn not only that we are utterly dependent upon God but that we should prefer nothing else, since the God on whom we depend has shown himself to be so beautiful and so generous in his creative expressions and the in his giving creation to us for our care and enjoyment. Thus, the themes reflected in this letter reduce to one basic confession that the entire trip is designed to implant in the mind of each initiate as their foundation for the life of faith: "God is God and I am not." And there is nothing greater than precisely that truth.

My hope in publishing this paper here, in all its particularities, is that other Christian leaders might reproduce and/or improve upon this unique experience, for I am convinced it meets and great need in our culture.

Actual trail facts in retrospect: five nights, 53.71 miles, 11,358' of ascent, summited Windom Peak.

A video from the trip can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8I1HxZpcNM

When the church came to implementing this idea of lifelong education, however, we face a twofold misunderstanding that proceeds to use control over the educational vision, despite our beliefs.  The first misunderstanding is that education is for children.  The press, media, and books about education all communicate, whether implicitly or explicitly, the fundamental belief that education is a work dedicated to children.  This misunderstanding is so deep that when we try to speak of education that is not for children, Maria Harris claims that we give it a name “adult” education to distinguish it from the so-called real thing.

El presente trabajo comienza analizando la metáfora de la luz que proporciona el título y el hilo conductor a la Encíclica Lumen Fidei. Partiendo de la definición de la fe como «mirar con los ojos de otro», se muestra el calado antropológico de esta afirmación para mostrar después que ese «Otro» es Jesucristo. Creer es, desde esta perspectiva, mirar a Cristo y mirar desde Cristo. El acto de fe incluye por igual el conocimiento y la voluntad, o lo que es lo mismo, el amor y verdad. Por último se destacan las implicaciones prácticas y eclesiales de la fe, para desembocar en su relación con la escatología: por la fe, la vida eterna se hace presente en el día a día del hombre

"An Indian Initiative in Christian Formation: Reflections on the Vision and Mission of Dharmārām for an Indian Church" captures a set of important ideals for which it has been established in 1957. In an attempt to recapture the noble vision and mission of Dharmārām and to instil a passion for the same among those who associate with this noble Indian venture in Christian formation, a few reflections are offered in two parts. While the first part, “Faith Seeking Harmony of Life at Dharmārām,” tries to dwell on an ideal understanding of the vision and mission of Dharmārām, the second part, “Seeking Divine Harmony: Stalwarts of Dharmārām Synthesis,” offers a review on the contributions of three important persons who have attempted to realize the Dharmārām dream in their own inimitable ways, thus, becoming shining stars on the Dharmārām horizons.

This Festschrift honors Benny C. Aker, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. In addition to teaching at several institutions, Aker worked as an editor for Hendrickson Books for many years. Aker contributed to the New Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary (Abingdon, 2007) as well as the article on John in the Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Zondervan, 1988). He currently serves in the Evangelical Theological Society Study Group concerning “Charismatic Themes in Luke-Acts.”

How do practices contribute to the formation of the mind of Christ in community such that the community truly becomes the body of Christ?” This dissertation demonstrates that Christ acts on his Church through a complex interaction of community and practices to generate the identity, diversity, and virtue of his body. This is a controversial claim because many hold that the matter of virtue rightly consists of adherence to cherished foundations like Scripture and tradition accompanied by calls to obedience. Nonetheless, this study seeks to identify resources to help the Church imagine a virtue ethics appropriate to a 21st century communion ecclesiology. It does so by reading Richard Hooker as an ecclesial ethicist.

Examining Hooker’s accounts of Scripture, participation, and liturgical practices, the dissertation develops a Hookerian account that extends the ecclesial ethics of Stanley Hauerwas and Sam Wells on both ends. On the front end, it derives from first principles an account of how humans come to see themselves as part of the theodrama in which improvisation is required. On the back end, it grounds improvisation in a theory of mimetic virtue. Along the way it shows how a largely Barthian Christology coheres with a positive account of sacramental practices and that a Hauerwasian emphasis on practices is not sectarian. Hooker’s repudiation of appeals to timeless absolutes in ethical reasoning and his demonstration that the self-ordering of the Church is phronetic action means that contemporary “liberal accommodationism” and “postliberal traditionalism” can no longer coopt Hooker to justify their ideologies.

El tratado del Evangelio de San Juan de Agustín de Hipona nos ofrece una teoría de la verdad que responde a la exigencia que Ignacio Ellacuría hacía a finales del siglo XX de un lugar histórico en donde se ilumina la realidad. Este lugar histórico es el Crucificado, experiencia personal de la humanidad oprimida y entregada a una posibilidad que se afirma rebasando y transformando por esa entrega las fronteras de la experiencia.

"El sacerdote de Orihuela-Alicante, Domingo García, pronunció una ponencia sobre la formación integral del cristiano. En su exposición retomó el lema del encuentro “Verdaderos creyentes, discípulos y testigos de Cristo”. El ponente describió el creyente como aquel que tiene una fe que le hace capaz de reconocer a Jesús en su vida: “Se trata de un encuentro real con fuerza suficiente como para cambiar la vida de una persona”.
En relación con el discípulo, insistió en que ésta es una condición común a todo cristiano independientemente si es obispo, sacerdote, religiosa o seglar, y que por tanto es necesario “seguir creciendo en espiritualidad bautismal, es decir, en la conciencia de lo que une a todos los cristianos por encima de las diferencias que conlleva el servicio”. De esa consciencia del  bautismo, completaba, “surge la valentía apostólica”.
Por último, vinculaba la calidad del testigo a la calidad de su experiencia de Dios, y animaba a dar solidez al testimonio a través del estudio, la oración y la vida para aportar algo singular a la sociedad actual siendo, al mismo tiempo “uno de tantos”.
http://www.obsegorbecastellon.es/"