Teaching Theology in a Technological Age [1 ed.] 9781443886703, 9781443882637

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Teaching Theology in a Technological Age

Teaching Theology in a Technological Age Edited by

Yvette Debergue and James R. Harrison

Teaching Theology in a Technological Age Edited by Yvette Debergue and James R. Harrison This book first published 2015 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2015 by Yvette Debergue, James R. Harrison and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8263-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8263-7

CONTENTS  SECTION ONE: TRACKING GOD’S DIGITAL FOOTPRINT ........................... 3 SECTION TWO: LIVING AS CITIZENS OF THE VIRTUAL WORLD DEVELOPING SCENARIO LEARNING TO THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION JAMES DALZIEL ........................................................................................... 17 TWEETING GOD: A PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL TRACING OF CHRISTIAN EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH ON TWITTER JAN ALBERT VAN DEN BERG ......................................................................... 30 THE CHALLENGE OF VIRTUAL COMMUNITY: BENEFITS AND DEFICITS MICHAEL JENSEN ........................................................................................ 51 SECTION THREE: WHEN REAL AND VIRTUAL WORLDS COLLIDE OPPOSING THE VIRTUAL WORLD OF LATE-CAPITALISM: A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF EDUCATION ROBERT TILLEY ........................................................................................... 65 DEVELOPING PERSONAL RESILIENCE IN A DANGEROUS VIRTUAL WORLD: HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES JAMES R. HARRISON .................................................................................... 86 CHALLENGES TO LEARNING IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET CHARLES DE JONGH .................................................................................. 113 INTEGRATING REALITIES: FROM SYMBOLIC WORLDS TO LIVED-THROUGH REALITY ANDRE VAN OUDTSHOORN ........................................................................ 127

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Contents

SECTION FOUR: WORLDS APART: ALTERNATIVE PEDAGOGIES AND THE NEW TECHNOLOGY ON THE FRONTIERS OF CHANGE: DESIGNING BESPOKE LEARNING ARCHITECTURE STEPHEN SMITH AND STEPHEN HEALEY ..................................................... 147 SALMON FISHING IN CHRISTIAN SETTINGS DAVID MORGAN ........................................................................................ 167 SECTION FIVE: UNLEASHING THEOLOGY IN A TECHNOLOGICAL AGE VISUALISATION IN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION A TAXONOMY OF PURPOSES, TOOLS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR VISUAL REPRESENTATION FOR THE NONSPECIALIST ANDREW J. BROWN .................................................................................... 183 TEACHING CHURCH HISTORY IN THE AGE OF FILM YVETTE DEBERGUE ................................................................................... 208 CURRICULUM AS SOFTWARE: A DIGITAL-BASED APPROACH JONG SOO PARK ........................................................................................ 220 LEARNING DESIGN FOR FORMATIONAL LEARNING IN NON-CAMPUS-BASED LEARNING CONTEXTS DIANE HOCKRIDGE ................................................................................... 237 “HOW LITTLE WE KNOW”—TEACHING ONLINE SPIRITUALITY, PRACTICES AND VALUES IN A TECHNOLOGICAL AGE PETER MUDGE .......................................................................................... 263 THE RHIZOMATIC AND NARRATIVE BASIS OF PRACTICAL STUDENT LEARNING WHEN TEACHING ONLINE SPIRITUALITY PETER MUDGE .......................................................................................... 284 CAN ICT PRESERVE THE FUTURE OF ANCIENT GREEK LEARNING? DAVID GORMLEY-O’BRIEN ........................................................................ 305

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SECTION SIX: BUILDING REAL COMMUNITY VIRTUALLY SPEAKING CAREFULLY IN THE PRESENCE OF OUR STUDENTS: ENGENDERING TRUST AND CARE IN THE (ONLINE) THEOLOGY CLASSROOM DANIEL J. FLEMING................................................................................... 319 TEACHING THEOLOGY ONLINE IN CLASS JOHN MARK CAPPER ................................................................................. 337 REAL PRESENCE IN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION: E-MEDIA AND “PRESENCE” IN DISTANCE LEARNING TIM BULKELEY .......................................................................................... 354 CONTRIBUTORS ........................................................................................ 371 

SECTION ONE TRACKING GOD’S DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

TRACKING GOD’S DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

With the opening of each new digital frontier, the iGeneration learned to adapt rapidly to technological change. Students multiǦtask with consummate ease, accessing email on smart-phones, researching assignments on tablets, reading a book on Kindle, while drinking a flat white and listening to iTunes in the background. Educational curriculum and delivery, whether face-to-face or online, has had to change to meet the learning needs of students whose attention transitions rapidly between different digital media and messages. The complexity and pace of technological change have left the theological educational sector gasping as it struggles to devise pedagogically engaging online distance materials, or considers the possibility of using videogame mechanics and design in the classroom for teaching Greek. The technological benefits are enormous, the instant availability of information is unprecedented, and the opportunities to provide theological education to groups marginalised by the tyranny of distance and time are wide open. How should the theological sector address these challenges and opportunities? Although the technological benefits are vast, our media is replete with stories of the casualties of this change: a sedentary lifestyle and its health effects, cyberǦbullying, internet predators, the psychic damage from trolls, addiction to gaming, issues of body image, and so on. How should the theological sector, drawing upon its scriptural and teaching heritage, come to grips with the deficits that are being spawned by the technological revolution? What is our theological, pastoral, social and pedagogic responsibility in nurturing this new generation? But our digital age raises important philosophical and theological questions about what constitutes true community, the quality of interpersonal relationships in a technological society, the interplay between “real” identity and “constructed” identity, and the discernment of God’s “presence” in a virtual world, to identify several pertinent issues. These questions are not necessarily new. Social thinkers such as Jacques Ellul, Neil Postman and Marshall McLuhan have long since warned that the values associated with technology had the potential to erode culture as

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Tracking God’s Digital Footprint

much as enhance it. 1 However, although these reservations about the dangers of technology have real traction, a number of Christian writers have theologically evaluated the opportunities provided by the e-media. They are largely positive about the role of e-media within society and the ecclesial community, arguing that there is biblical and theological warrant for the e-media being a legitimate conduit of the divine presence in teaching, mission and pastoral ministry within the church local and universal. 2 Another who understands the powerful opportunities that emedia can provide is Pope Francis, whose Twitter profile is one of the most influential accounts among world leaders.3 Heidi Campbell has also addressed many of the concerns that online communities only provide a chimera of what Christian ministry is face-to-face, highlighting the appeal and spiritual usefulness of three email communities for digital believers.4

 1

J. Ellul, The Technological Society (New York: Vintage, 1964 [Fr. orig. 1954]); N. Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Penguin, 1985); idem, Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language, Technology and Education (New York: Knopf, 1988); idem, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (New York: Knopf, 1992); M. McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1962); idem, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964); idem and Q. Fiore, The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (New York: Random House, 1967); idem and B. R. Powers, The Global Village: Transformation in World Life and Media in the 21st Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). 2 D. Groothuis, The Soul in Cyberspace (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997); S. R. Garner, “‘Hacking with the Divine’: A Metaphor for Theology-Technology Engagement,” Colloquium 37, 2 (2005): 181-95; A. Byers, Theomedia: The Media of God and the Digital Age (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2013); S. Spadaro, Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014: Italian orig. 2012). 3 Alessandro Bonzio states that for every tweet of Pope Francis there are approximately 11,000 “retweets” in Spanish and 8,200 in English. However, Pope Francis is realistic about the limitations of online interconnectivity, observing on The World Day of Communications 2014: “The desire for digital connectivity can have the effect of isolating us from our neighbours, from those closest to us … it is not enough to be passersby on the digital highways, simply ‘connected’; connections need to grow into true encounters.” See “‘Internet, a Gift from God’ – The Pope of the Digital Age,” http//www. huffingtonpost.co.uk/.../pope-francisdigital-age_b_4955367.html. 4 H. Campbell Exploring Religious Community Online: We Are One in the Network. (New York: Peter Lang, 2005).

Section One

5

Not unexpectedly, e-media reflect the paradox at the core of human existence: that while human beings are made in the image of God, they nevertheless live in a world weighed down by the personal and social effects of human rebellion against God. To be sure, the dark recesses of human nature are revealed in the destructive activities of internet predators: but humans also exercise grace and forgiveness towards others in online interactions or facilitate deep learning experiences that are personally and communally transforming for students online. In sum, the disciplines of theology and education engage important questions regarding the role of e-media in society, though the theological understanding of education moves well beyond the parameters of vocational outcomes and individual life-long learning. Is there a case to be made for tracking God’s digital footprint in the learning and teaching communities of the academy? Les Ball has helpfully highlighted the tightrope that believers walk in keeping pace with society: they must learn to adapt to technological and social change, but without abandoning or compromising their message and distinctive lifestyle. 5 Thus the place of e-media in theological education and in spiritual and pastoral formation has to be carefully weighed by Christian educational practitioners. The decision to incorporate the use of e-media in theological curricula should not just be opportunistically conceived as a convenient means of theological colleges and Christian universities expanding their student numbers by online learning in a highly competitive educational marketplace. That would be perhaps to succumb, as Robert Tilley reminds us in this collection, to the acquisitiveness at the core of capitalism, and, if he is right, to precipitate the dilution of “real presence” in the learning and teaching interaction. How, then, should Christian educators conceive of their role in a rapidly changing technological society? What is their responsibility in considering the introduction of online education for the delivery of degrees or the use of e-media in face-to-face teaching in traditional theological disciplines and pastorally oriented units? What is our Christian “calling” in this new context? As Ball concludes, It is a call to evolve in its pedagogical philosophy and praxis, with a focal shift away from controlled comprehensive content delivery to the facilitation of the development of the learner, through curriculum design

 5

L. Ball, “Where Are We Going?” in Learning and Teaching Theology: Some Ways Ahead (ed. L. Ball and J. R. Harrison; Melbourne: Morning Star Press, 2013), 20.

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Tracking God’s Digital Footprint and teaching methods that lead to that end. The academy needs to be clear about its traditional heritage, its underlying theological place, its ecclesiological mandate and its educational philosophy, and to keep these in a coherent tension. It needs to engage learners more strategically and actively in a process of relevant discovery and personal growth, and not to assume passivity or even receptivity on the part of learners: learners need to be developed and not merely instructed.6

This collection of papers—the vast majority of which were presented at the Teaching Theology in a Technological Age Conference, September 19 í 20 2014, Sydney College of Divinity, Australia—aims to explore how the astute use of e-media might accomplish a “developmental” vision of theological education. In this regard, it is important to realise that this book builds to some extent upon two previous publications on theological education in Australia, bringing their cumulative arguments to a highly focused conclusion in this volume. First, the current book is indebted Les Ball’s pioneering investigation of the claims of Australian theological colleges and theology university departments that they provide a transformative educational experience.7 After reporting what the students, faculty, and stakeholders had said on the issue during the period of 2010í2012,8 Ball delineates x what was required for theological curriculum designers to move theological education towards being truly transformative as opposed to being merely cognitive;9 x what were several good examples of principled, practical and strategic curriculum design in Australian practice;10 x how an integrated curriculum prioritises biblical and theological knowledge, holistically engages all of life’s relationships, and incisively addresses contemporary cultural and social settings.11

 6

Ball, “Where Are We Going?”, 20. L. Ball, Transforming Theology: Student Experience and Transformative Learning in Undergraduate Theological Training (Preston: Mosaic Press, 2012). Ball, sponsored by the Melbourne College of Divinity and the Australian Council of Deans of Theology, conducted interviews, surveys, focus groups and documentary analysis of 51 teaching campuses and 700 people to establish his results. 8 Ball, Transforming Theology, 66-86. 9 Ball, Transforming Theology, 87-103. 10 Ball, Transforming Theology, 104-118, 11 Ball, Transforming Theology, 119-144. 7

Section One

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Second, in September 2014, the Sydney College of Divinity held a conference on how the “disconnect” between the teaching of theology in the academy and the transformative claims made for it by its institutional deliverers might be overcome. The collection of conference papers resulted in a book, edited by Les Ball and James Harrison, called Learning and Teaching Theology: Some Ways Ahead. 12 The papers explored contemporary educational and theological thought about proposed ways ahead and outlined innovative practices in Australia and New Zealand which demonstrated how this “disconnect” was being successfully addressed. The current volume, therefore, brings this debate in Australian theological education to a sharply focused conclusion by concentrating on the implementation of e-media in online curriculum design and in face-toface classroom teaching. The social revolution that the e-media have brought to global networks and educational delivery does not need elaboration here. But some sectors of the theological education sector in Australia have had reservations about the diminution of academic and research standards through an extensive use of online education, its alleged inability to deliver the pastoral training and deep personal transformation required for ministry contexts, the mercenary and entrepreneurial motives underlying the wholesale introduction of online suites in theological education, and so on. Consequently, the authors of the chapters in this book adopt a variety of stances to these issues, adopting in the process a spread of methodologies and theological perspectives, ranging from the theoretical and philosophical to the specifics of educational praxis in their discussions. In Section 2 are found the essays of the three keynote speakers at the conference, which open up the debate regarding the intersection of theological teaching with virtual technology and its pedagogic implications for the future. James Dalziel discusses the “Developing Scenario Learning” as a teaching strategy that will bring innovation to theological curricula. Dalziel explores how, by the design of challenging real-life scenario units as the backbone of a semester-long unit, theological students might be empowered to challenge their assumptions regarding ministry and ethics, enabling them to handle difficult pastoral situations with increased maturity and confidence.



12 L. Ball and J. R. Harrison, Learning and Teaching Theology: Some Ways Ahead (Melbourne: Morning Star Publications, 2014).

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Jan Albert van den Berg examines the social media platform of Twitter in popular culture, arguing that Jesus approximates the modern “tweeter” by virtue of his succinct aphoristic sayings. In response, van den Berg develops a “Twitter theology”. This form of practical wisdom engages real-life issues by placing value on the stories of people and their communities. Michael Jensen looks at the benefits and deficits of virtual community. Although online media enable the creation of constructed personalities, this mediated presence is not vastly different from normal interpersonal relationships, though human embodiment ensures a crucial distinction between the two. Jensen proceeds to discuss philosophical (Derrida), theological (Trinitarian, incarnational) and biblical (Pauline) perspectives on “presence” and “absence”, concluding with five suggestions as to what it is “to be there, virtually”. These introductory essays do not shy away from the downside of virtual relationships, but they also underscore how online media can be innovative in theological education, pastorally engaged with real-life wisdom, and illuminating as to what human and divine presence actually is. In Section 3, the deficits of technology in respect to theological education and social relationships are examined, with Robert Tilley’s essay being an intriguing entry to the debate. Tilley posits that online education falls prey to the all-consuming acquisitiveness of latecapitalism. He argues that “real presence”—embodied in the new covenant in Christ, experienced in his Spirit-indwelt church, and mediated through the Eucharist—is the only pedagogically viable paradigm for learning and teaching in a Christian context because of its crucial face-to-face dimension. James Harrison investigates how we bolster resilience in people when they are confronted by the activities of trolls and cyber bullies, examining the issue from biblical, theological, social and historical perspectives. He offers several strategies for ministering to the victims and the perpetrators of these online attacks, suggesting that increased “humanisation” and gracious language, arising from our being made in God’s image, are important principles in shaping our overall approach. Charles de Jongh investigates recent research on the deleterious impact of the internet upon the academic enterprise, whether it be essay writing, academic research, critical and innovative thinking, prolonged and judicious reading, and the ability to concentrate for extended periods.

Section One

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Although opening up unparalleled resources for research, the internet has not made the anticipated impact upon academic quality and output, but has posed new learning problems for students that were not as obviously associated with the old print media. While focusing on the deficits of online education and e-media social platforms, each essay provides a clarion call to educationalists about the danger of naively believing that online education and electronic media more generally will always enhance the experience of its users. Andre van Oudtshoorn argues that the mediated information age adds nothing fundamentally new to reality or to our humanity. Employing a wide-ranging biblical theology as his lens for understanding ourselves, our world and our place in it, Andre argues that while human beings are grounded in a non-compliant lived-through reality, they nevertheless construct symbolic worlds in which they live. The real issue facing humanity in the age of information overload and e-media interconnectivity is this: what kind of reality do human beings want to inhabit? According to van Oudtshoorn, the answer must be found epistemologically in the apostle Paul’s triad of “faith, hope and love” if we are to live productively in the fallen non-complaint world and in the symbolic worlds we create. Section 4 explores the issues involved the relationship of the new technology to alternative pedagogic paradigms, past and present. Stephen Smith and Stephen Healey, drawing upon the experience of the Australian College of Ministries, argue that there are other advances in theory and practice that enrich the student learning experience equally as much as the new technologies. The authors explore four advances in effective learning, including scientific studies on the neuroplasticity of the brain and adult learning theory. David Morgan argues that one consequence of the Christian doctrine of sin is that we relentlessly return to the ingrained patterns of behaviour of the past. This applies as much to Christian pedagogy as to morality. What is required theologically and experientially is a turning away (repentance) from the habits of the old life and a holistic embracing of the new life in Christ (sanctification). Consequently, in a pedagogical context, theological institutions and their administrations should not always be returning to the old curriculum programming and traditional paradigms but rather be open to the new missional opportunities opened up by quality online teaching and learning. Both papers bring out very important pedagogical truths for designers of theological curriculum. To absolutise the offerings of

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technology at the expense of other advances in theory and practice is misconceived, in the same way as ignoring the missional potential of online education for the safety of traditional curriculum approaches is to ignore the possibilities of the new age in Christ. In Section 5, a series of case studies looks at aspects of theological pedagogy that can be enhanced by the digital age, with an emphasis on practical application. Andrew Brown supplements his essay with an online presentation application Prezi that readers can follow up after reading his essay. Brown explores the possibilities for visual representation in classrooms, a crucial pedagogical strategy given that we live in a highly visually-attuned generation. After defining key terms for the uninitiated, Brown discusses four educational applications relating to the visual management of information, providing practical examples of classroom visuals and outlining the principles and purposes of visualisation. Yvette Debergue considers the challenges of teaching medieval history in an age of film. After outlining the pedagogical barriers that popular film presents for the serious history teacher (the students’ total ignorance of the historical period other than through the film, cinematic embellishment and misrepresentation of historical events and personalities, etc.), Debergue presents several classroom scenarios on how film can be used to stimulate engaged and critical historical thinking among theology students of church history. Jong Soo Park explores five challenges regarding the impact of the internet, each best expressed as series of contrasts: (a) there is difficulty in focusing one’s attention when one is multi-tasking; (b) the internet provides us unimpeded access to a vast storehouse of information, but it does not deliver us the ability to determine its quality; (c) the breadth of information provided does not necessarily result in greater analytical focus; (d) the vast amounts of information do not necessarily foster true understanding; (e) the breadth of material has fostered a culture of skimming rather than plumbing the depths of the material available. There is a real danger that attention span and cognitive skills are declining in this process. Diane Hockridge tackles the difficult issue of how one develops spiritual formation in theological students who are in off-campus nonresidential (i.e. online) contexts. Drawing upon recent research in Learning Design, Hockridge demonstrates how its framework was fruitfully applied to wholly online theology suites at Ridley College, Melbourne.

Section One

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Peter Mudge has contributed two essays to the volume, one being his conference paper, the other being a theoretical extension of its pedagogic implications. The original conference paper (“How Little We Know”), arising from an online unit taught by the author, discussed the varied forms of spirituality, along with their associated practices and values, undergirding the leadership of professionals. After outlining the unit’s methodology (narrative inquiry) and its content, Mudge assesses the strengths and limitations of teaching spirituality online, based both on student testimony and the academic literature. The results are somewhat ambiguous, but the author opines that there is sufficient warrant to believe that online education, on the basis of student testimony, can move students beyond the cognitive to a deeper sense of personal awe and wonder. The second essay (“Teaching Online Spirituality”) investigates the rhizomatic nature of online learning: that is, study in an online unit that is characterised by multiple pathways for learning an assessment. From here Mudge explores the pedagogic importance of story and narrative, especially in regard to “narrative-journalling” and “developing scenario learning” in online spirituality units. David Gormley-O’Brien discusses the decline of the teaching of ancient languages (Latin and Koine Greek) in the theological sector of colleges and universities in Australia. The traditional grammaticalanalytical method of teaching ancient languages, Gormley-O’Brien argues, is the chief culprit here because it does it does not reflect how modern languages are taught in universities: that is, fulfilling the goals of communication, cultures, connection, comparisons, and communities. Gormley-O’Brien suggests that with the advent of e-media we are in a strong position to address each of these goals in creative and stimulating ways in ancient language learning as opposed to the dull and repetitive pedagogies of the past, with the result that ancient languages will again revive in the tertiary theological sector. What this section of essays in the volume has very clearly demonstrated is that online education can (a) be used, notwithstanding its deficits, to foster creative pedagogic approaches in traditional disciplines (Brown, Debergue, Gormley-O’Brien) and (b) deliver online teaching of spirituality, if carefully structured and implemented, with surprising success. In Section 6, the authors discuss how one can best establish real community in a virtual context. Daniel J. Fleming unpacks the metaphor of “leaving home”, which is drawn from the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, as a way of describing the experience of studying theology. After

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Tracking God’s Digital Footprint

discussing the experience of fear and its relation to “safety mindsets” from the scientific literature, Fleming outlines how trust and care can flourish in an online context by careful and empathetic speech in the presence of our students. To some degree, this latter emphasis recalls the importance of the “gracious” and “salted” speech, an emphasis taught throughout the New Testament, discussed in Harrison’s contribution earlier in the volume. By contrast, John Capper employs the conceptually opposite metaphor of “returning home” to the classroom to describe the rethinking of community and the educational process online. In a wide-ranging educational and theological investigation, Capper argues that there is no silver bullet, whether it is a particular discipline or technique, which will magically solve the complexities of effective delivery. But an attitude of humility in being willing to learn from each other and in being adaptable will produce harmony in the divine community and allow real progress to be made in transforming online delivery. Whereas Robert Tilley, earlier in the volume, argued that online education failed entirely as a medium because its inability to deliver the “real presence” of the new covenant in Christ, Tim Bulkeley utilises “social presence theory”, as developed by communications science since the 1970s, in order to analyse questions regarding the depth of interaction (or presence) in online learning. Importantly, Bulkeley concludes that different students will experience the rich depths of presence through different media. Apparently, like Capper, Bulkeley agrees that there is no single solution to interconnectedness and personal relationship in online education. These final essays in the last section of the book are fascinating because of the way that they interact with previous essays, sometimes coming to entirely opposite conclusions, and even exploring the same themes within this section from the vantage point of diametrically opposed metaphors. These conceptual differences demonstrate that we, to borrow a Pauline phrase, “know in part”, but nevertheless experience the divine riches of grace in the body of Christ precisely because of our diversity of viewpoint and practice. In conclusion, we would do well to remind ourselves of what Neil Postman said about our entertainment-addicted culture many years ago: When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people

Section One

13

become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.13

I suspect that many of us would feel the inward cringe of recognition in reading these chilling words. They remind us of the vacuous, self-centred and valueless aspects of our celebrity-driven culture that are paraded on the social media, the superficialities of which we can obsess over if we pay them too much regard or, worse, give them real credence. Rather we are called to be redemptive agents of grace and innovation in our electronic culture to the honour of Christ, carefully tracking God’s digital footprint throughout his technological world,14 and bringing our Spirit-renewed minds to bear on the things that really matter, online and offline, as we seek after his Kingdom and righteousness.

James R. Harrison and Yvette Debergue

 13

Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, 155. Spadaro, Cybertheology, 7. Spadaro argues that the world-wide web, as God’s own project, is not only a technology to be utilised but also “an ambience to inhabit.”

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SECTION TWO LIVING AS CITIZENS OF THE VIRTUAL WORLD

DEVELOPING SCENARIO LEARNING TO THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION JAMES DALZIEL

This chapter discusses a teaching strategy called “Developing Scenario Learning” (DSL) in which students initially consider a challenging real-life scenario and then discuss their assumptions and approaches to this scenario. After this phase, the scenario develops in some new, often unexpected way and students together reflect further on their assumptions and any new approaches required by the changed situation. The paper explores how DSL may be applied to theological education, particularly in contexts such as training for ministry and ethics. It also considers the potential use of DSL as a repeating structure for an entire unit of study. The paper includes an example of DSL for an online theology unit on ministry and practice using the “LAMS” software, and a template of the example that can be adapted for other theological education topics.

Innovation in Theological Education There has been considerable interest in recent years in new teaching and learning approaches to theological education. 1 Some innovations have arisen from the articulation of graduate attributes for theological students and the need for changes to teaching methods in order to better align methods with these graduate attributes.2 Others arise from a reconsideration of the appropriateness of applying typical higher education practices (e.g., lectures, essays, exams) to theological education, especially

 1

See, for example, Les Ball, Transforming Theology (Preston: Mosaic Press, 2012). 2 Perry Shaw, Transforming Theological Education: A Practical Handbook for Integrative Learning. (Langham: Global Library, 2014).

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Developing Scenario Learning to Theological Education

in areas such as spiritual formation, where different modes of learning and assessment may be required.3 Still other innovations have arisen from the increasing use of technology in higher education—some arising from the new affordances of the technology, others arising from a more general rethinking of teaching and learning practices provoked by the introduction of new technologies.4 Technology can be a catalyst for deeper reflection on the whole teaching and learning enterprise, rather than simply an “add on” to existing practices. From another direction, the rise of open source software and open approaches to educational content has had a considerable impact on higher education particularly through the open sharing of education software (e.g., the Moodle Learning Management System) and educational content (e.g., content shared under Creative Commons licenses).5 In the field of theological education, the concept of sharing effective teaching ideas and educational content has been encouraged by organisations such as the Wabash Center.6 For many theological educators, there may be a willingness to try new teaching methods and/or new technologies, but some uncertainty on how to proceed practically. This chapter describes a new teaching strategy called “Development Scenario Learning” (DSL) which can be appropriate for student reflection on challenging real-world scenarios. It then illustrates its application to theological education with an online example. A template is provided with the example to assist theological educators in creating their own online activities by reusing the “structure” of the DSL example, but with their own content.



3 Robert J. Banks, Reenvisioning Theological Education: Exploring A Missional Alternative To Current Models (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999); Diane Hockridge, “Challenges For Educators Using Distance And Online Education To Prepare Students For Relational Professions.” Distance Education, 34, 2 (2013): 142-160. 4 Helen Beetham and Rhona Sharpe, Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age (Oxford: Routledge, 2012); Diana Laurillard, Teaching As A Design Science: Building Pedagogical Patterns For Learning And Technology (London: Routledge, 2012). 5 Cape Town Open Education Declaration: Unlocking the promise of open educational resources, 2007 http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration 6 www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/

James Dalziel

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Developing Scenario Learning According to the Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design, a “teaching strategy” can be defined as “a particular sequence of teaching and learning activities based on certain pedagogical assumptions…A teaching strategy can provide a pedagogical rationale as well as a suggested structure of activities for a learning design.”7 Two widely used teaching strategies are Problem Based Learning and role plays. 8 Developing Scenario Learning was developed as a hybrid of these two existing strategies for particular use in complex real world scenarios for professional domains (such as teaching, medicine, law, etc.). 9 A typical use of DSL involves two “phases” with several activities during each phase. At the start of the first phase, students work together in small groups to analyse a real world scenario (typically a situation they could face in their future professional career). After a period of individual reflection, they then discuss the different issues that may be involved in understanding this scenario (e.g., knowledge, attitudes, emotions, legal, etc.) as a group. After this, each student formulates an initial plan of action to address the scenario (which is shared with all group members). This is the end of the first phase of the teaching strategy, at which point the second phase begins with some new development of the scenario (hence the name “Developing Scenario Learning”). Students then go through a similar process of reflection and group discussion about how the scenario has evolved, and how they would respond (including knowledge, attitude, emotion and legal issues), but they also consider how their initial plan of

 7

James Dalziel, “Developing Scenario Learning and its implementation in LAMS,” in L. Cameron & J. Dalziel (eds), Proceedings of the 7th International LAMS Conference: Surveying the Learning Design Landscape (6-7 December 2012, Sydney), 32-39. 8 John R. Savery and Thomas R. Duffy, “Problem Based Learning: An Instructional Model and Its Constructivist Framework,” in Constructivist Learning Environments: Case Studies in Instructional Design, ed. B. Wilson. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications, 1996), 135-148; Sandra Wills et al., Encouraging Role-Based Online Learning Environments by Building, Linking, Understanding, Extending: The BLUE Report. Sydney: The Australian Learning & Teaching Council, 2009. http://www.uow.edu.au/cedir/enrole/repository/BLUE_Report.pdf 9 For further discussion of the theory behind DSL, see Dalziel, “Developing Scenario Learning”.

Developing Scenario Learning to Theological Education

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action, and the assumptions on which it was based, may need to be revised.10 In terms of the scenario itself, the following example from teacher training illustrates the first and second “phases” of the scenario: Initial Scenario: You are a head teacher in a typical secondary school, trying to encourage staff to adopt a new teaching technique (role plays). An older male teacher, who is known to be quite conservative, is proving difficult to engage in the process—he seems to want to just continue as in the past. He seems not to be enjoying his teaching (he even complains he doesn’t enjoy his newspapers anymore—which he was famous for always reading in the staff room), but does not seem willing to try new ideas. When you ask him directly about trying this new approach, he is uncomfortable, distant and non-committal about what he will do.

Sample questions for students to consider are: •

What are your initial thoughts?

•

What knowledge issues might be at play?

•

What attitude issues might be at play?

•

What emotional issues might be at play?

•

What do you see as the problem, and what is your plan of action?

•

What additional information/research might you need?

In a classroom setting, this phase might involve 30-60 minutes of discussion of the initial scenario and the questions; in an online asynchronous setting, this might occur over one week of online discussion forum postings. After this period, the strategy moves to the second phase, in which the scenario evolves, e.g.: One week later: You receive a letter from a psychologist who is treating the staff member for serious depression. The psychologist notes that his patient is a private person who would rather not raise his troubles at work, but recognises that he is not coping with the idea of changing his teaching approach, especially for a strategy that can be quite emotional for students. The idea of changing his methods is causing a lot of anxiety. At the same time, he finds little pleasure in his teaching as it is. The staff member wishes to continue teaching, but is finding change difficult.

 10

James Dalziel, “Implementing Developing Scenario Learning with Branching for Moral Values in Teacher Training,” in Proceedings of The 9th International LAMS and Learning Design: Innovation in Learning Design, eds. Leanne Cameron and James Dalziel. (Sydney: Macquarie University, 2014), 65-72.

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Follow-up questions could be the same as the initial questions, together with an extra question about any inappropriate assumptions about the initial scenario. The second phase would typically involve a similar amount of time to the first phase (30-60 minutes in class, one week online). The whole strategy concludes with each student developing a revised plan of action and discussing his/her rationale for this plan. While DSL does not require the use of technology, a version of this teaching strategy has been developed in the “LAMS” (Learning Activity Management System) software, an open source Learning Design system.11 The “Authoring” view of the DSL structure in LAMS is showing in Figure 1. The specific teaching training example is available at: http://lamscommunity.org/lamscentral/sequence?seq_id=1856812 It should be noted that while the examples given in this chapter all involve a scenario that evolves in just one way, it is possible to develop other DSL structures where students have to make a choice about their actions at the end of the first phase, and this choice leads to different evolutions of the scenario according to the choice made.12

 11

James Dalziel, “Implementing Learning Design: The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS),” in Interact, Integrate, Impact: Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, eds. Geoffrey Crisp et al. Adelaide, 7 – 10 December, 2003. 12 For an example of this kind of “branched” DSL, see Dalziel, “Implementing Developing Scenario Learning.”

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Developing Scenario Learning to Theological Education

Figure 1: Authoring view of a Developing Scenario Learning template in LAMS. Icons indicate different activity tools (e.g., the Notepad icon for “Initial Reflections” is a private student notebook; the question mark icon for “Scenario Questions” is a set of questions that students answer individually, then see their answers shared with the group; the speech bubble icon for “Forum” indicates a group asynchronous discussion forum).

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Applying Developing Scenario Learning to Theological Education The DSL strategy for teacher training described above can be adapted for use in theological education. While there may be many courses where this strategy could be implemented, topics such as ministry and practice, ethics and other similar areas are well suited to consideration of complex real-world scenarios. The following example illustrates a two phase DSL for use in theological education: Initial Scenario: You are a relatively new minister in a church in a large rural town, which has been fairly “fixed in its ways” in the past. A new couple came to the church from a big city a year ago, and have reinvigorated the church music by developing a band with contemporary music, and a drama group. Church attendance has risen due to these changes, especially among young people, but a number of the longstanding members are unhappy with the changes – particularly the style and volume of the music. There are comments that the big city “blow ins” are making too many changes too fast, and that they don’t even belong to this denomination.

The initial questions could be the same as the teacher training example above, or adapted to suit particular areas of interest. After an appropriate period of discussion, the scenario then develops as follows: One month later: The unhappy long-standing members have found a church ordinance that says that only people who are signed up members of the denomination can “lead” any church activity. They use this to seek to remove the new couple from their leadership of the music and drama groups. Several supporters of the couple encourage them to sign up to the denomination officially, but the couple are not willing to do this, as they say it shouldn’t matter. Unable to resolve this issue, the couple leave the church very unhappy. The band and drama group dissolve, and young people numbers drop off.

Again, the concluding questions can be similar to the initial questions, together with reflection on any inappropriate assumptions about the initial scenario. The strategy concludes with each student formulating a plan of action to address the scenario as it stands at the end of the second phase, and reflections on any assumptions they made in interpreting the initial scenario that were challenged by the evolution of the scenario in the second phase. To view a live demonstration of this theological content incorporated into a LAMS DSL template see: http://lamscommunity.org/ lamscentral/sequence?seq_id=1856807

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Developing Scenario Learning to Theological Education

This example can also be downloaded and used within the LAMS software, such as at the hosted “LessonLAMS” website (see www.lesson lams.com). For theological educators who wish to create their own scenarios for use with an online DSL structure, a template has been created which includes all of the steps discussed above, including directions and questions, but also incorporating a blank area where new scenarios can be inserted. The template is available at: http://lamscommunity.org/lams central/sequence?seq_id=1856800 The combination of the LAMS software and the DSL template would allow theological educators to create their own two phase scenarios, and then potentially run these activities with students using a version of the open source LAMS software (either a version locally installed within the theological education institution—for technical information on LAMS installation, see the Installation and Configuration section of: http://wiki. lamsfoundation.org/display/lamsdocs/Home; or via the hosted Lesson LAMS website—for details, see www.lessonlams.com ). A local version of LAMS can be integrated with a Learning Management System, such as Moodle (see http://wiki.lamsfoundation.org/display/lamsdocs/Install+ Moodle2+LAMS+Plugin ).

Developing Scenario Learning Across Whole Units/Courses The example above could be suitable for one topic within a semester-long unit of study (also called a course or module—it may represent one or two weeks of the overall unit. It could be used in an otherwise “traditional” unit that relies heavily on lectures (face to face or online) as a one-off example of an innovative teaching strategy. However, Developing Scenario Learning could also be used as the backbone of an entire unit. For example, if an online unit were to run a DSL structure over a two week period, then six DSL structures (on different topics) could be the foundation of a semester-long unit over 12 weeks. For a face to face context, DSL could be the basis of all tutorials (e.g., if there are 12 one hour tutorials over a semester, then each tutorial could cover one DSL phase, for a total of six DSLs over the semester). Other structures could easily be created (such as using more DSLs, or longer class workshops that cover a whole DSL in one session, etc). This broader use of the DSL teaching strategy is similar to the use of Problem Based Learning as the backbone of medical units of study, or

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even entire medical degrees (Barrows, 1996). 13 The use of a repeating teaching strategy, like DSL or Problem Based Learning, introduces the potential for the content used in each DSL to build on previous content, or to extend students in more challenging ways. For example, a ministry and practice unit of study that uses six DSLs could start with a relatively “simple” pastoral challenge in its first DSL, but progressively over the six DSL scenarios it could introduce more complex and difficult challenges, culminating in a very complex and difficult pastoral challenge for the final DSL. This progression over the unit could also echo a life-stage developmental approach—the early examples might represent typical early challenges in the life of a church worker, while later examples might represent challenges more often encountered after some years of experience. The two different ways of adopting DSL discussed above (either as a single innovative topic, or as a whole of unit repeating structure) echoes one of the aspects of the Learning Design Conceptual Map (LDCM) in the Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design.14 Figure 2 shows the LD-CM, and the “Level of Granularity” box on the right is relevant to the current discussion—this box identifies that decisions made during the “Teaching Cycle” can be made at a number of different levels. At the smallest level of granularity, design decisions may relate to individual Learning Activities—such as the phrasing of a question in a discussion forum or in a class discussion. At the next level up, educational design decisions relate to whole “Sessions”—this might be a whole class session or workshop, or a week or two of online activities (Sessions often correspond to the sub-topics/topics covered within a whole semester unit). The “one-off innovation” example of DSL in this chapter would apply at this level. At the next level up, there are design decisions that affect whole Modules—which in this chapter have been called “units of study” or courses. The example of a repeating DSL structure over a whole unit would apply at this level. And at the highest level, there are design decisions relating to whole Programs or degrees—these often correspond to how units/courses are combined into degrees, and issues such as progression rules. The adoption of Problem Based Learning across an entire medical degree would be an example of how a teaching strategy could apply to this level.

 13

Howard S. Barrows, “Problem-Based Learning in Medicine and Beyond: A Brief Overview,” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 68 (1996): 3-12. 14 For further discussion of all elements of the LD-CM, see James Dalziel et al., “The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design,” 2013 http://www.larnacadeclaration.org

Challenge

Figure 2: The Learning Design Conceptual Map (LD-CM) Feedback

Design and Plan

Resources

Assessment

Learning Activities

Session

Module

Program

Level of Granularity

Evaluation

Sharing

Learner Analytics

Learner Responses

Tools

Implementation

Representation

Core Concepts of Learning Design

Reflec on

Engage with students

Teaching Cycle

Professional Development

Guidance

External Agencies Institution Educator Learner

Learning Environment: Characteristics & Values

A range based on assumptions about the Learning Environment

Theories & Methodologies

All pedagogical approaches All disciplines

Educational Philosophy

Creating learning experiences aligned to particular pedagogical approaches and learning objectives

26 Developing Scenario Learning to Theological Education

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Conclusion Developing Scenario Learning is a teaching strategy for assisting students to reflect on challenging real-world problems in professional domains. This chapter has explored how DSL could be applied to theological education, including an example relevant to a ministry and practice unit. It has also discussed how DSL could be used as the backbone of a semester-long unit, not just as a one-off innovative teaching strategy. It provides practical details on how to implement DSL online using a LAMS template. In terms of the future, this chapter offers two challenges for theological education. The first is the need to explore (and create) new teaching strategies that are appropriate to the unique needs of theological education and, where appropriate, to consider how to change the traditional lecture format of theological education towards innovative teaching methods in order to better align the desirable knowledge and skills of theological education graduates with teaching methods that will foster these skills. Second, the provision of a DSL template that could be used by many theological educators for different topics illustrates the promise of open approaches to sharing theological education content and activities. If more theological educators share their teaching ideas with their peers, the whole field could benefit from greater exposure to innovative teaching ideas. This could help theological education begin to benefit from advances in open distributed collaboration as illustrated by the rise of open source software and the Wikipedia Open Encyclopaedia. Just as the rise of music notation hundreds of years ago allowed the wider propagation of great music, so the development of ways to share innovative teaching strategies may lead to wider propagation of great theological education.

Select Bibliography Ball, Les. Transforming Theology. Preston: Mosaic Press, 2012. Banks, Robert J. Reenvisioning Theological Education: Exploring a Missional Alternative to Current Models. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999. Beetham, Helen, and Rhona Sharpe. Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. London: Routledge, 2013.

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Cape Town Declaration. Cape Town Open Education Declaration: Unlocking the Promise of Open Educational Resources. 2007 http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration Dalziel, James, “Implementing Learning Design: The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS),” in Interact, Integrate, Impact: Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, edited by Geoffrey Crisp, Di Thiele, Ingrid Scholten, Sandra Barker, Judi Baron. Adelaide, 7-10 December 2003. http://ascilite.org.au/conferences/adelaide03/docs/pdf/593.pdf —. “Developing Scenario Learning and Its Implementation in LAMS,” in Proceedings of the 7th International LAMS Conference: Surveying the Learning Design Landscape, edited by Leanne Cameron and James Dalziel, 32-39. 6-7 December, 2012, Sydney: LAMS Foundation. http://lamsfoundation.org/lams2012sydney/docs/Dalziel.pdf —. “Implementing Developing Scenario Learning with Branching for Moral Values in Teacher Training.” in Proceedings of The 9th International LAMS and Learning Design: Innovation in Learning Design, edited by Leanne Cameron and James Dalziel, 65-72. Sydney: Macquarie University, 2014. http://lams2014.lamsfoundation.org/papers/paper3.pdf Dalziel, J., G. Conole, S. Wills, S. Walker, S. Bennett, E. Dobozy, L. Cameron, E. Badilescu-Buga, and M Bower. The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design – 2013. Available at http://www.larnacadeclaration.org Hockridge, Diane. “Challenges for Educators Using Distance And Online Education To Prepare Students For Relational Professions.” Distance Education, 34 (2), 2013: 142-160. Laurillard, Diana. Teaching as a Design Science: Building pedagogical patterns for learning and technology. London: Routledge, 2012. Savery, John R. and Thomas R. Duffy. “Problem based learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework.” In B. Wilson Constructivist Learning Environments: Case studies in instructional design, edited by Brent Wilson, 135-48. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications, 1996. Wills, S., E. Rosser, E. Devonshire, E. Leigh, C. Russell, and J. Shepherd. Encouraging Role-Based Online Learning Environments by Building, Linking, Understanding, Extending: The BLUE Report. Sydney: The Australian Learning & Teaching Council, 2009. http://www.uow.edu.au/cedir/enrole/repository/BLUE_Report.pdf

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Acknowledgements The author would like to acknowledge Ian O’Harae and Andrew Sloane of Morling College, Sydney for discussion of the ideas of DSL applied to whole units of study.

Disclosure Although the LAMS software is freely available as open source software, the author acknowledges a financial interest in the (optional) services and support company for LAMS called LAMS International Pty Ltd.

TWEETING GOD: A PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL TRACING OF CHRISTIAN EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH ON TWITTER1 JAN ALBERT VAN DEN BERG Different and divergent facets of human existence are increasingly becoming embodied within a digital domain. The phenomenon relating to the popularity and impact of social media, as an important expression of this new digital world, is already widely known and well-documented. Various existing and newly developed research methodologies can be used by the practical theologian in order to conduct an exploration of how the digital world can assist in the creation of new empirical realities, hermeneutic outcomes and strategic involvement. More specifically, the highly popular social media platform, Twitter, provides for a relevant and important praxis terrain illustrating the revealing dynamics of the digital world, social media and popular culture. In endeavouring to track these dynamics, a practical theological investigation of Christian expressions of faith on Twitter provides us with new content and meaning which are mapped out in a variety of categories. Through the use of specific examples from specific Australian and South African Twitter accounts, deriving from the recent past, the development and meaning of new theological accents and articulations are explored and described. In the tracing and mapping of these religious reporters’ expressions of faith, accents of a possible lived spirituality are sounded out and verbalised. The research is therefore making a contribution in terms of new and relevant articulations of the language of faith. On the basis of these descriptions various possibilities unfold for new practical



1 Some of the arguments and perspectives in this contribution were developed further and included in a number of academic articles subsequently published.

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theological orientations and engagement in, amongst others, theological education, both for the present and the future.

Introduction A plenary presentation in an academic conference has the purpose of identifying an underlying theme(s). In the creation of such a possible theme at a conference dealing with theological teaching during a technological era, I would like to discuss some preliminary perspectives regarding the tracing of possible new and relevant expressions of faith on the Twitter platform. As an introduction—and in an attempt to demonstrate my integrity—I would like to say something about my own “dipping of the toes in the water,” or, perhaps, toes in the ocean of the digital world! Bearing this metaphor in mind I acknowledge my modest digital presence, amongst others on Twitter, with a following of just over 130 (@javdberg 2014). With a view to the future, I am, however, sensitive to the evolutionary nature and meaning of the growing tide of the digital ocean.2 In an effort to pursue this exercise of the “dipping of toes” in an accountable manner, the following orientation is important: firstly, I, at most a co-researcher, am, with others, interested in this new digital domain; secondly, digitalisation is interactive and I will, therefore, try to make this presentation in a creative and answerable manner; and, lastly, this exercise should contribute to the exciting times referred to by Steve Jobs when he said, “I like living at the intersection of the humanities and technology.”3 Against this background I would like to discuss the purpose of my presentation. I am sensitive to the avoidance of the so-called Mitroff M3 problem,4 and, therefore, initially formulate my question5 (and belief)



2 Sherry Turkle, world-famous Internet psychologist and philosopher, pointed out in her book Alone together that what is becoming visible in a growing digital world is nothing other than vistas on “the future unfolding”. Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology And Less From Each Other (New York: Basic Books, 2011), Kindle edition. 3 W. Isaacson, Steve Jobs (Hachette Digital, 2011), Kindle edition. 4 “E3 is the error of ‘solving’ the ‘wrong’ problem precisely when one should have solved the ‘right’ problem.” I. Mitroff, Smart Thinking For Crazy Times: The Art Of Solving The Right Problems (San Francisco, CA: Berret-Koehler Publishers, 1998), 14.

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that a new, fresh, and relevant “language of belief” should be traced and mapped when dealing with the growing digital life-style.6 By making use of Osmer’s four-question practical theological inquiry as a grid for mapping this envisaged contribution, my presentation will focus on four main aspects.7 Firstly, by asking What is going on?, Twitter will be described as a possible expression of the rise and influence of the new social media phenomenon, creating a so-called third space for reflection “...requiring new logics and evoking unique forms of meaningmaking.”8 Secondly, the anatomy of human waste in the digital age will be investigated (Why is this going on?). Thirdly, an exploration of the art of hermeneutics will be conducted in tracing the expressions of faith on Twitter (What ought to be going on?). Fourthly and lastly, the quest for ways in which the tracing of faith as a trend and the contribution towards possible new and relevant articulations of a pragmatic practical theological involvement will be addressed (How might we respond?).

What is going on? On Tuesday morning, 10 June 2014, an enormous hot air balloon in the form of the famous statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro soared over Melbourne, Australia. This giant balloon was released on the eve of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil as an initiative of a lottery

 5

A Nobel laureate in physics was asked to whom he ascribed his success. Without hesitation he answered, “My mother.” His answer was a surprise, because he was the son of East European Jewish immigrants who were simple people without any formal education. He went on to explain that after returning home from school his mother would regularly ask if he has asked a good question. R. Sher “Be Prepared…and then prepare to let it all go” in Team Coaching: Artists at Work: South African Coaches Share Their Theory And Practice, ed. Helena Dolny, 70-77 (Johannesburg: Penguin, 2009) 6 In this regard it is also important to point out that the aim of this research project is not so much to seek solutions to so-called problematic questions, but rather to foster “meaning questions” (i.e., questions that focus on meaning), in order to inform a certain habitus. See E.L. Graham, “Is Practical Theology a Form of Action Research?” International Journal of Practical Theology 17, 2 (2013): 14878. 7 “What is going on? Why is this going on? What ought to be going on? And how might we respond?” Richard R. Osmer, Practical Theology: An Introduction (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans, 2008), 3. 8 H. A. Campbell, Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds (London: Routledge, 2013), 4.

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company, and bore the words, #keepthefaith. Various churches immediately lodged objections against the balloon. In the midst of this controversy, the renowned Australian clergyman, Father Bob, known as “the people’s priest”, tweeted the following: “The offended churches could send up a competing inflated balloon with ‘CHRIST SAVES’ emblazoned on it.” Father Bob, with approximately 103,000 followers on Twitter,9 reached many more persons through his message than a minister or pastor at a traditional Sunday morning church service. As a demonstration of the manner in which Father Bob actively uses Twitter he later that same day, as part of the discussion that followed these events, retweeted the following message that had been sent by a woman called Sandy: “My six year old saw it on the news and said, ‘That doesn’t look like Jesus, Mummy, he lives at my school.’”10 In the investigation and description of these events, important questions that are related to the research project are brought to the fore: for example, how popular culture influences the interpretation and exercise of traditional religious practices, as well as the question how the so-called social media can be employed in the formulation of new kinds of expressions of faith. As part of a descriptive and empirical movement of reflection in the present research process, an endeavour is made to theoretically describe the dynamics of the involvement with the indicated praxis. In answering the “What is going on?” question, Twitter11 will be described as a possible expression of the rise and influence of the new social media phenomenon, creating a so-called third space for reflection

 9

@fatherbob 2014 Ibid. 11 Twitter, as a well-known social media platform, is indicated as the chosen praxis terrain for the execution of the project. The motivation for this can be found on a variety of levels. Firstly, Twitter is currently one of the most rapidly-growing social media platforms. At the end of April 2014, Twitter had 255 million monthly active users out of a total of a billion registered users with a Twitter account. “By the number: 116 Amazing Twitter Statistics” http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/march-2013-by-the-numbers-a-fewamazing-twitter-stats/#.UvRW0vmSzHQ. With these statistics in mind, Twitter indeed is a good expression of a digital world with the accentuation of aspects such as mobility and fluidity of information. Secondly, by means of its character and dynamics, Twitter offers access to nationally and internationally available empirical data for analysis. 10

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“... requiring new logics and evoking unique forms of meaning-making.”12 Twitter, developed in 2006, is generally known as a microblog as it offers the user an opportunity to send a message within the scope of 140 characters:13 These messages, known as “tweets”, can be sent through the internet, mobile devices such as Internet-enabled phones and iPads, and text messages. But unlike status updates, their strict limit of 140 characters produces at best eloquently terse responses and at worst heavily truncated speech.14

Twitter has been called the “SMS of the Internet,”15 with the difference that, unlike an ordinary SMS, a Twitter message is normally visible to every user of the Twitter platform.16 In the use of Twitter an important communication medium had been discovered, which, especially as far as the distribution of news 17 is concerned, would change the world on a variety of levels.18 The transmission of messages or “tweets” is conducted

 12

Campbell, Digital Religion, 4. J. van Dijk, “Tracing Twitter: The Rise of a Micro Blogging Platform,” International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, Vol. 7, 3 (2011): 333; Wagner, R., Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality (Hoboken, NJ: Routledge, 2012), 120. 14 D. Murthy, Twitter, Social Communication In The Twitter Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013) 15 Twitter is a typical embodiment of the so-called “mobinomic world,” demarcating the formation of a virtual ecosystem of connections across various spheres and layers of life. See Knott-Craig, Mobinomics. Accessing the service most likely through wireless Internet mobile devices, Twitter provides a platform for users to make use of this microblogging site “to present themselves through ongoing ‘tweets’, revealing a self that is both fluid and emergent.” Wagner, Godwired: Religion, 120. 16 Twitter has the potential to increase our awareness of others and to augment our spheres of knowledge, tapping us into a global network of individuals who are passionately giving us instant updates on topics and areas in which they are knowledgeable or participating in real-time. 17 “Twitter has been prominently associated with journalism, both in terms of shifts in journalistic practice as well as its facilitating of citizen journalism,” Murthy, Twitter. 18 For example, this platform played an influential role in political events, such as the Arab Spring as well as the two most recent American presidential elections. Social media are also increasingly changing the dynamics of the existing work environment. A good example of this can be found in journalism as a career, with news being conveyed much faster by means of so-called citizen journalism. As an illustration of this, the tweet that was sent by Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) 10 13

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from an individual’s Twitter account where the user has the option to create their own profile through the use of a Twitter address or a “handle” and a biographical description with a photograph and some personal background information.19 Naturally, all these variable factors provide the constituents for an exceptionally dynamic interaction leading to the following possibility: Twitter has the potential to increase our awareness of others and to augment our spheres of knowledge, tapping us into a global network of individuals who are passionately giving us instant updates on topics and areas in which they are knowledgeable or participating in real-time.

Why is this going on? As background to the interpretation of the reality of a digital world, various scholars point to at least three driving factors currently leading towards further development and demarcation of the digital landscape:20 x Firstly, the continuing evolution of the Internet.21

development

and

 hours before the first news reports appeared regarding the secret operation during which Osama bin Laden was killed by American special forces, can be mentioned. 19 Murthy, “Towards A Sociological Understanding of Social Media: Theorizing Twitter,” Sociology 46, 6 (2012): 1059–1073. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038511422553; L. Qiu et al., “You Are What You Tweet: Personality Expression and Perception on Twitter,” Journal of Research in Personality 46 (2012): 710-718. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.08.008. 20 R. Hassan, The Information Society: Digital Media and Society Series (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008); T. Flew, New Media: An Introduction, 3rd edn. (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2008); H. A Campbell, When Religion Meets New Media (London: Routledge, 2011); H. A. Campbell Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice In New Media Worlds (London: Routledge, 2013). 21 Grieve speculates on the four major features of digital practice in the new future: “First, the web will be smarter, knowing not just what users say, but what they mean. We will see more semantic content, and the applications that support it ... Second, new media will be mobile and we will see an increase in augmented reality (AR) in which digital media are laid over physical real-world environments ... Third, the web will grow more interactive ... Lastly, more and more applications will be outsourced to the cloud, with users accessing information stored on the web remotely from netbooks, tablet computers, smart phones, or other devices ... What

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x Secondly, the connectivity22 and mobility brought about by the Internet and specific apparatuses such as cellular telephones and tablets. x Thirdly, the influence and magnitude of so-called social media. All three of these factors are addressed in the focus on the use of the social media platform, Twitter. To describe the theoretical orientation of the praxis further, I will use the following preliminary perspectives on social media: Social media are embedded against the background of the broader development of the World Wide Web,23 which has officially been in use for 25 years by 2014. However, for many people, the Internet only became a “searchable reality after the arrival of Google in 1999.”24 In the age of

 combination of these features of new media will win out we cannot tell.” Grieve, “Religion,” 115. 22 Various authors and researchers have indicated that for citizens of a new digital world, connectedness has become the new passport. In his well-known book, “The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twenty-First Century,” Friedman writes that the pathways of the world have changed in the wake of, inter alia, the significant developments brought about by various kinds of communication technology, as a result of which more and more people are now able to come into contact with other people across the world. T. L Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twenty-First Century (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2006), 118. Castells sums up the situation by referring to: “the new social structure of the Information Age, which I call the network society because it is made up of networks of production, power, and experience, which construct a culture of virtuality in the global flows that transcend time and space.” M. Castells, End Of Millennium: The Information Age, Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. 3 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 381. 23 The development of the so-called “World Wide Web” arose from the initial proposal of the British software programmer, Tim Berners-Lee, in 1989, for a comprehensive technological information management system as expressed in his development of a so-called “hypertext transfer protocol.” See A. Athique, Digital Media and Society: an Introduction (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2013). 14. BernersLee’s contribution was to use hypertext to link texts that could be located on any computer on the internet. This meant that texts could be connected to other texts, forming a complex series of relationships that Berners-Lee visualised as a web-like structure, hence the name “web”. See Hinton and Hjorth, Understanding Social Media, 10. 24 D. Crystal, Internet Linguistics: A Student Guide (London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2011), 12.

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the so-called new media, 25 globalisation, the availability of information and new forms of social expressions are embodied.26 Defining the concept and characteristics of new media, Flew has indicated that “it involved the combination of the three C’s—computing and information technology (IT), communications networks, and digitised media and information content—arising out of another process beginning with a ‘C’, that of convergence.”27 Early in the 21st century a further development from the initial socalled static Web 1.0 usage mode to the so-called Web 2.0 technology occurred.28 The development and popularity of Web 2.0 technology,29 with

 25

In this regard, the development of the character and presence of the Internet facilitated a confluence of the use and benefits of different forms of information communication technology, such as the telephone, fax and television, in which connections “across a vast network made up of anything from physical copper wires to wireless satellite connections” were effected. See Hinton and Hjorth, Understanding Social Media, 9. 26 Athique, Digital Media, 14. 27 Flew, New Media, 2. 28 In their description of the new dimensions of the Internet, Koch and Lockwood point out that these dimensions consist of inter alia: “Storage technology (memory); display technology (xml, HTML), search technology (Google), publishing technology (wikis, blogging and Twitter) and organizing technology (social networks such as Facebook).” See Koch and Lockwood, Superconnect, 94. Arising from this development, the emphasis falls on the opportunity that is available “to Internet users to directly engage with and construct by easily pulling together the sorts of people and information that they are interested in,” Lesame et al., “New Media: Theories And Applications,” in New Media in the Information Society, eds. Z. Lesame, B. Mbatha, and S. Sindane, 1–21 (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers, 2012), 6. 29 Currently, the further reinforcement of the popularity and ongoing development of social media is facilitated by the availability of increased mobile Internet accessibility, as effectuated by cellphones and tablet computers. In their book, Understanding Social Media, Sam Hinton and Larissa Hjorth write that social media, as a collective term, influence all levels of society: they comprise an integral part of the lives of a significant number of people worldwide; and that dynamic and constant meaning is created through the use of different forms of social media. S. Hinton and L. Hjorth, Understanding Social Media (London: Sage, 2013), 4. In this regard Zappavigna is correct in her assumption that “most forms of social media, such as Facebook and other general social networking services, incorporate significant multimedia content, with images and video playing a significant role in meaning making.” M. Zappavigna, Discourse Of Twitter And Social Media: How We Use Language To Create Affiliation On The Web (London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012), 193.

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particular reference to computer software and user experience, has led to the creation and establishment of social media.30 Social media platforms, and specifically Twitter, are, however, dynamic in character and display continual evolutionary developments. In 2009, for example, Twitter changed the phrase by means of which users were encouraged to tweet news, from the original “What are you doing?” to “What’s happening?”31 Through the use of this altered question format, users are now encouraged to formulate tweets that are focused more in an outward direction, on events in the environment, rather than on more personal aspects. Another significant development that would permanently change the social media landscape was the evolution and use of the socalled hashtag (#) symbol.32

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Hinton and Hjorth, Understanding Social Media, 16. Flew has summarised and indicated a two-fold rationale for the growing popularity of Web 2.0: “...the concept of Web 2.0 has caught on for two particular reasons. First, it has embedded within it a range of the features that have long been seen as central to the Web as a communications infrastructure, such as the scope for participation, interactivity, collaborative learning, and social networking (social networking media is a commonly used alternative term to Web 2.0), as well as positive networking effects from harnessing collective intelligence; in other words, the quality of participation increases as the numbers participating increase, and this in turn attracts more new users to the sites. Second, some of the fastest growing websites of the 2000s have been based on Web 2.0 principles. These include sites such as the photography site Flickr, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the online user-generated video site YouTube, aggregated Web log (blog) sites such as Blogger, Livejournal and Technoratti, and the various personalized Web space sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and Bebo.” Flew, New Media, 18. 31 Crystal, Internet Linguistics, 11. 32 Currently, the use of the hashtag is a common phenomenon, and the symbol is used for a variety of purposes. Zappavigna describes the hashtag as “an emergent convention for labeling the topic of a micropost and a form of metadata incorporated into posts.” Zappavigna, Discourse of Twitter, 1. She further explains that the hashtag is “a convention for marking an annotation of the topic of a tweet” and appended to the tweet, “when more than one word is assigned it will usually be represented without spaces,” ibid., 36. In various advertising campaigns, the core of the commercial message is linked to the hashtag. For example, the South African cellphone company, Cell C, launched a striking advertising campaign under the key word, #CellCBelieve. Even the Dutch Reformed Church adopted the use of the hashtag symbol by linking it to a youth rally that was being launched on a countrywide basis, namely #Imagine. A further example of the sheer scope that is facilitated by the use of the hashtag is the prominence enjoyed by #OscarPistorius as a search phrase worldwide on Google during the court case in which the

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What ought to be going on? - Social media, Twitter and popular culture and theology The interpretation of written texts, as presented in the documents associated with the Christian tradition, as well as of “the living text of human action”,33 comprises part of the dynamics of the task of theological hermeneutics. 34 The interest of practical theology in such practices is confirmed by newer developments that bear the accent of an interest in practically driven events that are contextually and concretely placed within everyday life. In exploring the art of hermeneutics with a view to tracing the expressions of faith on Twitter, I proceed from the assumption that “Theology is not for Sundays only ... Theology is an everyday affair ... Theology not only articulates beliefs but suggests ‘designs for living.’”35 Underlying this acknowledgement is the conviction that practical theology encapsulates a hermeneutic of the lived religion, in which preference is given to the praxis itself and to the knowledge concerning God that is being developed, found and lived within this praxis.36 Underscoring the perception that the culture in which we live, especially referring to social media, 37 is shaping us is the belief that the hermeneutics of popular culture38 holds the promise of pointing beyond.39

 Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was tried for the murder of his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp. The hashtag #Bahrian used on Twitter during the civil protests of the Arab Spring currently still remains one of the most used hashtags of all time (Socialmedia Today, 2014). 33 S. A. Brown, “Hermeneutical Theory,” The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Practical Theology, ed. B.J Miller-McLemore (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2012), 112. 34 D. R. Stiver, “Theological Method,” in The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology, ed. K. J Vanhoozer, 170-85 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003), 178. 35 K. J. Vanhoozer, “What Is Everyday Theology? How and Why Christians Should Read Culture,” in Kevin J. Vanhoozer, et al., Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Cultural Trends (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007), 7. 36 R. R.Ganzevoort, “Teaching That Matters: A Course on Trauma and Theology,” Journal of Adult Theological Education 5, 1 (2008): 11-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jate2008v5i1.8. 37 One of the most striking expressions and examples of the influence of social media is undoubtedly the social media platform Facebook which was developed in 2004 from a college hostel room at Harvard University in the United States of America. Since the initial development of Facebook and its subsequent growth— which, in metaphorical terms, would make it the third largest country in the world,

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A good example of this possibility is found in a contribution by Neels Jackson, which he had written for the South African newspaper Beeld.40

Would Jesus also have tweeted? Supposing that Jesus lived on earth as a human being in this day and age: would he have tweeted? This question recently came to my mind while I was reading yet another tweet from a theologian. I had realised that an ongoing theological discussion is being conducted in the Twitter world. Something within me immediately wanted to say “No.” After all, one cannot cram great theological truths into the 140 characters that are allotted to one on Twitter. But then I remembered that Jesus himself did not preach lengthy and ponderous sermons. After all, did he not tell people stories? Was he not, precisely, a master of the aphorism, the short, powerful maxim? Maybe this is one of the things that went wrong with the church over the centuries. We have subjected the gospel to long and weighty arguments, whereas Jesus uttered truths that were briefly stated and easily understood.

 after China and India, as far as user numbers are concerned (The Economist 2010)—various other social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, MySpace and various personal blogging services, have developed. See Hinton and Hjorth, Understanding Social Media, 35. O’Reilly, a renowned technological software entrepreneur and specialist, has pointed out with regard to the popularity of social media platforms associated with Web 2.0, that “Web 2.0 is not a technology, it is an attitude.” See T. O’Reilly, “What is the Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software,” http://www.im.ethz.ch/education/HS08/OReilly_What_is_Web 2.0.pdf. 38 “Popular culture is therefore the shared environment, practices, and resources of everyday life for ordinary people within a particular society,” Lynch, Understanding Theology, 14. 39 “Theology of culture depends upon this kind of trust that our cultural expressions can testify to a reality that transcends them—a reality that is really there, that matters, and in which providence is at work. Theology offers a language to speak about this reality, and can help articulate what is going on in the depths of popular culture... it is wise to remain open to the more discerning markers of culture. Even of popular culture”, Cobb, Blackwell Guide to Theology, 294. 40 Beeld, 6 June 2013 [translation from the original Afrikaans].

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Think of the following, for example: “Do not lay aside treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Instead, lay aside treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also.” This can fit easily into a tweet: Don’t collect treasures on earth where they can be destroyed or stolen. Collect treasures in heaven. Where your treasure is, your heart will be. It is, precisely, brief and powerful truths of this type that are shared by theologians in tweets nowadays. They are usually conveyed in English, since the conversations extend over geographical boundaries. Furthermore, these are discussions between equals, in which students and professors chat together. There is no place for titles on Twitter. Sometimes a person attending a conference may send a tweet reporting what the speaker has said. In September, 2014, for example, I was able to establish, via a tweet from Nelus Niemandt, that the general secretary of the All African Conference of Churches in Kampala, Uganda, had stated that the shift in African theology is a movement from Exodus to Nehemiah—from liberation to building up. On other occasions, people express their own opinions: for example, Pope Francis, who tweeted that the world says that we must pursue success, power and money, whereas God asks us to strive for humility, service and love. Here are a handful of tweets that I received in September 2014, which I have freely translated:41 Tom Smith: “Such as I have give I thee: stand up and walk,” said Peter. Later, the clergy said: “We have gold and silver, but nothing to give.” Stephan Joubert: Safety is not an address where you should stay for too long. Henning Venter: Do you want to defend the Bible? Maybe the best way is to live the story and tell it, and then the Bible will defend itself. Len Sweet: Sometimes, in speaking of the Holy Trinity, I need to be careful to avoid making it sound like the three musketeers: “One for all and all for one.”

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Translated from the original English into Afrikaans, and retranslated into English.

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Tweeting God Reggie Nel: A core question for missionary churches is that of how to get past mere charity and to become an inclusive, safe, empowering community. Jaco Strydom: I would rather go to God with my brokenness than with my promises. De la Harpe le Roux: My motto for today: Spirit of God, help me not to judge any person before I have walked half a mile in his shoes. Rick Warren: “Small” people belittle other people. Wonderful people make other people feel wonderful. Dries Lombaard: Why do we love? Because He started it. He loved us first (1 Jn 4:19). Skillie Botha: If you ever feel that you are not good enough, remember that Jesus uses broken people in order to bring hope to broken people.

Sometimes the tweets form part of larger discourses, and sometimes they contain links to blogs or other sites. When they are singly conveyed in this way, however, I perceive them as little morsels of wisdom that help one to reflect on life. It seems to me that Jesus is already at home in the Twitter world. Engaging with popular culture 42 in the expectation that it will reveal “signals of the transcendent, the presence of grace, rumours of

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At the beginning of 2014, the destructive effect of the so-called #NekNominate challenge on the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, caused a sensation. By way of background information, the following explanation pertaining to this craze can be cited: “Known as ‘NekNomination’, the game involves filming someone finishing a whole bottle of hard liquor in one sitting, and sharing the feat on social media with the hashtag #NekNominate challenging others to do the same.” Initially, the #NekNominate challenge was merely aimed at daring people to consume as much alcohol as possible and to film the event, and then place it on the social media along with a challenge to others to do the same. However, after this challenge led to the tragic death of two persons in Ireland, a South African captured the world’s imagination with his reformulation of the dare with a view to a positive outcome. Through the use of social media Bret Lindeque, after having received a similar dare from a friend via Facebook, transformed this destructive challenge by reformulating it in a positive manner. Lindeque responded to the challenge by giving food to a poor man, filming this event, and posting the video clip on the social media platform, YouTube. In his introduction to the video clip on YouTube, viewed early March 2014 by approximately 192,000 people, Lindeque wrote: “Downing a can of Castle Light is easy ... Imagine if we all harnessed the power of social media to make a real difference in people’s lives.” After the placement of this video on YouTube and through the creation of the

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angels.”43 I envisage that by means of a hermeneutical practical theology of lived religion, focusing on the praxis of everyday living, tweets regarding the expression of new and dynamic articulation of the Christian faith can be traced44 and described.

How might we respond? Perspectives for a Twitter theology Arising from and in congruence with the strategic character of practical theology,45 context specific examples46 and perspectives regarding

 hashtag #ChangeOneThing on Twitter, the number of Lindeque’s followers on the Twitter platform not only increased dramatically, but an initially destructive challenge was imbued with new content through the use of the hashtag symbol, #ChangeOneThing. 43 Vanhoozer, “Everyday Theology,” 33. 44 “When I use the word ‘tracing’, which is not only because it sounds so well in combination with sacred. It is especially because of the more than adequate meanings it carries. The first is the archaic meaning of traversing or travelling over a certain area. The second involves meanings like following or tracking the footprints of someone or something, like when on a hunt. Metaphorically, it can be transposed to studying something in detail, like the history of an idea, the whereabouts of money moving around the world, or one’s ancestry. It may also refer to the search for traces, signs, evidence, or remains of something that indicate a certain activity or presence. Tracing then has to do with reconstructing and developing knowledge. The last type of meaning has to do with drawing or sketching. It may be the careful forming of letters or figures or even certain kinds of decoration, but usually it is a form of copying by hand through a transparent sheet. Here tracing has to do with constructing, modelled after an external reality,” Ganzevoort, “Forks in the Road When Tracing the Sacred: Practical Theology as Hermeneutics of Lived Religion,” http://www.ruardganzevoort.nl/pdf/2009_Presidential.pdf 45 Osmer, Practical Theology, 175-76; Heitink, Praktische Theologie, 174. 46 A report concerning a Kenyan village chief informing his community on important social issues, was broadcast worldwide. According to The Telegraph of 20 February 2012 (“Help, sheep missing,” 2012), “tech-savvy” Francis Kariuki (47), the administrative chief of Lanet Umoja, is not only using Twitter as a crimefighting tool, but also to send messages of hope and peace. Kariuki has managed to overcome the divide between cell phone and Internet usage, as discussed above, providing access to “tweets” by making use of a third-party mobile phone application. Although Kariuki's official Twitter page shows 300 followers, it is estimated that a high percentage of the 28,000 residents in the area receive messages that are directly and indirectly sent out by him. A further alternative example is the dynamic use of Twitter by Williamson to facilitate the orientation of readers to interpret the Bible: “Just as Twitter can be used to invite real-time

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a pragmatic and dynamic interaction with Twitter can be provided with the aim of developing future practices.47 In the development of pragmatic and sustainable future practices, 48 especially with a view on theological education, coresearchers 49 participating in a research project provided important

 comments on a lecture, so it can capture users’ real-time responses to a text as it is read aloud. In the exercise, participants (either students or invited guests) listen to the text of Mark and tweet their responses and reactions to the text as they occur. My students observe these responses in real time, experiencing how the same textual moments evoke different responses in diverse hearers of the text. As a homework assignment, they then analyse the entire body of tweets of one of the participants, looking for patterns in the responses and asking how that participant tends to fill textual gaps, make connections to their own life experience, and so on. This writing assignment then lays the groundwork for a class discussion about reader-response criticism, the ways readers participate in the production of meaning, the problems and possibilities of constraining a reader’s interpretations, and the question of the differences between encountering texts aurally and in written form,” Williamson, “Using Twitter,” 275. 47 “There is one important cautionary note that should be mentioned regarding the connection between memory and future consciousness. Although memory (and ideas of the past) may serve as a foundation for anticipating the future, future consciousness often extends beyond memory and the past. In fact, to believe that the future will be like the past is to remain stuck in the past. Experiences from the past, such as traumas and frustrations, can inhibit any new thinking about the future. Yet, one thing we learn from history is that there is always novelty and change; history does not entirely repeat itself. The future will not be the same as the past… individuals at times will abandon, reject, or ignore the past in attempting to create a new and different reality for themselves in the future.” T. Lombardo, The Evolution of Future Consciousness (Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2008), 29. 48 Current designs, which are at risk of falling away and being relegated to the socalled “zombie categories,” need to be considered anew, in order to fulfil the wellknown architectural principle which stipulates that “form follows function.” G. Sebestyen, New Architecture and Technology (Oxford: Architecture Press, 2003), 87. 49 Father Bob (@fatherbob): On his Twitter profile, Father Bob describes himself as “The Larrikin Priest, patron of the unloved and unlovely...” (@fatherbob 2014). This clergyman’s active and legendary role in the public domain has led to the establishment of the “In Bob we trust” movement in Australia” (Fr Bob Maguire Foundation 2014). Having been part of the Twitter community since 2007, Father Bob has sent some 34,000 tweets—and he has built up a following of approximately 103,000 persons. According to the influential analytical instrument of the Twitter platform, Twtrland (2014), Father Bob is regarded as a “super active” user with about 138 tweets per day and an amazing 612 retweets for each

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perspectives on digital presence and authority, 50 the formation of a digitalised spirituality51, the role of the need for an aphoristic theology52 as

 100 sent. Assuming that a retweet by other users and followers indicate the importance of a message, I therefore also supply the tweet from each of those who retweeted the most. For Father Bob the most popular re-tweet (838 times) on 22 March 2014 was the following: “Why, in God's/Good's name, does the biggest, richest, emptiest place in the region beg, bribe, and bully the poorest to ‘take’ our refugees?” Stephan Joubert (@stephanjoubert): Stephan Joubert has been part of Twitter since April 2009. With approximately 4,600 tweets and 4,600 followers, he is one of the leading theologians in South Africa. He also has a public voice on Twitter, and introduces himself on his profile as follows: “Jesus follower. Catalyst. Author. Part of the amazing echurch/ekerk & Joubert tribes.” Joubert, who is involved with various national and international universities, is a professor of New Testament studies and is also the founder of the e-church in South Africa, which focuses, inter alia, on an internet ministry. With an average of 2.3 tweets per day he has an impressive 295 retweets per 100 sent (Twrland 2014). His most popular retweet (61) was the following on 8 July 2013: “90% of all prayers are requests. The sad result: God is judged on his response time & people's faith on the number of answers they get” (@stephanjoubert 2012; Twtrland 2014). Neels Jackson (@neelsjackson): As the editor of Kerkbode (Church Messenger), a well-known newsletter of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, Neels Jackson is involved in church-related and religious reporting on a daily basis. Having been on the Twitter platform since 2009, he introduces himself as a “Christian, husband, father, reporter, birder, and photographer.” He currently has 1,053 followers and has sent 377 tweets. Twtrland indicates Jackson’s Twitter activity as a low average 0.2 tweets per day with a good 69 retweets per 100 sent. His tweet which was retweeted most was the following on 6 October 2013: “Welfare theology says that to receive one must give. The gospel says you have received to be able to give.”49 (@neelsjackson 2013, Twtrland 2014). 50 “Twitter plays a significant role in my own use of social media. I chose Twitter as my primary means of social interaction in cyberspace because of its simplicity and the 140-character limitation. On Twitter people are forced to tweet their information, opinions, truths and ideas briefly, yet with great clarity and relevance. Twitter forces those using this form of social communication to reflect about their content beforehand. Endless ramblings of egotists, attention seekers, melancholic personalities, etc., stand no chance here of attracting or keeping attention here on the long run. It's all about social connectivity and belonging here.” (Co-researcher 2014). 51 “My faith is extended to and reflected in my daily interactions on social media. My Twitter profile and daily tweets hopefully reflect this as well. On the other hand, I think my own presence should constantly be informed in terms of my own sensitivity to the nature of this particular social medium.” (Co-researcher 2014).

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well as new informed practices53 and fresh expressions of being church in the world.54 With this preliminary description a contribution is made to the orientation and understanding that “practice itself enacts and names theology,” 55 leading to the formulation of an ordinary theology articulating a “faith and a spirituality, and incorporates beliefs and ways of believing.”56 In this mapping of expressions of faith in the digital world cognizance is given to the understanding that “faith is something to be practised and not just believed; and [that] one of the tasks of practical theological research is to investigate and interpret the lived experience of people of faith.”57 The popular theologian, Leonard Sweet has for example already encapsulated some of the aspects of this challenge in his article, Twitter theology: 5 Ways Twitter has changed my life and helped me be a better disciple of Jesus’, indicating that “Twitter makes me a better Jesus disciple, partly because Twitter is my laboratory for future ministry.”58

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“Social media uses the same method as Jesus and the prophets i.e. parables. Having to be short, sharp and to the point, a sort of speaking in tongues, requires a theology built on personal experience of the Other, not others' experience.” (Coresearcher 2014). 53 “Marshall McLuhan taught us the medium is the message. Twitter forces us to rethink our faith on the cyber squares amongst non-religious people and nonprofessional followers of Jesus. It could even force that age-old institution called the church out of the ‘safe’ space of irrelevant meetings to encounters with presentday issues and questions. Hopefully, a new generation of young marketplace theologians will also rise up to become our mentors, coaches and teachers in this fascinating new digitally connected world.” (Co-researcher 2014). 54 “To be relevant and to also think, hear, listen and look through the lens of the digital world. Monologues in cyberspace; long sermons; naming and shaming of others in the name of God, etc., just won't survive here. Neither will long discussions about theological dogmas and local church matters fly here. It's all about relevant connectivity now, not only about more religious information.” (Coresearcher 2014). 55 E. R. Campbell-Reed and C. Scharen, “Ethnography On Holy Ground: How Qualitative Interviewing Is Practical Theological Work,” International Journal of Practical Theology 17, 2 (2013): 241. 56 J. Astley, “The Analysis, Investigation and Application of Ordinary Theology,” in Exploring Ordinary Theology, Everyday Christian Believing and the Church, eds. Jeff Astley et al. (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2013), Kindle edition. 57 E.L.Graham, “Is Practical Theology A Form Of ‘Action Research’?” International Journal of Practical Theology, 17, 2 (2013): 159. 58 Sweet, Twitter Theology.

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Therefore, in a unique way, the use of Twitter serves to illustrate Marshall McCluhan’s observation that “media aren’t just channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.”59

Conclusion Tracing the trajectory of the new fluid dynamics of faith as articulated on Twitter, 60 emphasis is placed on a so-called “ordinary theology” with a distinct pragmatic emphasis, in which, “Academic theologians should be more curious about what ordinary believers have come up with.” 61 Thinking in a pragmatic way about engaging with “ordinary believers,” one could hardly find a better praxis terrain than that of popular culture as expressed on Twitter. It is envisaged that, within the contours of Twitter as a praxis terrain, and as an expression of the digital world, a form of practical wisdom which values the stories of people and communities, will then be developed. It is to the cultivation of this practical wisdom that Sweet refers in his reflection on the habitus of tweeting: When I look for something to tweet about, I find myself paying attention to life in heightened ways. With Twitter every day is an awakening to things

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N. Carr, The Shallows, How The Internet Is Changing The Way We Think, Read And Remember (London: Atlantic Books, 2010), 6. 60 On 9 April 2014—the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, which is known in ecclesiastical tradition as “Holy Saturday”—Pope Francis broke the silence of the day by forwarding the following message on the social media platform, Twitter, to his more than four million followers: “Please join me in praying for the victims of the ferry disaster in Korea and their families” (@pontifex 2014). This message is noteworthy for various reasons; and it articulates a particular, inherent set of dynamics on a variety of levels. In summary, and by way of an introduction, it may be mentioned that, firstly, it serves as an illustration of how even the Church, which is characterised by its adherence to ageold tradition dating back many centuries, is influenced by the existence and usage of the latest communication technology. Secondly, the Twitter message also confirms a contextual and public pastoral awareness and involvement, on the part of the Church, with the people of Korea who were affected by the ferry disaster. In addition, it confirms that the use of social media platforms offers a powerful channel for this purpose. 61 Astley, “Ordinary Theology,” 149.

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Select Bibligraphy Astley, J. Ordinary Theology, Looking, Listening and Learning in Theology: Explorations in Practical, Pastoral and Empirical Theology. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2002. —. “The Analysis, Investigation and Application of Ordinary Theology,” in Exploring Ordinary Theology: Everyday Christian Believing and the Church, edited by Jeff Astley and Leslie J. Francis. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2013, Kindle edition. Athique, A. Digital Media and Society: An Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013. Campbell, H. A. When Religion Meets New Media. London: Routledge, 2011. —. Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds. London: Routledge, 2013. Carr, N. The Shallows: How The Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. London: Atlantic Books, 2010. Castells, M. End of Millennium: The Information Age, Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. 3, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Crystal, D. Internet Linguistics: A Student Guide. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2011. Flew, T. New Media: An Introduction, 3rd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2008. Forrester, D. B. Truthful Action: Explorations in Practical Theology. Edinburgh: T&TClark, 2000. Friedman, T. L. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2006. Ganzevoort, R. R. “Teaching That Matters: A Course on Trauma And Theology,” Journal of Adult Theological Education 5, no. 1 (2008): 8– 19. —. Forks in the Road When Tracing the Sacred: Practical Theology as Hermeneutics of Lived Religion. http://www.ruardganzevoort.nl/pdf/2009_Presidential.pdf

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In theology this process is known as a habitus, a “disposition of the mind and heart from which action flows naturally, in an unselfconscious way.” D. B. Forrester, Truthful Action: Explorations in Practical Theology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 5.

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Graham, E. L. “Is Practical Theology a Form of ‘Action Research’?” International Journal of Practical Theology 17, no. 2 (2013): 148–178. Grieve, P. G. “Religion,” in Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice In New Media Worlds, ed. H. A Campbell, 104–118. London: Routledge, 2013. Hassan, R. The Information Society: Digital Media and Society Series. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008. Heitink, G. Praktische Theologie: Geschiedenis-Teorie-Handelingsvelden. Kampen: Uitgeverij Kok, 1993. Hinton, S. and L. Hjorth, Understanding Social Media. London: Sage, 2013. Knott-Craig, A. “Mobinomics: Mxit and Africa’s Mobile Revolution,” Johannesburg: Bookstorm, 2011, Kindle edition. Koch, R. and G. Lockwood. Superconnect: The Power of Networks and the Strength of Weak Links. London: Little Brown, 2010. Lesame, Z., S. Sindane, and P. Potgieter. “New Media: Theories and Applications,” in New Media In The Information Society, edited by Z. Lesame, B. Mbatha and S. Sindane, 1–21. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers, 2012. Murthy, D. “Towards a Sociological Understanding of Social Media: Theorising Twitter,” Sociology 46, 6 (2012): 1059–1073. Murthy, D. Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013. Qiu, L., H. Lin, J. Ramsay, and F. Yang. “You Are What You Tweet: Personality Expression and Perception on Twitter,” Journal of Research in Personality 46 (2012): 710–718. Reader, J. Reconstructing Practical Theology: The Impact of Globalization. Hampshire: Ashgate, 2008. Sher, R., “Be Prepared… And Then Prepare to Let It All Go,” in Team Coaching. Artists at Work: South African Coaches Share Their Theory and Practice, edited by Helena Dolny, 70-77. Johannesburg: Penguin, 2009. Sweet, L. Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2012, Kindle edition. Vanhoozer, K.J. “What Is Everyday Theology? How and Why Christians Should Read Culture,” in Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Cultural Trends, edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Charles A. Anderson, and Michael J. Sleasman, 15-60. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007.

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Van Dijk, J. “Tracing Twitter: The Rise of a Micro Blogging Platform”, International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, Vol. 7, 3 (2011): 333–348. Williamson, R. “Using Twitter to Teach Reader-Oriented Biblical Interpretation: ‘Tweading’ The Gospel Of Mark,” Teaching Theology and Religion, 16, 3 (2013): 274–286. Zappavigna, M. Discourse Of Twitter And Social Media: How We Use Language To Create Affiliation On The Web. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012.

THE CHALLENGE OF VIRTUAL COMMUNITY: BENEFITS AND DEFICITS MICHAEL JENSEN

What is it to be present to another person? How do we experience the presence of another person when it is mediated to us via social media? What has that meant for the formation of human identity? English theologian John Milbank claims that we are “clubbing each other to death” over the internet. Have we simply invented a new way to do violence to one another? The new age of virtual community asks all of these anthropological questions. The challenge for Christian theology is to keep its own anthropology in mind as it considers them. This chapter seeks to bring a theological account of human being into conversation with these pressing questions which even now fill the everyday experience of contemporary people.

Catfish The story of Nev Schulman, a good-looking young photographer from New York, was the subject of a 2010 documentary film called Catfish. The film made by his brother and his friend, who somewhat obsessively recorded his exploits. The film starts when Nev receives a painting of one his photographs from an 8 year old girl named Abby, who lives in rural Michigan. Abby and Nev become Facebook friends, and subsequently Nev is introduced to Abby’s family: her mother Angela, her husband Vince, and Abby’s older half-sister Megan. Megan is a very attractive young woman, according to her Facebook photograph, and before long Nev is smitten. They chat online and talk by phone, exchanging hundreds of messages, and becoming increasingly intimate. Megan even sends him songs that she says she has performed.

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But at this point the story unravels, because Nev discovers that the songs are actually sourced from YouTube and not Megan at all. Other inconsistencies emerge in the stories of the family members. For the sake of the drama of the film, Nev and the filmmakers decided to continue participating in the relationships and to travel to Michigan to confront Megan directly about her subterfuge. It turns out that there is a girl called Abby, but that she does not paint. There is no woman called Megan at all. And in fact, the mother Angela is acting all the parts and has constructed the persona of Megan as a means to lure Nev and keep his interest. The film is called Catfish, in reference to the practice of putting catfish in the tanks with live cod as they are shipped in order to keep their flesh supple and tasty. A human “catfish” is a person who keeps you active and on your toes. But mostly because of the movie and the spin-off television series, the word has come to mean, according to the Urban Dictionary, “someone who pretends to be someone they’re not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances”. The catfish is a species that thrives in the fishtank of social media. He or she lurks in the murky bottom of the internet world, feeding off our deeply human need for connection. In turns out, though, that most catfish are themselves looking for the same thing. They are not for the most part con-artists or shysters. They are simply afraid of the truth. Physical appearance or life circumstances make it unlikely that they would have an intimacy with their targets, unless the targets perceive them to have another face, or to be someone else entirely. Angela was never going to have intimacy with Nev as her middle-aged self. But as Megan, she had a chance. Strangely, in the form of her lie, she was able to tell and receive access to truths. And this is one of the truly surprising things about the catfish experience: though the identity that mediates the relationship is simply an avatar, the emotional experience of the relationship is still real. You may think you are talking about your day with a person who, according to their pictures, is attractive and accomplished. Let us call them “Lee”. You feel all the feelings of companionship and wellbeing associated with that kind of conversation when you debrief with Lee. You may trust Lee with very personal details about your life and Lee may share with you things that turn out later to be in fact true. They are not concocted emotions, even if the identity is. If it later turns out that Lee is in fact not Lee, but Billy: is it not the case that you have still had an emotional experience of intimacy of a kind with Billy?

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I want to answer yes and no to the question. Because the betrayal of the catfish lies in the fact the he or she is half-real, and speaks a halftruth. That is the truly shocking thing about it. The structures of social media, which are designed to mediate people into a virtual proximity to one another, also allow for the creation of disguises. But the catfish, you could argue, is only an extreme example of what every participant in social media does in any case. Social platforms invite us to present ourselves in a way in which we would like to be presented. You select those parts of your life that you would like others to see—and conceal others. You put only your slimmest photographs. You show yourself at life’s high points: at that restaurant, on your overseas trip, or bragging about publishing a book. All social media selves are selfconscious constructs and are thus to some degree fictions. Is the catfish actually doing anything qualitatively different? Is the catfish actually exposing us to ourselves in our own fraudulent behaviour?1 That’s the disturbing thought. We spend so much of our social time in interactions mediated by social networks, that to have the fact of the self-conscious construction of the identities we post on line revealed to us is deeply unsettling. What does it mean for me to “know” someone, especially if I only “know” them online? I really only “know” their selfpresented self, and they mine. But, it could be argued in return, that the same would be true of any human relationship. We see a person in the clothes they choose to wear; we hear from them the things they choose to let us know: persons are personae. There is in the flesh a self-consciousness of self-presentation too, isn’t there? As Stanley Fish the literary critic says, “there is no epistemological difference between direct and mediated communications because, in a fundamental sense, all communications are mediated.”2 He’s right up to a point, but this is where embodiment makes an enormous difference. Bodies locate us in time and space. There is something that is a given about bodily existence that cannot be avoided. The body can be modified, dressed, concealed and flattered. But it is our anchor in the personal world. Though it can be altered, it is the inescapable fact of the self that cannot be transcended. The body shows the true self to be a thing

 1

There are of course cases where two catfish have mutually deceived one another. Stanley Eugene Fish, Doing What Comes Naturally: Change, Rhetoric, and the Practice of Theory in Literary and Legal Studies (Durham, N.C; London: Duke University Press, 1989), 43. 2

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that is not simply a self-creation. It is received, by biology and by experience, and realised with the appropriate limits of human freedom. What’s more, our identity is not simply who we decide ourselves to be, much as we hate that thought, but how others decide to receive us. For example, I send a brief biography for a conference at which I am speaking: a carefully chosen snapshot of items that I am hoping will make you like and or respect me. But now I am here before you, you can behold me not simply as I choose to be, but also in my unselfconscious physical being: my twitches, my mannerisms and my grey hair, my height and my weight and the sound of my voice. You can perhaps observe the gap between who I would like to be and who I actually am. I still may be a good actor, granted. But the point is this: in observing my unselfconscious behaviour and how I am in relation to the inescapable givens of body and experience, you have a better chance of seeing my naked self and not some version of me that I’d prefer you to see. Thus far I have performed a bit of exploratory surgery on the question that concerns this chapter: who are we, now that we are online? As a theologian, I will be attempting to address this question from a theological perspective. With that in view I will contend that community of any kind between persons requires both trust and witness and that these are all we have available in the fallen world. We simply cannot but build relationship on these twin poles, imperfect as they may be. However, we are given anticipations of the final communion of the saints and online community, for all its limitations, can in the power of the Spirit mediate to us these foretastes of a perfected human union.

Jacques Derrida, Presence and Absence The idea of presence and its relationship to written texts fascinated that great prophet of deconstruction, Jacques Derrida, who did not live long enough to comment on the phenomenon of social media— perhaps fortunately. Derrida saw himself as offering an exposé of what he called “logo-centricism,” which he understood as the stance that logos— namely, speech, or reason, or thought—is at the heart of language. That is to say: speech is privileged above writing, because we imagine that the presence of the speaker provides a fixed point of meaning. Writing has to mimic the absence of the speaker, and refer back to that fixed point. The word written originates from the spoken word, and seeks to represent it. Writing then takes on a kind of tragic aura, since it points to the often

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unrequited desire for direct and unmediated encounter with being and meaning. This, says Derrida, is evidence of a “metaphysics of presence”—a term Heidegger coined as a way of describing the view to which he was opposed, namely, that there is an anchor point in the authorial source of the words on the page. In fact, this anchor point in authorial intent proves more elusive than we think. We cannot escape the need for interpretation, even as we stand in the presence a speaker we know well. There is no unmediated language; you cannot avoid context, which in turn of course requires its own interpretation. Now that isn’t to say that Derrida just becomes a complete sceptic about the meanings of words. In fact he said, in what sounds like a cringing concession: One cannot deny that there are also performatives that succeed, and one has to account for them: meetings are called to order…people say: “I pose a question”; they bet, challenge, christen ships, and sometimes even marry. It would seem that such events have occurred.3

His point is this: communication does take place between people, even through writing, despite the fact that interpretation has been necessary to effect it. We are always, in a sense, “absent” from the words that we utter. As soon as we say them they can be misunderstood. And likewise we can make even our spoken words elusive, ambiguous or plain deceitful. That’s the risk of communicating with words. Now I am not just dropping Derrida’s name because all the cool kids in my English degree in the 90s did. But I would not go as far as one of my theological heroes, David Bentley Hart, either, who writes: As time wears on, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine that either Derrida’s celebrity or his garrulity is quite proportionate to his philosophical contribution.4

Derrida was verbose and often obtuse but he is helpful here, because he shows us, in quite common-sense fashion, that our alarm about social media’s ability to be really social (“are those people really your friends?”) is misplaced. Social media mediate our relationships and we are conscious of their mediation. But we don’t have unmediated relationships.

 3

Jacques Derrida, Limited Inc. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1988), 17. 4 David Bentley Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2003), 53.

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Whatever we may say about the presence of the body of a speaking person, we do still have to read them as we would words on a page. As Fish puts it: Distance is not a special condition in relation to which interpretation becomes necessary; it is a general condition…that is productive of everything.5

In other words: you need to interpret words, whether they are spoken or typed, so stop panicking. Theologian James K. A. Smith argues that interpretation and mediation are not fallen conditions of language, but that they are a necessary condition of being created. Granted, the confusion of the tongues at the Tower of Babel reminds us that human beings commit crimes of speech, of which we need to be wary. Communication is complicated because people are. But an unmediated presence is not even something that the divine persons share in their profound unity. The traditional formulas of Trinitarian doctrine require a form of mediation even in immanent life—mediation is the way persons have their being in, with and through each other. Even unfallen human creatures need to live with one another within the limits of being a creature. Mediation is a normal condition of human communication; rather than wishing it were not so, we should simply accept it as part of our createdness. What we are wishing away is not mediation per se, but the evil of the human heart that corrupts it and misuses it. Social media are of course open to evil uses. Indeed, as a constructed, technological medium, a social media platform may exist to serve nefarious interests. Certainly, the ongoing saga of Facebook shows us the potential for commercial and even political exploitation that exists in social media platforms. Not only can a catfish lie to me or seduce me, but the very owners of the system that connects us may seek to shape our interaction or even alter our moods. But if we therefore condemn social media for being forms of mediation, we will fail to notice the mediation in all our communicative acts—and be poorer communicators for it. There is something special about physical proximity, but lack of mediation is not what it is.

 5

Fish, 56.

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Here and not here Even when we say that the physical presence of a person doesn’t remove the need for interpretation, it is still the case that we use written texts to substitute for the relative immediacy of physical presence. People have of course been using social media for centuries. What is a letter but the use of a written text to mediate the presence of one person to another? And ancient writers had noticed the power of a written text to convey presence-in-absence. Psalm 119 is an extraordinary encomium to the torah, verging perhaps on blasphemy, since the words and commands and precepts and statutes are themselves praised to the highest. But since the divine word conveys—or even substitutes for—the divine presence, this logo-olatry is perfectly in keeping with Hebrew monotheism. The epistolary form that so dominates the New Testament canon brings this issue of presence-in-absence to the fore. Paul repeatedly pours himself into his words, keenly feeling the pain of physical absence because of distance and because of the chains of his imprisonment. In 1 Corinthians 5:3, he writes: though absent in body, I am present in spirit; in 2 Corinthians 13:2: I warned those who sinned previously and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient; in Philippians 1:27: live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit; in Colossians 2:5: though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit; in Galatians 4:20: I wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, for I am perplexed about you; in Philippians 2:12: just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; in 2 Corinthians 10:11: what we say by letter when absent, we will also do when present. For Paul, the point of being present in body is not as if somehow to remove the need for hermeneutics: it is ethical. This conveys a hermeneutical advantage, but does not remove the need for hermeneutics. What I mean by that is that Paul reminds the churches of his physical presence, and yearns to be present with them again is a testimony to his integrity and affirms his love for them. It was not only his words, but his observed manner of life in connection to those words—in imitation of Christ—that establishes his apostleship, and proves his sincerity of motive. He reminds his listeners of his costly service of them and of the way in which he supported himself financially when he was with them.

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What Paul reminds us of here is that bodily creatures delight in their proximity to other bodily creatures. The physical presence of another person comforts and stimulates and enlivens us in a unique way. If it were not so, then death would not worry us: we would just read what the dead person wrote. Paul’s chains, and his fear of his impending death, do concern him because he will not be able to be present alongside his words so as to confirm and entrench them. It is he who will write: now we see through a glass darkly; then we will see face to face. Nevertheless, his words can—effectively if not completely—mediate his presence to his first readers and beyond them, even to contemporary readers. Logos can, by the powers of recollection or imagination, supply the missing pathos and ethos. Ultimately in fact Paul’s ministry was about the temporary absence of Christ, and about the way in which his presence could be mediated—by the Spirit, received by those who believed the preached Word of God. The Word, as John wrote, had become flesh: and the appearance of the Word enfleshed had been proclaimed as the decisive manifestation of the divine presence, full of grace and truth, revealing the glory of the Father. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Jesus Christ; and now that that body had ascended, and was no longer present to be touched, the presence of Jesus could be experienced textually—by means of the spoken and written recollections of Jesus. The fellowship of believers is then is called into being as itself the “body” of Christ, so as to mediate the presence of Christ in the world. It has in its possession the recollection of Jesus’ words and his works: and so it is called to believe his words, and depend upon his works, but also to repeat his words and perform his works. 6 The Incarnation of the Son of God as “the image of the invisible God” is also a refraction that most basic of anthropological themes, namely, the imago dei. As the English theologian Alastair McFadyen and others have argued, the image of God is not a reference to some particular ability or capacity that human beings have, but to their vocation: they are called to represent the creator to the creation, in visible, bodily form. For this role they are made articulate: they are agents of communication in part because they are tasked with declaring the will of God to the world and

 6

Alistair I. McFadyen, The Call to Personhood: A Christian Theory of the Individual in Social Relationships (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). See also Kevin J. Vanhoozer, “Human Being: Individual and Social,” in The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine, ed. C. E. Gunton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 158-88.

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because they are invited to declare his praises to him. And they are made as bodies, located in time and space. They are something to see and hear. The New Testament not only sees Jesus Christ as the one who finally fulfils this human vocation (see for example 2 Cor 4:4), but the church finds its new vocation in becoming renewed in the image now of Christ (as Rom 8:29). Nevertheless, it is the condition of the fallen age that makes these forms of mediation-by-text necessary. They function as promissory notes ahead of the promised moment of in-the-flesh encounter with the risen Christ.

On being really there, virtually What we have noted thus far is that: 1) online communication is mediated, but that this does not make it different from other forms of communication between persons; and 2) that, as the New Testament and Christian theology show, communication between human persons and between divine and human persons may be effective via the media of written text as a substitute for bodily presence, enabled by the Spirit; and that, even so, 3) bodily presence adds a dimension to interpersonal communication that we as creatures made in the image of God miss when it is not there. What could this mean for our virtual selves? 1) We can be really present to each other when we engage in online communication. The fact that we engage with one another does not mean that the relationships are any less “real”, necessarily. The self-consciousness and staginess of social media do not mean that we cannot relate authentically, meaningfully and even powerfully by them. We can be “in” our words, finding companionship, friendship and love. This means that we are just as much the responsible speech agents we are called to be in our virtual interactions as we are in the flesh. 2) We can also conceal ourselves and dissemble on social media, as we can do in person. The conditions needed for relational trust are perhaps less available online. Nevertheless, deceit and disguise are not special opportunities afforded by social media alone. Some of the moral panic that I hear about social media neglects the way in which the mediated aspect of all communications between people can be exploited.

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3) However, the layering effect of social media can allow us to treat others as depersonalised—online community can become simply the clash of avatars. It can be the case that social media can have the effect of putting us all in motorcycle helmets. English theologian John Milbank claims that we are “clubbing each other to death” over the internet.7 There is a brutality about the verbal jousting that internet community fosters. At its worst, people can forget that there is a flesh-and-blood human being at the other end of the line. The disembodied, the defaced, too easily becomes the depersonalised. 4) Paradoxically, social media can allow for a greater intimacy between persons, or for relationships that never otherwise would have happened. Because of the brokenness of our relations with one another, because of our shame at our bodies and the things they do, it may be in fact that social media allows for an intimacy to develop where bodily presence prevents it. Pastorally, this is a very useful aspect of social media, although of course herein lies a great danger as well. Social media can act as fig leaves: that which is necessary in a fallen world to facilitate connection between fallen and ashamed human beings. It is a balm on the wounds of our sociality. 5) But we cannot escape our embodiment, nor would we want to. Our bodily presence is a special thing, not because it removes the need for interpretation, but because it can be hugged. As a former colleague from Moore College puts it: embodiment is a form of authentication. 8 There’s a truth in the body that

 7

John Milbank, Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon (London: Routledge, 2003), 37. The full passage reads: “Computers...in so far as they impose the reign of information, are the enemies of truth and democracy. Our gaze at their screens is the constitution through watching and receiving of inherently violent transactions which in the end, when we step through their looking-glass, always involve real physical violence. On line, therefore, we are clubbing each other to death, but invisibly, very very gradually and at a huge remove. When this process does appear, then we finally see what we collectively do, but assume that it has nothing to do with us, individually. But just as breathing is the most massive combustion, so also this slowed-down and distributed violence is actually increased violence, like a torture that is all the more torture through being long drawn-out.” 8 Andrew Shead wrote this in an interaction on Facebook, October 2014.

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can’t be evaded, whatever the mask. Ultimately, love between embodied personal creatures desires to be face-to-face. It longs to be seen, touched, and held as well as heard. Virtual community may have to do, for now; its imitations of presence can work extremely well, but it is not in the end what perfected human community will be.

Bibliography Derrida, Jacques. Limited Inc. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1988. Fish, Stanley Eugene. Doing What Comes Naturally: Change, Rhetoric, and the Practice of Theory in Literary and Legal Studies. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1989. Hart, David Bentley. The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth. Grand Rapids, Mich.; Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2003. McFadyen, Alistair I. The Call to Personhood: A Christian Theory of the Individual in Social Relationships. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Milbank, John. Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon. London: Routledge, 2003. Vanhoozer, Kevin J. “Human Being: Individual and Social.” In The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine, edited by C.E.Gunton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

SECTION THREE WHEN REAL AND VIRTUAL WORLDS COLLIDE

OPPOSING THE VIRTUAL WORLD OF LATE-CAPITALISM: A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF EDUCATION ROBERT TILLEY

The logic of capital is that it requires “liquidity” so that there are no political or economic barriers either to its reproduction or to its dissemination. It also requires cultural liquidity, the aim being to overcome all sources of friction that might impede the creation and dissemination of capital value. An integral factor in this process has been computer technology for it has been especially useful in overcoming friction so that today high frequency trading can occur in a millionth of a second. Furthermore, from the “Californian Ideology” on through the hope of the coming singularity, to the promotion of a cybernetic future, the logic of capital and the logic of the virtual world increasingly subordinate all else to their values—including education. Education has become increasingly commodified by way of information technology and the virtual medium has shaped the content of that which is taught at all levels of schooling. The result has been a degraded curriculum, an increase in managerialism along market lines, and the rise of short term contracts that undermine the rights of labour. On-line learning, MOOCS, the payment to journals for the publication of articles— these are some of the expressions of Late-Capitalism. The argument of this chapter is that Biblical Theology is one concerned with sacramental presence; with real not virtual presence. If the medium shapes the message then the way we teach theology will be adversely affected by the reliance on computer technology. The conclusion is that Christian colleges are in a unique position to save education from the depredations of the market, but to fulfil this calling we must oppose the orientation toward the virtual lecture room and computer driven courses.

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Introduction Many criticisms have been made of the use of IT and specifically on-line technology in education. Among these are the claims that (a) it inevitably leads to a “dumbing down” of standards, (b) it effectively robs lecturers of the ownership of the copyright of their intellectual work, and (c) it locks education into a system of corporate managerialism that further lowers the quality of what is on offer. 1 The aim of this chapter is to approach this issue from a specifically Biblical and theological position, working in conjunction with a critique of our dominant political economy. By the term “economy” here, I am referring to “Late-Capitalism”, a term used to describe the dominance of neo-liberal theory and consumerist dynamics in contemporary Capitalism. In order for the argument to be properly appreciated, it is necessary to clarify what is fundamental to the discussion: namely the relation between “base and superstructure,” and the relationship between the dominant economy and the culture that attends that economy. It is argued that this also translates into the relationship between medium and message or, to be a little more esoteric, the relationship between the means of dissemination and what is being disseminated. The underlying premise of this chapter is that in pedagogy the question of continuity in respect of medium and message must be addressed as a matter of primary concern. This is necessary if we are to have the ability to critically reflect upon, and extrapolate from, the ideas dominant in a society, ones instantiated in that society’s economy. Further, this necessity is—or should be—especially evident in Christian education, and that even more so in Christian theological education at a tertiary level. That it is not evident is an indicator of how powerful the ideology is that has shaped our thinking.

 1

See B. Ginsberg, The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why it Matters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); S. Greenwald, “Are We Distance Educating Our Students to Death?” Radical Pedagogy 5, 2003; D. Noble, “Technology and the Commodification of Higher Education,” Monthly Review 53, 10 (2002); C. Stoll, High Tech Heretic (New York: Doubleday, 1999). See too footnote 10 below. In her blog on Educause, entitled “MOOCs and Intellectual Property,” Joan Chevene points out how in using such Open Source sites a lecturer effectively agrees to licence his or her copyright to the host in perpetuity, with the result that the owners can do with one’s material as they will, and this includes the work of any student who posts work of theirs on these sites. On the rise of “Boilerplate” agreements and attendant injustice, see M. Radin, Boilerplate: The Fine Print, Vanishing Rights, and the Rule of Law (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013).

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It is not our point to rehearse all the proffered definitions of “Capitalism” but rather to focus on that which is essential to all such definitions: namely the turning of money proper into capital, by which the value of money becomes self-replicating or self-fructifying. There is one word that serves to identify the means of the self-fructifying power of capital and that is “usury”.2 Capitalism would not be Capitalism unless usury were permitted. Simply put, if you took away usury you would no longer have Capitalism but an altogether different form of economy and, because there is a continuity between base and superstructure, you would have an entirely different culture as well.3 If the Torah is divinely inspired, insofar as the Laws therein bear some witness to what God sees as being necessary for a society to be “a nation of priests”, then it seems pertinent that the practice of usury was forbidden in Israel, at least among fellow Israelites. Furthermore, as Jesus fulfils the Law and the Prophets, not annihilating them but perfecting them, and does so by extending their benefits and blessings to all nations, then this surely applies as well to the ban on usury. Indeed, that is what the Christian Church has in fact taught. In its Catholic, Orthodox, and early Protestant forms, the Church has condemned the practice of usury on biblical grounds, although many Protestant churches came not only to accept its practice but to encourage it.4 Again, we might ask why scriptural revelation and the testimony of the Church condemn usury and do so in principle, which is to say not just in respect of contingent circumstances such as in unjust applications. Therefore the forbidding of usury is seen not simply as a law dependent upon contingent circumstances—in the case, for example, where usury benefits the poor, it passes muster—but rather, as St Thomas Aquinas puts it, it is a sin against justice. In sum, usury violates the constitution of creation itself.5



2 J. Muller, The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) (on the “rehabilitation” of usury 3-15). R. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, fp. 1922), 36-42, 55. 3 On the kind of culture that is attendant upon Capitalism see: M. Castells, The Rise of Network Society: The Information Age, Economy, Society and Culture Vol. 1 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), 406-7; D. Stephen Long, Divine Economy: Theology and the Market (London: Routledge, 2000), 3, 29-30, 258. 4 See M. Valeri “The Christianization of Usury in Early Modern Europe,” Interpretation 65, 2 (2011), 142-52. 5 See John T. Noonan, The Scholastic Analysis of Usury (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1957), 17-18, 42, 54-55, 58. See too Christopher Franks, He

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Whatever else St Thomas meant by this, he indicates that there is a profound relationship between base and superstructure, insofar as the various functions of the economy will violate the proper order and functioning of creation. This will, inevitably, result in detrimental consequences because of unjust social relations. The disruption of the integrity of created being has a real and profound effect on the integrity of the social order, including the souls of those who live, breathe and think within that order. The economic decisions that a society takes will be reflected in the way it thinks and in the way it assesses value and meaning. We might even say that it shapes the consciousness of the individuals who make up this society—but whether or not it does so in a deterministic fashion is another matter. How does usury express itself in a society that is founded upon its practice and, most importantly, how is it expressed and promulgated though education? And what implications does this have for Christian education? It is expressed in two principal ways: anti-essentialism and a concomitant state of precariousness. I think it beyond dispute that our world is defined by a globalism that is informed by the principle of the freedom of capital. 6 In what way, then, does this “freedom” shape our global culture? From the seventeenth century onwards, Modernity defined itself by reference first to a rejection of Scholastic metaphysics and then, increasingly so, by a rejection of all metaphysics, an opposition that has, in our Late-Modern world, come to be referred to as “anti-essentialism”.7 This has been translated into a freedom from any and all deterministic concepts, be they associated with God, “nature”, the Author, the Subject, sexual identity, or, to follow the lead of Michel Foucault, “Man”. 8

 Became Poor: The Poverty of Christ and Aquinas’s Economic Teaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), 49-50. 6 Indeed, “globalisation” is defined by reference to a concept of internationalism/universalism in which all barriers to the operation of the “freemarket” and the movement of capital are removed. Thus David Harvey in his A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) writes: “The free mobility of capital between sectors, regions, and countries is regarded as crucial. All barriers to that free movement (such as tariffs, punitive taxation arrangements) have to be removed”, 66. 7 On Modernity and anti-essentialism, see R. Tilley, “Caritas in Veritate in Catholic Social Teaching,” in N. Ormerod and P. Oslington (eds.) Globalisation and the Church (Sydney: St Pauls Publications, 2011). 8 Although this dominance of anti-essentialism is often styled as being a peculiar feature of Postmodernism, thereby demonstrating that Postmodernism is the

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Concomitant with this “freedom” is a state of precariousness because of the absence of any metaphysically grounded authority. When there is no authority to uphold the inherent value of human life or the inalienability of worker’s rights, the result is that all effectively live in a state of what is now called “precarity”.9 On the most fundamental level this is expressed by the fact that in our economy literally trillions of dollars in value can be made or lost in seconds, and this with dire effects on us whether or not we play the market, a state of affairs that means we live in a world that is very precarious indeed.10 How is this reflected in education? Insofar as education is oriented towards market demands, then it will both mirror and try to answer to the condition of “precarity”, orienting itself towards the training for careers that affect to answer to the demands of that same market. However, no student can be sure that by the end of their degree their knowledge and skill won’t be replaced by an “app” that anyone can download for a few dollars if not for free. It might be thought that being replaced by an algorithm is only a threat to those careers based upon and informed by mathematical logic—hence the increasing downturn in the prospects for a career in IT or the Sciences. Although it must strike anyone in the Humanities as absurd, the threat of being replaced by an “app” is also very real. But the real problem is that now the threat goes by the name of MOOCS or “Open Source” program.11

 expression of Late-Capitalism; see Terry Eagleton’s, The Illusion of Postmodernism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), where it can be argued that Postmodernism is simply Modernity come into its own, because it has followed out the logic of its antimetaphysical origins. On this point, see D. Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989); F. Jameson, Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991). 9 Guy Standing, The Precariat (London: Bloomsbury, 201). See too B. Eichengreen, Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996), 181-186, 192. 10 Not least by reason of the opportunity, this leads to dubious financial practices. See, for example, High Frequency Trading and allegations of “front running” in M. Lewis, Flashboys (London: Penguin, 2014). 11 For an overview on the ises involved, see D. Bromwich, “The Hi-Tech Mess of Higher Education,” in The New York Review of Books (August 14, 2014). See too the recent comments by A. Keen in his The Internet is not the Answer (London: Atlantic Books, 2015), 224. Also, T. Brabazon, Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2002); F. Donahue, The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008). Of interest is the work

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It is here that we begin to come to the heart of the matter. The logic of capital is very much at home in anti-essentialism and in the process of abstraction—chiefly in the abstracting of value from any essence or substantial reference whatsoever (a point central to Marx’s critique of Capitalism). There is a name for the discipline that best facilitates this process and that is “mathematics”. So as Capitalism grows increasingly dominant, so too does the impetus to reduce all value and meaning (including that attendant upon the Humanities) to mathematics. A well-known expression of this process, one with which we are all too familiar, is the rise of managerialism, in which endless “outcomes”. The demand is that these outcomes can be translated into quantifiable statistics which, upon being tabulated, serve to evaluate not only the teacher of a course but a whole department, including the entire faculty as well! Education becomes the transmitting of “information” and, under the influence of Information Theory “information” has become separated from “meaning”, with the result that it becomes something reducible to, even identical with, mathematical integers.12 It is with the birth of what became known as “Information Theory” that computer technology began to come into its own. It is thus no surprise to see that the principal way our global economy of capital is facilitated is through IT.13 Late-Capitalism and IT go hand in glove by reason that capital, which, being reducible to mathematical integers, can be divorced from any concrete referent: consequently it can be electronically disseminated free from the “drag” of mediation and friction, free from the drag of essence. Because mathematics is the language and logic of quantitative precision, then it is ideally suited to facilitate the notions of utility and pragmatism as defined by Capitalism. That is the ideal that our world of capital aspires to, but whether or not it is fully realisable is another matter. What we can say, however, is that Capitalism and IT are an instance of the perfect correspondence between medium and message, between form and content, between base and superstructure.

 by S. Marginson and M. Considine, The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 41-47. The authors note how certain corporations pushed early on for Australian higher education to adopt IT, seeing it as a likely source for future profit. 12 On this see, J. Gleick, The Information (New York: Pantheon Books, 2011), 203, 217-225. 13 Something similar to this line of argument was advanced by Manuel Castells in his The Rise of Network Society: The Information Age, Economy, Society and Culture Vol..1 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1996), 502-6.

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We need to come at this from another angle. Capital requires liquidity by which is meant that it is freed, as much as is possible, from the constraints of what we might call hardware. The goal of all markets is that of immediacy of supply and, in respect of its products, the immediacy of effect, but where there is hardcopy and hardware these effects are frustrated by the kinds of restraints that distance imposes (and 3D-printers can only do so much). In respect of capital this restraint can be overcome, for when value and meaning become mathematical integers then they are only limited by a resistance that, at the moment, translates into a “drag” of a billionth of a second. Mathematics is the supremely abstract language by reason that it best embodies the principle of self-reference; it is its own code, it need not defer to anything other to it, it is immediate to itself. It represents the logic of a thoroughly immanent system. 14 And, being the language of self-reference, mathematics serves as the means to immediacy insofar, that is, as the world is translated into the values and meaning attendant upon mathematics—and it is exactly this that Capitalism does (or at least sets out to do).15 Furthermore, if capital by means of usury becomes totally selffructifying, then there too will the friction of mediation be overcome, for it will require no referent outside itself by which it can multiply itself. 16



14 This is not to say that the system is fundamentally coherent. One of the recurrent problems in the philosophy of maths is whether or not it can make sense of itself. See the comments of Richard Webb in his review of N. Yanofsky’s The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us, “Life in an Unreasonable World,” New Scientist 2/11/13. 15 On the rise of Capitalism proper and the dominance of mathematics (which was a necessary concomitant to a “mechanical” understanding of the universe) increasingly across all social disciplines, see E. Dolnick, The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society and the Birth of the Modern World (New York: Harpers Collins, 2011), 95, 129; A. Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991) 22-25, 40-44; J. Gribbens, The Fellowship: Gilbert, Bacon, Harvey, Wren, Newton and the Story of a Scientific Revolution (New York: The Overlook Press, 2005), 235; A. MacIntyre, After Virtue (Norfolk: Duckworth, 1981), 82-84; T. McCormick, William Petty and the Ambitions of Political Arithmetic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); A. Roncaglia, The Wealth of Ideas: A History of Economic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 55-57; R. Tawney, The Acquisitive Society (London: Collins, 1961) 16, 19-22, 40. 16 S. Das, Extreme Money (London: Portfolio, 2011), 17, 21, 41-43.

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Capital becomes not only the principle of anti-essentialism but of nontranscendence as well. “Capitalism” can be defined as that economic theory that most successfully harnesses the power of usury and, thereby, best embodies the principles of a self-referential system predicated upon absolute immanence, one oriented to the goal of an absolute immediacy to itself.17 Because there is an organic continuity between base and superstructure, a culture based upon an economy informed by usury will be a culture that answers to the logic of self-reference, immanence, and immediacy. It will be oriented to the ideal of a friction-free world.18 It will increasingly subordinate all things, including humanity and the Humanities, to a system of value and meaning that privileges mathematics. The logic demands that all things be quantifiable in terms of maths if there is to be an absence of friction—if Capitalism is to be triumphant. As far as possible, “presence” will be simulated by being translated, via mathematics, into a virtual presence, a process which requires that identity to be abstracted from essence. Following St Thomas, therefore, we can say that usury is a sin against justice and thus against the natural order of things. Consequently Capitalism, it can be argued, opposes the very constitution of created being, making of it something self-referential and self-fructifying because it is self-simulated. Capitalism does this because it is both the means of the promulgation of and expression of a non-transcendent understanding of creation. Capitalism is the economic and cultural dynamic of absolute immanence. It is the expression of the dominance of the “Same” and is therefore an idolatrous economy.

Romans, the Nature of Creation, and the Desire for the Same In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans St Paul contrasts a natural theology in which creation makes visible the invisible things of God—“his eternal power and deity”19—over against an understanding of

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J. Cary, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep (London: Verso, 2013) 19, 29. 18 See J. Mittelman, The Globalization Syndrome (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000) 126; Paul Virilio, The Information Bomb (London: Verso, 2005, fp. 1998) 3-5. 19 Rom 1:20.

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creation that defers only to itself. From being in its very ontological constitution a sign of what is “other” to it, creation becomes a sign of itself. Paul employs a paradox to characterise the basic nature of creation: how is it possible for “the invisible things of God” to be “clearly seen” in the things God has made? It is a paradox that brings out the transcendent nature of creation. Although creation is other to God, because it is not God, nevertheless creation makes God present by making him visible. Creation qua creation signs that which is other to it. The very constitution of creation, its identity proper, is that it defers to that which it is not, namely, God. We can say that the ontological character of creation is being-as-semiosis insofar as it is not self-subsistent (to use scholastic terminology). Simply put: creation is transcendently constituted. Paul goes on to give a potted history of humanity from its fall into idolatry, through the panoply of increasing violence, then all the way up to the audience of his letter.20 The “fall” into idolatry is expressed in humanity’s confusion of the glory of God with the glory of creatures. In other words, the semiotic nature of creation, by which it defers to that which is other to it, is changed into a self-referential system, deferring only to itself—thus creation worships creation.21 There is no longer any paradox because God is collapsed into creation, and, most controversially of all in light of present day concerns, Paul identifies this “fall” with a passion for the same—with homosexual desire.22 It is telling that there is little if anything in the Scriptures (to which Paul appears to be alluding in his potted history) that specifically ties homosexual desire to idolatry. In fact no sexuality, except for adultery and prostitution, seems to be related to idolatry. 23 Thus the pairing of homosexual desire with idolatry serves a rhetorical strategy by which Paul can make a point concerning the logic of idolatry and how this logic works itself out. There is continuity between the way in which society understands the nature of creation and the way in which those in that society experience desire and, moreover, how that desire expresses itself in their behaviour. The desire for the same will work itself out in all aspects of life, including the most intimate of relationships.

 20

1:21-2:4. 1:23, 25. 22 1:24, 26-27. 23 It is interesting that in Ezekiel we read that the sin of Sodom was that she was a well-off city proud, full of plenty, but refusing to help her poorer and needy sister cities (Ezek 16:49). 21

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Paul’s argument is that there has been a deliberate act of inversion on the part of people. They confuse the glory of God with the glory of created things. Thus sexual expression becomes similarly confused where, through the experience of uncontrolled desire, a desire for the other is collapsed into a desire for the same, with the text’s emphasis being upon heterosexuals doing the inverting. But the accent is not so much on how things are but more on how things have been deliberately inverted and what the social ramifications are of this inversion. Thus, Paul goes on to show how this desire for the same finds its more fundamental and common expression in ruthless self-interest, the consequences of which are spelt out by Paul in a litany of self-serving violence that destroys communion between people.24 Furthermore, it is a violence that finds its apogee not in the world outside the church but rather inside the church—hence the problems of schism attendant upon the misuse of the Law wherein people use the Law as a means to special status and selfpromotion, summed up in “boasting”.25

Education and Capitalism When we return to the subject of the Law and economics, it is not difficult to argue that in its ban of usury and the concomitant wiping of debts, in its demand that the well-off help those less well off, the Law was informed by a logic oriented to the other and the good of one’s neighbour.26 The implication is that an economy informed by usury is not oriented to the good of one’s neighbour; rather it is destructive of communion and, as a consequence, it is to be put in the same category as idolatry. Indeed, it instantiates something of the dynamic of idolatry because it is the most successful expression of a non-transcendent, immanentist, self-replicating and self-fructifying logic. Usury is the economic expression of the turning away from transcendence to the indulging of the disordered desire for the same. In sum, it falls away from



24 1:28-32. Hence from Romans 12 onwards, Paul contrasts the world’s idolatrous, self-interested and violent ways with the new lifestyle of the Church. In particular, the apostle’s comments on love being the principle that fulfils the Law is especially significant (13:8-10). 25 2:1-4, 17-24; 3:27; 4:1-2; 12:3; 16:17-18. 26 The problem is, according to St Paul, that the Law had been turned to doing the opposite of what it was meant to do, insofar as it had become a means of selfinterest and “boasting”, thereby facilitating disunity and schism (cf. Rom 3:19-20 with vs. 27). In other words, it had been turned to serve a logic of “the same”, a logic concomitant with the fall into idolatry that Paul details in Rom 1: 20-32.

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the semiotic nature of created being, with the result that being no longer signs that which is other to it, but instead only signs itself in an endless play of self-reference. As St Thomas rightly concluded, echoing the argument of St Paul, usury is a sin against the integrity of creation; it is destructive of the essence of being itself. As our culture is informed and defined by Capitalism, then it is only to be expected that the logic of usury will be reflected in the way education is understood, both in respect of how it is to be carried out and in respect of its content. A culture propagates itself through its education system. Whatever else education may be, it is one of the principal means by which a culture promulgates its ethos and ideals. Among Christian institutions the following two arguments loom large: (a) IT is a potential money earner because it enables the institution to carve out a niche in an increasingly competitive global market; and (b) it provides a means by which the ethos of the institution can be widely promulgated. It is not uncommon to hear the argument made that the use of IT is an effective means of evangelisation because it can be used to bring Christ to the world. Put in another way, IT is an effective means of making Christ present in the world. But this argument fails to appreciate the relationship between base and superstructure, medium and message. As noted, the virtual medium of IT is informed by the values of immediacy and friction-free ease, values that correspond to the operative logic of Capitalism. What happens, then, when this medium is used not just as an accoutrement to teaching but more as the principal means of teaching and, relatedly, the dissemination of content? Insofar as an institution allows itself to be defined by IT, to that degree will it be defined by the operative logic of Capitalism and the demands of the market, and to that same degree it will cease to be a place of education proper. The medium will shape the message; the form will mould the content; the base will determine the superstructure. Among other things this means we will be moulding our students in accordance with the dictates of Capitalism, according that is to the dictates of an economy based upon and informed by usury. We will be complicit in not only failing to defy an idolatrous system but of facilitating and perpetuating it as well.

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Covenant and Presence There are a number of overarching themes that serve to unite the books of the Bible and which for this reason have become staples of the discipline of Biblical Theology.27 And chief among these is that of the theme of covenant. “Covenant” not only informs the way in which the Canon of the Bible has come together, but also it serves to contextualise the contents of the Bible and, as well as this, covenantal themes make up a good deal of its contents.28 Creation is conceived of in terms of covenant and so too is redemption; salvation and the means of salvation are also conceived of in terms of covenant; even an individual’s experiential act of faith is likewise conceived by the notion of being faithful to a covenant. It is important, then, to tease out what is most basic to a biblical covenant— often so basic that its significance is often not seen. One of the more basic principles to a biblical covenant is that it is always attended by a visible and hierarchical communion, one of a patriarchal nature. Accepting that the early chapters of Genesis depict creation within a covenantal structure and dynamic, Adam is then presented as being the covenantal representative of creation. 29 Thus, although Eve is the first to eat of the fruit, it is not until Adam does so that the fall occurs because he is the covenantal representative of humanity and thereby of creation. Post-flood Noah is depicted as recapitulating Adam, thereby becoming the head of the covenant. The theme of covenant moves from Noah through to Abraham, then to Moses and Aaron, to David and, of course, to Jesus Christ. A covenantal communion can be presented under the theme of a patriarchal family as is the case with Abraham; in terms of a whole people such as Israel; as a particular institution within that people such as the Aaronic priesthood; as a kingdom as in the case of David; and of course as the Church in the case of Jesus Christ. Each covenant can exhibit some of the qualities that attend one or more of the others, hence the Church is often referred to by way as being the new

 27

See the overview in J. Barton, “Covenant in Old Testament Theology,” in A. Mayes and R. Salters, Covenant as Context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). Also J. Cardinal Ratzinger, “The New Covenant: A Theology of Covenant in the New Testament,” Communio 22, 4 (1995). 28 M. Halbertal, People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997). 29 On this see W. Dumbrell, Covenant and Creation (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1984); R. Murray, The Cosmic Covenant (London: Sheed & Ward, 1992); James Plastaras, Creation and Covenant (Milwaukee: The Bruce Pub. Co., 1968).

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Israel, or as a kingdom, and perhaps more commonly as a marriage (between Christ and his bride the Church) and thus as a family.30 Although there is a variety of ways in which a biblical covenant can be structured, in every case the locus of the covenant proper is a person, one person who is the covenantal representative. It is he who has the authority to represent all others who are in the covenant of which he is the head. This mediatorial authority of the covenantal representative extends out from that representative by way of derivation, with the result that his authority can be delegated to those chosen to represent him. Where the covenant representative is there is the covenant. As it is a key point to the argument of this chapter, it needs to be stressed that the covenant is present in people not by way of a virtual presence such as abstract philosophical or psychological concepts. Even when authority is delegated, it is not so by way of virtual presence; derivative authority is no less materially present in person than when it is present in the one from whom it is derived. As is well known, it is through the covenant and its attendant communion that God makes himself present to the world. Hence, just as covenant is a key theme in the Bible, so too is the subject of God’s presence. Covenant and the presence of God are inextricably entwined in the Bible. In the Torah it is forbidden to make an image of God, although the paradox is that at the very beginning of the Genesis God himself makes an image of himself, namely, humanity. 31 Prior to the fall, the expression of the covenant relationship between God and Adam (and thus with Eve) is depicted in terms of friendship, something expressed in their enjoying evening strolls together. There is a close relationship between that which is the image of God and what it is that that image images. However, the story of the fall is the story of the increasing separation between image and the one imaged (one which as Christians we hold is overcome by the “express image of God” Jesus Christ).32 The overarching

 30

On these themes, see S. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfilment of God’s Saving Promises (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). Also see C. Roberts, Creation and Covenant: The Significance of Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage (New York: T&T Clark, 2007). 31 Exod 20:4 and Gen 1:26. For this reason it is not true to say that OT religion was aniconic. At least once a year there was an image of God in the Holy of Holies, namely, the High Priest, who, like the rest of mankind, was made in the image of God. 32 Phil 2:6; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3.

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storyline of the Torah is that which depicts the presence of God as becoming increasingly “other” and terrifying. Before the fall God is depicted in anthropomorphic terms but, by the time we come to Abraham, God’s presence begins to become altogether strange when, in a dream, God appears as a burning pot and fiery brand. Abraham’s response is described as being one of terror.33 With Moses the presence of God is in the burning bush, which also inspires fear in the recipient of the vision; then God is present as the theophany of fire and thunder on Mt Sinai, which fills all of Israel with fear and trembling;34 and finally (apparently to the relief of the Israelites) God ends up hidden away in the depths of the Tabernacle visited only by Moses.35 By means of the Incarnation this distance is overcome and God is made fully present in Jesus Christ36, and so by the end of the Christian Bible, in the new Eden, that is, the New Jerusalem and the New Creation,37 the nature of the relationship between God and humanity is no longer one merely of “just friends” but of lovers: that is, lovers who are about to get married. 38 Attendant upon a “fuller” covenant is the fuller presence of God—a real presence.39 Thus the presence of God in the New Jerusalem is one of immediate access as there is no temple in the city, for the temple in the old Jerusalem represented a graded and partitioned off approach to God.40 The new covenant is in a similar manner spoken of as being one of perfect intimacy where the laws of God are written upon tablets of flesh not of stone, something Paul relates to the perfect intimacy

 33

Gen 15:12-17. Exod 20:19. 35 Exod 34:34. Note too that even the reflected glory of God on Moses’ face inspired fear in the Israelites (34:30). 36 Col 2:9. 37 Rev 21:1-2; 22:1-2. 38 Rev 19:7-10; 21:1-3, 9; 22:17. 39 So the use of “pleroma” by the author of Ephesians to describe (a) the nature of the presence of God in Christ; (b) the presence of God in Christians; (c) the presence of Christ through his body the Church through all the cosmos (Eph 1:10, 22-23; 3:19; see too Col 1:9, 19, 24-25; 2:2, 9). 40 Rev 21:22-23. In Ephesians 2:11-22—which, along with Colossians, I consider an authentic epistle—Paul depicts the Church the Body of Christ as a new temple in which there are no partitions. Later, in 5:21-32, Paul identifies the Church as the bride of Christ, citing Gen 2:24 in reference to the mystery of sexual consummation where “the two become one.” Thus sexual consummation within marriage is a sign of the larger mystery by which, through the Church, the closest most intimate presence with God is brought into effect. 34

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that ought to exist between those within the Church.41 A biblical covenant is characterised by the degree of intimacy it affords with God, an intimacy which corresponds to the intimacy of relations between those in the covenant communion. As noted earlier, the new covenant that Jesus inaugurates is depicted in terms of the communion of family and, as a consequence, the fulfilment of this is depicted in terms of a marriage between Jesus and his bride the Church. That is, as Paul writes, the mystery of the relationship between the Church and Jesus is one of future consummation where the two will become one.42 This mysterious consummation of the covenant is depicted in terms of a marriage in which Creator and creation find their full intimacy (or, in other words, their full presence, each to the other). We can say, then, that the overarching story—that is, the story that informs the Bible as a whole—is of the journey of the image which it images, with the result that it participates in the source of its substance proper. Being-assemiosis is oriented to its consummation with that which it signs. Perhaps this is an obscure way of putting it, but put like this, it serves to bring out the fact that the direction the Bible travels in is towards real and fuller presence—not towards the greater simulation of presence. Finally, the locus proper of the realisation of the above is the Church, in that the full presence of Jesus is really present in his body the Church. This presence is realised in the central liturgy of the NT Church, the Eucharist. 43 The participation in the presence of Jesus, which a Christian is initiated into upon their response to the kerygma, is first effected through baptism, and then sustained and perfected through the Eucharist. This “participation in” is characterised by the real presence of God the Holy Trinity because it is a participation in the relations of the Triune God through the Incarnate Son. In other words, this participation is

 41

Jer 31:31-34; 2 Cor 3:1-6. Eph 5:21-32. 43 In 1 Cor 11:23-34—one of our very earliest Christian documents—we see that, even as far away from Jerusalem as Corinth, the Eucharist was already the central element of the Church’s liturgy. Furthermore, the intimate identification between the covenant “headship” of Jesus Christ and the covenant “communion” of the Church is realised in the Eucharist. Consequently, the body of Christ refers equally to Jesus and, by way of derivation and ontological identification with Jesus, to the Church as well (1 Cor 12:27). Salvation is realised in an individual Christian by reason of his or her real participation in the body and blood of Jesus through his body the Church. In sum, it turns upon and devolves upon real presence and thus not upon not simulated or virtual presence. 42

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not simply a mirroring of the relationship between the Father and the Son through the work of the Spirit, but rather it is a real participation in that relationship.44 Thus the new covenant, which is the fulfilment of all the covenants, realises the full and real presence of God. Among the themes used to denote this presence in the Bible are those of “eating and drinking”, “family”, and “marriage” – that is, in themes that denote real and intimate presence.

Divine Abundance versus Virtual Abundance Now, the themes by which the promise of redemption and perfection are played out in the Bible are those of abundance—that is, the fulfilling of the first command of God to be fruitful and multiply.45 From the first messianic promise to Eve concerning her seed,46 through to the promise of the seed to Abraham and Sarah,47 to the prophetic promises of miraculous pregnancies, 48 through to the promised seed that is Jesus Christ,49 and then derivative of Jesus the ever-growing family of God,50 redemption is depicted by way of an abundance of offspring. Though at first it may seem unrelated, it is pertinent that when Jesus speaks of



44 This relationship is most clearly presented in John’s Gospel, which is often styled as the “Sacramental Gospel” by virtue of (a) its highlighting baptism under a number of tropes (John 1:33-34; 2:6-11; 3:5-6; 4:13-14; 7:37-39) and (b) its reference to the Eucharist in 6:25-60. Indeed, in Chapter 6, John is the only Gospel writer to relate explicitly the miraculous feedings to the Eucharist. Baptism and Eucharist are also brought together in the mention of the piercing of Jesus’ side (19:34). The sacraments answer the conundrum expressed a number of times in the Gospel of John: namely, how a Christian can be in Jesus and yet how simultaneously Jesus can be in the Christian (John 14:20; 15:4-5; 17:21). By baptism we are in Christ (so Rom 6:1-5; Gal 3:26-29) and by the Eucharist Christ is in us (1 Cor. 11:28-30; John 6:25-60, esp. v. 56). In the Gospel of John this reciprocal indwelling of the Christian and Jesus mirrors the nature of the relationship between Jesus and the Father. In sum, the unity of the Triune Godhead is the basis of the unity of the Church (John 10:30, 38; 14:10-11, 20: 17:11, 21-23). It needs to be stressed that the presence spoken of is a real presence. 45 Gen 1:28. 46 Gen 3:15. 47 Gen 12:7; 22:17-18 and Gal 3:15-18. 48 Gen 17:15-21; 25:21-23; 1 Sam 2:5b; Isa 7:14; 54:1-2; 66:7-11; Luke 1:36-7. 49 Matt 1:22-23; Luke 1: 30-37. 50 Note that in Rev 12 the woman clothed with the sun gives birth to one son, Jesus (12:5), but a little later in 12:17 she now has many offspring.

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salvation he does so in terms of reward.51 This reward is often depicted in terms of what is akin to having entered into a usurious relationship with God, in which one is the recipient of abundant returns on one’s investment. 52 By investing with God one can expect a dividend of miraculous abundance, that is, a hundredfold in the Kingdom to come.53 St Augustine said that although usury is condemned by God and is a very great evil, there is, in fact, one form of usury that was not condemned but was positively encouraged by God, and this was when one lent to God.54 One lends to God when one lends to those who have nothing and does so expecting no return from them.55 In other words, one fulfils the law because in the law one was not to expect profit from a loan to another Israelite and, if the person who had borrowed could not pay the principal back, then, after seven years, the debt was to be wiped. 56 Furthermore, such is the grace of God that he gives us the “talent” in the first place to invest; hence God gives us that which we can invest with him so that we will get an abundant return on this investment.57 It is perfectly consistent with the foregoing that Jesus should contrast the way of salvation, namely service to God, with that of damnation attending the service to Mammon.58 It is salutary to read through the Synoptic Gospels and note just how often salvation is presented under economic themes.

 51

For example, see Matt 5:12, 46: 6:1-6, 16-18. For example, see Luke 6:32-36. 53 This is the theme of the important parable of the sower and the seed. In Mark 4 the recurrent theme of abundance (Mark 4:9, 20) is followed by the parable of the harvest in 4:26-29, whereas subsequently in 4:30-32 the story of the largest tree emanates from the smallest seed, with the result that all the birds find a nest there. See too 4:24-25 where the principle of abundance is applied to how one conducts oneself towards others. Additionally, see Mark 10:30. The sense of “reward” here is not of receiving what is due to one but rather a return on an investment. The accent is on superabundance over and above what was expected. 54 See St Augustine’s Sermons 36 on Matt 19:21: “Give to God, and press God for payment. Yea rather give to God, and thou will be pressed to receive payment.” Also see St Augustine’s On the Psalms (Ps 37) where he notes, by reference to Matt 25:35-40, that God shows himself to be the “surety for the poor.” “Give earth,” writes St Augustine, “receive heaven.” 55 Luke 6:35-36; Matt 25:31-46 (one should note that this passage follows on directly from that concerning the investment of the talents). 56 Against usury, see Exod 22:25; Lev 25:36-7; Deut 23:19-20. On every seven years wiping debts, see Deut 15:1-2, 9; 31:10. See Matt 6:12; 18:23-35; Luke 6:3236. 57 Matt 25:14-30. 58 Matt 6:24; Luke 16:10-15. 52

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This is not by way of mere metaphor but by way of contrasting the economy of the world with that of the economy of God. In other words, when Jesus fulfils the Law, he does so in respect of its economic laws, not by way of rendering them irrelevant, but by way of extending their scope. No longer is usury excluded just between Israelites: rather those who wish to be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect must exclude usury in one’s dealings with all peoples. Jesus’ mission reveals the organic continuity between economy and culture insofar as these have to do with redemption and perfection. Finally, the principle by which we lend to God by giving to those who cannot repay us is predicated on the personal presence of Jesus in the poor and vulnerable, who themselves are the recipients of our investment.59 In each case the biblical principle of miraculous abundance has its real location in a person, namely Jesus Christ. And as Paul observes, his person is located in the visible and hierarchical presence of the Church, which is his body.60 The foregoing can be summed up thus: there is only abundance where there is the true and real presence of the covenant head, either in his person or in the person of his representatives. Furthermore, it is this principle that informs the transcendent (or the divine and salvific economy), whereas usury represents Mammon (or the economy proper of idolatry and immanentism).

Conclusion In light of the foregoing, what would a biblical theology of education look like? That this is far from being a matter of leisurely speculation is intimated by the author of James when he writes: “Brothers, not many should desire to become teachers for know this that we shall receive the greater judgement.” 61 It is significant that the author was addressing a problem in which people were abstracting faith from works, such that they could think it was not incumbent upon themselves to share their wealth with those in the Church who were poor and hungry—even though the Law commanded those who had wealth to help those in need.62

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Matt 25:31-46. 1 Cor 12:12-13; Eph 1: 21-23; 5:28-32. 61 Jas 3:1. 62 Deut 15:7-11; Jas 2:14-26. Perhaps this is intimated in James’ reference to keeping the whole Law and not just some laws. Significantly, this comment is 60

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If we allow our desire for success, financial or otherwise, to compromise not only what we teach but how we teach, then we resemble the demons that know there is one God and shudder.63 In sum, the argument of this chapter is that a Christian and biblical education must be one that is oriented to real presence: the real presence of a teacher, of a classroom, of challenge and demand—indeed of struggle and sacrifice. The medium must correspond to the message and as the message is predicated upon the real presence of God in Christ incarnate, in Christ embodied, in his body the Church, then the medium of teaching this must embody real and substantial presence. Christian pedagogy cannot submit itself to the dictates of the market and to neoliberal economics by way of adopting online learning thinking, thereby, that it can disseminate the Gospel proper. In reality, it does no such thing. Rather it disseminates a simulation of the Gospel that does not accord with the divine economy of salvation. It may be argued on pragmatic grounds that such a simulation will reap the kind of dividends that an economy informed by usury has to offer. But this argument not only betrays the principles of the Gospel it is meant to serve (for the Gospel is contrary to the “wisdom of the world” as St Paul has it64), but also it also expresses naivety regarding the nature of the market. For a short time a small institution might prosper, but as more and more of the big players enter the field, any smaller university which has positioned itself as an online Higher Education Provider will be annihilated. What small universities have going for them is the ability to provide the real presence of committed lecturers to classes with comparatively fewer students in them—it is exactly these things that the big players cannot provide by reason of their business models and their commitment to the principles of neo-liberal theory. All told, the future of theology does not lie in the virtual world but rather in the defiance of that world. In the virtual world theology proper will die, leaving only the simulation of theology proper.

 made in the context of the abstraction of faith from works in a discussion of justification (Jas 2:8-13). 63 Jas 2:19. 64 1 Cor 1:20-31.

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Select Bibliography Barton, J. “Covenant in Old Testament Theology.” In A. Mayes and R. Salters (eds.) Covenant as Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 23-38. Brabazon, T. Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002. Cary. J. 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep. London: Verso, 2013. Castells, M. The Rise of Network Society: The Information Age, Economy, Society and Culture Vol. 1. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996. Dolnick, E. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society and the Birth of the Modern World. New York: Harpers, 2011. Donahue, F. The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities. New York: Fordham University Press, 2008. Franks, C. He Became Poor: The Poverty of Christ and Aquinas’s Economic Teaching. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009. Giddens, A. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. Greenwald, S. “Are We Distance Educating our Students to Death?” Radical Pedagogy 5, 1, 2003. Gribbens, J. The Fellowship: Gilbert, Bacon, Harvey, Wren, Newton and the Story of a Scientific Revolution. New York: The Overlook Press, 2005. Harvey, D. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989. Keen, A. The Internet is Not the Answer. London: Atlantic Books, 2015. Lewis, M. Flashboys. London: Penguin, 2014. McCormick, T. William Petty and the Ambitions of Political Arithmetic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Muller, J. The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Noble, D. “Technology and the Commodification of Higher Education.” Monthly Review 53, no. 19, March 2002. Noonan, J. The Scholastic Analysis of Usury. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957. Radin, M. Boilerplate: The Fine Print, Vanishing Rights, and the Rule of Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013. Ratzinger, J. Cardinal. “The New Covenant: A Theology of Covenant in the New Testament.” Communio 22, no. 3.1995, 635-651.

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Roncaglia, A. The Wealth of Ideas: A History of Economic Thought. Cambridge, CUP, 2006. Standing, G. The Precariat. London, Bloomsbury, 2011. Stoll, C. High Tech Heretic. New York, Doubleday, 1999. Tilley, R. “Caritas in Veritate in Catholic Social Teaching.” In N. Ormerod and P. Oslington (eds.) Globalisation and the Church, Sydney, St Pauls Publishing, 2011. Valeri, M. “The Christianization of Usury in Early Modern Europe.” Interpretation April 2011, 142-152.

DEVELOPING PERSONAL RESILIENCE IN A DANGEROUS VIRTUAL WORLD: HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES JAMES R. HARRISON

This article explores “resilience” against the backdrop of the relational challenges posed by online community and “trolling” on cyber social networks. It is argued that while Christianity as a movement was always on the cusp of technological revolution in its propagation of the faith, Christians have nevertheless shown caution and discernment in the adoption of new media. After distilling recent research relating to the benefits and deficits of online communities, including the dark cyber world of “trolls” and “haters”, a biblical, theological, and historical analysis of “resilience” is undertaken, focusing on the “image of God” and its restoration in Christ, and exploring the Christian understanding of “gracious” speech in its Graeco-Roman context. The final section provides a Christian perspective on how we should respond and minister to “trolls”, “haters” and their victims.

St Paul, Community and the Social Capital of the Cyber Revolution Early twenty-first century digital culture has spawned a vast array of electronic media and social networking opportunities. Children, adolescents, adults and senior citizens are now bound together by a strong sense of immediacy in communication and interconnectedness, locally and globally. Email, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Linkedin, Skype, Instagram, notebooks and smartphones, with their various apps, are revolutionising how personal relationships are conducted at home, work and leisure, though each medium has its own culture and conventions of communication. In assessing the impact of digital communication, there

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are solid historical and theological reasons why this seismic shift in human relations and its impact upon learning and teaching should not be feared but rather cautiously embraced. However, there has been little Christian theological analysis of the cyber revolution at an academic level, detailing in a nuanced manner the benefits and deficits that digital media present to “community”, online or offline. 1 This lacuna in scholarship stands in contrast to a previous generation where Jacques Ellul dominated the discipline with his seminal analysis of technological society. 2 Two examples of recent Christian reflection on the cyber revolution will suffice,3 though the impact of the internet and its psychic promise has already been analysed from diverse spiritual viewpoints.4 First, S.R. Garner argues that first-century Palestinian pastoral imagery, with its images of idyllic creation, does not make sense in our

 1

S. Spadaro (Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet [New York: Fordham University Press, 2014: Italian orig, 2012], 11) notes that “cyber theology” is a lacuna in the academic literature on the internet. 2 J. Ellul, The Technological Society (New York: Vintage, 1964 [Fr. orig. 1954]). 3 The pioneering work of D. Groothuis (The Soul in Cyberspace [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1997]) remains valuable even though it was written before Mark Zuckerberg’s “Facebook” revolution in 2004. For an updated interview with Groothuis, twelve years on from the book’s publication, see “The Soul in Cyberspace: An Interview with Douglas Groothuis,” http://www. challies.com /.../the-soul-in-cyberspace-an-interview-with-douglas-groothuis. 4 Exploring the conception of space from the Middle Ages to our digital age, M. Wertheim (The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet [New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1990]) argues that cyberspace is a sacred place, a repository for spiritual yearning, providing us with a technological substitute for the Christian space of heaven. Although the “self-space” has a definite location “online” (ibid., 251-252), Wertheim argues that the “cyberreligiosity” of the “cyber-utopians” is problematic because of its amorality. J. J. Cobb (Cybergrace: The Search for God in the Digital World [New York: Crown, 1998]) adopts a different interpretative approach to spiritual life in cyberspace. Cobb’s thought is indebted to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who had argued that the emergence of “noosphere,” the thinking layer containing mankind’s collective consciousness, would envelop the earth (The Phenomenon of Man [New York: Harper Collins, 1975]). Considering this to be fulfilled in the World Wide Web, Cobb proposes that this “emergence” is really a demonstration of the “hand of God” in cyberspace, with the result that divine inspiration would reveal a deeper spirituality in our computer-connected world.

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technological world when used of God. 5 Garner proposes a new metaphorical language for speaking analogically about God and human beings in a digital era. God is a “technologist” (cf. Isa 64:8; Jer 18:6) or “hacker” who creates new things in the world with a measure of playfulness. Humans being, made in the image of God, represent God as his “co-creators” and, as co-technologists, create technological novelty in our cyber-world, with a view to being agents of ameliorating change, thereby contributing to the divine telos (“end,” “goal”) ordained for creation. Second, S. Spadaro explores the impact of the internet upon the Catholic Church and the ecclesial communion, discussing its impact upon ethics, liturgy, sacraments and virtual presence, among many other theological issues.6 Spadaro argues that Christians are vocationally called to help humanity, and the web, as God’s project, is not only a technology to be used but also “an ambience to inhabit.”7 Strategically, the World Wide Web establishes an invaluable social network in God’s service. 8 Interestingly, Spadaro speaks of technologies giving a form to reality itself, but he is nonetheless insistent that they be used critically and discerningly.9 In this regard, he warns against the naïve presumption that religion can simply be accessed at a mouse-click,10 arguing instead that any search for God involves finding a strong, personal spiritual core to one’s life. 11 Last, Spadaro can speak positively of “hackers”, distinguishing between their playful and creative opposition to various modes of control, and the destructive work of “crackers”, a term Spadaro coins for those who break up information transfer and social networks on the web.12 In sum, both Garner and Spadaro present a very positive picture of the spiritual possibilities generated by Christian engagement with the cyber world. Historically, however, Christians have been quick to employ new technologies in the propagation of the Gospel. There are analogies

 5

S. R. Garner, “Hacking with the Divine”: A Metaphor for Theology-Technology Engagement,” Colloquium 37/2 (2005): 181-195. 6 Spadaro, Cybertheology. See also Spadaro’s “The Cyber Theology Daily” at http://www.cyber-theology.net. 7 Spadaro, Cybertheology, 7. 8 Spadaro, Cybertheology, 65. 9 Spadaro, Cybertheology, 19, 21. 10 Spadaro, Cybertheology, 36. 11 Spadaro, Cybertheology, 39. 12 Spadaro, Cybertheology, 75.

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between the modern cyber revolution and the ecclesial adoption of new media for outreach and teaching in previous centuries. The early Christians abandoned the cumbersome papyrus scroll for the convenient Codex by the third century AD in disseminating the Scriptures across the Mediterranean basin. 13 The invention of Johann Gutenberg’s moveable type printing, devised c. 1450 AD, meant that Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were simultaneously distributed in December 1517 in Leipzig, Nuremburg and Basel. 14 These were rapidly followed up with 14 reprints of his pamphlet, “Sermon on Indulgences and Grace,” in the first year of its publication, 1518. Indeed, 1,700 out of the 6,000 pamphlets printed between 1520 and 1526 in German-speaking countries were publications of Luther. 15 Last century, the American Protestant evangelist Billy Graham, building upon the ministry strategies of the 1930s radio priest Father Coughlin and the radio evangelist Charles Fuller,16 pioneered the national and international use of radio in the “Hour of Decision” broadcast in November 1950. Again, emulating Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s foray into television,17 Graham pioneered the early use of television specials in the 1950s. Therefore the Christian use of new communication media for pedagogic and proselytising purposes is not “unprecedented” or

 13

See C. Roberts and T. C. Skeat, The Birth of the Codex (London: Oxford University Press, 1983), passim; H. Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1995), 49-66; H. W. Hurtado, The Earliest Christian Artefacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), 43-94. 14 R. G. Cole (“Reformation Printers: Unsung Heroes,” Sixteenth Century Journal 15 [1984], 337) notes that in Germany there were “almost fifty identifiable printers of Luther’s works in the 1520s printing in twelve separate locations.” H. Campbell (Exploring Religious Community Online: We Are One in the Network [New York: Peter Lang, 2005], 61) notes that the internet is “the second, ‘electronic,’ Reformation.” 15 On the 16th century antecedents of Facebook, see “Social Media in the 16th Century: How Luther Went Viral,” http://www.economist.com/node/21541719. 16 David Fillingim, “Billy Graham,” in American Icons: Volume 1 (D. Hall and S. G. Hall eds.; Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006), 276. On Fuller’s Old-Fashioned Revival Hour, which began in 1928, see W. H. Young and N. K. Young, World War II and the Postwar Years in America: A Historical and Cultural Encyclopaedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 584-585. Fulton J. Sheen also hosted a night-time radio programme called The Catholic Hour from 1930-1950. 17 Fulton J. Sheen, who presented Life is Worth Living from 1952-1957, won the 1952 Emmy Award for outstanding television personality, broadcasting to 170 U.S. and 17 Canadian stations, with more than 25 million viewers per week at its peak.

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“revolutionary” at all. Christianity as a movement was historically at the cusp of technological innovation. The use of digital media to establish networks of social relationships, in the absence of face-to-face relationships, finds its counterpart in the letters of the apostle Paul, written to far-flung communities of faith across the Mediterranean basin. The epistles function as substitutes for the apostle’s personal presence. Such a construal, however, needs to be tempered by the realisation that Paul’s trusted co-workers delivered the epistles in person to the house churches (Rom 16:1-2, 22; 1 Cor 16:3-4; Eph 6:21-22), made a pastoral contribution to the house churches while present in the city with their local leaders (2 Cor 4:2-13; 7:5-16; Col 4:1213; Phlm 8-21), and, probably, tutored by Paul beforehand, read out aloud the letter before the assembled house churches with the appropriate rhetorical emphases (Col 4:16; 1 Thes 5:27). Moreover, in contrast to the vast majority of private epistles, Paul’s letters, apart from the disputed Pastorals, were addressed to local communities, not individuals. 18 A network of social relations—bridging the ethnic, gender and class divides of antiquity (Rom 1:14; 15:15:7-9; 1 Cor 1:26-28; 12:13; Gal 3:28)—was being constructed. This distinctive understanding of community was facilitated by an epistolary framework of pastoral communication and was expressed socially in the local urban churches, with the help of ongoing visitation by the apostle and his co-workers.19 It is worth remembering that social networks of “friendship” were not the invention of Facebook. The Facebook Slogan—“connect and share with the people in your life”—underscores that this digital network is a “tool for communication, and, thus, serves the purpose of gaining or maintaining social capital”. 20 It helps people to keep in touch when relationships are separated by distance or circumstances, or to retrieve a valued friendship from the past. Significantly, “friendship” was a core



18 G. H. R. Horsley (“Koine or Atticism — A Misleading Dichotomy,” New Docs 5 [1989], 45) observes that Paul’s letters were addressed to groups, unlike private letters. 19 See R. J. Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting (Rev. ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012). 20 M. Braasch, P. Buchwald, and S. Morgenroth, “Social Support and Coping with Online Networks—A Literature Review,” in K. Kaniasty, et al., ed., Stress and Anxiety: Applications to Social and Environmental Threats, Psychological WellBeing, Occupational Challenges, and Developmental Psychology Berlin: Logos, 2014), 86.

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value of Graeco-Roman antiquity, 21 with its own social and epistolary conventions.22 In Philippians Paul echoes several of the stereotyped motifs found in ancient letters of friendship: 23 (a) an absence between friends (Phil 1:27; 2:12; cf. 1 Cor 16:17);24 (b) a concern with the affairs of both the sender and recipient (Phil 1:2; 1:27; 2:19, 23); 25 and (c) that the recipient “does well” in looking after the needs of the sender (Phil 4:14: kalǀs epoiƝsate).26 But to label Philippians a “friendship” letter is a misnomer and misconstrues the social dynamics occurring between Paul and the Philippians. 27 Paul avoids the language of “friendship” because it was riddled with the status preoccupations, self-interest and reciprocity conventions of antiquity.28 Rather in Philippians, koinǀnia (“fellowship”:

 21

See D. Konstan, Friendship in the Classical World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). 22 See the “Friendly Type” of letter (philokos) in Pseudo-Demetrius, Epistolary Types 1 (II cent. BCíIII cent. AD) and pseudo-Libanius Epistolary Styles 4.7, 58 (IV-VI AD; trans. A.J. Malherbe, Ancient Epistolary Theorists [Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1988]). 23 On the “friendship” motif in Philippians, see J. T. Fitzgerald, ed., Friendship, Flattery, and Frankness of Speech: Studies in Friendship in the New Testament World (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), 83-162. 24 Pseudo-Demetrius, Epistolary Types 1: “Even though I have been separated from you for a long while, I suffer this in body only.” Pseudo-Libanius Epistolary Styles 58: “For it is a holy thing to honour to honour genuine friends when they are present, and to speak to them when they are absent.” 25 Pseudo-Demetrius, Epistolary Types 1: “Knowing that I myself am genuinely concerned about your affairs, and that I have worked unstintingly for what is most advantageous to you, I have assumed that you, too, have the same opinion of me, and will refuse me in nothing.” 26 Pseudo-Demetrius, Epistolary Types 1: “You will do well (kalǀs oun epoiƝseis), therefore, to give close attention to the members of my household.” 27 See B. Witherington III, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 14-15. 28 Paul does not use philia (“love,” “friendship”) in his epistles, with phileƯn (“to love,” “to like”) only used twice (1 Cor 16:22; Titus 3:15) and the phil-compounds largely avoided (E. A. Judge, “Moral Terms in the Eulogistic Tradition,” New Docs 2 [1982]: 106). Apart from a few exceptions (philadelphia [“brotherly love”]: Rom 12:10; 1 Thes 4:9; philozenia [“hospitality”]: Rom 12:13; philosophia [“philosophy”]: Col 2:8; philotimãsthai [“to aspire”]: Rom 15:20), all the remaining phil-compounds appear in the disputed Pastorals. Paul’s preferred word is agapƝ (“love”) and its compounds (“to love”: agapƗn; “beloved”: agapƝtos). On the self-interest of ancient friendship, see J. Benson, “Making Friends: Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Friend as Another Self”, in A. Loizou and H. Lesser, ed., Polis and

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Phil 1:5; 2:1; 3:10; koinǀneǀ: 4:15; sugkoinǀnos: 1:7; 4:14)—not “friendship”—shapes Paul’s discourse about relationships in the Body of Christ. Instead he focuses upon mutual sharing in gospel advancement (1:7), in suffering (3:10; 4:14), and in the rituals of “giving and receiving” (4:15). 29 Paul reconstructs the social networks of antiquity, borrowing their motifs where appropriate, but the dynamic driving them is different in its rationale. The consequences of this for modern discussions of virtual “friendship” are interesting. Would Paul have unreservedly endorsed Facebook in terms of its social capital? This seems highly unlikely, in my view, given how cautiously the apostle handles “friendship” networks in antiquity in relation to the Body of Christ.30

 Politics: Essays in Greek Moral and Political Philosophy (Aldershot, Hants: Avebury, 1990), 50-68. On the rarity of critiques of the “reciprocity” ethos underlying “friendship” conventions in antiquity (e.g. P. Mert. I. 12), see J. R. Harrison, Paul’s Language of Grace in Its Graeco-Roman Context (Tnjbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003), 83-84. 29 See D. E. Briones, Paul’s Financial Policy: A Socio-Theological Approach (London/New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013); J. M. Ogereau, Paul’s Koinǀnia with the Philippians: A Socio-Historical Investigation of a Pauline Economic Partnership (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014). There were ideals of selfsacrificial friendship in antiquity (e.g. Aristotle, Eth. nic. IX.9 [1169a18-25]; Plato, Symp. 179B; 208D; Lucian, Tox. 36), a motif captured in Christ’s cruciform love for his “friends” (philoi: John 15:13-15; M. Culey, Echoes of Friendship in the Gospel of John [Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2014]). 30 Other media versions of friendship and social networking worth exploring are the long-running American sit-coms (“Cheers” [1982-1993], “Frazier” [19932004], “Friends” [1994-2004], and “Seinfeld” [1989-1998]. The theme song of “Cheers”—the name of Sam Malone’s Boston bar whose customers find their unquenchable thirst for friendship satisfied in light-hearted banter over drinks— invites viewers of each episode to enter its virtual world of intimacy: “Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, And they’re always glad you came; You want to be where you can see, Our troubles are all the same; You want to be where everybody knows your name.” This is underscored in the sit-com by the arrival of Norm Peterson whereupon everyone present at the bar shouts out “Norm!” By contrast, M. Wertheim (“The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace,” in N. Ellin, ed., The Architecture of Fear [New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997], 300) asserts that “Americans living in a culture dominated by TV sitcoms feel compelled to put on a happy face and present a cartoonlike persona to the world.” Cyberspace, it is proposed, offers a “therapeutic escape” where people can reveal their true selves.

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While Christians have pioneered new media in proclaiming the Gospel throughout history, they were not naive about the advantages and deficits of the social networks created by new technologies. Paul fostered the establishment of counter-cultural communities of faith by means of the dissemination of his letters in the Mediterranean basin through his coworkers. But the ancient ideal of a philosophical community of “friends” was challenged by Paul’s vision of holistic koinǀnia in the Body of Christ at Philippi, inaugurated through the grace of God (Phil 1:7) and empowered by the Holy Spirit (Phil 2:1). The interplay between the social distinctiveness and strategic cultural accommodation of the Gospel in its first-century context should be a litmus test for our own engagement with cyber culture in our own age. This will ensure that our digital technology will remain a servant of God for the wider social good rather than being a hapless or a malicious agent for social dislocation. A more critical assessment of the negative effects of our contemporary network of “virtual” social relations has started to emerge in recent scholarship. A plethora of questions emerges from this reassessment. What are the benefits and deficits of the cyber community? What does research say about the psychic damage and personal violation perpetrated by “trolls” and “cyber-stalkers”? What are the personal characteristics of such people? How do we develop personal resilience in the face of the “violence” of verbal abuse? How do we respond to the disruptive, demeaning and incendiary humour of trolls? What contribution does Christian theology and biblical scholarship make to our inhabitation of this virtual world, given its dangers and diverse cultures?31 How can Christians contribute to grace-filled communication and authentic communal relations over the web (Col 4:6; 1 Thess 2:8)?

 31

Braasch, Buchwald, and Morgenroth (“Social Support and Coping with Online Networks,” 93) point to “a different pattern of Facebook use” in Germany, the USA and the Netherlands.

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Community in a Dangerous Virtual World Friendship and Community Online: Recent Academic Research Social Networking Studies Three stimulating studies on the impact of Facebook and other online “social” companies, each appearing in 2012, are useful for gauging the current state of virtual friendship and community.32 In a web article, Manago, Taylor and Greenfield surveyed 85 college students regarding their Facebook networks and communication patterns online. In terms of the number of “virtual” friends for each student, the statistical mean was 400, with the median being 370. The aim was to determine whether Facebook facilitated popularity through a large number of friends “at the expense of reliable social support from close friends and the development of skills for intimate relations.” 33 Consequently, “the changing nature of friendship for a new generation of ‘digital natives’” would be exposed. 34 It was found that intimate selfdisclosure was increasingly becoming more public online. Status updates were broadcasted to an entire network of contacts. Feelings of well-being and perceived social support were derived from the attention received from the students’ large social networks. In other words, a large cyber audience on Facebook was crucial for the self-esteem and the social support of each digital native. However, the authors argue that individualistic and narcissistic personality traits are emerging among college students. This was because they “enacted self-displays and relationship displays on Facebook,” with a view to constructing identities for a public audience online. Those students who maintained high school friendships via Facebook were less lonely and better adjusted to college life.35

 32

See also A. Lambert, Intimacy and Friendship on Facebook (Chippenham/Eastbourne: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013). 33 A. M. Manago, T. Taylor and P.M. Greenfield (2012, January 30). “Me and My 400 Friends: The Anatomy of College Students' Facebook Networks, Their Communication Patterns, and Well-Being.” Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0026338. Page 1. 34 Manago, Taylor and Greenfield, “Me and My 400 Friends,” 1. 35 Manago, Taylor and Greenfield, “Me and My 400 Friends,” 10-11.

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In an unpublished dissertation, C.J. Kearney examines adolescent perceptions of friendships among Facebook “friends” and real friends.36 As a subset to the study, it investigates whether gender is a variable in evaluating quality in social networking “friendships.”37 Fifty participants from a large suburban high school were selected as a sample, the mean age being 16 and 86% of Caucasian extraction. Kearney highlights that previous research on psychological well-being and the internet demonstrates positive and negative results.38 The results of the study are: (a) adolescents consider face-to-face relationships to be better quality; (b) online relationships are viewed to be more superficial because they are based on externals; (c) Facebook plays no real role in facilitating male or female relationships; and (d) the time spent on Facebook does not necessarily enhance self-concept, though a large number of friends on Facebook may enhance social status.39 However, there are differences between the experience of adolescents and college students in terms of Facebook. In contrast to college students who exacted self-displays and relationship displays on Facebook, Kearney sums up the adolescent attitude differently: The fact that adolescents in the present study did not equate self-concept and the number of Facebook “friends” suggests that social networks are not as influential in the lives of adolescents as they may appear … Facebook may be an extension of image but not a true mediator of selfconcept … Therefore, adolescents may use Facebook both as a mechanism to display their personal life events, and provides as a means of socialized or normative narcissism. However relationships established on social working websites may not act as a buffer to help adolescents cope with anxiety.40

For adolescents, face-to-face relationships are fundamental for overcoming anxiety, whereas this is not necessarily the case for college students. In my opinion, the transition from adolescence to early adulthood has perhaps given college students greater resilience, maturity and independence as far as “relationship” capital. But a “status” reliance on one’s Facebook audience in the case of college students may result in an



36 C. J. Kearney, Friendship Duality, Facebook and Self-Concept: Social Networking and Adolescent Development (unpub. PhD diss. Farleigh Dickinson University, 2012), 5-6. 37 Kearney, Friendship Duality, 23. 38 Kearney, Friendship Duality, 25-28 39 Kearney, Friendship Duality, 46-51. 40 Kearney, Friendship Duality, 48-49.

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unhealthy individualism and narcissism. The deficits of an overreliance on Facebook are differently expressed for each group developmentally. By contrast, the monograph of A. Keen provides a bleaker assessment of online social networking sites (i.e. Zynga, LinkedIn and Google+).41 Keen argues that rather than experiencing the much heralded egalitarianism and the community of friends promised by the social media, our experience is that the digital media have rendered us less powerful and lonelier by virtue of our desire to maintain online autonomy and freedom.42 The real irony is that network society, as Keen observes, “has become a transparent love-in, and orgy of oversharing, an endless digital Summer of Love.”43 As Keen quips, our “digital cartesanism”, summed up in his Tweet “I update, therefore I am,” is something more disturbing in its existential isolation: “I update, therefore I am not.”44 Keen’s argument is encapsulated in the quote below: Social media are the confessional novel that we are not only all reading but also collectively publishing for everyone else to read. We are all becoming Wiki-leakers, less notorious but no less subversive versions of Julian Assange, of not only our own lives but other people’s now. The old mass industrial celebrity culture has been so turned upside down by social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter that celebrity has been democratised and we are re-inventing ourselves as self-styled celebrities, even going as far as to deploy online services like YouCeleb that enable us to dress like twentieth century mass media stars.

In short, we are witnessing with the arrival of Facebook and its cyber-space colleagues the advent of a quasi-religious “confessional” culture. Our continuous updates and communication with “virtual” friends are driven by the social anxiety of FOMO (fear of missing out). Our relentless scrolling of each new post, provoked by the squawks and pings of our digital devices, not only absolves us from the psychic guilt accumulated if we do not respond but also it invades every aspect of lives: our travel, work, recreation, study, meals, sexual relations, and our sleep.

 41

A. Keen, Digital Vertigo: How Today's Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us (London: Constable & Robinson, 2012). 42 Keen (Digital Vertigo, 99, 168-169) writes: “In our digital age, we are, ironically, becoming more divided than united, more unequal than equal, more anxious than happy, lonelier rather than more socially connected … It’s a postindustrial truth of increasingly weak community and a rampant individualism of super-nodes and super-connections.” 43 Keen, Digital Vertigo, 42. 44 Keen, Digital Vertigo, 25. 28.

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Is this “community” or a chimera of it? We simply do not have the “virtual” time or space to ponder the question. Caution is required lest the case is overstated regarding enacted self-displays and identity projections on the Internet.45 We would do well to remember that the persona presented to friends, close and distant, in the cyber community is part of our identity negotiation in the real world. In the world of our face-to-face lives, we strategically project a “professional” and “collegial” persona in our work relations. Alternatively, we play the role of the “happily married couple” or “successful parents” before relatives and friends, when, in reality, our marriage may well be fracturing or our parenting skills are stretched to the limit at home. The culture of pretence runs as deeply in the real world as cyberspace. Perspectives on Christian Online Community Heidi Campbell has provided the most exhaustive coverage of Christian online community. She argues that “the digital body of Christ worldwide” has developed “an alternate conception of the internet as a spiritual network,” which has reshaped ideas of faith and created new ways of assembling for believers.46 Undergirding this new understanding of networking are traditional theological understandings of Trinity, communion, and koinǀnia. 47 Campbell explores the various forms of online Christianity: cyberchurches,48 e-evangelism49 and online Christian communities, including the reasons for their popularity. 50 Although Campbell is aware of the deficits of online community,51 she points out that many critics of online religious community fail to provide proof for their assertions. 52 Consequently, Campbell’s investigation of three Christian email communities—Community of Prophecy, 53 Online

 45

Campbell (Religious Community Online, 132) writes that the internet can become for some “a forum in which users can re-create themselves,” either by highlighting some attributes or concealing others. 46 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 51, 61. 47 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 51. 48 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 64-65. 49 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 65-67. 50 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 67-69. The advantages of online Christian community are “freedom of expression, the ability to choose a community based on interest instead of geography, and a level of involvement based on personal needs and desires” (ibid., 73). 51 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 47-51, 119-123. 52 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 73. 53 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 80-88.

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Church,54 and Anglican Community55—represents a real advance on the Christian cyber scholarship of the past, highlighting the appeal of email community for digital believers.56 Campbell charts the complex interactions and connections between online and offline community: the transfer of prayer requests between online and offline communities, online participation as part of a daily offline routine, sharing online experiences in the offline churches, having personal meetings offline with various online contacts, and extending offline practical care for the pressing needs of online members. 57 Behind these email communities are rich theological understandings of the ministries occurring,58 as well as distinctive ethos and faith narratives underpinning them. The simplistic idea that online Christian communities represent a “disembodied” faith or a modern version of “gnostic” Christianity has been fundamentally challenged by Campbell’s excellent research.59 At a theological level, Garner warns that Francis Bacon’s vision of a “purpose-driven technology restoring creation to its glory” will be undone by the debilitating effects of the “fallen” creation.60 Consequently, as Garner argues, when hacking “becomes an idol in its own right, especially with no clear goal of what a ‘perfect’ creation would look like, then it will become life-denying.”61 Community on the web, therefore, will have the tendency to become a narcissistic expression of cyber-selfishness rather than a joyous expression of cyber-giving. It will be vitiated by

 54

Campbell, Religious Community Online, 88-96. Campbell, Religious Community Online, 96-105. 56 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 109-119. 57 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 127-150. 58 Campbell, Religious Community Online, 160-171. 59 See G. J. G. Hill (Cybergnosticism? A Study of Contemporary Christian Faith Communities in Cyberspace [unpub. MTh Diss., University of Notre Dame, Australia, 2004], 101) who argues that that “while the Christian communities in Cyberspace exhibit some Gnostic inclinations in an array and assortment of areas, they also disagree with, in many other ways, the core values of early Gnosticism. It is an exaggeration and embellishment, then, to brand them as Cyber-Gnostic.” See http://www. researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/10/. 60 Garner, “Hacking with the Divine,” 186-187, 194. 61 Garner, “Hacking with the Divine,” 194. 55

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cynical amorality, self-entitlement,62 and self-gratification that rejects the reciprocity of social responsibility. By contrast, the apostle Paul highlights obligation in social relationships, underscoring the indebtedness of believers to “Greek and barbarian” (Rom 1:14), as well as the indebtedness of love to all people, including the enemy (Rom 12:17-21; 13:8-10). 63 The Christian webpresence, flawed like the rest of humanity, should nevertheless be a redemptive community that expresses in its virtual space the same gracefilled interactions as the Body of Christ at a local level. Perhaps we are seeing here another vibrant expression of the koinǀnia existing between the universal church and the local church.64 Campbell’s research helps us to see precisely how Spirit-inspired community between local churches and translocal online Christianity intersects in real time and space.65

From Trolling to Cyber-Bulling/Stalking: Behaving Badly Online Scholarship on the Characteristics of Trolls “Trolling” is internet slang for the phenomenon of people who intentionally begin arguments or distress other people by posting inflammatory remarks online, especially on social networking sites.

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Brenda Leyland, upon being asked why she was sending abusive tweets to the parents of the missing British child Madeleine McCann, replied: “I’m entitled to do that.” See Natasha Lennard, “The Danger of Letting Monsters Pass as Internet Trolls’, https:// news.vice.com/.../the-danger-of-letting-monsters-pass-as-internettrolls. 63 See J. R. Harrison, “Paul’s ‘Indebtedness’ to the Barbarian (Rom 1:14) in Latin West Perspective,” NovT 55 (2013): 311-348. 64 The “universal” church traditionally refers to (a) the church throughout all the ages (past, present, future) or, more popularly, to (b) the entire church throughout the world in the present. Feasibly, it could also refer to (c) delocalised interest groups engaged in internet ministry throughout the world. As a parallel, note the interplay between “localised” and “delocalised” understandings of cyber art. See E. Wojtowicz (orig. Recherches sur les artes Vol. 4, 13 [2002]), republished in English as “Global vs. Local? The Art of Translocality,” Flykingen’s Web Journal No. 8 (2006), http://www.hz-journal.org/n8/wojtowicz.html. I am indebted to Tim Adenay for these insights. 65 Campbell (Religious Community Online, 49) states: “Online relationships are ‘real’ in the sense that they represent actual social interactions, though they are mediated.”

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Traditionally such people are deceptive about their identity, posing as a legitimate online participant in debates or conversations, enjoying the mayhem they create. This “positive” type of trolling is known as “kudos trolling.” More recently the term “trolling” has become less precise, extending its meaning to include the various forms of cyberbullying/stalking. The technical term for this offensive and incendiary type of trolling is “flame trolling”, whereas those who bully a specific target are called “haters”. Scholarly literature on trolls and trolling is still meagre in output and breadth of analysis. 66 The focus of discussion is primarily on the psychological make-up of the troll, with the deleterious effects of their activities mostly covered in the popular media. Four examples will suffice. In two online studies of trolls, Buckels, Trapnel and Paulhus draw upon Dark Tetrad research into personality.67 This research posits that sadism is an aspect of personality linked to three others: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The conclusion of the study is that “online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists,” finding no enjoyment in online activities like chatting and debating but rather in the distress of others.68 The study concludes: “Sadists just want to have fun … and the Internet is their playground.”69 The victims of cyber-bullying/stalking attract media attention, either because of the tragedy of their suicide or the high profile of the person targeted.70 Other studies come to similar conclusions. P. Shachaf, in a study of trolls as hackers on Wikipedia, concludes that trolls find pleasure in disrupting the internet community. This destructive activity stems from

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For a bibliography on trolls, last updated in October 2014, see C. Regild, “Academic Literature and Research on Trolls and Trolling (Subversive Online Users),” http://www.klastrup.dk/academic-literature-and-research-on-trollssubversive-online-users-2/. 67 E. E. Buckels, P. Trapnell, and D. Paulhus, “Trolls Just Want to Have Fun,” Personality and Individual Differences 67 (2014): 97-102. 68 Buckels, Trapnell, and Paulhus, “Trolls Just Want to Have Fun,” 101. 69 Buckels, Trapnell, and Paulhus, “Trolls Just Want to Have Fun,” 101. 70 High profile cyber-bullying and media coverage victims: e.g., Professor Mary Beard (Cambridge University, UK); Caroline Criado-Perez (English feminist activist and journalist); Julia Gillard (Australian Prime Minister, 2010-2013); Lindy West (Seattle-based writer). Victims who have suicided: e.g., Charlotte Dawson (television personality, Australia); Joshua Unsworth (15 year old schoolboy, Lancashire, UK).

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their boredom, attention seeking, and desire for revenge.71 C. Hardaker argues that computer mediated communication, while enormously beneficial, provides degrees of anonymity allowing bad online behaviour.72 Using a variety of online examples, Hardaker demonstrates that trolls exhibit a variety of personality traits: deception,73 aggression,74 disruptive attention-seeking behaviour, 75 and gratification over online appraisal of their success.76 Last, J. Bishop posits that there are similarities between the anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) and flame trolling activities. 77 “Haters” fit the psychological profile of deindividuation. Individuals lose their inner restraints because they have been/are overlooked as individuals. Because of their insecure self-identity, decreased self-analysis, and a lack of self-control, they target others online, lacking the empathetic skills to re-evaluate the hurtful impact of their activities on their victims. 78 They gain gratification from hurting others, are anti-social in their relationships, and play a “game of ‘oneupmanship’” in order to get the compliance of their victim so that they can abuse them. 79 Finally, little academic research has been done on how the targets of such vitriol can begin to handle its impact psychologically, though the legal complexities of prosecuting the varieties of behaviour subsumed by the term “trolling” has been explored.80



71 P. Shachaf, “Beyond Vandalism: Wikipedia Trolls,” Journal of Information Science 36, 3 (2010): 357-370. 72 C. Hardaker, “Trolling in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication: From User Discussions to Academic Definitions,” Journal of Politeness Research 6 (2010): 215-242. 73 Hardaker, “Trolling,” 225-231. 74 Hardaker, “Trolling,” 231-232. 75 Hardaker, “Trolling,” 232-233. 76 Hardaker, “Trolling,” 233-236. Hardaker (ibid., 236) writes: “… even though trolling is meant as an aggravation to users, it can become a two-sided game of point and counter-point where a troller seeks to deceive and attack, and knowledgeable users parry with critiques of the quality of the deception and the trolling, thereby addressing the troller’s real intent, rather than her pseudo-intent.” 77 J. Bishop, “The Effect of De-Individuation of the Internet Troller on Criminal Procedure Implementation: An Interview with a Hater,” International Journal of Cyber Criminology 7, 1 (2013): 28-48. 78 Bishop, “De-Individuation,” 29. 79 Bishop, “De-Individuation,” 33-34. 80 Bishop, “De-Individuation,” 36-44.

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The Positive Construal of Trolling: Recent Suggestions There are positive evaluations of trolling in the scholarly literature. A. McCosker argues that the debate about trolling has centred upon the characteristics of trolls, but scholars have not considered the acts of provocation themselves. 81 The focus of McCosker’s research is the uploading of videos on YouTube of the Christchurch earthquake (2 February 2001) and of a flash mob haka performed at an Auckland shopping centre (4 September 2001). These videos provoked vitriolic online comments and exchanges. McCosker argues that these exchanges are “acts of citizenship” in a world where conflict is “the main principle of life”, with the expression of passion being legitimate conduct in civil society. “Agonism” exists in a pluralistic society where there is recognition of the “productive potential of the adversary.” 82 The engagement with the two videos and their interactions within the comment fields offers an “affective opportunity”: grief, horror and sympathy over the earthquake, “celebration and cultural pride” in the case of the haka.83 Correspondingly, the bigotry and antagonism articulated at the same time are a legitimate expression of agonism in a culturally diverse society. As McCosker observes, “… the passionate expressions of sadness or exuberant cultural celebration may themselves be considered a form of provocation in the same way that sexualised vitriol at the other points could be considered a form of (perhaps overly aggressive) critical reaction to the public display of grief or cultural pride.84 McCosker concludes his argument by positing that the polarised engagements and reactions represent “acts of citizenship”: If there is a commonality to what might be categorised as expressive acts associated with the vitriolic expression described here, it lies in the agonistic sense of searching for an adversary and trying to beat them, or at least maintain contact; and in response to shore up bonds of identification and agreement. Each of these operates as acts of citizenship that we would do well to acknowledge as legitimate uses of a dynamic participatory space.85

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A. McCosker, “Trolling as Provocation: YouTube’s Agonistic Publics,” Convergence 20, 1 (2014): 201-217. 82 McCosker, “Trolling as Provocation,” 209. 83 McCosker, “Trolling as Provocation,” 209. 84 McCosker, “Trolling as Provocation,” 210. 85 McCosker, “Trolling as Provocation,” 215.

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Last, E.G. Coleman, after discussing the predecessors to trolls (phreaks, hackers), asks whether trolls are “informational tricksters” or “scum of the earth douchebags.”86 First, Coleman proposes that the acts of phreaks, hackers and trolls, if carried out responsibly, belong to the “politics of spectacle” and could be perpetrators of what is “an invaluable and robust political tactic.”87 Second, Coleman asserts that trolls might be equated with the figure of the (allegedly) “trickster” god, Loki, in Norse mythology, the American coyote, or the “tricksters” of Shakespeare. While mayhem, cunning, deceit and treachery characterise such figures, they can occasionally act for the good: the possibilities for trolls on the internet are not all necessarily negative.88 Where do these positive appraisals of trolling leave us? McCosker’s arguments regarding “acts of citizenship” have a “civil libertarian” air about them, ensuring the articulation of divergent responses—partisan, patriotic, moderate, humorous and vitriolic—on the internet, with a view to preserving free speech in a culture of contested ideas among passionate contenders. But how do we protect the victims from what (in some cases) are the tragic consequences of trolling activity? How much valuable time is wasted in detecting and handling the humorous activities of trolls? And, if the psychological profiles of trolls are correct, how do we help trolls in a humane society that cares for all its members? Similarly, the ability of dissenters to critique politically culture in its variegated expressions is at the heart of what Coleman wants to preserve. Unfortunately, Coleman’s idealistic appeal to altruistic “tricksters” from mythology, popular culture, and literature does not really convince when the disruption and psychic damage perpetrated by trolls on the internet is so easily documented.

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E.G. Coleman, “Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls: The Politics of Transgression and Spectacle,” in The Social Media Reader, ed. M. Mandiberg (New York and London: New York University Press, 2012), 99-119. See http://www.gabriellacoleman.org/wp.../Coleman-Phreaks-Hackers-Trolls.pdf. 87 Coleman, “Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls,” 115 88 Coleman, “Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls,” 115-116.

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Building Resilience in a Dangerous Virtual World: Some Ways Ahead We have looked at the positive and negative dimensions of online community in its secular and Christian expressions, exploring scholarship on the psychological profile of trolls, as well as positive evaluations of the trolling phenomenon itself. A nuanced view of the benefits and deficits of cyber community has emerged from the academic literature, but it must be conceded that we nevertheless live in a dangerous virtual world. In the emerging genre of “trolling” scholarship there has been little interest in how we help the victims of the internet community to develop relational resilience in the face of the provocation of “haters” or the indifference of the “cyber-selfish”. The importance of such an approach is critical in helping adolescents frame healthy relationships in their offline and online worlds, as well as helping adults in situations of crisis where their emotional support system is unravelling. “Resilience” is a much-used word these days, but little studied theologically and ethically, though it has been substantially explored in relation to childhood and adolescent development.89 Other synonyms for “resilience” in the academic literature are “courage” and “fortitude”, though significantly the ancient cardinal virtue of andreia (“courage,” “manliness”) does not appear in the New Testament, presumably because it is a masculine virtue in antiquity. But other concepts from the New Testament (“patience,” “perseverance,” “hope”) embrace the general idea of “resilience.”90 In what follows we will (a) establish how a proper understanding of the status of human beings as “image” bearers undergirds personal resilience and sponsors online respect for others; (b) discover how the Christian ethics of “speech” in its first-century context provides a framework for addressing the vitriol and obscene speech of the “haters”;



89 The only theological study is C. R. Titus, Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude: Aquinas in Dialogue with the Psychosocial Sciences (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006). Additionally, A. Deveson, Resilience (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2003); S. S. Luthar, Resilience and Vulnerability: Adaption in the Context of Childhood Adversities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); R. J. Haggerty et al., ed., Stress, Risk, and Resilience in Children and Adolescents (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); B. Tizzard and V. Varma,eds, Vulnerability and Resilience in Human Development (London: J. Kingsley, 1992). 90 Titus, Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude, 325-361.

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(c) provide practical suggestions about how we grapple with the dangers of our virtual world.

The “Image of God,” the Internet, and Personal Resilience The “image of God” is a central concept in the biblical literature.91 The term highlights the culmination of creation in humanity (Gen 1:27; 5:1-2; 9:6; cf. Ps 8:4-7), anticipating Christ’s headship over all things in heaven and earth (Rom 8:29; Eph 1:10; Col 1:15; cf. Phil 3:21; Heb 1:3). The first human beings, who bear the image of God in contrast to the rest of creation (Gen 1:27; 5:1-2; cf. Gen 2:7), presage the full revelation of unfallen humanity in the incarnate Christ, the perfect image of God (Col 1:15; cf. Heb 1:3). The redemptive work of Christ leads to the creation of a new humanity renewed in the image of its creator (Col 3:10), both in the present age (Rom 8:29) and at the end of time (Phil 3:21). Further, the “image of God” motif presages God’s creation of a new community in Christ (“male and female”: Gen 1:27; 5:1-2; “no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free”: Col 3:11). What is so revolutionary about this new construct is its multicultural, ethnically diverse, socially inclusive and gender affirming nature. Social ethics, too, are grounded in the “image of God” motif, prohibiting the violent murder (Gen 9:5b-6) and verbal abuse of an “image” bearer (Jas 3:9). What the “likeness” of the image of God actually consists in continues to be a point of controversy. However, several observations about the “image of God” can be made from a near eastern and Roman perspective. First, the animal creation is not accorded divinised status, as was the case in ancient Egyptian mythology. Only human beings bear the “image of God.” Second, the “image of God” spells out the distinct limitations of humanity in relation to God. Humans are only made in the “image” of God. They are not divinised beings or God himself, in contrast to ancient beliefs about the Egyptian pharaoh and some of the JulioClaudian rulers. Third, the Egyptian pharaoh represented the divine world on earth, while the Roman ruler, as Pontifex Maximus (“High Priest”), mediated the gods’ blessings to his dependents. Humanity, as God’s vice-



91 G. C. Berkouwer, Man: The Image of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962); D. J. A. Clines, “The Image of God in Man,” Tyndale Bulletin 19 (1968): 53-103; A. A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986); J. R. Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2005).

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regent, represents God in the stewardship of creation. The concept “image of God” sets forth the status of human beings in relation to the rest of creation and God himself. The content of the “image” finds its full expression in Christ as the “image of God.” The exalted status of human beings explains why the original human community, male and female, is expanded in its social horizons in the New Testament. Furthermore, the “image of God” motif underscores why violence against other human beings—ranging from physical assault, psychological harassment to verbal abuse—are illegitimate. Christians in their online presence build up helpful social networks rather than disrupt them (1 Cor 14:12; 2 Cor 10:8; 1 Thes 2:1112), honour internet users rather than demean them (Rom 12:9a, 9b; 1 Cor 12:13, 21-26; Gal 3:28; 5:13-15; Eph 4:29; 5:4), express honesty and openness in relationships rather than deceit and trickery (Rom 12:9a; 2 Cor 2:17; 4:2a; 1 Thes 2:3-4, 8), while remaining committed to and engaged in offline communities (Matt 18:20; Heb 10:25). The exalted status accorded to humanity, along with believers’ transformation in Christ, provides the optimism and self-confidence to overcome the abuse of the “trolls” and “haters.” Indeed, participation in Christian online communities can be part of the healing process for the believer, in conjunction with participation in offline communities. A proper appreciation of one’s status before God also forestalls any invidious comparison of oneself with the carefully constructed and idealised personas of other online users (2 Cor 10:12, 17). Furthermore, the exalted status of humans created in the “image of God” (Gen 1:27), though affected by rebellion against God (3:1-19), continues after the fall (5:1-2; 9:6). As damaging as the activities of trolls can be, they must not be demonised as people: where possible they should be helped to acquire empathetic insight into the consequences of their actions. Further research is imperative for a proper understanding of this dark cyber world, developing thereby strategies of resilience for its victims and liberating its perpetrators from gratification in the pain of others. We have seen that creation in “image of God” and our renewal in the image of Christ is the basis for our resilience and for our online respect and courtesy in cyber social relations. How do we speak graciously into a dangerous virtual world?

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The Ethics of Speech: Bringing Grace to the Internet In considering the verbal abuse and denigration infecting online networks, it is important to realise that the world of Paul was rhetorically skilled in the art of the savage “put-down”. There are several ways that the ancients could launch “sharp words” against their opponents with devastating precision. First, there were various letter styles, appropriate for the occasion, which one could employ in order to exalt oneself at the expense of someone else and strategically demean the character of the recipient in the process. Pseudo-Libanius explains their rationale and provides a sample of each style: the blaming, threatening, contemptuous, provoking, insulting, maligning, censorious and mocking letters belonged to the rich verbal arsenal of acerbic critics in antiquity.92 Second, the use of vitriol against opponents was a refined art in antiquity.93 The savagery of the verbal attacks employed are embodied in Cicero’s searing denunciation of the Roman politician and tribune, Publius Clodius Pulcher, in his speech defending Milo (Mil. 72-91), as well as in Pliny’s attack on Regulus (Ep. 2.20; cf. 1.5; 1.20; 2.11). Roman poets such as Catullus also resorted to personal invective, or in the case of the satirist Martial, sexual invective.94 Third, not all invective was pitched at the high literary level enunciated above. There were lower forms of abuse, such as obscene



92 Psuedo-Libanius, Epistolary Styles 6 (53: “blaming letter”); 13 (60: “threatening letter”); 21 (68: “contemptuous letter”); 24 (71: “provoking letter”); 26 (73: “insulting letter”); 33 (80: “maligning letter”); 34 (81: “letter of censure”); 39 (86: “mocking letter”). See Malherbe, Ancient Epistolary Theorists. 93 A. Corbeill, “Ciceronian Invective,” in Brill’s Companion to Cicero: Oratory and Rhetoric ed. J. M. May (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 197-217; J. G. F. Powell, “Invective and the Orator: Ciceronian Theory and Practice,” in Cicero on the Attack: Invective and Subversion in the Orations and Beyond (Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2007), 1-24; A. A. Novokhatko, ed., The Invectives of Sallust and Cicero: Critical Edition and Introduction (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009); R. Ash, “Drip-Fed Invective: Pliny, Self-Fashioning and the Regulus Letters,” in The Author’s Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity, ed. A. Marmodoro and J. Hill (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 207-232. 94 E.g. Catullus 11, 16, 21, 36, 52, 79, 93). For sexual invective, see Martial, Ep. 1.34; 4.43; 6:23; 11.62, 99. See M. Panciera, Sexual Practice and Invective in Martial and Pompeian Inscriptions (unpub. PhD diss., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2001).

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language 95 and explicitly sexual graffiti. 96 Toilet humour and urinating curses were widespread in antiquity, as the Ephesian inscriptions demonstrate.97 Several of the famous seven Greek sages (Solon, Thales, Chilon, Bias) are depicted seated in wall paintings in a tavern at Ostia (c. AD 100) with Latin texts above them, dispensing pompous opinions on the refined art of defecation to twenty four Romans, who are presented in the lower register seated in a latrine-like line. The latter offer practical advice in Latin on correct bowel movements.98 The disjunction between the abstract concerns of philosophers and the practicalities of real life is highlighted. Fourth, popular jokes in antiquity, found the III. Cent. AD collection called the Philogelos (“Laughter Lover”),99 lambast the stupid (i.e. the “egghead” and “simpleton” jokes),100 ethnic groups (citizens of Abdera, Sidonia, and Kyme),101 professions (e.g. doctors),102 athletes (e.g. the “cowardly boxer”), 103 religious figures (the “charlatan prophet”), 104 bungling apprentices, 105 gluttons, 106 misogynists, 107 among others. Sometimes racist and sexual jokes intersect in a demeaning manner: “Seeing a pimp procuring for a black prostitute, a wag enquired, ‘How

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See J. F. Hultin, The Ethics of Obscene Language in Early Christianity and Its Environment (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008), 1-111. 96 See M. Panciera, Sexual Practice and Invective For examples of sexual invective in the Pompeian graffiti, see http://www.pompeiana.org/resources/.../graffiti%20from%20pompeii.htm. 97 Curses against urinating: IEph 2.567, 568(A.1), 568(A.2), 569. Toilet humour: IEph 2.561(2); 3.456(1), 456(2). 98 For the translated Latin texts and wall paintings, see http://www.ostiaantica.org/regio3/10/10-2.htm. 99 B. Baldwin, The Philogelos or the Laughter Lover (Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben, 1983). 100 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§1-103, 109, 253-256, 258-259, 265. On Paul’s use of skubala (Phil 3:8) not having the register of “shit” or “crap,” see Hultin, The Ethics of Obscene Language, 150-154. 101 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§112-127 (citizens of Abdera); 132-133, 135-139 (citizens of Sidonia); 154, 159-160, 161-175a, 176-182 (citizens of Kyme). 102 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§176-177, 183-186. 103 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§208-210, 217-218. 104 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§201-205. 105 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§119-200. 106 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§219-226. 107 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§246-249.

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much do you charge for the Night?’” 108 People with disabilities are ridiculed. 109 One example, combining ethnic and disability denigration, will suffice. A joke mocking those who were hunch-backed, or who had a pronounced tumour on their back, goes as follows: “Someone asked a Sidonian fisherman, ‘Have you caught any crabs in that thing on your back?’ He answered angrily, ‘Have you got any in that thing on yours?’” 110 In sum, the savage demeaning of people that we see in antiquity has its counterparts in the modern virtual word, but with little of the rhetorical elegance of a Cicero or a Pliny. While there were denunciations of obscene language in antiquity, 111 the New Testament writings stand out because of their emphasis on up-building, truthful and gracious language that does not demean, belittle or abuse. First, the Jesus tradition emphasises that (a) believers will be held accountable before God as judge for their language (Matt 12:36-37); (b) the overflow of our hearts is expressed in our words (Luke 6:45b; Matt 12:34b); (c) speech without a worshipful heart is hypocritical (Matt 15:8, 11); (d) promises made with oaths, but without any intention to fulfil them, are devilish (Matt 5:35-39); (e) abusive speech will be subject to divine judgement (Matt 5:22). Second, we have already noted how James links gracious language with the “image of God” (Jas 3:9). But he also links godly religion with impartiality in the treatment of people verbally and relationally, no matter their status (Jas 2:2; 2:3). The incendiary and destructive effects of the tongue from “hell” are also underscored (Jas 3:6). Third, Paul also spends considerable time dealing with inappropriate ways of speaking (Eph 5:3-14; Col 3:8; 4:6), emphasising how believers should avoid abusive and sexually crude speech, filling their mouths instead with grace and wit that creates a thirst for hearing in the audience.112 The New Testament gives language an important status: its smallest use will be judged by God; it expresses divine grace; it treats its auditors with the respect owed to them as “image bearers”; its use for deleterious ends is “devilish”, coming from the fires of hell itself. Where does that leave us in terms of trolling, “haters” and cyberbullying/stalking? How do we address this issue properly, viewing both

 108

Baldwin, The Philogelos, §151a. For further sexually crude jokes, see ibid., §§145, 151b, 244, 245. 109 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §§233, 241, 251. 110 Baldwin, The Philogelos, §133. 111 Hultin, The Ethics of Obscene Language, 12-25. 112 Ibid., 154-213.

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the victims and “haters” as made in the image of God? We will conclude with several brief suggestions.

Grace Goes “Viral”: The Need for “Increased Humanisation” It needs to be said that there is no single approach in handling trolls. Some internet sites preserve anonymity of posts, allowing the recipient no recourse to abuse, whereas other sites with posted names enable users to challenge or flag unacceptable online behaviour, personally and communally. The diverse strategies in responding to such people— ignore? block? report? engage?113—elicit different responses from “trolls” and “haters”, sometimes exacerbating the internet onslaught, or, alternatively, solving or (at least) diminishing the problem. But, where a troll is blocked, or suspended, the person can simply open a new account and start again. Trolls, or those with troll-like tendencies, walk among us in our suburbs and in the Christian community itself, online and offline. In response, Christian communities need to devise “online recovery” seminars as part of their offline ministry. These should be informed by the input of clinical psychiatrists and professional counsellors within Christian communities. The seminars need to (a) address theologically and pastorally the psychological profile of trolls and the damage to emotional wellbeing experienced by the trolled; (b) articulate the healing and resilience that flows from being made in the image of God and being restored in Christ; (c) explore more generally how the “triggers” of internet addiction can be defused; and (d) develop practical steps to bring the Christian understanding of gracious speech into a transforming dialogue with cyber conventions and practices. Christians, along with other internet users, need to learn the art of not having to have the “last say” online (Matt 7:6), a predilection of trolling behaviour, watching carefully the timbre of their online speech, and not reviling when reviled (1 Pet 2:23). However, the advice of “not feeding the trolls” is not always the optimal decision in handling trolling in each instance. For the believer, there is a responsibility to speak the truth in love (1 Cor 13:6b; Eph 4:15),

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See T. McEwan’s helpful suggestions regarding the handling of trolls (“Personality Differences: Trolls and Cyberstalkers Aren’t the Same”) at http://www.theconversation.com/personality-differences-trolls-and-cyberstalkersarent-the-same-23309.

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though wisdom and grace are required when considering how this stratagem should be invoked in response to “haters.” Lindy West, a Seattle-based writer, is one who has called out her troll in print with surprising results. Amidst the deluge of online hate in response to her article on misogyny—which had focused on rape jokes—West was confronted by a picture of her dead father among her Twitter feed, with the caption: “Embarrassed father of an idiot. Other two kids are fine, though.”114 West decided to respond publicly in print on the issue, with the result that the troll showed remorse and subsequently discussed with her live on a radio show several years later the impact of the event upon his life. As West explained, she decided to “feed the trolls” on this occasion for the reason of “humanization”: And, most importantly, I talk back because internet trolls are not, in fact, monsters. They are human beings—and I don’t believe that their attempts to dehumanize me can be counteracted by dehumanizing them. The only thing that fights dehumanization is increased humanization—of me, of them, of marginalized groups in general, of the internet as a whole.

Lindy West’s courageous and humane decision reflects the Christian heritage underlying the Western intellectual tradition. True humanist values find their origin not in in Protagoras’ dictum that “man is the measure of all things” but rather in the supreme worth of every human being as the “image of God.” The decision of West to fight for “increased humanization” blazes a useful path not only for fellow feminists but for all people and their social networks, real and virtual, in handling graciously the destructive behaviour within internet communities.

Bibliography Berkouwer, G. C. Man: The Image of God. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962. Bishop, J. “The Effect of De-Individuation of the Internet Troller on Criminal Procedure Implementation: An Interview with a Hater,” International Journal of Cyber Criminology 7/1 (2013): 28-48. Buckels, E. E., P. Trapnell, and D. Paulhus, “Trolls Just Want to Have Fun.” Personality and Individual Differences 67 (2014): 97-102.

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See http://www.theguardian.com/.../what-happened-confronted-cruellest-trolllindy-west.

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Campbell, H. Exploring Religious Community Online: We Are One in the Network. New York: Peter Lang, 2005. Clines, D. J. A. “The Image of God in Man,” Tyndale Bulletin 19 (1968): 53-103. Coleman, E. G. “Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls: The Politics of Transgression and Spectacle.” In The Social Media Reade, edited by M. Mandiberg, 99-119. New York and London: New York University Press, 2012. Fitzgerald, J. T. ed., Friendship, Flattery, and Frankness of Speech: Studies in Friendship in the New Testament World (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996). Garner, S. R. “Hacking with the Divine”: A Metaphor for TheologyTechnology Engagement.” Colloquium 37/2 (2005): 181-95. Groothuis, D. The Soul in Cyberspace. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997. Hardaker, C. “Trolling in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication: From User Discussions to Academic Definitions.” Journal of Politeness Research 6 (2010): 215-42. Hoekema, A. A. Created in God’s Image. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986. Hultin, J. F. The Ethics of Obscene Language in Early Christianity and Its Environment. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008. Kearney, C. J. Friendship Duality, Facebook and Self-Concept: Social Networking and Adolescent Development. Unpub. PhD diss., Farleigh Dickinson University, 2012. Konstan, D. Friendship in the Classical World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Manago, A. M., T. Taylor and P. M. Greenfield (2012, January 30). “Me and My 400 Friends: The Anatomy of College Students’ Facebook Networks, Their Communication Patterns, and Well-Being.” Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0026338. Middleton, J. R. The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2005. Shachaf, P. “Beyond Vandalism: Wikipedia Trolls.” Journal of Information Science 36.3 (2010): 357-70. Spadaro S. Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014. Titus, C. R. Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude: Aquinas in Dialogue with the Psychosocial Sciences. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006. Wertheim, M. The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1990.

CHALLENGES TO LEARNING IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET CHARLES DE JONGH

Bauerlein (2009) makes the following observation early in his assessment of the impact of the digital age on young Americans, while teens and young adults have absorbed digital tools into their daily lives like no other age, while they have grown up with more knowledge and information readily at hand, taken more class, built their own Web sites, enjoyed more libraries, bookstores, and museums ... while the world has provided them extraordinary chances to gain knowledge and improve their reading/writing skills ... young Americans are no more learned or skilful than their predecessors, no more knowledgeable, up-to-date, or inquisitive....

Add to this the warning from Carr (2011) in response to his selfposed question, “What can science tell us about the actual effects that Internet use is having on the way our minds work?” the news is even more disturbing than I had suspected. ... when we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. It is possible to think deeply while surfing the Net ... but that’s not the type of thinking the technology encourages and rewards.

This chapter gives consideration to the challenges that the digital age presents to the teaching of theology in a technological age. While the proposed advantages and benefits are numerous and well promoted, the challenges to learning presented by the digital age have received limited attention. Such challenges include the rise in superficial reading, an inability to focus for extended periods, a decrease in the ability to develop linear arguments, and the loss of attention. The intended purpose of this chapter is to give consideration to the challenges of the digital age, cautions as to their impact and proposals as to their alleviation.

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Introduction The introduction of the digital age—notably the Internet—into the realm of learning has generally been lauded and praised as one of the great steps forward in the history of education; however, the impact of the Internet on students has been questioned. Greenfield argues: there is some evidence that computer-assisted learning is beneficial. ... One reason ... could be that learning is optimal when interacting–computer learning, using keyboard, screen and mouse, enable more interaction than learning in the standard classroom. On the other hand, the arrival of computers in the classroom has not been accompanied by any statistically significant improvement in pupils’ academic achievement....1

Add to this the caution from Carr, in response to his self-posed question, “What can science tell us about the actual effects that Internet use is having on the way our minds work?”2 the news is even more disturbing than I had suspected. ... when we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. It is possible to think deeply while surfing the Net ... but that’s not the type of thinking the technology encourages and rewards.3

In response to these and similar concerns, this chapter gives consideration to the challenges that the Internet presents to learning in the digital age. While the proposed advantages and benefits are numerous, the challenges presented by the Internet, as the “pinnacle” of the digital age have received limited and less enthusiastic attention. As Bauerlein argues in the rationale for his book, The Dumbest Generation, it, together with other writings, is endeavouring to “slow the headlong rush to technologize learning, reading, writing, and social and intellectual life. ... [forcing] a better, more reflective attitude toward the future....”4 This is similarly the purpose of this chapter, to pause and to give consideration to the challenges to learning in the age of the Internet.



1 Susan Greenfield, Tomorrow’s People: How 21st-Century Technology is Changing the Way We Think and Feel (London: Penguin, 2003), 168. 2 Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (New York: Norton, 2011), 115. 3 Carr, The Shallows, 115-116. 4 Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future (New York: Tarcher, 2008), viii.

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It is important to comment that, in writing this chapter, it is acknowledged that there is a bias; however, that bias should not be seen as antagonism, but rather as an endeavour to encourage deliberate consideration of and reflection on the nature of learning in the age of the Internet. As such, readers are encouraged to pause and consider the challenges raised in the light of own practice in learning. However, it is acknowledged that, certainly at this time, “while there may be conflicting evidence and opinions on the impact of the Internet on our brains, it’s clear this will continue to be a controversial topic even while the world’s population increases its dependence on, and use of, the Internet”.5 The impact of the Internet on learning will be examined in terms of five challenges, expressed as “contrasts,” which will each be considered in turn, namely: Distraction > attention; More  more; Breadth > focus; Surface > depth; Information  understanding. The intention is that the examination of these contrasts will draw the reader’s attention to five challenges presented to learning by the Internet; appreciating that there are others that the limitations of length do not allow to be considered..

Distraction > Attention “Attention” is defined by Jackson as “the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought”. 6 The definition emphasises that, by implication, “it implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatter-brained state which in French is called distraction....”7 When consideration is given to the ability to give



5 Ray B. Williams, “Is the Internet Making Us Dumber?” Psychology Today (2014), 1. 6 Maggie Jackson, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age (New York: Prometheus, 2008), 13. 7 Jackson, Distracted, 13-14.

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attention when utilising the Internet, the equally important issue is that of “distraction”. In other words, when it comes to the use of the Internet, the first key challenge is that presented by the ability of students to give due attention in the context of distraction. Commenting on the impact of digital technology, Greenfield argues that a “distinguishing feature of digital technology is the temptation and opportunity that it offers for multitasking”.8 To this, Carr adds that “the Net is, by design, an interruption system, a machine geared for dividing attention.”9 Developing this further, Carr explains: The constant distractedness that the Net encourages ... is very different from the kind of temporary, purposeful diversion of our mind that refreshes our thinking when we’re weighing a decision. The Net’s cacophony of stimuli short-circuits both conscious and unconscious thought, preventing our minds from thinking either deeply or creatively. Our brains turn into simple signal-processing units, quickly shepherding information into consciousness and then back out again.10

With respect to the nature of the Internet, there appear to be two main contributors to the dominance of distraction over attention: hypertext and multimedia. Hypertext presents as a very useful and valuable tool, enhancing the ability of the users to move seamlessly from one webpage to another and from one source of material to many other related web pages. However, the problem with hypertext is that “evaluating links and navigating a path through [hypertexts] ... involves mentally demanding problem-solving tasks that are extraneous to the act of reading itself ... [which] weakens their ability to comprehend and retain what they are reading.”11 This has been borne out in various studies which reveal that readers of hypertext tend to be distracted and are less likely to recall what they read.12 Together with the impact of hypertext is that of the multimedia format used on most web pages. Birkerts argues that “the problem we face in a culture saturated with vivid competing stimuli is that the first part of the transaction will be foreclosed by an inability to focus....”13 The result is

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Susan Greenfield, Mind Change: How Digital Technologies are Leaving their Mark on our Brains (London: Rider, 2014), 227. 9 Carr, The Shallows, 131. 10 Carr, The Shallows, 119. 11 Carr, The Shallows, 126. 12 Carr, The Shallows, 127. 13 Sven Birkerts, “Reading in a Digital Age,” The American Scholar (2015): 31. http://theamericanscholar.org/reading-in-a-digital-age/#.VDXOS_mSyFW.

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that “we stare at a computer screen with its layered windows and orient ourselves with a necessary fractured attention [distraction]”.14 The impact is that multimedia formats appear to exceed the capacity of people to concentrate,15 which could be overcome by careful design; however, from an educational perspective, it needs to be remembered that “the Internet ... wasn’t built by educators to optimize learning. It presents information not in a carefully balanced way but as a concentration-fragmenting mishmash”.16 The consequence is that while the Internet may be a rich source for students, their ability to absorb and understand the material is greatly undermined by the distraction of the medium and the consequent inability to give attention: .

Many educators ... assumed that multimedia ... would deepen comprehension and strengthen learning. ... This assumption, long accepted without much evidence, has also been contradicted by research. The division of attention demanded by multimedia further strains our cognitive abilities, diminishing our learning and weakening our understanding.17

Combined, the impact of hypertext and multimedia results in a reduced ability to process information, and this then impacts on the student’s ability to give meaningful attention to the task at hand. Greenfield argues: If you place a human brain ... in an environment where there is no obvious linear sequence, where facts can be accessed at random, where everything is reversible, where the gap between stimuli and response is minimal, and above all where time is short, then your train of thought could be derailed.18

The medium has become the distraction.

More  More The Internet, for good or bad, has become the “ultimate storehouse” of data and information. Never before in human history has so much been available to so many so easily. It would not be unreasonable to expect that, in the midst of so much “more”, students and researchers would be reflecting that greater access in their research and writing.

 14

Sven Birkerts, “Reading in a Digital Age,” 32. Carr, The Shallows, 131. 16 Carr, The Shallows, 131. 17 Carr, The Shallows, 129. 18 Greenfield, Mind Change, 12. 15

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However, research carried out by James Evans, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, found that this was not the case; his findings have been summarised as follows: Considering how much easier it is to search digital text than printed text, the common assumption has been that making journals available on the Net would significantly broaden the scope of scholarly research, leading to a much more diverse set of citations. But that’s not what Evans discovered. As more journals move online, scholars actually cited fewer articles than they had before. And as old issues of printed journals were digitised and uploaded to the Web, scholars cited more recent articles with increasing frequency. A broadening of available information led, as Evans described it, to a “narrowing of science and scholarship.”19 The probable reason for this phenomenon lies in the nature of search engines which are commonly used in Internet searches. Search engines are popular, because “the advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger. No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want”.20 This results in a situation in which “we can tap into 50 million Web sites, 1.8million books in print, 75 million blogs, and other snowstorms of information, but we increasingly seek knowledge in Google searches and Yahoo! headlines that we gulp on the run while juggling other tasks”.21 Poetically, Birkerts describes the situation as one in which “all that has been said, known, and done will yield to the dance of the fingertips on the terminal keys”.22 While valuable in certain ways, the problem is that students, while having access to “more”, do not access more. Jackson finds in the United States: Study after study at top and lesser schools reveal similar conclusions: students—including seniors—“display a particularly narrow field of

 19

Carr, The Shallows, 217. B. Sparrow, J. Liu and D. M. Wegner, “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at our Fingertips,” Sciencexpress Report (2011): 1. http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/pdfs/science.1207745.full.pdf. 21 Jackson, Distracted, 13. 22 Sven Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age (New York: Faber and Faber, 2006), 137. 20

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vision” in searching, using “quick and dirty” ways of finishing the ... task, “often opt for convenience over quality,” and giving up easily.23

Perhaps, the very presence of “more” is creating the problem, as “it’s not just the amount of material available, but, perhaps more crucially, the speed and therefore ease with which we can all interact and deal with it”.24 It is arguable that the quantity of data and material, together with ease of access, demands that students need tools to access that material. However, ironically, the use of the tools—the key one being search engines— undermines access to the vast quantity of material available, which ultimately undermines the quality of the material accessed. Unfortunately, the outcome has been described by Bauerlein to be one in which: while teens and young adults have absorbed digital tools into their daily lives like no other age group, while they have grown up with more knowledge and information readily at hand, take more classes, built their own Web sites, enjoyed more libraries, bookstores, and museums in their towns and cities ... in sum, while the world has provided them extraordinary chances to gain knowledge ... young Americans are no more learned or skilful than their predecessors, no more knowledgeable, fluent, up-to-date, or inquisitive, except in the materials of youth culture. ... In fact, their technology skills fall well short of the common claim, too, especially when they must apply them to research and workplace skills.25

Breadth > Focus Following on from the previous challenge is the concern that “breadth is greater than focus”. Birkerts observes: Interactive media technologies ... open [a] field to new widths, constantly expanding relevance and reference, and they equip their user with a powerful grazing tool. One moves at great rates across subject terrains, crossing borders that were once closely guarded.26

The most important aspect of the observation is that the technologies, especially the Internet, open up fields to new “widths”. Research in the United States suggests that, in research, “a good deal of the time, [students] simply surfed the wider Web, trawling the enormous online information sea”.27 As such, as one student has commented, “there’s so

 23

Jackson, Distracted, 164. Greenfield, Mind Change, 219. 25 Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation, 8-9. 26 Sven Birkerts, “The Gutenberg Elegies,” 137-138. 27 Jackson, “Distracted,”166. 24

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much that you never really have time to dig through it. You end up digging through so much useless stuff that you get tired of looking and end up looking somewhere else....”28 The consequence is that We see students ... downloading and saving files in a great rush of data gorging which rarely includes reading. Hundreds of files and pages accumulated without sorting, sifting or discrimination. They search the Web, find twenty thousand hits and light up with joy. Confusing quantity and sheer volume of information with success, they greedily scoop up everything within their reach, saving it for later.29

Not only are students stretched by the breadth of the available material, which negatively impacts on their ability to focus, they are also undermined by the patterns that typify reading on the Internet. Two main issues present themselves; the first that there is a far greater tendency to skim read than with printed sources, and secondly that there is a tendency to not read “everything” on the pages. With respect to skim reading, Birkerts explains: The reading act is necessarily different than it was in its earliest days ... the reader (now) tends to move across surfaces, skimming, hastening from one site to the next without allowing the words to resonate inwardly. The inscription is light but it covers vast territories: quantity is elevated over quality. The possibility of maximum focus is undercut by the awareness of the unread texts that await. The result is that we know countless “bits” of information ... (but) we know them without a stable sense of context.30

Together with the tendency to skim read, is the identified pattern of on-screen reading, generally referred to the “F-reading pattern” in which: if you are accustomed to reading on the web, you’ve likely also grown accustomed to the online reading style known as the “F-shaped pattern”, where when you open a webpage, you read in an F-shape quickly from left to right across the top, and then scan the middle until you get to the bottom, absorbing a few main ideas but not truly engaging with any of them. It is a quick and easy way to catch the major points, enabling you to get an overview of everything presented, perhaps even giving you the

 28

Jackson, “Distracted,” 173. Jamie McKenzie, “Deep Thinking and Deep Reading in an Age of Info-Glut, Info-Garbage, Info-Glitz and Info-Glimmer,” FNO From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal 6, 6 (1997): 4. http://fno.org/mar97/deep.html. 30 Sven Birkerts, “Reading in a Digital Age,” The American Scholar (2015), 7. http://theamericanscholar.org/reading-in-a-digital-age/#.VDXOS_mSyFW. 29

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sense of comprehension. But as the research shows, it’s likely that you are absorbing very little.31

Together, skim reading and the F-reading pattern combine with the inability to focus to produce a situation in which, while the breadth of available material is enormous, students struggle to focus on most, if not all, the material. It is understood that browsing and scanning are not inherently problematic. Carr comments, however: There is nothing wrong with browsing and scanning, or even powerbrowsing and power-scanning. … The ability to skim text is every bit as important as the ability to read deeply. What is different, and troubling, is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of reading.32

The long-term impact lies not only with students, but flows on to people in their later and working lives. In 2003, a study of the reading habits of professional people, carried out by Ziming Liu, found that over a ten year period for those surveyed: 85% were reading more electronic documents; 81% were spending more time “browsing and scanning”; and 82% were doing more non-linear reading. Of greater concern was the finding that only: 27% devoted time to “in-depth reading”; 16% gave time to sustained reading; and 50% gave “less time” to sustained reading. As such, it may be concluded that while students have access to a far greater breadth of material, that breadth is significantly undermined by their inability to meaningfully focus on—and thus absorb and understand—the given material.

Surface > Depth As the breadth of material on the Internet negatively impacts on the ability to focus on the material, so the inability to focus results in students who

 31

“What is the Internet’s Effect on Deep Reading?” The Technological Citizen (2014), 1. http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=414. 32 Carr, The Shallows, 138.

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find that they are increasingly unable to plumb the depths of the material and find themselves “trapped” on the surface. Carr argues: with writing on the screen, we’re still able to decode text quickly—we read, if anything, faster than ever—but we’re no longer guided toward a deep, personally constructed understanding of the text’s connotations. Instead, we’re hurried off toward another bit of related information, and then another, and another. The strip-mining of “relevant content” replaces the slow excavation of meaning.33

The main contributors to this phenomenon are that when students read onscreen, they read both fast and skim—essentially the same two factors contributing to the previous challenge of “breadth greater than focus”. Reflecting on the F-reading pattern, it has been suggested that “F ... [is] for fast. That’s how users read [on screen].... In a few seconds, their eyes move at amazing speeds across [the] website’s words in a pattern that is very different from what [was learnt] at school”. 34 Consequently, onscreen readers tend to lose the ability to deep read and skim read instead. As one person explains, “I can’t read War and Peace any more. I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it”.35 The outcome is that students find themselves in a situation where: After becoming accustomed to reading quick bits of information online, it has become harder to stay focused on long reading assignments that require sustained focus. Students are more and more forgoing reading long articles and books and instead look for quick summaries on sites like Wikipedia and Sparknotes—sites which allow them to get an overview of the content quickly, but don’t require the same type of reflection and commitment that reading a book requires.36

This situation has been affirmed in studies carried out at University College, London, where scholars concluded that the people in the study predominantly read via the Internet by “skimming” and not reading in depth, hopping from one site to the other. The researchers coined the term “power browsers” and this activity is not reading in the traditional sense.37 The inevitable outcome of fast and skim reading is “shallow reading”, reading in which students may have a grasp of what is on the

 33

Carr, The Shallows, 166. Carr, The Shallows, 135. 35 “What is the Internet’s Effect on Deep Reading?” 414. 36 “What is the Internet’s Effect on Deep Reading?” 414. 37 Williams, “Is the Internet Making Us Dumber?” 9. 34

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surface of the material, but are unable to both appreciate and interact with the depth of that material. Merzenich concludes that there is “no question that our brains are engaged less directly and more shallowly in the synthesis of information when we use research strategies that are all about ‘efficiency’, ‘secondary (out of context) referencing’, and ‘once over, lightly’”.38 To this, David Meyer—head of the University of Michigan’s Brain, Cognition and Action Lab—adds, “I’m getting little bits and pieces of information... but the depth of what I’m getting, the quality of my understanding is nowhere near as good as if I was just concentrating on one thing....”39 Together with the preceding challenge, the challenge of “surface over depth” could ultimately lead to a situation in which “we plunge into a new world of infinitely connectible and accessible information, we risk losing our means and ability to go beneath the surface, to think deeply”.40 As Birkerts concludes, “We might question, too, whether there is not in learning as in physical science a principle of energy conservation. Does a gain in one area depend on a loss in another? My guess would be that every lateral attainment is purchased with a sacrifice of depth.”41

Information  Understanding The final challenge derives from the mass of information available on the Internet which does not automatically equate to understanding. Birkerts argues that “knowledge, certainly in the humanities, is not a straightforward matter of access, of conquest via the ingestion of data.”42 However, in the age of the Internet, that appears to have become the problem. Bauerlein illustrates the problem as follows: As an elementary school principal told me last year, when the fifth-grade teachers assign a topics, the kids proceed like this: go to Google, type keywords, download three relevant sites, cut and paste passages into a new document, add transitions of their own, print it, and turn it in. The model is information retrieval, not knowledge formation, and the material passes from Web to homework paper without lodging in the minds of the students.43

 38

Carr, The Shallows, 137. Jackson, Distracted, 137. 40 Jackson, Distracted, 155. 41 Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies, 138. 42 Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies, 136. 43 Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation, 94. 39

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Furthermore, an increasing body of evidence suggests that students are finding it very difficult to process the incredible amounts of information that are available. Jackson points this out: shifting attention to the vast resources of the Web sounds natural, and yet faced with a tsunami of largely unsifted, unedited information, students often don’t know how to separate the wheat from the chaff nor how to thoughtfully use what they harvest. They—again, like so many of us—are often stuck on the veneer of the information world, grasping at the first “answers” that pop up from narrowly tuned search engines that in turn reveal no more than 15% of the highly commercial, poor-quality “surface Web”.44

The consequence is that as students are overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of accessed material, they are often unable to both engage with and comprehend the accessed material. Norbert Elliot, New Jersey Institute of Technology lecturer and tech savvy on educational assessment, has expressed a deep concern with “the ‘lack of authentic engagement,’ or going deeply, on campus. If you want an educated citizenry, you’ve got to wrestle with complex ideas ... or you will end up with people who will only do the shallowest things”.45 Technically, it appears that one of the key influencing factors is that of “hypertext”. A report into the impact of hypertext on readers has found that such readers—contrasted with print text readers—take longer to read a set piece, demonstrate greater confusion and uncertainty as to meaning, and more easily lose the flow of the text.46 As the ability to engage reduces, there is a parallel loss of comprehension. As with the problem of engagement, the presence and quantity of hyperlinks appear to be decisive; research suggests that “comprehension decline[s] as the number of links increase[s]”.47 The main reason for this appears to be that “readers were forced to devote more and more of their attention and brain power to evaluating the links and deciding whether to click on them”.48 Mangen, Walgermo and BrǛnnick report that “a recent review concluded that hypertext structure tends to increase cognitive demands of decision making and visual processing and

 44

Jackson, Distracted, 163. Jackson, Distracted, 165. 46 Carr, The Shallows, 127-128. 47 Carr, The Shallows, 128. 48 Carr, The Shallows, 128. 45

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this additional cognitive load, in turn, impairs reading comprehension performance”.49 Arguably most disconcerting is the—possibly prophetic— observation by Greenfield that “perhaps future generations will no longer have the attention span or cognitive skills to follow the narrative of a story. Perhaps, in the future, humanity will be rooted incessantly in the here and now”.50

Conclusion In the preceding discussion, attention has been given to five key challenges to learning in the age of the Internet: distraction > attention; more  more; breadth > focus; surface > depth; and information  understanding. Moving into the future, consideration will need to be given to an appropriate response to these challenges in the light of the real and increasing impact of the Internet and the ever-progressing digital age.

Bibliography Bauerlein, Mark. The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future. New York: Tarcher, 2008. Ben-Yehudah, Gal and Yoram Eshet-Alkalai. “The Influence of Text Annotation Tools on Print and Digital Reading Comprehension.” In Learning in the Technological Era: Proceedings of the 9th Chais Conference for the Study of Innovation and Learning Technologies, edited by Yoram Eshet-Alkalai et al., 28-35. Tel Aviv: The Open University of Israel, 2014. Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. New York: Faber and Faber, 2006. Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains. New York: Norton, 2011. Goldberg, Jess A. “Reading Deeply: How the Internet May Limit Our Autonomy.” Student Pulse 3/7 (2011). Greenfield, Susan. Tomorrow’s People: How 21st-Century Technology is changing the Way We Think and Feel. London: Penguin, 2003.

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Anne Mangen, et al., “Reading Linear Texts on Paper versus Computer Screen: Effects on Reading Comprehension” International Journal of Educational Research 58 (2013): 61. 50 Greenfield, Tomorrow’s People, 167.

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—. Mind Change: How Digital Technologies are leaving their Mark on our Brains. London: Rider, 2014. Jackson, Maggie. Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. New York: Prometheus, 2008. Mangen, Anne, Bente R. Walgermo, and KolbjǛrn BrǛnnick. “Reading Linear Texts on Paper versus Computer Screen: Effects on Reading Comprehension.” International Journal of Educational Research 58 (2013): 61-68. McKenzie, Jamie. “Deep Thinking and Deep Reading in an Age of InfoGlut, Info-Garbage, Info-Glitz and Info-Glimmer.” FNO From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal 6/6 (1997): 1-11. http://fno.org/mar97/deep.html. Sparrow, B., J. Liu, and D. M. Wegner. “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at our Fingertips.” Sciencexpress Report (2011): 1-6. http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/pdfs/science.1207745.full.pdf. Talbot, Steve. Devices of the Soul: Battling for Our Selves in an Age of Machines. Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media, 2007. The Technological Citizen. “What is the Internet’s Effect on Deep Reading?” (2014). http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=414. Williams, Ray B. “Is the Internet Making Us Dumber?” Psychology Today (2014). http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201107/ is-the-internet-making-us-dumber.

INTEGRATING REALITIES: FROM SYMBOLIC WORLDS TO LIVEDTHROUGH REALITY ANDRE VAN OUDTSHOORN

While many researchers believe that the boundary between reality and virtual reality has become fuzzy, or has even disappeared altogether, I will argue in this chapter that people have always occupied secondary, symbolic, fields of reality by which they interpret and make sense of their lived-through reality. I propose that people isolate and compartmentalise these different forms of existence from each other as well as from their real-life experiences. While there are no direct links between experiences within these symbolic worlds and the grounded physical reality within which people remain embedded, there are some “indirect” ways in which information gained in secondary symbolic fields of reality may be transposed to, and integrated with, lived-through reality. This is important for the way theological information is constructed and conveyed using modern-day technology which invites people into a unique secondary field of reality.

This chapter considers the following questions: What does theology have to say about reality? What are “symbolic worlds” or “secondary fields of reality”? What do we mean by “lived-through reality”? How do people move between these different worlds or fields of reality? What constitutes a theological field of reality? What is the difference between a theological field of reality and a faith-directed field of reality? On what grounds do people transfer information from different fields of reality? What elements facilitate integration between a secondary field of reality and lived-through reality? What role should the church play in theological education?

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Introduction Sixty years ago Daniel Bell pointed out that mass communication has impacted the total life world of everyone in the west, creating both a societal “mass” in which individuality is lost as well as a radical individuality in which people have become more and more separated from significant others: The revolutions in transport and communications have brought men into closer contact with each other and bound them in new ways; the division of labour has made them more interdependent; tremors in one part of society affect all others. Despite this greater interdependence, however, individuals have grown more estranged from one another. The old primary group ties of family and local community have been shattered; ancient parochial faiths are questioned; few unifying values have taken their place.1 His insights were quickly taken up by other scholars in communication science. Mass communication, Marshal McLuhan argued, has unleashed an unending stream of information that steadily enlarges the individual’s life-world, turning the world into a global village. 2 The amount of information we are faced with, scholars argued, has become so large that humans have lost their ability to evaluate and to integrate it critically within their everyday existence. In 1985, four years before the launch of the worldwide web, Jacques Ellul lamented that... “the information I receive today through the media is usually not related to my life. I cannot change my behaviour because of this information. What can I do against the advance of the desert in the Sahel, against worldwide hunger.....against the invasion of Afghanistan or of Lebanon?” 3 Ray Hiebert, in the same year, wrote despairingly: “We are held hostage in this wired starship Earth because we participate mythically with all the other global villages in their successes and their sorrows.4 The cry of “information overload,” articulated so seriously only a few decades ago, seems trivial, and even comical, when measured against

 1

Daniel Bell, “The Theory of Mass Society,” Commentary 22, 1 (1956): 75. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extension of Man (London: Routledge, 2001), 6. 3 Jacques Ellul in Everett M. Rogers et al., The Media Revolution in America and in Western Europe (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation), 104. 4 Ray Eldon Hiebert, et al., Mass Media IV: An Introduction to Modern Communication (New York: Longman, 1985), 6. 2

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the current flood of information pouring into human existence through the worldwide web. The world has changed into a radically mediated environment, often referred to as “virtual reality”. No wonder that theological seminaries and Bible Colleges have endeavoured to re-evaluate their educational programmes critically in the light of the changing reality. Such re-evaluations, however, have often displayed a practical and operational rather than a theological or philosophical focus. The main problems that theological institutions often wrestle with are: How can we use the media to reach even more students with our theological information? Or, How can we effectively replicate online what we do in the lecture room? While these are valid questions, the deeper theological and philosophical questions are often neglected. Such questions include: What is reality? How is reality constructed? What insights does theology offer for understanding reality? Are there multiple realities? Is the mediated online reality a different reality from other forms of reality? What is theological knowledge and how does theological knowledge integrate with human forms of existence? What role does faith play in the way reality is constructed and experienced? While many researchers believe that the boundary between reality and virtual reality has become increasingly fuzzy, or has even disappeared altogether, I will argue that people have always occupied secondary, symbolic, or virtual fields of reality by which they interpret and make sense of their lived-through experiences. I will propose that while there are no direct links between experiences within these symbolic worlds and the grounded physical reality within which people remain embedded, there are some “indirect” ways in which information which has been gained in secondary symbolic fields of reality may be transposed to, and integrated with, lived-through reality. In this chapter I will consider how reality is constructed, grounding my insights on theological anthropology. I will conclude that theological education requires a non-foundational theological epistemology, grounded on faith, hope and love to facilitate the integration of the different fields of reality which people occupy.

What Is Reality? In this chapter reality is considered through the lens of anthropology. Any reference to “existence” has to include a view of the one who articulates the concept. Anthropology directly informs our understanding of reality and plays a key role in epistemology and thus also theological education. I will firstly engage with the question of reality by analysing a number of critical theological anthropological perspectives,

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such as (a) humanity as an intrinsic unity; (b) humanity as re-creative (c) humanity as relational; and, (d) humanity as sinful. In doing so, I will consider some critical implications for theological education.

(1) Humanity as intrinsic unity This concept points to the fact that humans only exist in and through the intertwining of their bodily existence, their existential subjectivity and their “directed-ness” towards God. In Genesis 2:7 humankind is depicted as having been created from the dust of the earth. God then breathes life (or spirit) into man. “To be human is to embody life.”5 In the Bible humanity is never seen as a compositum, but only as a unity, a whole. 6 While the Bible does differentiate between different dimensions of human existence, these dimensions cannot be reduced to fit within a closed anthropological system. The different dimensions are rather set in balance to each other in such a way that they continue to point to the mystery of human existence which resists all efforts to reduce them to their sum total. 7 “Nearly everyone affirms that human persons are physical, embodied beings and that this is an important feature of God’s intended design for human life.” 8 In the past theological education has often suffered greatly from the dualism between body and soul. The Biblical emphasis on God as the creator of material existence indicates that our bodiliness is not a lesser form of existence than our psychological or spiritual existence. Through our bodies we are enmeshed with the material, given world. While we are uniquely constrained by our bodies, our final eschatological destination is not to exist without bodies but to receive new bodies embedded within a new earth. Bodily existence remains the final ground for our being: all our

 5

“Menswees is lewendwees in ligaamlikheid” (translation A. van Oudtshoorn). Johan Adam Heyns, Dogmatiek (Pretoria: N.G. Kerkboekhandel Transvaal, 1978), 121. 6 How this unity is conceived, either as the integration of an ontological dualism, in which the Cartesian split between the subject and the objective measurable world as two distinct substances is first accepted before being redefined and overcome within humanity, or, as physicalism, in which the human is viewed as an entirely physical entity is beyond the scope of this article. Marc Cortez, Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2009), 73-75. 7 Gerrit Cornelius Berkouwer, Man: The Image of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962), 211ff. 8 Cortez, Theological Anthropology, 70.

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other forms of existence are only experienced through our bodiliness.9 By affirming the concept of humanity as an intrinsic unity, theological education commits itself to: (a) A concern for, and engagement with the whole of human existence instead of a primary focus on the spiritual and/or psychological dimensions of such existence.10 Theological education should never be communicated as conceptual information only: students need to engage with theological knowledge in such a way that it directly affects their practical, material and bodily existence. Students should not only learn the contents of faith but must learn to live by faith. Such faith-living can only happen in the context of the church where faith engages with lived-through reality. Faith, as the church’s obedient actions to transform non-compliant given reality in the light of the historical eschatological act of transformation in Christ, remains central to theological knowledge as experiential knowledge. (b) A focus on the full range of contexts that may anchor, limit, change or expand our understanding of the Biblical message and that may, in turn, stand in need of transformation through the Biblical message. Students need to analyse the spiritual, psychological and material contexts in which the gospel is called to take root. They should be actively engaged in the transformation of these contexts which set up deep theological problems to be explored theoretically. Theological knowledge should not emphasise the universal over the historically contextualised local environment in which the good news of Christ is to be realised. It should also be relevant to people’s individual, bodily existence and be focused in such a way that the individual does not disappear as part of a “mass”. (c) An openness towards utilising a wider range of human faculties than reason alone to construct theological truth.11 If existence is grounded in humanity’s lived-through, bodily, existence, then the full range of human capacities to engage with existence should be evaluated and employed in theological education. This includes, amongst

 9

I use the term “lived-through reality” to indicate a reality that encompasses our material, bodily existence in a material world. 10 Douglas J. Davies, Anthropology and Theology (London: Berg, 2002), 29. 11 Michelle Voss Roberts, Dualities: A Theology of Difference (Westminster: John Knox Press, 1999), 113.

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others, human emotions, empathy, creativity, willpower, and physical power. (d) An approach to learning that can objectify reality by creating a distance between subject and object within the limitations imposed by human rationality. If reality is physical and humanity remains embedded in this reality, then theological knowledge must be able to also determine those aspects of reality that are objective and which must be methodologically approached in terms of the laws which govern objective reality. This means that existence must also be explored methodologically for possible transformation into an objectifiable reality. (e) An approach to learning that says that an “objectified reality” is not the only reality in which humanity participates and acknowledges that scientific approaches that stress objectivity must inevitably lead to a limited engagement with reality. Theological education promotes an open engagement with reality that accommodates a variety of scientific methodologies and methods.

(2) Humanity as re-creative To identify humanity as essentially re-creative can be theologically grounded on the Biblical view of humanity as created in the image of God (Gen 1:26, 27; 5:1ff; 9:6; Ps 8:6ff; James 3:9; 1 Cor 11:7; Eph 4:24 and Col 3:10). Hendrikus Berkhof underlines humanity’s relational dependence on God by describing humans as “respondable”: By describing man as “respondable” we delimit him from the outset in his maturity and autonomy. The first word does not come from him. He is made man by an initiative from outside and from above. His creativity is based on recreativity.12 God addresses humanity and calls it away from any definition of itself and the world it occupies as an unchangeable given. To be respondable means that humans are able to communicate: in their naming of the animals they are set apart from the way in which animals and the material world exist. Humanity’s essence is thus revealed as both intentional and existential. Through the act of speaking or “naming” the animals, humans intentionally transcend their material bodily existence as

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Hendrikus Berkhof et al., Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Study of the Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002).

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free subjects—a material existence, however, which never ceases both to limit and question humanity’s existential freedom and power. To be human does not imply pure, spontaneous “action” but rather “reaction” in which humanity can only respond to creation as its “given” context. Humanity does not create the animals, in the first place, but is able to name them. The theological understanding of humanity as respondable correlates with the existential phenomenological understanding of humanity as more than just an object, a mere ding an sich - “l’homme passe infiniment l’homme” (Pascal). Humanity is instead recognised as encompassing subjectivity within its objectivity. Despite the fact that a human is a “thing”, humanity has in essence broken through the thickness of its earthiness and is revealed as being able to bring its existence to language. Humanity is a layer of earth that can say “is”. It can say of the earth that it “is”. But then humanity is not an ordinary layer of earth, not fully a thing, not exclusively a block of matter. Humanity is certain “light” for itself and over the things. Humanity is a conscious “I”, a subject, and that is the most original speaking of “is”.13 Humanity as “subject” is not quantifiable but is instead initiator, originator, creator of dialogue, thus existential in response to a world generated by means of inter-subjective values and norms that it may choose to inhabit. Humanity cannot be objectified but must instead be recognised as essentially intentional, functional, open to dialogue and personal. 14 As existential “subjects” humans do not only live as bodily embedded objects in the world but are able to stand over against the world and interpret the world, and through their interpretation to construct their own worlds to occupy. The thought that we are not simply encapsulated within reality as a given but are co-creators of reality resonates, as I have indicated, with



13 Luijpen, Existentiële fenomenologie, 81. Translation from the Dutch by Andre van Oudtshoorn. “Ondanks die feit dat de mens 'dingachtig' is, heeft hij in zijn wezen die dichtheid van zijn aardlaag zijn doorbroken, en is in zijn wezen het is 'zeggen' opgedoken. Die mens is een aardlaag dat 'is' zegt. Hij kan van de aardlagen zeggen dat zij zijn. Maar dan is hij geen gewone aardlaag, niet louter een ding, niet uitsluitend een brok materie. Hij is een zeker 'licht' voor zichzelf en over de dingen. Hij ist een bewust 'ik', een zubject, en dit is het meest oorspronklijke is'zeggen'.” 14 G. Cronjé, Die wysgerige antropologie en die menswetenskappe (Pretoria: Van Schaik, 1996), 29.

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how humanity is portrayed in Genesis. The story of God’s salvific acts on behalf of Israel and the church indicate that they were not only passive recipients of information from God about how the world “is”. By demanding faith and obedience God made them active participants in the restructuring of their world. Israel and the church were able to recreate their existing reality intentionally into interpretive symbolic fields of meaning in which they could see the hand of God at work in their given reality. Israel and the church were called to “inhabit” this secondary, symbolic, language-based interpretation of reality as an act of faith. People are able to create and occupy a wide range of different secondary fields of reality, each with its own unique set of codified laws which govern the way the field is to be inhabited or experienced. In a secondary field of reality, created for the television medium, for instance, people are quite happy to see a house flip over twice as part of a TV commercial: something that would terrify them if it should happen in their lived-through reality. People are inducted into this field of reality by learning the code according to which the particular symbolic field operates. The way in which fictional stories, documentaries or newspapers can be experienced differ radically from each other. While it is possible to create and occupy various secondary fields of reality, within which people are able to fly, potatoes can speak, and politicians always tell the truth, these experiences do not necessarily translate directly into the materially given, lived-through reality and thus the way people conduct their everyday lives. Secondary fields of reality may set up new expectations for lived-through reality, but these expectations may not necessarily be met in practice. Science can be seen as a way of integrating secondary theoretical fields of reality with livedthrough reality. It does so by creating a symbolic theoretical field of reality which corresponds closely to lived-through reality. This symbolic reality makes it possible to take different constituent elements of the material world symbolically apart and describe the world objectively. From this it becomes possible to restructure the symbolised lived-through reality theoretically within the secondary scientific field of reality and devise methods to make lived-through reality comply with the scientific symbolic theoretically recreated reality. It is, of course, possible for people also to create secondary “religious” fields of reality that they can occupy in the same way as they occupy other secondary fields of reality created for mass communication or science. Churches, for instance, may create specific secondary religious fields of reality by setting up certain expectations and codifying religious

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experiences. An invitation to enter this field is often triggered by specific elements within lived-through reality, such as singing or preaching. Through a process of institutionalisation, entry to these secondary religious fields becomes formalised and ritualised. For some people a particular secondary religious field may function as an escape from livedthrough reality. They have no intention of integrating their religious experiences with their lived-through reality. Theological education, on the other hand, seeks to find ways of facilitating such integration, both within the secondary religious field of reality for people to make sense of their world in the light of their belief system, and also in the transformation of given lived-through reality. As “the image of God”, humanity is set in relationship to God and is thereby held by God to be not only “respondable”, but also “responsible”, for the way in which it inhabits and transforms creation, either in subjection to, or against, the will of God. The creature is called to become re-creator in line with humanity’s call to be a reflector of the character and will of its Creator.15 The Christ event as proclaimed through the Biblical witness has set up a new understanding of reality. People enter and inhabit this secondary theological interpretive field of reality through their faith in Christ. Believers construct their understanding of the new eschatological reality on the basis of the church’s continuing proclamation of the Biblical message. However, the giving of the Spirit of Christ to participate in the church’s lived-through reality means that, in principle at least, the church cannot maintain an escapist secondary religious field of reality without seeking some form of integration into the lived-through reality of the believers. Theological education has to embrace the eschatological new creation, realised in and through Christ, as well as the lived-through reality within which believers and the church remain embedded. The secondary theological symbolic field of reality theory provides the possibility of reimagining reality, while the way in which this knowledge leads to concrete transformational actions of given reality completes the theological educational circle. Some theological educational implications of understanding “humans as recreative beings” are: (a) An “actional” rather than purely descriptive or passive

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That humanity does not always do so is taken up in the concept of humanity as sinful.

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approach to teaching and learning theology. Faith leads to obedient actions. Theological knowledge that does not set up practical transformational actions within material existence, will easily become isolated within a secondary religious field of reality. (b) The task of constructing alternative eschatological interpretations of reality by which the status quo may be exposed and deconstructed with the view of its possible transformation. It is important that theological education sees itself as providing a critical symbolic theoretical reordering of reality in the light of the new creation realised in Christ which provides the impetus for transformational faith actions in the world. (c) The need for theological education to explore critically human intentionality and the interpretive meanings that people ascribe to contexts and events. The way in which people act in the world reflects their understanding of reality and illuminates the secondary symbolic worlds they occupy. Theological education needs to analyse existing thought structures in order to transform them. (d) The task of setting theological education within a hermeneutical framework. Theological education has to take place in constant dialogue with the different form of experiences that people have within different secondary fields of reality which they occupy as well as the limitations and possibilities of lived-through reality.

(3) Humanity as relational That it is not possible to know humans fully, apart from their relationship to other humans, is a fundamental concept of Biblical anthropology. “If being human means to be someone, and specifically someone who represents God on earth, then being human is also fundamentally to live in relationship with others.”16 Berkhof also indicates that if it is “the very nature of man that he is called to be with-God, then he

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Heyns, Dogmatiek, 128. As menswees beteken om iemand te wees, en met name iemand wat God op aarde verteenwoordig, dan is menswees eweneens fundamenteel om ook in verhoudinge te lewe (translation A. van Oudtshoorn).

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must also realise that nature by being-with-his-fellow-human-beings.” 17 He continues to distinguish three primary relationships in which humanity finds itself, namely that of child of God, neighbour to fellow humans and lord over the world. Heyns goes further by pointing out that humans also relate to certain supra-individual structures such as family structures (Ephesians 5:22ff); labour structures (Exodus 20:10, Ephesians 6:5-9) and structures of the state (Romans 13, Revelations 13).18 Liberation theology has expanded this perspective to include an awareness of supra-human structural evil that often militates against the open and free relationships that God has intended for humanity. The human subject only knows himself as a subject-in-structure, contextualised, surrounded and determined by relational realities. To be a relational being is to be set in a communication context; to be open and free to receive communication, as well as to be forced in turn to communicate. This web of communication leads to the formation of symbolic worlds. According to Geertz a symbolic world is a socially constructed set of shared meanings that form an ultimate definition and explanation of what “is”. It is thus the presuppositions or set of assumptions that we bring to any situation to help us make sense of it.19 Niebuhr suggests that our actions are responses to the actions of others and that we decide which responses to make in the light of the interpretive community to which we belong. “Personal responsibility implies the continuity of a self with a relatively consistent scheme of interpretations of what it is reacting to.”20 Philosophical structuralism (Foucault) goes beyond this; it views language as an all-encompassing structure which ultimately eliminates human subjectivity so that “it is no longer I who speak, but language through whom my thinking thinks”.21 Philosophical structuralism stresses synchronic relationships rather than the diachronic history-making dimension of being human: it is not important where human subjects come from or how humanity perceives its destiny, the only important thing is humanity’s relational place within the structure as a whole.22 The whole is autonomous and sovereign in respect to the parts which remain dependent

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Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 191. Heyns, Dogmatiek, 137. 19 Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 91–94. 20 Niebuhr, Gustafson, and Schweiker, The Responsible Self, 65. 21 Bakker in Kwant, Mensbeelden, 138. 22 Delfgaauw, De wijsbegeerte van de 20e eeuw, 176. 18

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on the whole and receive their meaning from it.23 Against this view, the Bible pictures humanity as more than a passive, transient, synchronic element within the contextual relational structure of language, but as called to voluntarily, creatively and intentionally restructure the given context within which it finds itself in line with the will of God. The Bible, nevertheless, also portrays humanity as objectively participating in supra-individual structures. Paul’s references to Christ as the “second Adam” as well as his prolific use of the term “in Christ” reflect the theological idea that humanity has been affected profoundly by being incorporated passively within a suprapersonal structure that God has set up “in Christ”. 24 Who we are is determined primarily by our relationship to God in Christ in the context of the new creation in which God has included humanity against its will.25 It is what God thinks about us, the language that God uses to identify and characterise us, that determines our essential being, rather than our own actions and/or personal traits or virtues. Humanity’s incorporation in Christ as the second Adam provides a theological dimension of hope that integrates humanity’s inability to transform both their broken lived-through reality, including their own brokenness, with the new creation inaugurated in Christ. It is the personal relationship with God as the gracious transformer of life and reality apart from humanity, which allows believers to acknowledge and deal with their broken existence without falling into despair. Further theological educational implications of humanity being essentially relational include: a)

An understanding of theological knowledge as being in the service of the relationship between humanity and God as well as between humans. Theological knowledge is never neutral. It always stands in the service of facilitating love for God and others. Theologically the notion of being part of a greater whole which individualises each human through love is crucial for both the methodology and contents of theological education.

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Bakker in Kwant, Mensbeelden, 113. Ridderbos, Paul, 49–63. 25 I have utilised a particular Christological understanding of the work of Christ grounded on the corporate nature of Christ as the second Adam. The scope of this article obviously does not allow me to substantiate this position fully. For a fuller exposition see Oudtshoorn, Christ the Reconciler, 87–190. 24

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b) Taking the relational context in which all subjects find themselves as co-determinants of their subjectivity seriously. People are who they are in relationship to others. Theological knowledge should alert students to the impact that their cultural context has on the shaping of their personal identity and theological presuppositions. Theological knowledge has to provide students with the critical tools to evaluate their given reality in the light of God’s alternative reality in Christ. c)

Recognising supra-subjective relational structures without discarding the unique place and calling of the individual as an object of God’s continual concern and love. i.

It should be acknowledged that the individual can easily be subsumed within the whole unless his/her identity is affirmed and maintained by being loved, and therefore individualised, by another. Simultaneously, the individual only remains an individual by affirming another in an act of love.

d) Engaging with the whole of existence in the light of God’s promised final eschatological transformation of all reality. i.

That which is, exists as part of a bigger whole that transcends given reality. This means that theological education can never deal with this world as it is, only, but also with the world as it is to become.

(4) Humanity as sinful David Kelsey has shown that the doctrine of sin may be grounded theologically within the context of creation (as with Augustine); anthropologically within the structure of human subjectivity (Tillich); socially within the politically liberating work of God in history (Metz), or Christologically within the context of the universal redemptive work of Christ (Barth).26 He notes that the concept of sin remains important within formal theology although sometimes under aliases and then adds: “It may be that otherwise influential formal theologies do not much influence church folk to talk specifically about sin because these doctrines of sin have become too complexly dialectical to be helpful guides to what to say when we pray, preach, give pastoral care, and passionately engage our

 26

Kelsey, “Whatever Happened to the Doctrine of Sin?” 176.

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society.”27 The complex dialectical character of theological discussion on sin relates to the complex dialectical character of being human. It is thus necessary to see these different views of sin as complementary to each other. All of them presume an anthropological “given”. They all reflect in their own way the breaking of the relationship of love between humanity and God and between humans amongst each other. This is reflected empirically in the unpredictability of intentional human actions which often impact negatively on themselves, other human beings, the physical world and God. At same time, human existence is also threatened by the negative physical reality and relational contexts into which it finds itself cast (Heidegger) and from which it cannot escape. The implications of human sinfulness for the reality in which theological education takes place are: (a) The field of human inter-action often becomes a battlefield where no rules are acknowledged or adhered to and even theological insights are often used as weapons of war (James 3:1-12). (b) Human relationships and the human-divine relationship are always marked by inconsistency, unpredictability and contradiction. (c) Theological education does not take place within an “ideal” spiritual environment as peaceful apathetic contemplation but, instead, within the context of brokenness, shame, guilt and sin. (d) Theology needs to be what Barth calls, “a humble science”, acknowledging its propensity to get it wrong at times, and celebrating God’s grace that continues to work despite human fallibility. (e) Reality will only be finally transformed with the return of Christ. Theological knowledge should thus form people who are critical yet hopeful, helpless yet persevering, sinful yet saintly until everything is finally made new!

 27

Ibid., 178.

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The role of the church in theological education Theological education has to be embedded in the life-world of believers who are relationally bound in love to each other within the context of the church. The church in turn is bound to, and intentionally directed in love towards those who do not inhabit the same interpretive Christological faith field of reality as the church. God’s eschatological act in Christ was directed at the transformation of all fields of reality, including embodied lived-through reality. The church is called to set up signs of this future transformation through her actions in the world. It is only when theological education participates in the church’s obedient existence to transform given reality, that it will do justice to its ontological and epistemological foundations of faith, hope and love.

Conclusion As we have seen, theological education has to engage both with the objective “lived-through” reality within which humanity is embedded, as well as the different worlds of meaning which humans are able to construct and inhabit through their language based subjective interpretation of reality. The “Word” of God, who became flesh and through his death and resurrection transformed reality, and who continues to invite us, through the Spirit, to reinterpret reality in the light of our position in Christ, provides the theological ground for the alternative symbolic world which the church is called to occupy. Scripture as the inspired words about the Word may be seen as providing the source material, or building blocks, for constructing, renovating and/or rebuilding a critical theological symbolic world of meaning in this world. The mediated information age in which we live, I have shown, does not bring anything new to reality or our way of being human. Humans have always been able to construct and inhabit secondary fields of reality. Before appropriating different media for theological education it is, however, necessary to theologically consider the ontology that underpins the way we understand and live meaningfully within the world. Using anthropology as an ontological lens I have shown that humans are grounded in a non-compliant lived-through reality as well as able to construct symbolic worlds which they can occupy and utilise to understand and reconstruct given reality. I have, further, indicated that being-humanin-relationship to God creates transformational hope for the individual within a given broken reality and that acting in love towards an other keeps the individual from being swallowed up by the whole to be lost in

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the mass. Humanity as sinful indicated that there is no immediately successful transformation of reality but that theological knowledge operates in the eschatological tension between what will be, what is and what should be. In order to deal effectively with the wave of information that is flooding our existence, we need to first determine the kind of reality in which we want to live. The concepts of faith, hope and love, I have argued, are critical tools to help us understand and evaluate our lived-through reality as well as the various secondary fields of reality which humans construct and occupy. Faith, hope and love thus become the epistemological criteria for theological knowledge. They enable us to overcome the ontological gap between our secondary symbolic fields of reality and the lived-through broken reality in which we exist bodily, and to live as agents of change until the Lord returns.

Bibliography Bell, Daniel. “The Theory of Mass Society.” Commentary 22, 1 (1956): 75–83. Berkhof, Hendrikus, and Sierd Woudstra. Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Study of the Faith. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002. Berkhof, Louis. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1996. Berkouwer, Gerrit Cornelis. Man: The Image of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962. Cortez, Marc. Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2009. Cronjé, G. Die wysgerige antropologie en die menswetenskappe. Pretoria: Van Schaik, 1966. Davies, Douglas James. Anthropology and Theology. London: Berg, 2002. Delfgaauw, Bernard. De wijsbegeerte van de 20e eeuw. Wereldvenster, 1976. Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973. Heyns, Johan Adam. Dogmatiek. Pretoria: N.G. Kerkboekhandel Transvaal, 1978. Hiebert, Ray Eldon, Donald F. Ungurait, and Thomas W. Bohn. Mass Media IV: An Introduction to Modern Communication. New York: Longman, 1985. Kelsey, David H. “Whatever Happened to the Doctrine of Sin?” Theology

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Today 50, 2 (1993): 169–78. Doi: 10.1177/004057369305000202. Kwant, Remigius Cornelis. Mensbeelden: filosofie in een pluriforme samenleving. Samsom, 1978. Luijpen, W. Existentiële fenomenologie. Utrecht: Spectrum, 1961. Mcluhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. London: Routledge, 2001. Niebuhr, Helmut Richard, James M. Gustafson, and William Schweiker. The Responsible Self: An Essay in Christian Moral Philosophy. London: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999. Ridderbos, Herman N. Paul: An Outline of His Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1997. Roberts, Michelle Voss. Dualities: A Theology of Difference. London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010. Rogers, Everett M., and Francis Balle. The Media Revolution in America and in Western Europe. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1985.

SECTION FOUR WORLDS APART: ALTERNATIVE PEDAGOGIES AND THE NEW TECHNOLOGY

ON THE FRONTIERS OF CHANGE: DESIGNING BESPOKE LEARNING ARCHITECTURE STEPHEN SMITH AND STEPHEN HEALEY

Learning is one of the defining aspects of being human. Truly profound learning experiences change who we are—we change through learning. All learning involves thinking and doing, action and reflection. Learning changes what we can do—it is always active—you haven’t learned to walk until you walk. —Peter Senge

This chapter briefly explores how a rigorous andragogy (the art and science of facilitating adult learning) will be the most useful tool in producing truly transformational learning experiences, even in the midst of rapidly changing and often seductive learning technologies. Mindful of considerations in neuroscience, sensemaking, tacit/explicit knowledge, and adult learning theory, the authors propose that, regardless of the technology used, effective learning will “cut through the noise” with students by being highly flexible, shaped entirely by context, built on student expectations and previous experience, grounded in the experiential, powered by curiosity, and driven by the need for improved theory and practice. The authors affirm that while effective learning will always prize critical analysis and academic rigour, it will also focus on being holistic (respecting the psychological, social, intellectual, physical and spiritual dimensions of the learner) and deeply transformational (producing deep personal change evident in improved practice).



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One College’s Journey for Effectiveness After more than 50 years as a campus-based college, in 1999, the Australian College of Ministries (ACOM) sold its campus and moved to a decentralised model of education. Funds from the sale of the property are held in trust by Churches of Christ in New South Wales, with an ongoing commitment to provide for the financial needs of the college. ACOM transitioned its learning design from a traditional campusbased teaching model to a hybrid learning approach described as “an instruction-action-reflection model, as exemplified in the lives of Jesus and Paul.”1 This shift involved: x

relating instruction more closely to field work,

x

structuring field work more carefully as training,

x

reorganising placement of students in the field, and

x

enhancing the role of pastoral supervision. 2

Since that time, the college, now with over 1,000 students, has continued to assess, adapt and refine the model, with continuous improvement to the student learning experience. While new technology is regarded widely as integral to the future of education, the ACOM experience highlights other advances in theory and practice that may be of greater significance to effective learning—emphasising andragogy over technology. The college provides a testing ground, a proof of concept, for innovative processes in deep transformational learning. Four considerations are shaping further innovation in the college and are developed in this chapter: x

Effective learning works with the neuroplasticity of the brain—educators need to appreciate that learning depends on neuroplasticity. Without it, information cannot be processed, infused with meaning, creatively reframed, or retained.3

 1

K. Farmer, “Integrating Academy and Field,” (unpublished paper, Churches of Christ, Sydney, 1991), 2. 2 R. Banks, Reenvisioning Theological Education (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 229–30. 3 P. Hartman-Stein and A. La Rue, eds., Enhancing Cognitive Fitness in Adults: A Guide to the Use and Development of Community-Based Programs (New York: Springer, 2011); R. Keeling, D. Stevens, and T. Avery, “Biological Bases for Learning and Development across the Lifespan,” in The Oxford Handbook of

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x

Effective learning involves individual and group sensemaking—educators are setting up optimum conditions for learners to better understand and make sense of the world in which they live. The human brain seeks to align ambiguous, uncertain and complex concepts with what is already known to avoid cognitive dissonance.

x

Effective learning makes tacit knowledge explicit, and explicit knowledge tacit—educators have the opportunity to ensure learners wrestle with understanding concepts and skills required to put theory into practice, using both explicit and tacit knowledge. The craftsperson, the maestro, the chef and the artist all use deep knowledge that cannot always be shared as a list of procedures or supporting documents. Technology favours the sharing of explicit knowledge; our andragogy needs to ensure we also creatively develop tacit knowledge.

x

Effective learning cuts through the noise of modern life— educators are taking into consideration advances in adult learning theory and finding old teacher-centred behaviourist approaches less effective than participatory, constructivist approaches that empower the learner regardless of delivery technologies employed.

The authors propose that effective learning will not be enamoured of technology, but rather will pursue a deeper andragogy (of which technology is merely one tool) designed to connect to the real-world needs of students. Effective learning will connect with the student by being highly flexible, shaped entirely by context, built on the student’s expectations and previous experience, grounded in the experiential, powered by curiosity, and driven by the need for improved theory and practice.

Effective Learning Works with the Neuroplasticity of the Brain Learning is inherently a human rather than a technical process. It requires humans to be curious, to communicate, to interact, to test, to argue, to define, to hope and to reject. Technology cannot do that.

 Lifelong Learning, ed. M. London (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 40–51.

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Therefore, technological solutions to learning challenges will be soulless solutions to the great challenges we face in the world today. Problems that are complex require the cutting edge of our collective thinking. Unless technology is used as an effective tool, it will not provide the creative, socially balanced, and rigorously intellectual new ground that is required for humankind to survive and thrive into the 22nd century. In today’s complex world, we cannot teach everything that a student will need to know. Rather, we must help students learn how to learn, educating not merely for competence (skills, knowledge and attitudes), but also for capability—the ability to adapt to change, generate new knowledge, and continuously improve performance at both individual and collective levels. For much of the 20th century it was thought the brain was fixed in terms of neurological construction and function.4 There is now more evidence that the human level of intelligence is not fixed at birth, but rather the brain continues to change and develop at a cellular level throughout the entire life span.5 New, non-specific neurons are produced by our brains each day and are then added to neural networks supporting areas of high brain activity or focus. Neuroscientists refer to this as “plasticity” and this change in understanding is evidenced by advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging that give scientists a glimpse of what is happening inside the brain due to changes in blood flow, an indicator of increased activity and resource use. Using the brain in uniform ways strengthens the neurological pathways, resulting in predictable patterns of thinking and action. Our modes of thought build up associated areas of the brain, and this is summed up in Hebb’s rule: “brain cells that fire together, wire together”.6 This encapsulates the foundational tenet of neuroplasticity:7 the brain’s capacity to modify its chemical and physical architecture according to environmental demands and conditions. 8 Neuroplasticity recognises that mental dysfunction can result from the way we have trained our brains to operate. However, it means that we can also

 4

N. Doidge, The Brain that Changes Itself (New York: Viking Press, 2007). N. Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (New York: Norton, 2010), 44. 6 D. Hebb, The Organization of Behavior (New York: Wiley & Sons, 1949). 7 Carr, The Shallows, 27. 8 L. Cozolino, “Neuroscience of Adult Learning,” in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 110, ed. S. Johnson and K. Taylor (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006), 11. 5

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have the in-built capacity to expand our minds. Plasticity is not biased. It simply responds to the way it is used.9 The view that the brain is fixed in function and composition after childhood (with the consequent irreversible neuronal decay) has had a negative influence on the way educators view learning, particularly for the elderly. 10 The premise that the elderly cannot learn new things has prejudiced the fields of health science, education and community development.11 Neuroscience now reveals that the right sets of activities and conditions can stimulate new neural connections regardless of age. These reorganised cortical maps provide evidence that learning is an ageless skill. We might do it differently as we age, but the ability remains regardless. An understanding of how the brain functions seems highly relevant to how adults learn throughout the course of their lives. What we are learning about neuroplasticity in the elderly is useful to knowing how students can learn in a variety of contexts. Simple classroom “brain dumps” of information are not enough to rewire the student’s brain sustainably.12 However, engaging with the student on multiple levels has the capability of bringing about transformational change.13 As Goswami recommends, “biological, sensory and neurological influences on learning must become equal partners with social, emotional and cultural influences if we are to have a truly effective discipline of education”.14 What we are learning about the internet is that its usage is not only changing the way we access information but it is also changing the way our brains function. This introduces a fundamental change in how

 9

N. Doidge, The Brain that Changes Itself (New York: Viking Press, 2007). G. Boulton-Lewis, and M. Tam, eds., Active Ageing, Active Learning: Issues and Challenges (New York: Springer, 2012). 11 J. Tyler, Geragogy: A Theory for Teaching the Elderly (New York: Hawthorn Press, 1988). 12 T. Lovat, K. Dally, N. Clement, and R. Toomey, Values Pedagogy and Student Achievement: Contemporary Research Evidence (New York: Springer, 2011). 13 P. Greenwood, and R. Parasuraman, Nurturing the Older Brain and Mind. (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2012); J. Willis, “Current Impact of Neuroscience on Teaching and Learning,” in Mind, Brain, Education: Neuroscience Implications for the Classroom, ed. D. Sousa (Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2010). 14 U. Goswami, “Principles of Learning, Implications for Teaching: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective,” Journal of Philosophy of Education 42, 3 (2008): 381– 99. 10

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technologically savvy students conduct research, test claims, draw conclusions, make and apply theory, and undertake practical application. The internet has disrupted the status quo of print and television media, with which the academy had nestled comfortably for more than half a century. While the internet has given many more people access to searchable information, it has not necessarily taught those users how to think and learn effectively. Reading information (books, journals, magazines, encyclopaedias) on the internet provides a constant opportunity to hyperlink somewhere else for more focused information. Even our social connections (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs and LinkedIn) are intertwined with hyperlinks to more and more people and more and more information about them. This is now accessible from computers, smart phones, tablets and readers, through which we are continually interconnected. This immersion means we can be in the know, and in the now, as more and more of our life is accessed online.15 Greenfield16 found that the way people tend to use the internet is disruptive to the kind of cognitive processing that enhances “mindful knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis, critical thinking, imagination, and reflection” because people tend to jump quickly from site to site while multi-tasking with other activities (such as watching television, driving, using social media or talking on the phone), with the result that there are more stimuli than the brain is capable of processing effectively.17 Tapscott believes there is growing evidence that multi-tasking is not a strength of the human brain.18 The constant hopping from one idea to another means students tend to read less of an article and skim through information quickly, shallowly and with superficial interest. 19 Tapscott also found that internet multi-tasking results in people who are more likely

 15

Carr, The Shallows, 86. P. Greenfield, “Technology and Informal Education: What Is Taught, What Is Learned,” Science 323, 1 (2009): 71. 17 D. DeStefano, and J. LeFevre, “Cognitive Load in Hypertext Reading: A Review,” Computers in Human Behavior 23, 1 (2007): 1616–41. 18 D. Tapscott, Grown Up Digital: How the NET Generation Is Changing Your World (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009). 19 L. Ziming, “Reading Behavior in the Digital Environment,” Journal of Documentation 61, 1 (2005): 700–712. 16

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to accept the validity of conventional information presented on the web without questioning the quality of the source or alternative theories.20 Crowell found that information being so constantly and easily available prevents people from putting in the focused work necessary to remember important pieces of information because “I can always look it up”.21 This was consistent with DeStefano and LeFevre, who found that the “many features of hypertext resulted in increased cognitive load and thus may have required working memory capacity that exceeded readers’ capabilities”. 22 These social patterns of learning trends are contrary to established learning practice in which the act of remembering enhances the acquisition, application and retention of new knowledge and skills and with sustained attention less likely, short-term memories will dissipate without much chance of the long-term retention of key facts. 23 This is contrary to the quality learning experience defined by Sweller, who found both concentration and contemplation are crucial to building the rich mental models of complex knowledge necessary to develop expertise in any given field.24 Changes to the way humans think occurs very quickly. Small and Vorgan found that even short periods of internet exposure activated new neural pathways in the brain. 25 Within five days of brief (one hour) internet usage, there was a significant increase in activity in the prefrontal cortex of people without a history of previous internet usage. Over time, daily use of the internet “stimulates brain cell alteration and neurotransmitter release, gradually strengthening new neural pathways in our brains while weakening old ones”. 26 Meanwhile, Van Nimwegen found the use of software-based learning tools can have the opposite effect

 20

Tapscott, Grown Up Digital. S. Crowell, “The Neurobiology of Declarative Memory,” in The Neurobiology of Learning: Perspectives from Second Language Acquisition, ed. J. Schumann et al. (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2004), 75-109. 22 DeStefano, and LeFevre, “Cognitive Load,” 1636. 23 E. Kandel, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind (New York: Norton, 2006). 24 J. Sweller, Instructional Design in Technical Areas (Camberwell: ACER, 1999). 25 G. Small, and G. Vorgan, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind (New York: Collins, 2008). 26 Small, and Vorgan, iBrain, 1. 21

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than their stated desire—they can result in diminishing the ability to learn and retain knowledge.27

Effective Learning Involves Individual and Group Sensemaking Ultimately, useful learning will help students make sense of their world. Sense-making is a well-established theoretical framework whereby people give meaning to experience. 28 It is a way that we deal with ambiguity and uncertainty. In our personal lives, we all do it intuitively every day. To become an effective method for formal learning, it must be intentional and explicit. As Weick and Sutcliffe found, “to deal with ambiguity interdependent people search for meaning, settle for plausibility, and move on. These are moments of sense-making”. 29 Sense-making occurs individually and in groups. Conversation is a powerful way of creating shared understanding because “sense-making is a way station on the road to a consensually constructed, coordinated system of action”.30 In sensemaking, we talk mutual understanding into existence. Effective sense-making is built on certain foundations: x

Always seeking plausibility. Sense-making seeks plausibility more than accuracy—a workable, useful level of understanding to guide action rather than a search for an empirical universal truth. As Weick wrote, “in an equivocal, postmodern world, infused with the politics of interpretation and conflicting interests and inhabited by people with multiple shifting identities, an obsession

 27

C. Van Nimwegen, “The Paradox of the Guided User: Assistance Can be Counter-Effective,” (PhD dissertation, Utrecht University 2008). 28 D. A. Gioia, and K. Chittipeddi, “Sensemaking and Sensegiving in Strategic Change Initiation,” Strategic Management Journal 12, 4 (1991): 433–48; G. Patriotta, “Sensemaking on the Shop Floor: Narratives of Knowledge in Organizations,” Journal of Management Studies 40, 2 (2003): 349–76; J. Taylor and E. Van Every, The Emergent Organization (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000); K. Weick, Sensemaking in Organizations (London: Sage, 1995); K. Weick and K. Sutcliffe Managing the Unexpected. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001). 29 Weick and Sutcliffe, Managing the Unexpected, 419. 30 J. Taylor and E. Van Every, The Emergent Organization, 275.

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with accuracy seems fruitless, and not of much practical help, either”.31 x

Grounded in self-identity and world view. Who people think they are (self-awareness) in their context shapes how they interpret events and choose to act. Their general orientation projects self into their environment. People notice and extract cues from the environment and interpret those cues in light of values, beliefs, experiences, narratives and mental models. My thoughts follow familiar patterns that shape what I notice to comply with my wider framework for understanding my world. Who I am is revealed in what and how I think—and what I think is revealed in who I am.

x

Continuous and building on past assumptions. Individuals simultaneously shape, and are shaped by, the relational forces around them: My dialogue is ongoing, emerges over time, competes for attention, is reflected upon in hindsight and is subject to change. How we view the present is shaped by our past thoughts, feelings and experiences: To learn what we think, we look back on the patterns of thinking, feeling and acting in the past.

x

Acquiring knowledge for action. The role of conversation, stories and social processes is vital to the process of discovery. Shared meaning is created through shared narrative based on shared experience. People weigh up, assess and give weight to their construction of reality through the use of recalled stories in dialogue. I select my narrative to reveal perceived reality as I construct it.

Educators who ignore the human need to “make sense” of their world lose an opportunity to take into account the learner’s motivation priorities, previous knowledge, work/life situation, professional needs, and desired areas of development. All are powerful internal drivers for learning.

Effective Learning Makes Tacit Knowledge Explicit, and Explicit Knowledge Tacit Sense-making creates knowledge for action. 32 Knowledge that involves tactile experiences, intuition, values, emotions, rules of thumb or

 31

Weick, Sensemaking in Organizations, 61.

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unarticulated mental models is described as tacit. Tacit knowledge is not usually consciously accessible; it can be highly personalised and experience based. Therefore, it is difficult to communicate to others. Tacit knowledge is the art, insight and craft that is perhaps captured best in the term “know-how”. Tacit knowledge has an important cognitive dimension. It consists of mental models, beliefs and perspectives so ingrained that we take them for granted, and therefore cannot easily articulate them. 33 Polanyi was first to use the term tacit with the assertion “we can know more than we can tell.”34 Then there is explicit knowledge. It can be spoken, structured in sentences and captured in writing or drawings. It can be easily communicated and shared in the form of a database, scientific formula, recipe, manual, or product specification. It is accessible, transferable and systematic. An example of the difference between explicit and tacit knowledge is cooking a meal. The explicit knowledge is the recipe, the instructions that can be written down or captured in a video. The tacit knowledge is the intuitive understanding of the master chef—the look, taste, smells, touch, timing and techniques that only come with years of hands-on experience. Effective individual and group learning requires a continuous interplay between tacit and explicit knowledge, as seen in these four dimensions of knowledge creation and sharing:35 x

Learning: from tacit to explicit—the process of developing images, models, frameworks, recipes and examples to articulate tacit knowledge in a form that can be captured and shared.

x

Learning: from explicit to explicit—the process of organising and integrating knowledge to fit with other parcels of captured knowledge, recognising patterns and building new systems of knowledge, in modes that can be published and easily shared.

x

Learning: from tacit to tacit—the process of face-to-face interaction (for example, conversations, meetings, brainstorming, sharing experience, living together, apprenticeship and hands-on

 32

S. Smith, “Connecting People: Improving Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration,” (Doctor of Management Thesis, Southern Cross University, Lismore Australia and International Management Centres, Edinburgh, 2003). 33 I. Nonaka, “The Knowledge-Creating Company,” Harvard Business Review (November–December, 1991): 4. 34 M. Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966). 35 I. Nonaka, & H. Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

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experience) in sharing deeply known, difficult to express, personal knowledge. x

Learning: from explicit to tacit—the process of individuals receiving captured knowledge and, through action and reflection, internalising the experience to be deeply personal, subconscious understanding or expertise that cannot always be articulated.

The challenge for educators is recognising the importance of emphasising both the tacit and explicit in providing opportunities for effective learning. A significant challenge faced by teaching institutions is that technological advances to date have favoured the streamlined delivery of explicit knowledge rather than deep learning that comes with emphasising tacit knowledge.36

Effective Learning Cuts through the Noise of Life In the past 50 years, considerable research has been conducted into the most effective ways adults learn. However, the basic principles of effective learning are much older, expressed in well-known phrases such as “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand,” attributed to Confucius in 500 BC. Many years later, this old adage is reconfirmed as a valid foundational principle of learning in the concepts of experiential learning, 37 action learning, 38 reflective practice, 39 adult learning40 and transformational learning.41 Broadly speaking, there are two dominant theories of learning. A teacher-centred approach grounded in the behaviourist theory of Skinner sees the learner as a passive empty vessel waiting to be filled by the expert



36 I. Nonaka, and G. von Krogh, “Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory,” Organization Science 20, 3 (2009): 635–52. 37 D. Kolb, 1984. Experiential Learning. Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984). 38 K. Lewin, Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers, ed. D. Cartwright (New York: Harper & Row, 1951). 39 D. Schon, The Reflective Practitioner (New York: Basic Books, 1983). 40 M. Knowles, The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species (3rd ed. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing, 1984). 41 J. Mezirow, Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 1991).

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with prescribed knowledge. 42 In contrast is a learner-centred approach based on the constructivist theory of Piaget in which learners actively direct the development of their own knowledge creation through curious inquiry, drawing from personal experience and with input from a broad range of sources.43 While the behaviourist “classroom focused” approach has been dominant for centuries, in recent decades, constructivist approaches have gained popularity. This has been particularly driven by industry’s growing need to solve complex problems quickly and ensure learning is useful to real-world business needs. 44 Constructivism is essentially “a view of learning in which learners use their own experiences to construct understandings that make sense to them, rather than having understanding delivered to them in an already organized form”. 45 Constructivist approaches usually start with a problem to be solved or a current practice to be improved. These approaches all attempt to reverse traditional teaching methods, moving from shifting learners from a passive to an active posture that is constructivist, emphasising self-directed and collaborative learning, while the role of the instructor is to facilitate the learning process rather than download content. There is wide support in the literature for the constructivist approach, where the deepest learning is achieved through (1) exposure to rich experiences, (2) opportunity to practise, (3) conversation and exchanges with others, and (4) reflection on action. Building on the work of Knowles,46 Healey, Bingham and Smith,47 in their review of effective corporate learning and development practices, asked, “When do I learn deeply and effectively?” and found: x

I learn when I am involved in planning my own development,

 42

P. Sagal, Skinner’s Philosophy (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1981). 43 J. Piaget, Studies in Reflecting Abstraction (Hove: Psychology Press, 2001). 44 R. Revans, Action Learning: New Techniques for Management (London: Blond & Brigg, 1980). 45 D. Kauchak, and P. Eggen. Learning and Teaching: Research-Based Methods (Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1998), 184. 46 M. Knowles, The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species, 3rd ed. (Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing, 1984). 47 S. Healey, M. Bingham, and S. Smith, Global Best Practice in People Development (Sydney, Robertson and Chang, 2014).

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x

I learn through taking action and reflecting on ways to improve my practice,

x

I learn when challenged by problems rather than merely hearing about solutions, and

x

I learn when the subject is relevant and is something I care about.

Cutting through the noise of technology requires intentionality. While rigorously grounded in the theoretical fundamentals of each academic discipline, instructional designers can shape learning experiences around relevant themes significantly connected to real life.

The Nexus of Theory and Practice This chapter expresses the development of theory and practice within the ACOM. Making this explicit is important, as E. M. Forster commented, “How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” 48 While mindful of the four considerations previously mentioned (in neuroscience, sense-making, tacit/explicit knowledge and adult learning theory), the authors assert that, regardless of the technology, effective learning will “cut through the noise” with the student by being highly flexible, shaped entirely by context, built on the student’s expectations and previous experience, grounded in the experiential, powered by curiosity, and driven by the need for improved theory and practice. Some areas of experimentation in instructional design within the college are: a) Breaking learning into bite-size “chunks”—using small parcels of learning that require a shorter attention span, are easier to remember, and when integrated with one another, knit together to build a larger, comprehensive picture and increased understanding. b) Providing students with opportunities to plan their own development—choosing pathways based on their own curiosity and discovery, and granting ways to shape their own assessments based on what they care about and find relevant. c) Using action-oriented assessments that cannot be undertaken online—focused mini-research projects that cannot be done through googling and hypertext links (e.g. review this specific journal article, review this book and use the books in the library to…).

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E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel (London: Edward Arnold Publishing, 1927).

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These activities force the learner to focus on one source and go deeper into one primary source. Metacognition, the process of thinking about thinking, occurs when learners reflect on what they have learned, identify their own gaps in theory and practice, and initiate their own plans to improve their practice. This is an essential element of learning how to learn. d) Creating wisdom opportunities—Zeleny differentiates the layers of knowledge as information (know what), knowledge (know how) and wisdom (know why). 49 Wisdom adds human values to knowledge, requiring soul, discernment and judgement. Whereas knowledge involves understanding and communicating patterns–– wisdom involves understanding principles. 50 Wisdom contextualises “know how” to include the deeper understandings of culture, history, social interaction and spirituality. This happens through communication and relationship: the connection between various types and sources of information; comparison: contrasting information with other situations; implications: the consequences of this knowledge for decisions and actions; and feedback: the involvement of others in evaluating the quality and usefulness of the information. e) Creating “disorienting dilemmas” for deep transformational change 51 requires safe emotional engagement enabling the learner to detach from the known and face the discomfort of the unknown. This safe or held tension creates a climate for students to examine self, test taken-for-granted assumptions, create an awareness of a gap in knowledge and/or behaviour, and integrate new knowledge (cognitive, behavioural and affective) into their whole-oflife. Immersive simulations, real-life on-the-job situations and interactive case studies are useful tools that can utilise disorienting dilemmas. f) Using peer learning—in peer learning, students are required to self-organise in processes that enhance collaborative learning. This could take on a variety of forms: perhaps students write their own questions and then, in discussion, select the best one for their

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M. Zeleny, “Management Support Systems: Toward Integrated Knowledge Management,” Human Systems Management 7, 1 (1987): 59–70. 50 J. Rowley, “The Wisdom Hierarchy: Representations of the DIKW Hierarchy,” Journal of Information Science 33, 2(2007): 163–80. 51 J. Mezirow and E. Taylor, Learning as Transformation (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009), 19.

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individual assessment; or perhaps an experienced student coaches an inexperienced cohort of learners through a series of group gatherings as a catalyst, helping them engage with new ideas, challenge case problems, ask provocative questions, and support successful completion of group assessments. g) Getting specific about reflective learning—educators should specify what sort of reflection they are looking for in an assessment task. The type of reflection should be chosen based on the student learning outcomes desired. Donald Schon, in describing the value of reflective practice, drew a distinction between reflection-onaction (focused in the past) and reflection-in-action (focused in the present).52 Later, Killion and Todnem added the future focus with the concept of reflection-for-action.53 Mezirow took a different approach, seeing useful approaches to reflection being focused on content, process or premise.54 Another way to look at the dimensions of reflection is as follows. Content reflection is focused on what is happening. Process reflection is focused on how things are being done. Premise reflection is focused on critiquing underlying assumptions. Meanwhile, Smith adopts a four lenses approach to learning through reflective questions:55 What do I observe happening? (a focus on data) What do I feel about it? (a focus on emotional response) What do I think is going on? (a focus on cognitive analysis) What do I want to be different? (a focus on action for improved practice). h) Embedding learning into work practice—growing research into how adults learn reveals that effective learning “generally begins with a realisation of current or future need and the motivation to do something about it. This might come from feedback, a mistake, watching other people’s reactions, failing or not being up to a task—in

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D. Schon, The Reflective Practitioner (New York: Basic Books, 1983). J. Killion and G. Todnem, “A Process of Personal Theory Building,” Educational Leadership 48, 6 (1991): 14–17. 54 Mezirow, Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. 55 S. Smith, “Savouring Life: The Leader’s Journey to Health and Effectiveness,” (PhD Thesis, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney), 38. 53

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other words, from experience”.56 This has led to the popularity of the 70:20:10 educative model, which asserts that “about 70% of adult learning comes from on-the-job experiences, working on tasks and problems; about 20% from feedback and working around good and bad examples of the need, and 10% from courses and reading”. 57 This approach shifts the common learn then work paradigm to “work then learn, then work in an improved way”.58 The 70:20:10 approach is to be thought of as a simple heuristic model and not a prescriptive recipe. 59 It is consistent with other research in the field of adult learning.60 Yet most of our learning systems in school, work and life still seem formal and classroom focused. Not surprisingly, corporate learning and development tend to mirror what is easiest and least effective—off-site classroom-like information transmission. In comparison, fresh and effective learning architecture can harvest the best of the 70:20:10 approach and focus on learning rather than a focus on instruction by being: x x x x

relevant and useful (outcomes based) flexible (simple and makes sense) on-the-job (embedded in everyday practice) cost effective (not heavy in expensive face-to-face instruction).

70:20:10 learning is embedded in the workflow yet relevant knowledge is continually extracted from the experience of taking action through observations, peer review and personal reflection. Using this approach, educators are challenged to find opportunities for

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M. Lombardo and R. Eichinger, The Career Architect Development Planner (Boston: Center for Creative Leadership, 2010), iii. 57 M. Lombardo and R. Eichinger, The Career Architect Development Planner (Boston: Center for Creative Leadership, 2010), iii. 58 C. Jennings, The Point-of-Need: Where Effective Learning Really Matters (London: Advance, 2008), 12. 59 Corporate Executive Board, Unlocking the Value of On-the-job Learning (Arlington, VA: CEB, 2009). 60 J. Cross, Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance (San Francisco, CA: Wiley & Sons, 2007); M. McCall, “Peeling the Onion: Getting Inside Experience-Based Leadership Development.” Industrial & Organizational Psychology 3, 1 (2010): 61–68; A. Tough, Why Adults Learn: A Study of the Major Reasons for Beginning and Continuing a Learning Project (Toronto: OISE, 1968).

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students to apply new learning in practice immediately and also inform the depth of their theoretical understanding. i) Using problem-based learning—this approach is now used widely in medical schools around the world to ensure medical practitioners become skilled in both theory and practice. Learners: x x x x x

are presented with a real-world problem; through discussion with their peers, access their existing group knowledge; together develop possible explanations for the problem; curiously ask, “What do we need to know?”, and identify issues to be investigated; and collaborating, construct a shared model to make sense of the problem at hand.

The facilitator guides the process, providing a scaffold (a framework) on which learners can mutually construct useful knowledge (theoretical and practical) to solve the problem. Learners will continue to ask, “What do we need to know?” until the problem is adequately solved. j) Learning while taking action—Building on the work of Lewin, 61 Reg Revans popularised action learning as an industryfocused system to improve business practice, where “the end of learning is action, not knowledge.”62 Action learning is a form of peer learning with a group of colleagues who work on real, live challenges they are facing. The approach is built on iterative cycles of curious questions, usually in the form of: What did I plan to do? What action did I take? What did I observe? What are my reflections? And then the cycle repeats.

Conclusion Bateson wrote, “an explorer can never know what he is exploring until it has been explored”.63 Educators within the ACOM are on a journey

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K. Lewin, Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers, ed. D. Cartwright (New York: Harper & Row, 1951). 62 R. Revans, Action Learning: New Techniques for Management (London: Blond & Brigg, 1980). 63 G. Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), xvi.

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of discovery to explore more effective ways to learn, share and embed knowledge that is useful and life changing. While technology is changing rapidly, educators have the opportunity to use new tools to enhance learning. However, the authors assert that a rigorous andragogy will be the most useful tool in producing deep transformational learning. Regardless of the technology used, effective learning will “cut through the noise” with the student by being highly flexible, shaped entirely by context, built on the student’s expectations and previous experience, grounded in the experiential, powered by curiosity, and driven by the need for improved theory and practice. Effective learning will be holistic (respecting the psychological, social, intellectual, physical and spiritual dimensions of the learner) and deeply transformational (producing deep personal change).

Select Bibliography Banks, R. Reenvisioning Theological Education. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999. Boulton-Lewis, G., and M. Tam, eds. Active Ageing, Active Learning: Issues and Challenges. New York: Springer, 2012. Carr, N. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: Norton, 2010. Cozolino, L. “Neuroscience of Adult Learning.” In New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 110, 2006, edited by S. Johnson and K. Taylor, 11-20. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Cross, J. Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance. San Francisco, CA: Wiley & Sons, 2007. Crowell, S. “The Neurobiology of Declarative Memory.” In The Neurobiology of Learning: Perspectives from Second Language Acquisition, edited by J. Schumann, S. Crowell, N. Jones, N. Lee, and A. Schuchert, 75-109. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2004. DeStefano, D., and J. LeFevre. “Cognitive Load in Hypertext Reading: A Review.” Computers in Human Behavior 23, 3 (2007): 1616–41. Doidge, N. The Brain that Changes Itself. New York: Viking Press, 2007. Gioia, D. A., and K. Chittipeddi. “Sensemaking and Sensegiving in Strategic Change Initiation.” Strategic Management Journal 12, 4(1991): 433–48. Goswami, U. “Principles of Learning, Implications for Teaching: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective.” Journal of Philosophy of Education 42, 3 (2008): 381–99.

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Greenwood, P., and R. Parasuraman. Nurturing the Older Brain and Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2012. Hartman-Stein, P., and A. La Rue, eds. Enhancing Cognitive Fitness in Adults: A Guide to the Use and Development of Community-Based Programs. New York: Springer, 2011. Healey, S., M. Bingham, and S. Smith. Global Best Practice in People Development. Sydney, Robertson and Chang, 2014. Jennings, C. The Point-of-Need: Where Effective Learning Really Matters. London: Advance, 2008. John, M. T. Geragogy: A Theory for Teaching the Elderly. New York: Haworth Press, c.1988. Kandel, E. In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. New York: Norton, 2006. Keeling, R., D. Stevens, and T. Avery. “Biological Bases for Learning and Development across the Lifespan.” In The Oxford Handbook of Lifelong Learning, edited by M. London, 40–51. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Lombardo, M., and R. Eichinger. The Career Architect Development Planner. Boston: Center for Creative Leadership, 2010. Lovat, T., K. Dally, N. Clement, and R. Toomey. Values Pedagogy and Student Achievement: Contemporary Research Evidence. New York: Springer, 2011. McCall, M. “Peeling the Onion: Getting Inside Experience-Based Leadership Development.” Industrial & Organizational Psychology 3, 1 (2010): 61–68. Mezirow, J., and E. Taylor. 2009. Learning as Transformation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009. Nonaka, I., “The Knowledge-Creating Company.” Harvard Business Review (November–December) 1991: 45–54. Nonaka, I., and H. Takeuchi. The Knowledge-Creating Company. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Nonaka, I., and G. von Krogh. “Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory.” Organization Science 20, 3 (2009): 635–52. Patriotta, G. “Sensemaking on the Shop Floor: Narratives of Knowledge in Organizations.” Journal of Management Studies 40, 2 (2003): 349–76. Piaget, J. Studies in Reflecting Abstraction. Hove: Psychology Press, 2001. Polanyi, M. The Tacit Dimension. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

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Revans, R. Action Learning: New Techniques for Management. London: Blond & Briggs, 1980. Rowley, J. “The Wisdom Hierarchy: Representations of the DIKW Hierarchy.” Journal of Information Science 33, 2 (2007): 163–80. Sagal, P. Skinner’s Philosophy. Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1981. Schon, D. The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books, 1983. Small, G., and G. Vorgan. iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind. New York: Collins, 2008. Smith, S. “Connecting People: Improving Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration.” Doctor of Management Thesis, Southern Cross University, Lismore Australia and International Management Centres, Edinburgh, 2003. —. “Savouring Life: The Leader’s Journey to Health and Effectiveness.” PhD Thesis, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, 2013. Sweller, J. Instructional Design in Technical Areas. Camberwell: ACER, 1999. Tapscott, D. Grown Up Digital: How the NET Generation Is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Taylor, J., and E. Van Every. The Emergent Organization. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000. Tough, A. Why Adults Learn: A Study of the Major Reasons for Beginning and Continuing a Learning Project. Toronto: OISE, 1968. Van Nimwegen, C. 2008. “The Paradox of the Guided User: Assistance Can Be Counter-Effective.” PhD dissertation, Utrecht University, 1988. Willis, J. “Current Impact of Neuroscience on Teaching and Learning.” In Mind, Brain, Education: Neuroscience Implications for the Classroom, edited by D. Sousa, 45-66. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2010. Ziming, L. “Reading Behavior in the Digital Environment.” Journal of Documentation 61, 6 (2005): 700–712.

SALMON FISHING IN CHRISTIAN SETTINGS DAVID MORGAN

The delightful 2011 movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, directed by Lasse Hallström, tells how Fred Jones, a fisheries expert, achieves the “fundamentally unfeasible” wishes of a sheikh to bring the harmony-promoting pastime of salmon fishing to the Yemen. This chapter will argue that this fictional film raises issues of achieving what is often considered “fundamentally unfeasible” in Christian settings: producing quality online teaching and learning. The movie’s portrayal of fishing, faith and futility aligns with three issues of producing quality online teaching and learning in Christian settings. “Christian settings” as used in the title and this chapter indicates that online theological teaching and learning is not just using technology for the training of theologians or pastoral staff of churches, but a recognition that a large amount of theological teaching in Australia is service teaching, as detailed in Sherlock’s study of the reach of theology in Australia.1 The three issues in the production of quality online teaching and learning this chapter considers are: x The tradition of returning to what we are familiar with— lecturing to a class or writing book-like material for distance education; x The decision to undertake a “fundamentally unfeasible” task in one attempt by trusting a “man of faith”; and x The realisation that to make a quality product for online learning the process must involve a community and start smaller than the visionary leader expects. There are three major conversation partners for this chapter—the movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, the Larnaca Declaration on

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Charles H. Sherlock, Uncovering Theology: The Depth, Reach And Utility Of Australian Theological Education (Adelaide: ATF Press, 2009).

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Learning Design developed by James Dalziel and others in the field of learning design, and research from the fields of academic development and organisational development.

Genetically Programmed to Return to a Dull Pedestrian Life In Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Fred Jones says he is “genetically programmed to return to a dull pedestrian life,” a comparison to salmon which return upstream to spawn. This is a leading comment about how opportunities which should be exciting revert somehow to the dull and pedestrian. In the world of online learning and teaching, this is the return to using the online environment as a delivery mechanism for distance education material. Implementing e-learning in tertiary institutions by reproducing the limitations of distance education online is baseline or below expected standards according to the definitions of Sharpe, Benfield, and Francis.2 That is, rather than using what technology allows, what is called in the literature “the affordances”, theologically trained academics revert to recording lectures or preaching and disseminating these recordings online for their students.3 Or where they remain truer to their academic background they become writers of textbooks distributed to a class via electronic means. Both are time consuming, lecturer-centric, poor for learning and overall an unsustainable practice due to the amount of effort involved. Furthermore, when Christian institutions’ graduate attributes do not include any mention of digital literacy and their own academic staff have not been taught or required to embrace digital literacy, this leads to dull and pedestrian online learning. The nature and nurture of papertrained academics, their training and their ongoing scholarly development, make academics instinctively swim upstream from the digital back to the paper-based material and return to what they are familiar with. They may have added a discussion forum to an online offering, but it must be questioned whether they are really showing digital literacy to those who, while possibly not digital natives, are more familiar with being in contact via Facebook and Twitter.



2 Rhona Sharpe et al., “Implementing a university e-learning strategy: levers for change within academic schools.” ALT-J Research in Learning and Teaching 14, 2 (2006): 135-51. 3 David Day et al., “Affordances of Online Technologies: More than the properties of the technology.” Australian Educational Computing 22, 2 (2007): 17-21.

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This issue of returning to what the theologically trained are trained to do is not surprising to those who are theologically fluent. The definition of missing the mark when trying to achieve something is known theologically as sin. While saying that those involved in producing quality online learning and teaching in Christian settings are sinners may sound harsh, it is closer to the heart of what is happening. Sin in the context of online learning and teaching is not so much referring to sins of commission but sins of omission—rather than changing, the preacher or theologian returns to what they are familiar with. They swim upstream to their spawning ground, their training, and repeat the dull pedestrian methods inflicted upon congregations and lecture halls for centuries. Sermons and lectures have a place in face-to-face situations, but this place is much diminished in quality online learning. This tendency of returning upstream is also echoed in the Larnaca Declaration which says: A preference for content transmission approaches is rarely due to a sophisticated understanding of the evidence to support this approach, rather, it is often simply a replication of the experience of past teaching practices—that is, educators often teach the way they themselves were taught.4

To repeat the mistakes of the past is not new in theology, to sin again is not new either. The desired response to sin within the Christian tradition is repentance. If we are honest we also have other responses such as, sweeping it under the carpet, comparison to other people: “Oh well I am not doing as badly as so and so,” and “At least I am not an axe murderer”, but these are not solutions to the problem of sin. What is standing in the way of repentance is a particular pride: fear of having to change. This change costs and humbles us and we do not like the idea that the methods we were trained in and the methods inflicted in Christian settings for centuries may be less relevant in the 21st century. Organisationally there must be repentance too. Just as our textbooks talk of individual and systemic sin there exists in Christian settings both the sin of the individual and the sin of our institutions. Here the organisational sin may be seen in two responses within organisations: relying on an expert or turning a workplace into a psychic prison. The first response is the decision to focus all expertise into a single person and either have that expertise trickle out in interactions with other staff or

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James Dalziel et al., The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design, 2013. http://www.larnacadeclaration.org/, 31.

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through the mechanism of policies and procedures. This response ignores the development needs of the estimated half of staff, the sessional academics, who teach students5 and neglects the creative thinking required to develop those the expert does not interact with, possibly by the simple inclusion of these academics on email lists.6 As Hamilton et al. say: much remains to be done if … we are to effectively equip our sessional teachers; fully acknowledge the contribution they make to academia; retain experienced sessional academics and their accumulated expertise; and maximise their potential for learning and teaching leadership.7

The second response is to totally ignore academic development in learning and teaching and to turn development into minimalist compliance with a requirement mandated by the regulators standards current (2011) and proposed (Higher Education Standards Panel 2014). This in turn will create an organisation which Morgan describes as a psychic prison where the ability to work effectively in the new technologies is squashed as “favoured ways of thinking and acting become traps that confine individuals within socially constructed worlds and prevent the emergence of other worlds”.8 That individuals and organisations are not repentant is a different issue. If we were truly committed to avoiding “dull pedestrian” online teaching and learning experiences then we would be committed to excellence. This would be a commitment to another way of thinking instead of the way of thinking displayed by the creators of psychic prisons. If we were committed to excellence there would be a Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching in Christian Settings (CELTICS) created to serve those Christian colleges, seminaries, ministry training institutes and other educational institutions to help equip them in excellence for quality online learning and teaching. In online teaching and learning today, the university tradition of open access to resources is greater than the Christian commitment to unity. In the current environment, each Christian institution would prefer to think it has online learning and teaching right rather than open itself up to sharing and

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Jillian Hamilton et al., “Sessional Academic Success: A Distributed Framework for Academic Support and Development.” Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice 10, 3 (2013): 1. 6 Suzanne Ryan et al., “Barriers to Professional Development among Contingent Academic Employees: An Australian Case Study” International Journal of Learning 18, 4 (2013): 258. 7 Hamilton, “Sessional Academic Success,” 2. 8 Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2006), 2

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learning what is truly excellent to overcome any distinctive challenges of education in Christian settings. Here is another form of pride we must repent of—being institutionally oriented rather than Kingdom focused. To ensure the previous comments are not misunderstood one other issue must be addressed. The theological language used in this chapter refers to quality online learning and teaching in Christian settings. The use of such language is not to label a particular person as a sinner, risking their eternal salvation by not using appropriate technologies. While the students who have to suffer through lectures using approaches that are not at their own level of technological sophistication may feel time passing as if it is damnation, this is not true in a soteriological sense. However, there is scriptural precedent that reminds us that from those to whom much is given much is expected (Luke 12:48), and those who cause the littlest ones to stumble should be punished (Mark 9:42). While boring people using inappropriate means of technology will not lead to a physical death, punishment or affect eternal salvation, there is a question as to whether Christian academics are living up to their calling in Christ.

The Silver Bullet of the Man of Faith In 1986, Frederick Brooks wrote a paper entitled “No Silver Bullet”, describing the difficulty of writing software. His silver bullet metaphor brings the fictional idea of the magical bullet that can lay to rest the horrors of things gone wrong into technical processes.9 However, the conclusion of Brooks’ paper is that there are no silver bullets in the technical process of writing software, but that one solution may be to cultivate great software designers. In Christian settings, in online learning and teaching, and in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, this search for a silver bullet becomes trusting a man of faith. The wealthy sheikh as portrayed in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is not only a man of faith, but shows Fred Jones that in his fishing, Fred Jones is also a man of faith and it is this faith which will find a way to succeed in achieving the “fundamentally unfeasible”. In online learning and teaching this hope to achieve the “fundamentally infeasible” is placed in numerous tools and techniques: using simple processes and tools to easily produce material that will “wow” audiences, students or clients with flashy looking online materials,

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Frederick P. Brooks, 1986. “No Silver Bullet—Essence and Accident in Software Engineering,” in Proceedings of the IFIP Tenth World Computing Conference, Dublin, Ireland, September 1 – 5, 1986. Edited by H. J. Kugler. Elsevier Science.

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the use of new learning design software or a new technique to somehow ensure students are engaged. The promise is not able to be delivered; there are no silver bullets for developing quality online teaching and learning since good material for online learning is not necessarily flashy or easy. In Christian settings the silver bullet often is the visionary leader whose technique is to push a department or school to embrace online learning or “we will go under”, or it is the IT guru who knows there are better tools and techniques available but feels that management is not listening. On top of these silver bullets there is the time pressure to complete agreed upon changes in the first release of the new online material as there is no time to waste using the new tools or techniques. These tools and techniques are the silver bullets of the man of faith. These bullets, tools and techniques have specific names in different areas. Collaboration, matrix management, synergy and others are buzzwords that abound in the area of management. In online learning and teaching it may be MOOCs, Learning Design or the latest Learning Management System (LMS). The fact that readers of this chapter most likely know the meaning of the acronym LMS and probably have little recollection of what the letters of Moodle stand for is a reflection of yet another silver bullet, that is, a specific LMS as the solution to the horror of multiple faculty websites all looking different. Within Christian leadership the silver bullet is often vision, or mission or necessity. None of these reflects strategic planning as expected by the regulators but are looking for magical solutions over hard work. What should a theological response be to this man, or woman, of faith who is pushing for a silver bullet, a different technique or technology that will work at the first attempt? A possible response is to point out a confusion of categories regarding a theology of salvation: that is, conversion is not sanctification. The sheikh speaking to Fred Jones about fishing shows Fred that he is a man of faith, but this faith does not make the sheikh’s dream come true immediately. It has activated someone’s self-awareness to make a difference but has not implemented it. So it is with the journey of conversion, somewhere along the way the individual, family or group becomes aware of their relationship with Christ and responds to the grace they have seen demonstrated in the incarnation. This is not the end of the journey; conversion requires sanctification and we too must work out our “salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Such is the conversion experience of the man of faith who thinks he has found a silver bullet. He has had a conversion experience in finding the silver bullet but has forgotten he needs to be sanctified. The man or woman of

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faith needs to continue the journey and get it right themselves so they can say as Paul, “follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Cor. 11.1). The people of faith that the woman or man of faith leads need to be trail blazers who are supported as trail blazers, not wounded soldiers shot by their own management. The academics sensing there is no silver bullet need to be women and men who try technologies and sometimes fail. Hechanova and Cementina-Olpoc point out that business and academic commitments to change are different. In fact: Results reveal that in terms of challenging the status quo, respondents from academic organizations rated their leaders higher in terms of challenging people to try out new and innovative approaches to their work, asking “What can we learn?” when things did not go as expected, and experimenting and taking risks.10

In the Larnaca Declaration’s discussion of finding a notation, a language, to express teaching and learning it says: In many ways, the craft of teaching is still at a relatively amateur stage, and lacks the professionalisation that would come from a richer language for describing the essence of teaching and learning activities.11

This lack of professionalisation is also picked up in a college’s reflection of developing online learning and teaching: In sum, the adage of “aim, shoot, ready” works very well for getting such programs off the ground. We realize in many cases we are building the plane in the air, but we console ourselves with the fact that we are in the air.12

This acceptance of possible failure and recognition that we are amateurs when defining online teaching and learning activities is an attitude of humility. The visionary leader is often not humble in the push to embrace online learning, and the IT guru is often not an academic dealing with the realities of students ignorant of technology and technology that won’t quite do what they want. Here is where humility is needed. There is more complexity here than anticipated. This was Fred Brooks’ argument—you must cultivate great designers—but for those wanting to produce quality



10 Regina Hechanova, and Annah H. Healy, “Redefining and Leading The Academic Discipline In Australian Universities.” Australian Universities' Review 55, 2 (2013): 15 11 Dalziel et al., Larnaca Declaration, 4. 12 Richard Ferdig, and Kara Dawson, “Suggestions for Bottom-up Design of Online Programs.” TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning 50, 4 (2006): 34. doi: 10.1007/s11528-006-0028-y.

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online learning and teaching materials this means the development of great online teachers who design, often through failure, courses that are “faster, smaller, simpler, cleaner and produced with less effort”.13 This means trial and error, getting it wrong and seeing that failure is a thorn in the flesh where the grace of God can be seen more clearly (2 Cor. 12:7). This approach of trial and error is described at both the individual level and organisational level to allow the ability to experiment and to attempt innovation. However, in academic development terms there is some research indicating there are ways to encourage this embodied humility. Academic leadership needs to be seen as occurring in a number of locations: As a quality, attribute and capacity, it is evident in “local” innovators who sit within many strata of the organisation and operate as exemplars and sources of information and advice.14

This means that organisational leadership needs to be conceived of not as a man or woman of faith, at or near the top of a hierarchy, but as a dynamic network whereby there are ebbs and flows around expertise and experience. 15 The issue of the leaders in Christian settings often being male also needs to be considered. Zulu notes that leadership studies are recognising that women construct leadership and management differently and investigates this for the academic department where Heads of Departments are in the middle of a hierarchy. She states, “Women leaders are traditionally associated with leadership styles that are transformational, collaborative and participatory.”16 The US study on leadership styles of the “academic administrators” relationship with faculty by Bateh and Heyliger (2014) shows that there is much higher satisfaction from faculty when the leadership style of the administrator is transformational rather than transactional or a passive/avoidant type.17 In other words by utilising a management style that is more traditionally associated with women leaders then job satisfaction for faculty of either gender may increase.

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Brooks, “No Silver Bullet.” Hamilton et al., “Sessional Academic Success,” 4. 15 Jones et al., “Distributed leadership: a collaborative framework for academics, executives and professionals in higher education.” Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management 34, 1 (2012): 67-78. doi:10.1080/1360080X.2012.642334. 16 C. B Zulu, “Women leaders' construction of leadership and management of the academic department.” South African Journal of Higher Education 25, 4 (2011): 841. 17 Justin Bateh and Wilton Heyliger, “Academic Administrator Leadership Styles and the Impact on Faculty Job Satisfaction.” Journal of Leadership Education 13, 3 (2014): 34-49. 14

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Starting Smaller with a Community While not wanting to spoil the ending of a delightful movie one more point needs to be made. In the movie salmon are fished in the Yemen but there are trials and tribulations. In the face of futility Fred Jones realises that to be successful he needs to start with a small project and involve the local community. The first man of faith, the sheikh, still hopes his dream of salmon fishing in the Yemen will come about. The second man of faith, Fred Jones, has realised that to make the dream a reality it requires a small start and a community. So it should be with producing quality material for online teaching and learning in Christian settings. Starting small is a necessity, starting with a community essential. This is true in the history of church and it needs to be true in the development of online material. The church started with twelve disciples committed to our Master, a sermon, and conversion of a mass of people seeing the work of the Holy Spirit. The development of online material needs to start with a small group of people committed to mastery of online teaching and learning techniques, demonstration of the effectiveness of online teaching and learning, and the conversion of those less committed to the ideals. Kotter, in looking at change management, proposes a well-known eight step model of establishing a sense of urgency, creating a guiding coalition, developing a change vision, communicating the vision for buyin, empowering broad-based action, generating short term wins, never letting up, and incorporating change into the culture.18 While Fred Jones may or may not have been acquainted with this model he too comes to the same conclusions and so must those who want to see quality online learning and teaching in Christian settings. The visionary leader with the silver bullet believes the silver bullet creates the sense of urgency. Kotter’s model reminds such people of the need for a coalition or a community. Using the lever of change by fiat does not bring buy-in and the nature of projects that have to succeed guarantees no short term wins as there is only one large win or failure. In this discussion, starting smaller with a community has been related to the history of the church, it is also true theologically of the life of a disciple. Discipleship is often started one-on-one or in a small group context and then moves to a larger context. So the process of delivering online teaching and learning often starts with one person, but rather than



18 Kotter International, “The 8-Step Process for Leading Change,” http://kotterinternational.com/our-principles/changesteps.

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providing a silver bullet, they disciple others into the community. This is smaller than the visionary leader wants. In the history of discipleship movements we regularly see failure as the whole world has not been converted in a few generations of a discipleship technique, no matter how many visionary leaders would pray for it to be otherwise. However, God does not look for human effort but faithfulness in the small things. The issue of God being Trinity in community and continuing to use community to bring about his purposes and demonstrate his ways, means that God consistently starts small to have others join in his mission in the world. This too needs to be the way of those required to bring about quality online learning and teaching in Christian settings. The Larnaca Declaration touches on this: Educators are central to Learning Design as creators, sharers, adapters and improvisers, working together in professional communities of practice. As a model of education sector transformation, it is a model led by educators for educators.19

The issue raised by the literature on academic development for those in Christian settings is who is the professional community of practice? While an obvious answer may be that it is everybody else in the college as we are all teaching in a Christian manner, but this misses a number of issues. Harkin and Healy note that “disciplines have emerged as an alternative administrative structure to departments or schools in Australian universities.”20 It seems counter-intuitive that the organisation of a college into areas may affect the quality of online teaching and learning. For example, in Biblical Studies when examining a text there is often a requirement to observe the text and mark it in some manner. Whether this is an observation process or diagramming of sentences there is a highly visual aspect required of the online teaching of the process. If this is to be discussed only in the Biblical Studies discipline then the discussion becomes limited to the visual aspects of languages. However, if the conversation about quality online teaching were to include other disciplines that are very visual, such as the fine arts, then the important conversation about appropriate ways to teach visually online would be had for the benefit of the whole institution.

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Dalziel et al., Larnaca Declaration, 15. Harkin and Healy, “Refining and Leading,” 80.

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The previous example raises the issue of how we structure our organisations for quality online teaching and learning in Christian settings. The answer is not to have any structure but to have an environment whereby these communities of practices are located around common aspects of teaching and learning. It is not to ignore the disciplines but to go across the disciplines and try to have multi-disciplinary conversations. To return to the language of the Larnaca Declaration, those involved in creating quality online teaching should be “as creators, sharers, adapters and improvisers, working together”.21 The other communal aspect of teaching in Christian settings is that the community is a spiritual community. As the Alban newsletter reminded local congregational leaders, so do academic developers in Christian settings need to be reminded: While the social sciences are helpful tools in working with congregations (family systems theory, appreciative inquiry, and change theory) they cannot replace the practices of prayer, scripture study, worship, meditation and service. If these disciplines don’t become part of the culture then the church simply becomes the Rotary Club at prayer.22

In Christian settings, academic developers need to be people of prayer, scripture study, worship and meditation so that their service to the community is more than just that which is delivered elsewhere. There must be a spiritual community that the academic developer is both part of and developing via their development activities.

Conclusion This chapter has argued that Salmon Fishing in the Yemen points to issues that are seen within the development of quality material for online teaching and learning in Christian settings; specifically issues of our genetic or theological programming, our desire for visionary leaders to change things and the need to start smaller with a community. These issues have been answered with a need for repentance, to understand sanctification and to recognise the need to be small communities that are both cross- or multi-disciplinary and spiritual. This can be summarised as a missional approach to quality online teaching and learning. The changes forced upon, and required in, our institutions require us to rethink what we

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Dalziel et al., Larnaca Declaration, 15. Norman Bendroth, “Transitional Ministry Today.” https://alban.org/2015/03/06/norman-bendroth-transitional-ministry-today/. 22

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do, to go against our “theological programming”, to not be reliant on infallible leaders with limited solutions but to be imperfect builders of community in which conversion to quality online teaching and learning occurs. There is no question that this comes at a price and takes time, but if our academic institutions wish to achieve what those who study online with us need, then these changes mean we need to start to fish for salmon in Christian settings.

Select Bibliography Bateh, Justin, and Wilton Heyliger. “Academic Administrator Leadership Styles and the Impact on Faculty Job Satisfaction.” Journal of Leadership Education 13, 3 (2014): 34-49. Bendroth, Norman. “Transitional Ministry Today.” https://alban.org/2015/03/06/norman-bendroth-transitional-ministrytoday/. Brooks, Frederick P. “No Silver Bullet—Essence and Accident in Software Engineering.” In Proceedings of the IFIP Tenth World Computing Conference, edited by H J Kugler. Dublin, Ireland, September 1 – 5, 1986. Elsevier Science. Dalziel, James, Grainne Conole, Sandra Wills, Simon Walker, Sue Bennett, Eva Dobozy, Leanne Cameron, Emil Badilescu-Buga, and Matt Bower. The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design - 2013. Day, David, and Margare M Lloyd. “Affordances of Online Technologies: More than the properties of the technology.” Australian Educational Computing 22, 2(2007): 17-21. Duvall, J. Scott, and J. Daniel Hays. Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012. Ferdig, Richard, and Kara Dawson. “Suggestions for Bottom-up Design of Online Programs.” TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning 50, 4 (2006): 28-34. doi: 10.1007/s11528-006-0028y. Hamilton, Jillian, Michelle Fox, and Mitchell McEwan. “Sessional Academic Success: A Distributed Framework for Academic Support and Development.” Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice 10. 3 (2013): 1-16. Harkin, Damien G., and Annah H. Healy. “Redefining and leading the academic discipline in Australian universities.” Australian Universities’ Review 55. 2 (2013): 80-92.

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Hechanova, Regina, and Raquel Cementina-Olpoc. “Transformational Leadership, Change Management, and Commitment to Change: A Comparison of Academic and Business Organizations.” Asia-Pacific Education Researcher (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.) 22, 1 (2013): 11-19. doi: 10.1007/s40299-012-0019-z. Jones, Sandra, Geraldine Lefoe, Marina Harvey, and Kevin Ryland. “Distributed leadership: a collaborative framework for academics, executives and professionals in higher education.” Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management 34, 1 (2012): 67-78. doi: 10.1080/1360080X.2012.642334. Morgan, Gareth. Images of Organization. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2006. Ryan, Suzanne, and Asit Bhattacharyya. “Barriers to Professional Development among Contingent Academic Employees: An Australian Case Study.” International Journal of Learning 18, 4 (2012): 247-61. Sharpe, Rhona, Greg Benfield, and Richard Francis. “Implementing a University E-Learning Strategy: Levers for Change within Academic Schools.” ALT-J Research in Learning and Teaching 14, 2 (2006): 135-51. Sherlock, Charles Henry. Uncovering Theology: The Depth, Reach and Utility of Australian Theological Education. Adelaide: ATF Press, 2009. Zulu, C. B. “Women Leaders’ Construction of Leadership and Management of the Academic Department.” South African Journal of Higher Education 25, 4 (2011): 838-52.

SECTION FIVE UNLEASHING THEOLOGY IN A TECHNOLOGICAL AGE

VISUALISATION IN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION: A TAXONOMY OF PURPOSES, TOOLS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR VISUAL REPRESENTATION FOR THE NON-SPECIALIST ANDREW J. BROWN This chapter addresses pedagogical issues related to technology. It departs from a general categorisation of the purposes of technological or digital aids to education as related to one or more of the four following: information preservation, information organisation, information publication and information presentation. Narrowing down to the category of presentation of information, the paper asks in what way tools designed for data visualisation, rather broadly understood, can assist in effective communication in a theological education setting. The focus of the paper (and more importantly and appropriately, its visual presentation) is my own recent practical explorations of the possible applications of commonly available digital tools. These explorations or experiments have been conducted in the practical context of seeking ways to visually communicate useful knowledge in a theological education setting, and this chapter distils observations about the enterprise of communicating knowledge and achieving learning through visual means and offers recommendations of suitable tools for various specific teaching purposes. My mostly home-grown examples relate primarily to the teaching of Old Testament within Biblical Studies and to the teaching of Biblical Hebrew, but the concepts should be readily transferable to other fields of theological education, and they do not assume high levels of IT skills. I am attempting to show what can be produced not by the digital expert, but by the digital journeyman.

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Note to the Reader This essay is designed to be read in company with a visual presentation created using the online presentation application Prezi. This accompanying presentation is available for viewing online at https:// prezi.com/nv51-ekfnevn/visualization-in-theological-education/. The numbers rendered thus indicate the appropriate slide number within the presentation for my discussion at the same point. I have provided URLs for other materials that are also freely available online both within this article and in the associated prezi.

Introduction We live in a visually-attuned generation. Don Tapscott has called the post-Baby Boom generation in the West the “Net Generation”, and says, “Net Geners who have grown up digital have learned how to read images, like pictures, graphs, and icons.” 1 Numerous social networking tools are geared to the sharing of pictures; think of Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest and to a large extent, Twitter. Indeed, the online environment has given rise to an entire vocabulary of little square images, each of which denotes a separate digital social networking tool. (I was surprised during a recent visit to book product pages on the website of Cambridge University Press to discover that I was offered over 300 alternatives for social media tools for the purposes of sharing references to those products, and each social media tool had its own, distinctive square icon). 2 The social media phenomenon, along with the digital age generally, has fostered a form of communication where the sending of a picture is the most efficient means of telling a story. The recent popularity of infographics as a way of communicating information is a manifestation of the same trend. Infographics and information visualisations more broadly are tailored to the human mind’s capacity for high-resolution visual input. “Visual representations and interaction techniques take advantage of the human eye’s broad bandwidth pathway into the mind to allow users to see, explore, and understand large amounts of information at once.”3 Out of the five human senses, the eye is

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Don Tapscott, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007), 106. 2 http://www.cambridge.org/ 3 James J. Thomas and Kristin A. Cook, “Illuminating the Path: The Research and Development Agenda for Visual Analytics” (National Visualization and Analytics Center, 2005), 35. vis.pnnl.gov/pdf/RD_Agenda_VisualAnalytics.pdf.

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capable of the highest rate of data input, vastly exceeding the amount of information that we can input by means of written text (itself of course input via the eye).4 Look around you right now; imagine the resolution of which your eye is capable in terms of pixels. Concentrate for half a second, then shut your eyes, and search your mental image of the scene for its details. It’s amazing the degree of detail you can recall. Infographics and data visualisations exploit this capacity to make the transfer of information in high volumes possible, and to convey quickly a big-picture grasp of an information set or concept. This is not merely an invention of the communications age. It has been popular to utilise pictures since the dawn of civilisation, and alphabetic languages such European languages were preceded by ideographic and pictographic languages, like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Picture came before text. Text offers the advantage of making the communicator’s meaning more precise and explicit; pictures are suggestive and intuitive. These two forms of communication can be quite potent and efficient in combination. Infographics advocates often name William Playfair (1759–1823) as a pioneer in the use of the graphical presentation of information. “In his work, [Commercial and Political Atlas and] Statistical Breviary, he is credited with introducing the first area chart and pie chart,”5 along with a number of other innovations that went beyond what we would now think of as charting.6 More recognisable as an early infographic is the 1869 chart by Charles Minard of Napoleon’s Russian campaign, whose impact depends on illustrating the manpower of the French army through the ever-diminishing thickness of a line plotting the army’s disastrous journey to Moscow and back, augmented by a temperature chart and annotated with dates.7

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David McCandless, Information Is Beautiful (London: William Collins, 2012), 104–105. 5 “Infographic,” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, November 26, 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Infographic&oldid=634441585. The contributor credits the following source for this observation: H. Gray Funkhouser, “Historical Development of the Graphical Representation of Statistical Data,” Osiris 3 (1937): 269–404. I have not been able to access this source by the time of writing. I have inserted the full title of Playfair’s work. 6 E. R. Tufte, Envisioning Information (Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1992), 107. 7 Charles Minard, Carte Figurative, November 26, 2014, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.png. The work by Tufte, above, abounds with relatively early examples of graphical data representation, while a wide variety of much more recent examples of infographics

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 may be found in McCandless, Information Is Beautiful; Randy Krum, Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013). McCandless simply offers examples for the reader to digest, while Krum discusses the purposes and methods at work in the infographics he reproduces. Tufte offers the closest analysis of whether and how the visuals he displays achieve their purposes using the visual medium.

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Figure 1 (previous page) - Charles Minard’s 1869 graphic of Napoleon’s Russian campaign

My interest here is to consider the use and usefulness of visual means in the context of theological education, and specifically within the classroom setting. My own area of study is in biblical (specifically Old Testament/Hebrew Bible) exegesis and history of interpretation, along with the teaching of Biblical Hebrew. But the relevance of using visual media in the classroom extends well beyond these limits, and most of what follows would be relevant, I would think, to virtually any classroom setting. My reflections are based primarily on experimentation with visual media in the classroom, and secondarily on more recently undertaken reading in the field, so you might expect a practical orientation in what follows.8

Drilling Down and Defining Terms What Randy Krum writes about the term “infographic” is applicable to most of the terms encountered in relation to the visual representation of information: The word infographic is used by people to mean many different things. In many cases infographics and data visualizations are considered synonymous, but in the world of an information designer they mean different things.9

It would not be difficult to multiply examples of this problem of fluidity of definitions, so it will be helpful to define the terms for what I see myself to be doing here. The broad context for visual communication in the classroom and for the application of the digital tools I intend to mention is information management. More narrowly, I am concerned with information visualisation, which uses the term “visualisation” in a concrete sense rather than the contemplative sense sometimes employed in theological and church circles.10 This concrete sense refers to representing

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Most of the illustrations offered here are my own for copyright reasons and because this chapter was born out of experimentation for classroom teaching rather than from research. I provide URLs for notable visualisations that can be found online. 9 Krum, Cool Infographics, 2. 10 As an example of the difference, the idea of communicative visualisation is in view in the initial pages of Stuart Devenish, Seeing and Believing: The Eye of Faith in a Visual Culture (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2012), 1–4. But Devenish only uses communicative visualisation as a conceptual launch-pad for speaking about vision and visualisation in the contemplative sense, as a spiritual discipline or virtue.

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information graphically. Thus far there might be a range of motivations for rendering information graphically, including for personal study and selforganisation. Beginning to think more narrowly again in terms of a specific kind of communicative purpose, we come to visualisation for education, and my primary focus here, in keeping with the theme of this book, is theological education. Zooming back out one level for a moment, we can describe the range of possible ways of visualising information in terms of a spectrum that runs from a simple chart such as might be created using Microsoft Excel at one end to a simple sign at the other, such as the widely-recognised wordless symbol for recycling. The simple chart at this point in the associated prezi represents the barest graphical representation of numeric data. The elementary sign represents the most basic use of a visual symbol or icon that represents a concept rather than a quantity. The recently popular genre of infographic would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but often combines quantitative measurements and comparisons shown graphically with symbols or icons, and so may represent a point halfway along the spectrum for present purposes.11

Figure 2– Simple data visualization: chart of sanctuary terminology in the Pentateuch

 11

The impressive infographic cited at this point in our prezi is found at http://visual.ly/pharaohs-ancient-egypt. This was the visualisation that, more than any other, excited me about the possibilities of this mode of communication and publication

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At the chart end of the information visualisation spectrum we may locate data visualisation. Krum’s definition is a viable one: “Data visualizations are the visual representations of numerical values.”12 They are often charting enterprises at their core, but now often elevated to a new level of visual appeal and creativity, and enhanced with symbols and intuitive visual arrangement of content. They are also polyvalent, communicating multiple levels or orders of information. They are in enthusiastic use in business, in the sciences and in education, and with increasing symbolic content and composite structure blend into the realm of infographics. At their best they are visually impressive and create a powerful impulse to explore and understand their content more closely. The data in a data visualisation is are essentially numerical, as we have already said, and its their graphical recasting permits the viewer to see patterns in the data that would have been less obvious in a text list or a table alone. Therefore it is suited to an inductive thought process. The viewer, and even the creator of the data visualisation, are able to study the graphical output looking for patterns and trends. Such visualisations are often designed to be responsive to fresh data input that will change the visuals and perhaps lead to different conclusions. So I see this kind of visualisation as attuned to exploration by the viewer.13 In my experience there is some scope in theological education for data visualisation, for instance in this rather simple stacked-bar chart of frequency of three different terms for the “tabernacle” or portable sanctuary featured in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The chart demonstrates that the different books of the Pentateuch display decidedly different preferences in regard to terms for the national sanctuary, which may have thematic and authorship implications. More useful in the theological classroom is what I would call “concept visualisation”, which may involve an element of numerical data but relies mainly upon symbolic representation of ideas, and so belongs towards the other end of this spectrum. One writer terms these “visual explanations”, presumably influenced by the theoretical work of Edward

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Krum, Cool Infographics, 2. For an example of just what is possible in an intricate data visualisation, see http://www.brightpointinc.com/interactive/political_influence/index.html?source= d3js. By contrast, an example of a data visualisation that is attractive but almost devoid of any informative function, something explicitly admitted by the creators, see http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Visualizations/BibleViz. 13

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Tufte, and says that their purpose is “to explain an idea, a process, relationships, or a complex concept to the audience. These visual explanation designs use illustrations, diagrams, and icons 14 (and occasionally data visualisations) to explain their topic to the audience.”15 I include as an example a prezi diagram constructed for a recent sermon on the character of Zechariah from Luke chapter 1. I have attempted to display symbolically the way Luke presents the careers of Jesus and John the Baptist as intertwined from their very conceptions.16

Figure 3- Concept visualisation: Luke 1

In the prezi I have characterised the mode of reasoning favoured in this kind of visualisation as deductive, in that the presenter already knows what ideas and patterns s/he is trying to portray, whereas the data visualisation may yet hold secrets for the presenter as well as the viewer. So on the presenter’s part, it is intended to reveal more than to discover meaning, or to communicate more than to explore, though both kinds of visualisation should involve an exciting process of discovery for the viewer. The data in this case need not be numeric at all, but conceptual, and for me the priority is to try to visually convey the gist or heart of a biblical text or theme, to reveal the fundamentals that underlie the surfacelevel data.17

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On the importance of the simplicity of icons for their communicative value, in contrast to the distracting complexity of a photograph, see Tom Greever, “Icons vs. Photos,” Your Church 54, 1 (2008): 30–35. 15 Krum, Cool Infographics, 78. His chosen term is immediately reminiscent of Edward R. Tufte, Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative (Cheshire, Conn: Graphics Press, 1997). 16 https://prezi.com/zkmxhkbehlyg/dawn-of-a-new-day-luke-1/ 17 For a publication motivated by the purpose of representing biblical ideas visually, though not necessarily always the fundamental issues, see http://www.zondervan.com/niv-quickview-bible.

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Four Edu ucational Application A s of the Vissual Manag gement of Inform mation

> Our next sttep is a taxon nomic one. W We can clarify what we are doing w when we use visualisation v tools t and metthods in the classroom c by comparinng such use too other applicaations of visuualisation. As we w did in the precedinng section, let’s step back once o again forr a broader perrspective. Information managementt as it affectss the theologgical instructo or can be divided into four categoriies: x x x x

Publication Curation and d organisationn Exploration Presentation n

 Figure 4 - Fouur educational applications a tetrahedron

Privvate and publlic uses of information aree increasingly blended, as personall journals, photo p albumss, notebooks and scrapbo ooks are increasinglyy made publicc through meedia such as Facebook, Flickr and Pinterest. Soo more and more of what on ne does as an educator, as well w as in private life aand thought, is published. Yet Y the four pooints of the tettrahedron are still heelpful in clarrifying what we’re tryingg to do visuaally with information in various educational e scenarios, s andd how those different purposes reqquire differentt approaches to t visualisationn.

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Of particular importance is the difference in visualising information in a presentation situation, i.e. as part of a classroom lecture, and visualising information for exploration by a reader or viewer, for example on a web page or online infographic. The classroom visual must above all be simple and its point intuitively apparent at a glance. “Information visualization research has focused on the creation of approaches for conveying abstract information in intuitive ways. Visual analytics must build upon this research base to create visual representations that instantly convey the important content of information, within context.”18

Figure 5 – Visualisation in presentation: “History of Interpretation of the Creation Days”

The rule that a PowerPoint slide should not be packed with fine text is one element of a broader principle: the front-of-classroom visual is for big-picture communication, not for fine study. It must be kept to a low level of information density, and I think should progress in a relatively linear fashion, though the visual format may not necessarily be linear.19 A visual diagram packed with hints of fascinating finer detail risks distracting the student with tantalising paths that cannot be followed at the time, if indeed the instructor is trying to speak to all class members at once. In the context of group work or other kinds of activities, there might be more scope for such exploration. We are frequently reminded now that

 18

Thomas and Cook, “Illuminating the Path,” 35. Prezi uses a canvas format rather than the linear format of presenters like PowerPoint or Keynote, but the use of a presentation path introduces a linear aspect. 19

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lecturing is not the only possible classroom teaching method!20 Personally, I like the freedom that canvas-based presentation tools like Prezi give to digress from a strictly linear series of discussion points, but the fact remains that the need for orderliness of discussion requires at least an intended path to follow. All presentation tools provide for this. Visualisation for exploration does well to adhere to the ideal of simplicity as well as it concerns the amount of detail that the viewer feels obliged to handle at any one time, i.e. in any one view. A mass of detail with no visual clues to a hierarchy of importance can be overwhelming. A master diagram can, however, contain an awe-inspiring amount of fine detail suggested in links, tabs, radio buttons and icons, or simply compressed to near-invisibility but inviting “zooming”, indicating where a viewer might drill down for more information. Giving visual cues as to a hierarchy of importance relieves the viewer of the daunting obligation to mentally compute all the data at once, but holds open the possibility of further discover at will and at leisure. These devices for data compression come into their own in the exploration-style visualisation, which can have an almost infinite information density so long as that information is hierarchically distinguished, compartmentalised, or otherwise offered in optional and bearable doses. For example, the diagram pictured here clearly contains a lot of information in the fine detail, but by its sheer compression it keeps this detail out of the way in favour of the impression of growth and development conveyed by the visual metaphor of the tree trunk, while hinting to the viewer that there is plenty of scope for exploration.21 This could be, and has been, used in a presentation environment, but is better suited to exploration by the individual viewer. This exploration can be entirely impulsive and non-linear, a “choose your own adventure” of learning.

 20

Tapscott, Grown Up Digital, 129–134, 148. The full prezi is available at https://prezi.com/1dpuiawdwhra/the-creation-weekhistory-of-interpretation/.

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Figure 6 – Organisation & curation: research references in a large-scale mindmap using V.U.E.

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Figure 7 - A single expanded record in the same V.U.E. reference map

The same distinction applies when we compare visualisation in presentation with the use of visualisation in the curation and organisation of information. Here I am thinking of such applications as managing references, especially using visualisation tools like the timeline application in Zotero or the mindmapping function of the reference manager Docear. For my part I have used the tool VUE (Visual Understanding Environment)22 to mindmap a large number of references imported from EndNote via Excel. The resulting mindmap is very high in information density terms, and its only real large-scale clue to coherence comes from the fact that I’ve imported and arranged the references by historical era, so that there is a general movement forward in history as one looks from left to right. But large-scale intuitive meaning is not as important where individual curation and organisation purposes are at work, and search functions can assist in finding relevant data.

Visualisation Types and Tools At this juncture our prezi offers an example of an exploratory function for the individual user: the clock-like arrangement of triangles surrounding the central diagram just discussed lists a range of ways of formatting information visually, along with a single example of a digital tool or tool type that permits these functions. For instance, charting may be done using the online tool Tableau, and Chronozoom is a cloudbased timelining tool. Also listed are mapping, text analysis, corkboarding, mindmapping and picture curation, etc. Some methods of managing or pushing information, such as blogging or digital publishing, are not

 22

http://vue.tufts.edu

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inherently vvisual, but lennd themselvess to liberal usse of visuals, and so I have includeed them on thhis basis. Feel free to visuaally explore th his part of the diagram!

P Practical Examples E off Classroom m Visuals Sliddes 11–15 inn the prezi offfer my own experiments in visual communicattion, mostly intended fo or classroom or public speaking settings. Desscriptions will be kept to a minimum in rrecognition th hat seeing the examplees is the best way w to understtand them.

Presenta ations In “A Touur Through Ex xodus”, a NA ASA photograaph of the Sinai Peninnsula from space s sourceed through W Wikimedia Commons C becomes thee attractive and a functionall backdrop off a prezi thatt yields a series of titles for the epissodes found in n the book off Exodus, designed as a mnemonic ffor the basic sttoryline of thee book.23

Thee prezi concerrning the histtory of interprretation of thee creation week in Gennesis 1 and featuring f the tree t trunk, alrready discusseed above, exemplifies using a visual metapho or to commu municate a baasic idea

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https://prezzi.com/hmmdwkk96wakk/a-tourr-through-exoddus/

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integrating all the various pieces of information that the diagram might contain. In this case the idea was one of development, illustrating that the interpretive “career” of Genesis 1 can be understood in “history of ideas” terms.24

Somewhat like a visual metaphor, but more abstract, is what I have called a “conceptual icon”, again intended to integrate the information on a topic and make its outlines more intuitive. I have used the “star of David” motif seen here as an Old Testament-friendly icon to distinguish some key aspects of the work of interpretation: history, text and theology, and as intermediate concerns, composition of the text (combining history and text), themes (combining text and theology) and reception (combining theology and history). Each of these six areas gets a point of the star, in a schema used consistently enough that students grow comfortable with its communicative purpose.25

In a hybrid of intuitive classroom understanding with personal exploration functions, I have designed self-navigable PowerPoints using, in one case, a matrix whose individual labelled blocks may be clicked for further information, leading via PowerPoint’s “insert action” function to separate slides developing those concepts further. Those detailed slides in turn feature a small icon of the table that may be clicked to return to the

 24 25

https://prezi.com/1dpuiawdwhra/the-creation-week-history-of-interpretation/ https://prezi.com/dv-qmgflhpgo/psalm-79-the-temple-defiled/

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master slidee.26 In a second example, th he poetic featuures and key themes t of the Lord’s P Prayer as it apppears in Mattt. 6:9–13 in thhe Greek are displayed d progressivelly as the user simply watchees through a tiimed animatio on.27

Tablles Tables of information are a quite fam miliar to us, bu ut can be enhanced w with colours, icons and oth her visual cluues, or activaated with functions ass was the tabble or matrix just mentioneed. In one taable I use colour in cells to visuallise the figurres with whicch various pssalms are associated in their titles, showing how w psalms are often clusterred under associationss with David, Asaph, the sons of Korrah and otheers, or in thematic or liturgical grroups such ass the ascent psalms (120– –134). In another I coorrelate Egypptian pharaohs with their pperiod on a historical timeline andd also togetheer in dynastiess, with additioonal informatiion about their possibble connectioons to early biblical eveents. Both ch harts are relatively deense informatiionally, but offer a means of communicating key ideas in the classroom whhile permitting g further privaate exploration n.28

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https://oneddrive.live.com/rredir?resid=390 0D21A0F0F167753!801&authk key=!AH AiwZJcIpTezzw4&ithint=filee%2cpptx 27 https://oneddrive.live.com/rredir?resid=390 0D21A0F0F167753!767&authk key=!AA o6Gnnis3o5H HhQ&ithint=filee%2cpptx For advocacyy of the approppriateness of th his approach foor teaching bibllical texts, see Cara Pfeiiffer, “The Conntour Methodollogy: Teachingg the Bible in the t Digital Age,” Converrsations with thhe Biblical Worlld 31 (2011): 2004–16. 28 These slidees are best exploored by zoomin ng into them on the prezi.

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Charrts

Charts falll at the data end of the vvisualisation spectrum already disccussed. At tim mes a more datta-oriented vissual can be ap ppropriate in the theollogical classrroom. I have used a stackked column chart (or histogram) tto try to clariffy that the boo ok of Joshua contains seveeral major genres, not aall of them naarrative, requiring differentt reading approaches to properly apppreciate the book’s conteent. The y-axxis, which sh hould be labelled, reppresents a count of versess in each chaapter, each off which I assigned to oone of the threee genres.

Thiis donut chartt is meant as an a at-a-glancee breakdown of o the Old Testament ccanon in tradiitional Protesttant divisionss. The individ dual book titles havingg been abbreeviated in thee interests off diagram claarity, this diagram reqquires the use of a Bible contents page by the less biblicallyb literate studeent. But this diagram d could d form a handyy master diag gram for a

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self-navigating presentation or website in view of its clarity and intuitiveness.

A final charting example is the scatterplot diagram used to demonstrate the different sequence of the psalms familiar from our Bibles in the Great Psalms Scroll (11QPsa) found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. The x-axis features the numbers of the psalms as found in English Bibles, while the y-axis presents their order of appearance in the Great Psalms Scroll. This has relevance for understanding the formation process of our canonical book of Psalms.

Mindmaps I see mindmaps as belonging towards the “curation” end of the curation-exploration continuum, but they can combine these purposes in some situations. For instance, PDF versions of individual PowerPoint slides can be inserted into mindmap nodes as images, and some mindmapping tools I have seen cater for the setting up of presentation paths. Even without using either of these two functions, I utilised the mindmap on the left to display the fine texture of Psalm 148 in a presentation situation.

Other Diagram Types

The possibilities are endless, limited only by our imaginative capacity. Some options are rather obvious, such as the use of maps to show geographic information, and timelines to give detail to the

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passage of history. The frequency of a key Hebrew or Greek term may be displayed using a heat map. A family tree is a natural way to display genealogical information, and some version of a process diagram may effectively portray a narrative storyline or historical episode with its causes and consequences. More contemporary diagram types would include the text analysis at left, produced by analysing the text of Genesis 1 in the New International Version through the online tool Textexture.29 Some writers have helpfully catalogued the various types of diagrams that have been conceived, and these catalogues can be stimulating sources of ideas.30

Principles of Effective Visualisations Virtues in Visualisation These are my suggestions for what makes for both attractive and effective visual communication.31 I trust this is not a case of, “Do as I say, don’t do as I do!”

Clarity and simplicity Especially at the “presentation” corner of our purposes in visual use of information, it is important to keep the visuals simple and clear. The tendency is usually not to include too little information in one’s visuals, but too much: the error that Schweitzer and Brown call “creeping featurism”, the temptation to keep adding just one more fact.32 This is a

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http://textexture.com/ McCandless, Information Is Beautiful, 128. See the slightly dated-looking “Periodic Table of Visualization Methods” at http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html, and the exciting examples of cutting-edge interactive data visualisations in https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery. 31 See the discussion in: Krum, Cool Infographics, 271–304; Tufte, Envisioning Information. The same applies to several of his other books. There are briefer comments in Kenneth D. Snyder, “Beyond Entertainment: A Rationale for the Pedagogy of Technology in the Classroom,” Theological Education 42, 2 (2007): 32; Perry Shaw, Transforming Theological Education (Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2014), 197–99; Hyoyoung Kim and Jin Wan Park, “Data Iconology,” Journal of Arts and Imaging Science 1, 2 (2014): 1–3. 32 Dino Schweitzer and Wayne Brown, “Interactive Visualization for the Active Learning Classroom,” ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 39, 1 (2007): 211. 30

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temptation to which I admit vulnerability. One solution is by means of “incrementalisation”, on which more below.

Stylistic consistency This is a corollary of clarity. It aids user-friendliness to restrict ourselves to one or two kinds and sizes of fonts, a limited and complementary range of colours,33 and a manageable set of symbols. The result is visually calm and clean.

Visual prioritisation The relative importance of the different components of a visual can be implicitly structured in a hierarchy of importance using visual cues such as size and strength of colour. Such emphasis should be applied with restraint; nothing will stand out if nearly everything is emphasised, and the result is visually overwhelming. Restrained colours, fonts and object styles permit us to draw attention to a few key things that we want to stand out in the viewer’s mind.

Structural functionality Effective visuals get good economy out of what is included. Superfluous objects and text need to be eliminated, and some visuals achieve high information density while retaining clarity by making visual items serve two or three purposes at once. For example, the twin arrows that dominate my diagram of Luke 1 (above) illustrate forward movement in the storyline while actually containing descriptive analyses of episodes in the story.

Incrementalisation, i.e. digestibility We can communicate a substantial quantity of information to our audience so long as we give them permission, again through our visual cues, not to deal with it all at once. That is incidentally the failing of a traditional form such as a vast encyclopaedia page full of undifferentiated text. Hence we see recent improvements in creating contrast through bold headings, indentation, block quotes and such. In visual explanations, we



33 For help on this see the web-based tools: http://paletton.com and http://colorbrewer2.org/.

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need to draw attention to the main features of a diagram through visual emphasis cues, while “giving the reader permission” to put off dealing with other content by merely indicating its presence through icons, radio buttons, linking or miniaturisation (in a zoomable medium). These means indicate to the viewer that there is more to discover as desired without forcing the viewer to deal with a data deluge.

Intuitive navigability Even in a stand-alone diagram, there should be cues indicating what is to be found where. A historical timeline should clearly show what is early and what is later in time. The design of a conceptual diagram needs careful consideration so that it makes the ideas presented just as navigable. This navigability becomes all the more important when the diagram is a gateway to further information or resources for the user. The digital sphere abounds with good examples of navigable interfaces, such as the main user interfaces of the application GloBible.34

Aesthetic attractiveness Good looks are not an end in themselves in visual communication; the content still needs to be robust and worth mastering. But without good looks, the message is obscured and the content’s effectiveness can be nullified. It should look good, and the field of visual communication now yields data and concept visualisations that are significant artworks in their own right.35

Communicative effectiveness This is the flip side to the previous point; the visual should still communicate effectively. The aesthetics are not an end in themselves, at least not in visual communication in the theological classroom, so the quest for attractive diagrams must not overwhelm the communicative purpose.36

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See the explanation at http://www.globible.com/aninteractivebible/. https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery features some of the best examples I have seen. 36 For examples of biblically-oriented visualisations where communicative effectiveness takes a definite back seat to aesthetics, see 35

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Theological/biblical substantiality This is to make the prior point more specific. Does the point of the visual actually warrant the effort? If I choose to diagram the identity of the supposedly thirty-one different Zechariahs who appear in biblical narratives, who is going to care? We ought to spare ourselves the effort of going to great lengths to visualise information that is trivial in terms of our theologically-governed communicative purposes. Life is too short.

Subsequent accessibility and functionality If we want our visual resource to be usable independently of the classroom and of our presence, we need to give thought to what medium and digital location will permit the right degree of access and navigability. I have created detailed mindmaps at times, but they can only be used by the independent viewer after he or she downloads the program that runs them, and not many potential users will be this keen. This is the benefit of either a widely-used PC or Mac-based commercial package or else a cloud-based tool that requires no downloads to function, such as Prezi. Structural intuitiveness and navigability remain important once again.

Suiting Means to Ends The digital medium is a world of choices. When we first begin to test our wings in visual communication, some of our choices are made by accident. It may help to briefly make some of the necessary decisions explicit: x Which digital tool or medium will I use? Will my audience need access? Which medium will permit this? How much will it cost the student to obtain this tool? x Is my diagram or infographic static, something simply to be viewed, or will it be interactive? Will it include movement, such as animation or video? x Will the dominant visual feature(s) be abstract (e.g. an icon or geometric shape), concrete (e.g. a

 http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Visualizations/BibleViz. Edward Tufte’s writings are once again the place to see ineffective visualisations called for what they are.

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photo), or something in-between? Will it be largely free of extraneous elements that might distract from the main point? x Is the visualisation data-driven (automatic) or communicative (constructed)? Will the user input data to gain a visual result, be offered pathways to explore or be led to conclusions or goals that I have designed? x Is the structure of the visualisation flat, linear, hierarchical, circular, networked, or layered? Will the chosen structure suit the communicative goal? Will it aid navigation in the way I intend? x How will I cater for the kind of “information compression” that gives the user permission to attend only to the core matters at first? Will it be by using separate slides, web pages, through tabs, links, radio buttons, zooming, pop-ups or hover functions? How can I make my visual rich, but not dense?

Kinds and Purposes of Visualisation Here we are simply thinking about making sure the basic kind of visualisation chosen suits the nature of the content. A map naturally suits the communication of basically geographic information, including history that involves a lot of geographical movement. More straightforward history would invite the use of a timeline of some sort, though a table, process chart or some other form might also prove suitable. An interpretation of social relationships or linguistic semantic ranges might involve Venn diagrams. The form chosen should support at-a-glance intuition of the main ideas. We should remain open to a more left-field visual representation of our concept, such as the fairly well-known visualisation of the (excessive) salt content of various foods as salt “mountain” ranges. 37 It is a bonus where the visual metaphor chosen particularly suits the subject matter, such as the example offered by David McCandless where amphibian extinction rates are diagrammed using a globular mass of tadpole eggs.38 Just as intuitive, though perhaps a little

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http://thumbnails-visually.netdna-ssl.com/salt-mountains_50291099ec3d2.png McCandless, Information Is Beautiful, 176–77. McCandless’s book is largely a collection of infographics with little in the way of interpretation, but is worth

38

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facile, is the diagramming of patriarchal lifespans given in Genesis 5 and 11 using beard lengths!39

Sample Visualisation Tools and Online Tool Lists The associated prezi contains a work-in-progress table citing mostly free online tools for the creation of visualisations, arranged by visualisation type. I have also included online pages where I have collected examples using Prezi40 and listed digital tools that have proved or might prove useful in theological education and research, particularly in its visual aspects.41 See also my blog posts on visual learning.42 See also the slide “Select References” and its list of web-based resources.

Bibliography Devenish, Stuart. Seeing and Believing: The Eye of Faith in a Visual Culture. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2012. Funkhouser, H. Gray. “Historical Development of the Graphical Representation of Statistical Data.” Osiris 3 (1937): 269–404. Greever, Tom. “Icons vs. Photos.” Your Church 54, 1 (2008): 30–35. Kim, Hyoyoung, and Jin Wan Park. “Data Iconology.” Journal of Arts and Imaging Science 1, 2 (2014): 1–4. Krum, Randy. Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. McCandless, David. Information Is Beautiful. London: William Collins, 2012. Pfeiffer, Cara. “The Contour Methodology: Teaching the Bible in the Digital Age.” Conversations with the Biblical World 31 (2011): 204– 16.

 viewing with a critical mind, asking how effectively each visual example communicates its apparent main point. The same exercise can be done using the examples found in the NIV Quickview Bible: NIV Quickview Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), https://wordery.com/niv-quickview-bible-zondervan-bibles-978 0310442301. Many visualisation examples from this publication are viral on Pinterest and easy to explore there with a simple search. 39 http://visualunit.me/2011/05/29/genealogies_genesis/ 40 http://prezi.com/user/Andrew_J_Brown 41 http://www.pinterest.com/abrown5929/ 42 https://firstthreequarters.wordpress.com/tag/visual-learning/

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Schweitzer, Dino, and Wayne Brown. “Interactive Visualization for the Active Learning Classroom.” ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 39, 1 (2007): 208–12. Shaw, Perry. Transforming Theological Education. Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2014. Snyder, Kenneth D. “Beyond Entertainment: A Rationale for the Pedagogy of Technology in the Classroom.” Theological Education 42, 2 (2007): 29–34. Tapscott, Don. Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Tufte, Edward R. Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1997. Tufte, Edward R. Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1992.

TEACHING CHURCH HISTORY IN THE AGE OF FILM YVETTE DEBERGUE

Teaching any type of history in an age of film and historical fiction can be fraught with danger for the purists among us, whose history comes from dusty tomes and is not usually accompanied by popcorn, crowded cinemas or glossy paperbacks. How can we teach Church History when so much of what students think they know is actually based on movies or historical novels which are often wildly inaccurate? By seizing the opportunity to engage with students in their cinematographic or online world, we can design learning opportunities which advance their understanding of what it means to write and to teach history. A recent survey of students currently enrolled in The Church in the Middle Ages revealed that 50% believed that Pope Callixtus VII was the instigator of the First Crusade, whereas it was Pope Urban II, and an equal percentage were not aware that one of the aims of the First Crusade was to retake the Holy Sepulchre from the Seljuk Turks.1 An equal 50% believed that Richard I of England and Saladin became good friends during the Third Crusade, whereas in fact, they never met in person, although they did meet in battle at Arsuf in 1191. 2 This mythical friendship between the two main protagonists of the Third Crusade is also perpetuated by Hollywood, in its 1954 King Richard and the Crusaders, with George Sanders as Richard I and a debonair Rex Harrison as Saladin.3

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Pre-unit survey of background knowledge of students undertaking H7240, The History of the Church in the Middle Ages. No names or other identifying characteristics were recorded. 2 John Gillingham, Richard the Lionheart (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1978), 187. 3 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047150/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt. The movie is loosely based on Sir Walter Scott’s 1825 novel, The Talisman.

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The pre-class quiz further revealed that students’ knowledge of the history and events of the Crusades was based almost solely on the critically panned 2005 movie, Kingdom of Heaven.4 It depicts the events leading up to and including the Battle of Hattin in 1187, which then sets the scene for the Third Crusade to commence, where Richard the Lionheart saves the day (except, of course, he didn’t). Critics of the film deplore its portrayal of the Muslim-Christian relationship. Two leading Crusader historians, Jonathan Riley-Smith and Jonathan Phillips, both criticised the historical inaccuracies that abound in the film. Riley-Smith condemned the depiction of the Knights Templar as the archetypal baddies and described as “utter nonsense” the fictitious “Brotherhood of Muslims, Jews and Christians”.5 Phillips bemoaned the portrayal of Saladin as the suave and sophisticated (by Western standards) Muslim Arab as misleading. Curiously, there are more films made about the Third Crusade than any other crusade. There has never been a film made about the First Crusade, the circumstances in the East that made it “necessary” for the West to rush to the defence of beleaguered Christians in Jerusalem, or the conditions in the West that made becoming a crusader seem such a desirable occupation. Certainly there is no lack of source material, with five extant versions of the speech given by Urban II at Clermont in 1095, of which three writers are even generally believed to have been present when Urban exhorted his fellow Christians to leave off fighting each other and “fight in a proper way against the barbarians”.6 There are also diverse sources from the East, from Byzantium, and Armenia as well as Muslim and Arabic sources which may provide a more subtle analysis of events, people and places in the East as well as the effect the Crusading armies had on the local regions.7 But perhaps it would prove too difficult to obtain studio funding for a movie that would depict the slaughter of the Jews in the West, known as the German Crusade of 1096.8 There would also be the

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320661/ Jonathan Riley-Smith (2005, May 5). “Truth is the first victim.” http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/film/article2427154.ece 6 http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html#Fulcher 7 See for example, Francesco Gabrieli, Arab Historians of the Crusades, trans. E.J. Costello (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Limited, 1969, 2nd Edition 1984). 8 Robert Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1996), 55–60. 5

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massacre in Jerusalem of both Muslims and Jews in 1099 with which to contend, but no doubt the hero would rescue his lady friend just in time. The overwhelming emphasis from Hollywood remains on the Third Crusade, which ultimately failed to achieve its overall objective of retaking Jerusalem from Saladin. Students, both at an undergraduate level, and also adult education participants, an area in which I also teach, are thus instructed by Hollywood on what to think and how to feel about events that never took place, such as the mythical meeting between Saladin and Richard the Lionheart. This can also include the more problematic issue of historical novels being used as authoritative guides to historical facts, whereby one’s introduction to the Tudors relies on a book that borders on fantasy, purporting to be about the “love triangle” between Henry VIII and the two Boleyn sisters, Mary and Anne. This book was then made into a movie which continued along the a-historical path forged by the author, resulting in at least 15 “concocted fictions” and a further 5 events or situations where there is “no evidence or contrary evidence”.9 Historical novels are perhaps more of a problem for adult education participants, or at least for their long suffering lecturers who must try to convince participants that not all historical novelists were created equally, nor do they all necessarily pay equal attention to the written record of the Middle Ages-contemporary chronicles, secular and monastic, rent rolls and pipe rolls, songs and sagas, poetry and prose, manorial records and merchants’ account books, just for starters. While the philosophical questions, and the ethical and moral dilemmas associated with Hollywood and the Romance/Fantasy press are beyond the scope of this article, what follows are some practical lessons and activities designed for the undergraduate level, with the aim of engaging students in some of the known primary sources of the period or event and asking them to reimagine what they think they know. This can be done as a simple learning activity in class or as an assessable task. When I teach the Crusades, I start with a quiz, which can be done on paper or using a Learning Management System such as Blackboard or Moodle. The quiz has three elements; a True/False question set; a sliding scale for self-evaluation and then some general questions that require handwritten or typed answers. This means that only the first part of the

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Susan Bordo, The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen (New York: Mariner Books, 2014), 224-25.

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quiz can be marked by an LMS while the second and third parts of the quiz are designed not to be marked, but to simply be read by the lecturer and to help them understand more about the participants and their background knowledge. The True/False quiz is constructed with a mixture of fact and outlandish fiction (Richard I led the Third Crusade T/F; His brother John led the Fourth Crusade T/F). A question bank is recommended here, so as not to have the same question used each year or semester.10 A student’s knowledge of names, people, places, dates and perhaps more importantly, their knowledge of the motivations and the impetus behind the various crusades are evaluated. This is one of the five key learning enhancing tools recommended by Phil Race of University of Leeds: “Learning by Doing (practice, trial and error)”.11 It becomes a way of relating to the learning outcomes that are to be addressed in the assessment tasks as well and is an invaluable way of quickly arriving at an understanding of where the students are in their comprehension of events and also, and sometimes more importantly, where they may have gained this information from: Hollywood and historical fiction or reputable authors and academics whose opinions may vary but whose versions of the truth are not fantasy. The Sliding Scale asks students to rate their knowledge of the Crusades, from Excellent to Next to Nothing. Most students will rather themselves somewhere in the middle to the low end of the scale. Students are then asked what books and movies they have read or would go to further their knowledge of the Crusades, with hardly any undergraduates, and only about 25% of all adult education participants able to furnish the name of a historian who writes about the Crusades. Lastly, I ask students to name any films they have watched and the overwhelming majority of undergraduates will name Kingdom of Heaven. Most adult education participants will name the Cecil B. DeMille 1935 The Crusades with Loretta Young and Henry Wilcoxon or the 1954 King Richard and the Crusaders starring Rex Harrison and Virginia Mayo. Both movies, being based on Walter Scott’s The Talisman, depict the friendship between Richard III and Saladin as one of camaraderie and respect. This is curious, because the Richard/Saladin myth is not to be found in Kingdom of Heaven and yet undergraduates who have not seen the film still hold this “truth”.

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https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/moodle-quiz Race, Phil. A Briefing On Self, Peer & Group Assessment. Vol. 9. (York: Learning and Teaching Support Network, 2001), 21. 11

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The question remains: To what extent can writers and directors of historical films be expected to demonstrate an obligation to provide accurate depictions of historical people, places and events? Is it possible to be true to the source material and yet make a film accessible to a modern audience, who seem to demand good guys and bad guys, an archetypal villain as well as a leading man and his trusty sidekick, a love interest (preferably a love triangle with the aforementioned villain) and a car chase—or in the case of sword and sandals movies, perhaps a chariot chase—followed by the obligatory final battle scene. Rosenstone commented in his Visions of the Past: In principle there is no reason why one cannot make a dramatic feature set in the past about all sorts of historical topics—individual lives, community conflicts, social movements, the rise of a king to power, revolutions, or warfare—that will stay within the bounds of historical accuracy.12

“Engage more with the Primary Sources” When I was an undergraduate, every essay I got back from a certain beloved and esteemed history professor would mention this in his feedback. While I now find myself repeating this mantra to my own students ad nauseam, I have also devised some learning activities which allow for active engagement with the primary sources. Design the opening scene of a film about the First Crusade Task You will be designing and writing and the opening scene of a film about the First Crusade. You will work in small groups of no more than three students. Each group will be given the five extant versions of the speech made by Urban II at the council of Clermont, and your group must assess the legacy of each of the versions before you write your scene.13 This is not a test of your digital or cinematographic filmmaking skills, it is a test of your ability to assess the legacy and reliability of each version of the speech and to write history as it happened. Your group must be able to defend their position using such criteria as:

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Robert A. Rosenstone, Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History (Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998) 24. 13 http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/urban2-5vers.asp

Yvette Debergue x x x x Assessment Criteria

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What is the document? Who wrote it? When and where was it written? Why was it written?

Your scene must include conversations from other attendees of different social, cultural and religious backgrounds, discussing their various motivations for answering, or not answering, the call to arms.

30%

Your scene must include at least one version of Urban’s speech although more can be used.

20%

Your scene must include general background information such as where the speech takes place and who is present, and can include information about food and clothes and general material culture of the 11th century.

20%

Maximum word limit of 3000 words per group

15%

Each individual must also submit a 200 word reflection on your learning experiences in designing the opening scene and whether or not you thought it was a useful learning activity.

15%

This task provides students with the opportunity to actively engage with some of the primary sources that deal with the First Crusade and demonstrate their use in determining the outcomes of popular culture and fiction.

The above assessment task allows students to demonstrate an understanding of the very subject matter that is missing from so many of the popular cultural depictions of the Crusades. Such an assessment task could also be used for such things as the Witchcraft trials, the treatment of the Cathars by the Church in the 12th and 13th centuries or even the relations between Church and State in the Middle Ages as seen in the Investiture Conflict of the 11th century. Until Hollywood comes calling to make us an offer for our opening scenes, and in the absence (so far) of any students who double as filmmakers, there is still a vast array of sources not reliant on the Hollywood twist of the “tell” and the “happy ending”. Interactive learning, using short video clips such as the Horrible Histories clip on the Crusades, or others readily available on YouTube, can be a tremendous asset in starting a conversation about the learning material in any history course and in reinforcing content and are of course,

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readily accessible to anyone with internet access. Depending on what I am teaching on any given day, and on the age group to which I am delivering the lecture, I also use a mixture of the following: x excerpts from documentaries x clips from historians such as Dan Snow with his short presentations on longbows and crossbows x songs from the Troubadours and Trouvaritz of Southern France or one of Hildegarde of Bingen’s songs and two of my latest discoveries: x re-enactment societies who film their Hastings and Battles of Bosworth—every year—and make them freely available on YouTube and x those who use film and animation, a sort of poor man’s CGI, to retell stories and as far as I can ascertain, to depict fairly accurately battle scenes as they happened. The emphasis is on the visual but it is also a valuable way of reinforcing material that has just been delivered or required reading. Students all too often have pre-conceived ideas about historical events that are based on their previous engagement with film, historical novels, or TV shows such as Merlin or Camelot. By going back to the primary sources and asking students to imagine creating something that is historically accurate in a format they are familiar with, this enforces the learning content but also achieves the learning outcomes of the unit. “Quality learning is achieved when teachers and learners together deal with content in pedagogically suitable ways.”14 But back to undergraduates…how do we get them to engage in the right sort of information gathering processes and more importantly, should we evaluate this content and if so, how should we do so? Or if not, then who should evaluate it? Eric Mazur of Harvard University supports an innovative and integrated approach to teaching. 15 In addition to the relevant lecture material being delivered, Mazur uses a question and feedback tactic during class. Short, intensive learning-based activities are supplied during the

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Nick Zepke “Threshold Concepts and Student Engagement: Revisiting Pedagogical Content Knowledge” in Active Learning in Higher Educaton 14, 2 (2013): 99. 15 http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/03/twilight-of-the-lecture

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lectures, either directed at individuals or targeted at small groups, whereby the students must solve a problem and compare their answers with their cohort. Mazur rejects the traditional method of face-to-face lectures and offers instead a more interactive format where students engage with each other in a peer-to-peer exchange of knowledge.

Peer-to-Peer Quizzes Quizzes are shown above to be an invaluable way of ascertaining before a lecture, or series of lectures, the depth and breadth of knowledge of the individual and also any preconceptions that may need clearing up. The results can then be compared with an after-class quiz to see what information was retained and the ways in which it was processed. Quizzes can also be used in class or as an assessment, as a form of peer-to-peer learning. Actively researching in order to design and produce a quiz is an important way for students to understand and retain threshold concepts, enabling “a state of mastery, an induction into ways of understanding the subject that is shared with a community of scholars.”16 I recently designed two quizzes with Medieval History students, one on Medieval Popes (What Medieval Pope Are You?) and another on Medieval Saints (What Medieval Saint Are You?). I have also recently completed a quiz on Early Christian Heresies with another student cohort.

TASK You will be designing a quiz. You will work in small groups of no more than three students. The lecturer will assign a topic. (early Christian Heresies, Medieval Popes, Saints) You can use either of the following formats: multiple choice or true/false questions. You may include up to 20 questions. You can design your quiz in Quizlet or UQuiz or QuizRockets. These are free online sites. You will need to set up an account, which is very simple, and each student in your group may have access to the quiz so it can be worked on at any time; there is no necessity for your group to meet although you may prefer to do this.

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Peter Davies, “Threshold Concepts: How Can We Recognize Them?” in Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge, ed. Jan Meyer and Ray Land (London: Routledge, 2006), 76.

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Your quiz will be attempted by other students in your class, so make it fun and interesting by adding pictures and even audio-visual content. When your group has completed the quiz, post the link to the quiz to the Discussion Board so others may attempt your quiz if they wish to do so, although this does not form part of the assessment criteria for this subject.17 Your group must also submit a paper copy of your quiz for marking (via email to the lecturer or using the LMS), along with an individual contribution from EACH group member of a 200 word reflection on your learning experiences in designing the quiz. Assessment Criteria Demonstrated ability to engage with the learning content and apply to the Subject Learning Outcomes in designing a quiz

30%

Use a variety of sources, both primary and secondary to develop questions

20%

Include historical figures in context of both time and place, and inclusion of contemporary understanding of such figures

20%

Questions are clear and concise

10%

Quiz site is developed by adding additional media such as pictures and audio/visual content

10%

Reflection on learning experiences and provide feedback on assessment

10%

Rationale This task provides students with the opportunity to design a quiz that supports their prior and current understanding of the learning content and allows students to understand the importance of the Learning Outcomes in assessment preparation and tasks.

They have suggestions for content but are not confined to these and are actively encouraged to uncover the thought-provoking as well as the scurrilous gossip and scandal. Asking the how and the why of the individual becoming Pope or Saint (or both) takes the student into the era, the century, the country or region and the life and times of the subject. The student will also encounter any important manuscripts the subject has authored, or any written tradition associated with the subject under investigation.

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If an LMS is not being used, students can email the link to the lecturer and fellow students.

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Thus investigating a Pope from the 11th century would allow a student to gain an understanding of the dynamic and often opposing forces of Church and State during the 11th century while researching a saint can provide preliminary exposure to the medieval hagiographical tradition. In this way, students are engaged in preparatory learning activities, meaning that their time in class is then spent extending their knowledge of the topic, not starting from scratch. It is motivating the students to engage with the content of their choice in a meaningful way and also to participate in important peer-to-peer content delivery and discussion. Comparing saints’ lives, comparing the changing nature of papal elections from the 9th through to the 16th centuries and the shifting sands of power between church and state in a peer-to-peer context is not only ticking boxes for Learning Outcomes, it is also hopefully allowing students to enable their own future learning, their life-long learning skills whereby once a researcher, always a researcher. Once a quiz has been designed and formatted, students can then take the quiz themselves and test themselves on their own and peergenerated content. The idea comes from a study entitled “Enhanced SelfDirected learning through a content quiz group learning assignment” conducted at Murdoch University. 18 The empirical study examined the learning value of the assessment given to first year students, with the aim of promoting development of basic self-directed learning skills. The focus was on the different learning resources students turned to in order to effectively and successfully design their group content quiz. Quizzes such as the Multiple Choice Questionnaire and the True/False Questionnaire are often considered to be more in the category of Surface Learning and not Deep Learning: It is often argued that the explicit setting of “straightforward” assessments involving short questions testing separate ideas will encourage surface learning. However, again this is not necessarily the case as even the most apparently simple assessment questions can require students to demonstrate that their knowledge can be applied.19



18 Natalie Warburton and Simone Volet “Enhancing Self-Directed Learning through Content Quiz Group Learning Assignment,” Active Learning in Higher Education 14, 1 (2014): 9 -22. 19 http://exchange.ac.uk/learning-and-teaching-theory-guide/deep-and-surfaceapproaches-learning.html

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However, with the addition of requirements that students must interact actively and also demonstrate an ability to relate across different modules or topics, it must be considered that MCQ tests “can be useful for formative assessment and to stimulate students’ active and self-managed learning. They improve students’ learning performance and their perceptions of the quality of their learning experience.”20 Therefore it is seen that the choice of a content quiz designed by students, for students, to demonstrate their ability to understand learning outcomes and apply their own learning to those outcomes is a useful approach to assessment design. “Individual students construct learning through appropriate learning activities which also produce emergent learning outcomes.”21 Students are also encouraged to locate information from a range of online sources. This has the advantage of improving their digital literacy skills and introducing them to reputable websites that they can utilise into the future. Many students enrolled in a Bachelor of Theology will be working in some form of ministry upon graduation, whether as deacon or priest, chaplain or youth minister. They will encounter people who are far more digitally literate than they are likely to become and I see it as my role in many ways to arm them, if not with all the information they will require, then with the tools to access, analyse and critique that information, hence the emphasis on digital literacy.

Conclusion The way we teach Church History is changing. From the traditional lecture and tutorial format with essays as the only form of assessment to more interactive learning activities that promote Deep Learning and encourage lifelong learning, we travel the journey with our students. We steer them away from the more sensational Hollywood films and fantastic historical fiction which attempt to re-write history and guide them to different opportunities that can equip them with the critical and analytical skills necessary to research topics about which they may or may not have any preconceived ideas. And Gladly do I Learne and Gladly Teache

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https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/assessing-multiple-choice-questions Houghton, W. Constructive alignment: and why it is important to the learning process. Loughborough: HEA. 2004. 21

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Bibliography Bordo, Susan. The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen. New York: Mariner Books, 2014. Chazan, Robert. European Jewry and the First Crusade. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1996. Davies, Peter. “Threshold Concepts: How Can We Recognize Them?” In Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge, edited by Jan Meyer and Ray Land, 7084. London: Routledge, 2006. Gabrieli, F. Arab Historians of the Crusades. Translated by E.J. Costello. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Limited, 1969, 2nd Edition 1984. Gillingham, John. Richard the Lionheart. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1978. Houghton, W. Constructive Alignment: And Why It Is Important to the Learning Process. Loughborough: HEA. 2004. Race, Phil. A Briefing on Self, Peer & Group Assessment. Vol. 9. (York: Learning and Teaching Support Network, 2001). Rosenstone, Robert. A. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. Warburton, Natalie, and Simone Volet. “Enhancing Self-Directed Learning through Content Quiz Group Learning Assignment.” Active Learning in Higher Education 14, 1 (2014): 9-22. Nick Zepke “Threshold Concepts and Student Engagement: Revisiting Pedagogical Content Knowledge” in Active Learning in Higher Education 14, 2 (2013): 97-107

CURRICULUM AS SOFTWARE: A DIGITAL-BASED APPROACH JONG SOO PARK

The paper explores and presents a model of digital-based curriculum for Christian education suitable for the digital ways of learning, communicating, and thinking. After investigating core features of digital generations, such as Constructive Learner, Multitasking, Random Access and Instant Reward, it treats elements of limitations of analogue-based curricula, most current curricula, and necessities for a digital-oriented curriculum. It progresses to provide a new model of curriculum, curriculum as software. Curriculum as software is a curricular framework for embracing digital culture such as open-flat network, service-centred management, interactive communication, and offline-online hybrid space. This seems also appropriate for a new paradigm of learningteaching process. This paradigm consists of four stages: Analysis, Design, Simulation, and Service. In the process of designing units, 4R Movement, a new learning theory, will be utilised to encourage today’s young people to construct their own knowledge after critically analysing various information resources. 4R-embeded courses are implemented in the four movements: Reflection, Reinterpretation, Re-formation, and Re-creation.

Introduction The major focus of this article is about how analogue teachers will need to provide faith education to the next generation. A major feature of today’s students is that they are a digital generation growing up with new technology. The bottom line is that this digital generation is totally different from previous analogue generations in terms of their ways of thinking, learning and communicating. Digital learners prefer to obtain information quickly using multiple resources while many educators prefer controlling the release of

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information in a sequential and logical way. Another difference between these groups is that digital learners prefer multitasking while many educators prefer processing one thing at a time. 1 This huge contrast between the digital learning styles of students and the analogue ways of teaching will need to be overcome in order to educate appropriately today’s students.

Methodology This was a qualitative study aimed at designing an alternative religious education curriculum relevant for nurturing today’s generation living in this digital and multicultural world. To achieve this purpose, I led a case study of second-generation Korean-Australian (SGKA) adolescents growing up in the context of the Korean-Australian (KA) church. Three research methods were used in this study: (1) a critical review of the current religious education curriculum used for adolescents at four KA church youth groups in Melbourne, Australia; (2) semi-structured interviews with SGKA teenagers, teachers, and pastors affiliated with the selected youth groups; and (3) an analysis of written documents related to the religious education of the groups. Data collected through these three methodologies (data triangulation) were coded for further analysis by using an initial coding scheme. Subsequently, the constant comparative method was used for critically investigating coded data. Through the analytical interpretation of coded data, I described the major characteristics of SGKA adolescents, the educational performance of the teacher/pastor informants, and the key issues of the current curricula of the KA church youth groups. Based on these findings, I proposed recommendations for designing a new curriculum model for educating SGKA teenagers. Finally, I conducted member-checking by providing each informant with the interview report so that they could check the authenticity of the work. The purpose of member-checking was to improve the accuracy, validity, and credibility of the research project. These three strategies—data triangulation, the constant comparative method, and member-checking—consist of the threefold structure used to support the validity of the research.

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Diana G. Oblinger et al., “Is It Age or IT: First Steps to Understanding the Net Generation,” in Educating the Net Generation, ed. Diana G. Oblinger, and James L Oblinger, (Washington, DC: Educause, 2005). https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101.pdf. 2.2 – 2.7

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For this research, I selected four KA church youth groups in Melbourne as research sites after considering factors such as the number of SGKA students in the youth group, the degree of active youth ministry, and the possibility of participating in this research. To obtain written approval from each youth group, I met the senior minister and youth pastor of each church youth group in order to inform them of the research project, and then sent to each church council a copy of the Letter of Permission for Conducting a Critical Review of Curriculum and Interviews. Since this study is a qualitative research, much of the data analysis was descriptive and analytical. Both English and Korean languages were used in the process of the research.

Analogue vs. Digital Analogue ways of teaching have long been rooted in traditional curriculum models focusing on transmitting knowledge-out-of-context. The term knowledge-out-of-context comes from Arthur Applebee’s theory. Applebee argues that true knowledge can be obtained not from the cramming of knowledge-out-of-context, but from actively participating in the conversation with the tradition.2 The model of transmitting knowledge-out-of-context is closely related to Ralph Tyler’s schooling-instructional curriculum. Tyler’s rationale is based on the modern objectivist epistemology which “portrays truth as something we can achieve only by disconnecting ourselves, physically and emotionally, from the thing we want to know.” 3 Tyler believed that only objective and quantifiable knowledge could be transmitted to students effectively through scientific and rational curricular procedures.4 I found that the curriculum model for transmitting knowledgeout-of-context causes two fundamental problems in educating today’s young people for faith. First, the paradigm based on the modern objectivist epistemology is not adequate for nurturing faith because its concept of

 2.

Arthur N. Applebee, Curriculum as Conversation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 30-34. 3. Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998), 52. 4. Sang-Jin Park, “A Curriculum Model of Christian Education for Faith as Knowing God: A Critique of the Tylerian Model and a Search for an Alternative on the Basis of New Epistemology.” (Ph.D. diss., Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, 2001), 146-56.

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knowledge is totally different from the Christian perspective of faith as knowledge of God. I will talk about the features of faith later from the Reformed Theological perspective, especially from John Calvin. Second, the model is not appropriate for educating the digital generation because transmitting knowledge-out-of-context is distant from digital ways of learning. Thus, an alternative model for Christian education curriculum is urgently needed, and this will require a paradigm shift.

Three key factors for a new curriculum I considered three key phases when developing a new curriculum. First, a new curriculum model should be suitable for nurturing Christian faith. Second, a new curriculum model should address and engage the socio-cultural life contexts of today’s students who are living in a multicultural and digital society. Last, a new curriculum model should consider its educational context and issues. I will talk about these three phases one by one. The first phase is focused on faith. What is faith? We need to define what faith is first in order to attend to the limitations of analogue based curriculum and the necessity of a digital-based curriculum for faith. The definition of Christian faith is varied depending on diverse Christian traditions. Here, I will examine what faith is and how faith is developed through investigating the Reformed understanding of faith. If we survey the Reformed understanding of faith, we need to focus on John Calvin who built up the foundation of the Reformed Church and theology. In his book Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin regards faith as “the knowledge of God.”5 In terms of knowledge, he understands it as assurance rather than comprehension. 6 John McNeill explains the meaning of knowledge for Calvin more clearly in his editorial footnote, “Knowledge, whatever the word employed, is for Calvin never ‘mere’ or ‘simple’ or purely objective knowledge. … Probably ‘existential apprehension’ is the nearest equivalent in contemporary parlance.”7 In this respect, we can know that his understanding of faith is personal and existential knowing of God rather than objectivistic.

 5

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 1.1.1. 6. Ibid., 3.2.14. 7 Ibid., 35-36.

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Since, for him, the knowledge of God should be personal assurance rather than objectivistic comprehension, he emphasises the importance of piety to reach this knowledge. He argues that “piety is requisite for the knowledge of God.”8 For Calvin, to serve God through piety means to trust in him, and obey his commandments, through which we can know of God. 9 That is, the knowledge of God is participatory knowing rather than spectator-like. Calvin’s understanding of faith also has the communal characteristic. He thinks that because of our weakness, God established the church as our Mother who helps to “beget and increase faith within us, and advance it to its goal.”10 Only in the church, in the community of faith, can Christians grow together. This is the reason why Calvin stresses the education and discipline of the church for fostering and increasing a Christian’s faith.11 From the same perspective, he emphasises sacraments, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper as well in the church.12 In this regard, the knowledge of God is a communal knowing rather than individualistic. Last but not least, for Calvin, the knowledge of God is spiritual in that he underlines the role of the Holy Spirit in understanding the Bible. He argues that Holy Scripture is a kind of lens that assists the blind in knowing God. Here, the inner testimony of the Spirit is essential for people to understand the Holy Scripture and to have faith as knowledge of God.13 For him, the knowledge of God is rooted in the heart rather than in the brain, so it is important to observe and contemplate God’s work rather than being content with speculation.14 In conclusion, Calvin’s understanding of faith is that it is personal, communal, participatory, and spiritual knowing of God. Therefore, to nurture the digital generation for faith, religious educators should present faith as the personal, communal, participatory, and spiritual knowledge of God and develop an appropriate curriculum to embrace

 8

Ibid., 1.2.1. Ibid., 1.2.2. 10 Ibid., 4.1.1. The church that Calvin mentioned is the visible church. Calvin argues that since the invisible church, God’s people, is visible only to God, the church which is called “church” is the visible church, in which the elect and the deserter blend together. Ibid., 4.1.7. 11 Ibid., 4.12.1-28. 12 For Calvin’s thinking about sacraments, see ibid., 9.14.1-26; about baptism, see ibid., 9.15.1-22; about Lord’s Supper, see ibid., 917.1-50. 13 Ibid., 1.9.2. 14 Ibid., 1.5.9. 9

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these characteristics of faith and activate them. The purpose of religious education is to nurture faith as the knowledge of God, so these features of faith should be dealt with appropriately in the process of Christian education. In addition to faith, a new religious education curriculum model should consider the lives of today’s students. In terms of the lives of contemporary young people, there are two factors to be concerned. One is that many of them are living in a multicultural society, and the other is that they are growing up in a digital era. Since in this chapter I focus on the lives of SGKA youth as a case of the digital generation, I will tell their life story. As with other children of ethnic minorities, many SGKA adolescents grow up in a complex sociocultural context. While they are rapidly acculturating into Australian society through school education or peer relationships, they also have constant pressure from their parents or relatives to maintain Korean culture and values. This complexity has a marked impact on their lives, especially on their identity formation. Jean Phinney and her colleagues argue that ethnic identity development is a critical developmental task for ethnic minority adolescents like SGKA teenagers. They claim that “during adolescence, many youth, especially those from ethnic groups with lower status or power, may become deeply involved in learning about their ethnicity.”15 For ethnic minority adolescents like SGKAs, however, establishing an ethnic identity seems to be neither simple nor easy. They have to deal with various challenges in building a balanced identity between traditional and new cultures. Tensions abound as they seek to preserve strong ethnic identification and high self-esteem related to their ethnic group amidst prejudice and discrimination from the host society. Simultaneously, they have to resolve tensions with the parental generation which are caused by differences in culture and value.16 Among major social factors affecting SGKA young people, the influence of the Korean ethnic church is remarkable considering the high rate of church affiliation of Korean migrants in Australia. According to the 2011 Australian Census, about 69.1% of Korean-Australians called



15 Phinney et al., “Ethnic Identity, Immigration, and Well-being: An Interactional Perspective.” Journal of Social Issues 57, 3 (2001): 496. 16 Jong Soo Park, “Curriculum Innovation in Religious Education for SecondGeneration Korean-Australian Adolescents in the Korean-Australian Reformed Church,” 180-87.

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themselves Christians.17 This figure indicates that a considerable number of SGKA children have grown up with a close connection with the Korean ethnic church. From the beginning of Korean migration into Australia, the Korean immigrant church has not only been a religious organisation, but also an essential ethnic educational institution providing ethnic influences. The Korean ethnic church has provided a setting in which they speak Korean, respect elders, and feel group solidarity, which may be helpful in activating their ethnicity. Through church education, many SGKA children have been able to learn Korean culture, values, and language more systematically than at home.18 It is noted that a sense of intimacy within the Korean community is an essential factor calling SGKA adolescents to the Korean ethnic church. It was remarkable that many SGKA students who feel comfortable in English answer that they prefer the Korean ethnic church to the local church because they want to communicate with people who have a similar experience of growing up and similar cultural background. Ben, the thirtynine year old second-generation youth pastor in the Southeast church, described this phenomenon as a need of heart language, the desire to connect with people who share an identity.19 Interestingly, in relation to the process of finding where they stand between two cultures, faith is considered as the hub of two cultures because faith provides them with an identity that is bigger than cultural identity, namely Christian identity. Through faith in Jesus Christ, they believe, different cultures can be harmonised or integrated into a new third culture. Therefore, many SGKA students said that faith helps them to resolve the identity confusion between Korean and Australian cultures. Faith is also a shelter from a sense of marginalisation for them. When SGKAs realise that they are an ethnic minority in Australia, they are likely to feel discrimination because of racial difference, and sometimes they have a sense of marginalisation. Through this interview project, I



17 Australian Bureau of Statistics, “2011 Census of Population and Housing: Religious Affiliation (RELP) - 1 Digit Level by Ancestry1st Response (ANC1P) 4 Digit Level.” 18 George Knight et al., “A Social Cognitive Model of the Development of Ethnic Identity and Ethnically Based Behaviours.” In Ethnic Identity: Formation and Transmission among Hispanics and Other Minorities, edited by Martha Bernal and George Knight (Albany, NY: University of New York Press, 1993). 19 Jong Soo Park, “Curriculum Innovation in Religious Education for SecondGeneration Korean-Australian Adolescents in the Korean-Australian Reformed Church,” 203-4.

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found that there are many SGKA adolescents who have felt discrimination at school or in other environments because of their race. The students in this research who have experienced racial discrimination tended to be eager to find a sense of fellowship in other places. At this point, faith seems to provide them with a strong sense of belonging. Russell Jeung argues that faith provides ethnic minority youth with “a chance to escape the undesirable aspects of their racial status by adopting an alternative identity, by making Christianity the locus of their identity.”20 Kelly Chong also argues that faith provides a kind of refuge from the sense of alienation or brokenness based on racial difference.21 Contemporary students’ cultural issues and preferences are different depending on their socio-cultural contexts. However, the fact that they are living in a digital society can be applied to most of today’s generation. They are being influenced by digital culture, slightly or seriously. Then, what is digital culture? In order to highlight features of digital culture I will compare two forms of culture—analogue and digital. Above all, analogue culture is based on mass communication. Mass communication refers to the unilateral transmission of information to many people through mass media such as television, radio, and newspapers. In this form of communication, ordinary people become mass audiences who receive information passively. Typically, students in educational institutions also tend to be passive mass audiences who memorise information provided by teachers. In mass communication, offline face-to-face communication has long been a dominant form of social interaction. Therefore, education has been traditionally considered as a face-to-face interaction between the teacher and students in a physical classroom.22 However, in the digital era, the major form of communication is shifting from mass communication to mass self-communication. Mass self-communication is different from traditional mass communication in that it is “self-generated in content, self-directed in emission, and self-



20 Rebecca Kim, “Second-Generation Korean American Evangelicals: Ethnic, Multiethnic, or White Campus Ministries,” Sociology of Religion 65, 1 (2004): 22. 21 Kelly H. Chong, “What It Means To Be Christian: The Role of Religion in the Construction of Ethnic Identity and Boundary Among Second-Generation Korean Americans,” Sociology of Religion 59, 3 (1998): 262. 22 Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2010), x-xvi.

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selected in reception by many who communicate with many.” 23 In the mass self-communication era, the ways of information acquisition have undergone a revolutionary transformation to incorporate internet-based wireless technologies. Now, people can easily get necessary information anytime and anywhere if they are connected to the Internet. Furthermore, today’s generation can create their own content and distribute it via email, blogs, or various social media platforms. Naturally, this mass-self communication style generates an interactive exchange of information and an online-offline hybrid network.24 In addition, digital culture is based on service-centred orientation, while analogue culture is focused on manufacturing itself. Fredrik Svahn explains, “Within a service-oriented paradigm services are under continuous reassessment within a polyarchic, non-linear and relatively open innovation network, making offers evolve over time.”25 In this open and flat network, even ordinary people are allowed to participate in a process for attending to their matter of interest. Gary Pisano and Roberto Verganti call this mode Innovation Community. 26 As such, interactive communication, online-offline hybrid network, service-centred orientation, and open-flat collaboration mode are representative characteristics of digital culture. These digital features have influenced the way that students of the digital generation think, learn and communicate. These tendencies should be considered and embraced in a new curriculum for the digital generation. Before moving to the next phase, it is necessary to discuss the concept of a constructive learner in further depth because this is one of the key principles that today’s educators should understand. Malcolm Brown argues that in a digital world learning does not mean just memorising fragmented information. For him, learning means creating one’s own knowledge through critically evaluating and integrating what they learned by using various tools. In this regard, he claims that constructionism is an appropriate learning paradigm for today’s students:

 23

Ibid., x. Ibid., viii. 25 Fredrik Svahn, “The Sociomateriality of Competing Technological Regimes in Digital Innovation,” in The 32nd Information Systems Research Seminar in Scandinavia: Inclusive Design, ed. Judith Molka-Danielsen. (Molde University College, Molde, Norway, August 9-12, 2009), 26. 26 Gary P. Pisano and Roberto Verganti, “Which Kind of Collaboration is Right for You?” Harvard Business Review 12 (2008): 5. 24

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[T]his theory holds that learners construct knowledge by understanding new information building on their current understanding and expertise. Constructivism contradicts the idea that learning is the transmission of content to a passive receiver. Instead, it views learning as an active process, always based on the learner’s current understanding or intellectual paradigm. Knowledge is constructed by assimilating new information into the learner’s knowledge paradigm. A learner does not come to a classroom or a course Web site with a mind that is a tabula rasa, a blank slate. Each learner arrives at a learning “site” with some pre-existing level of understanding.27

In this respect, traditional concepts of school and teacher have rapidly changed. For example, for members born in the digital generation, school is no longer the primary space for learning. They can learn what they need anytime and anywhere beyond school due to the revolution of information technologies and communication.28 For today’s students, teachers also are just one of a number of reliable sources. In this situation, a new image of the teacher is being formed: teacher as a designer. Under this concept teachers should design appropriate learning environments to enable students to create their own knowledge by actively and critically participating in the process of learning.29 The last phase to be considered in developing a new curriculum for digital generation is educational context. Every educational context has its specific issues and unique features. In this article, I will present educational issues of Korean migrant churches in Australia. Through analysis of the current curricula of the four KA church youth groups, I found that the curriculum of each of the four youth groups was fragmented in four ways. First, their major curricular facets such as sermon, Bible study, and educational activities were separated from one another because of their textbook-centred curriculum. Second, each curriculum was separated from students’ daily lives. Its topics, content and learning methodologies were not appropriate for their real concerns at home and in school. Third, there was little evaluation of their educational and curricular activities. Consequently, chronic educational problems were inclined to continue without critical assessment. Finally, each curriculum was designed within approaches of mono-cultural education focusing on

 27

Malcolm Brown, “Learning Spaces,” in Educating the Net Generation, 12.4. Steve Anderson and Anne Balsamo, “A Pedagogy for Original Synners,” in Digital Youth, Innovation and the Unexpected, ed. Tara McPherson (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008), 245-46. 29 André Mottart et al., “Digitization and Culture,” Interactive Educational Multimedia 8, 4 (2004): 30-34. 28

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Korean ways and values, being indifferent to the multicultural environments they are living in. As a result, there seemed to be little educational synergy, consistency and improvement in the curriculum planning and practices of the four youth groups. It should be emphasised that that these four issues indicating the curriculum fragmentation of the four KA church youth groups are byproducts of the model of transmitting knowledge-out-of-context.

Curriculum as Software Until now, I have discussed three key foundations, on which I established a new curriculum model: curriculum as software. Curriculum as software is a model of digital-based Christian education curriculum for the digital generation. It is noted that in this chapter digital-based curriculum does not mean developing new technology-embedded digital textbooks or resources. Instead, it means developing a conceptual framework that helps teachers understand today’s digital generation, and guides educators to use various digital or analogue materials more appropriately for religious education. Without such curricular framework, digital technologies and resources will have limited educational benefits. The concept of software provides scaffolding suitable for teachers to accept digital ways of learning, thinking, and communicating and help teachers facilitate students’ knowledge construction. 30 The core of curriculum as software is focused on a process to fit the particular educational environment and the particular users for whom a curriculum is designed. Thus, the construction of curriculum as software is not a onetime production, but a continual process to be updated and upgraded according to the specific educational space and users. The development process of curriculum as software consists of four stages: analysis, design, simulation, and service. These four stages are not based on a linear process, but a spiral movement. Service, the last stage, is oriented to updates and upgrades, so is directly related to the analysis stage of the next version of curriculum.31 The first stage of curriculum development is analysis. Analysis refers to advance preparation for designing a course. There are a number of critical assessments to be undertaken in this phase including a critical

 30 31

Jong Soo Park, Christian Education Curriculum for the Digital Generation, 208. Ibid., 211-26.

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evaluation of the former curriculum and user experience. Based on the results of curriculum evaluation and analysis of user experience, curricularists determine the direction, goals, and content of the new course. Design is the second stage. Since the purpose of curriculum as software is to encourage students to create their own knowledge, curriculum planners should design new educational programs for enabling students to integrate a diverse of information obtained in the learning process. For this, I propose a new teaching-learning process equipping students with the skills of critical synthesis called the 4R movement. The 4R consists of four movements: reflection, reinterpretation, re-formation, and re-creation. For a good 4R-equipped lesson, teachers should focus on deep contemplation of the day’s Scripture more than anything else. The 4R is a process to communicate the insights and implications found through teachers’ deep meditation with today’s digital students, considering their ways of learning, thinking, and communicating. Of the 4R stages, reformation is the moment in which the key insights of the day’s scripture are communicated through various channels, such as peer discussion, cooperative learning methods, or creative instruction. This is the time of Kerygma (Proclamation). For this, the proper time of Reflection and Reinterpretation are needed. During the time of Reflection, students’ former experiences and opinions related to today’s topic are derived through creative questions or discussion. Reinterpretation is the movement for deepening and broadening students’ thinking about today’s theme by providing insightful stories, Bible stories, breaking news or meaningful music or arts. Through these processes, students become ready to learn the key insights and implications of today’s scripture by constructing their own knowledge in the stage of Re-formation. Last but not least, the new learning should be inscribed in students’ heart and lives through creative community activities in the stage of Re-creation. This is the time of Koinonia (Sharing) and/or Diakonia (Service). Without these communal activities the new learning might be limited to intellectual enlightenment, and therefore easily forgotten. I present a simple example of Bible study session with using the 4R movement.





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A Bible Study for High School Students o

Key verse: Genesis 1:28

o

Key purpose: Christians believe that God made people the caretakers of the world.

Have you heard about Tuvalu?

Reflection

Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Scientists estimate that the continuing rise of sea level may submerge the nation of Tuvalu entirely in the next 50-100 years. Even now many regions of Tuvalu are inundated with sea water, and people are suffering from a shortage of drinking water. What is the main cause of sea level rise? It is global warming. What is global warming?

Reinterpretation

The IPCC 4th Assessment Report 2007 says that from 1906 to 2005 global temperature increased by 0.74 Ԩ, which has caused a 10-25 cm rise in sea levels. (1) Use illustrations and charts related to the rise in global temperatures and sea levels on the internet. (2) Major causes of global warming Emissions from fossil fuel like oil, coal, etc. Relentless logging for cultivation

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(3) Results of global warming Climate change Sea level rise due to the melting of glaciers Destruction of the ecosystem and near extinction of some species (e.g. Polar Bear) According to the IPCC 5th Assessment Report 2014, it has been predicted that by the end of this century (2100) global temperatures would rise by 3.7-4.7 Ԩ and sea level would rise by 52-98 cm. (1) Scientists warn that if the sea level rises by 1 m, many lowland countries like Bangladesh would disappear and 1/3 of world farmland would be devastated. This would be a fatal blow to the human race. (2) The IPCC strongly recommends that we should reduce the usage of fossil fuel by 70% by 2050 and develop alternative energy sources in order to prevent such a disaster. (3) The IPCC claims that 95% of global warming is due to human causes. We have not taken care of the earth appropriately.

Re-formation

Cultural Mandate (1) [God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis1:28NIV)] (2) What’s the meaning of “rule over every living creature”?

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Curriculum as Software: A Digital-based Approach (3) This mandate asks for human commitment to cultivating the new land to be the Kingdom of God. For this, God gives Adam and Eve divine rights to use resources freely as well as divine responsibility to take care of living creatures and earth. (4) What do you think about this commandment?

Re-creation

¾

Yes, we have responsibility to care for our planet.

¾

What else can we do in relation to global warming? (1) Reduce using electricity, gas, oil etc. (2) What else?

¾

Community Activity: Op shop Teacher instructions -

1)

2) 3) 4) 5)

6)

For this activity, ask the students to bring one unused item to exchange with other students. Allow all students to introduce their item and what the item means to them. Collect the students’ items. Ask the students to choose a donated item they want by drawing lots. Students might learn that what is not needed anymore by them is what someone wants to get. Teach the students, “Do not throw the unused items away. Instead, donate the items to Op shops. Reusing is one of the best ways for environmental conservation.”

The next stage of curriculum development is Simulation. The process of simulation is very significant in planning a course under the concept of curriculum as software. Since curriculum as software pursues a contextualised curriculum suitable for the educational environment and the users, the level of suitability must be checked through repeated simulation.

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The final stage of planning curriculum as software is Service. Traditionally, the construction process of a curriculum tends to finish as soon as the curriculum is released to the public. However, under the new curriculum model, the level of success of the new course depends on the quality of curricular service after release. In this stage, the focus is on maintenance, repair, and upgrade of the structure and content of units, while considering any change to the educational environment and the users’ status. To carry out these services, curriculum designers should always be connected with users in order to be sensitive to their experiences and suggestions.

Conclusion So far, I have discussed why a new religious education curriculum model for the digital generation is urgently needed, and how the new model—curriculum as software—is relevant to the faith education of today’s students. The new model of curriculum as software is suitable for today’s digital generation because the characteristics of digital ways of learning, thinking, and communicating are encompassed within this model. This new approach is also appropriate for developing faith as a personal, spiritual, participatory and communal knowledge of God, and for resolving the major curricular problems that arise from the traditional curriculum of transmitting knowledge-out-of-context. * This article is based on Jong Soo Park’s book, Christian Education Curriculum for the Digital Generation, published by Wipf and Stock in 2015. This chapter was contributed by permission of the publisher. www.wipfandstock.com

Bibliography Anderson, Steve, and Anne Balsamo. “A Pedagogy for Original Synners.” In Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected, edited by Tara McPherson, 241-59. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. Applebee, Arthur N. Curriculum as Conversation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Brown, Malcolm. “Learning Spaces.” In Educating the Net Generation, edited by Diana G. Oblinger and James L. Oblinger, 12.1-12.22. Washington, DC: Educause, 2005. Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Edited by John T. McNeill. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1960.

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Castells, Manuel. The Rise of the Network Society. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2010. Chong, Kelly H. “What It Means to be Christian: The Role of Religion in the Construction of Ethnic Identity and Boundary among SecondGeneration Korean Americans.” Sociology of Religion 59, 3 (1998): 259-286. Kim, Rebecca. “Second-Generation Korean American Evangelicals: Ethnic, Multiethnic, or White Campus Ministries.” Sociology of Religion 65, 1 (2004): 19-34. Knight, George P., Martha E. Bernal, Camille A. Garza, and Marya K. Cota. “A Social Cognitive Model of the Development of Ethnic Identity and Ethnically Based Behaviours.” In Ethnic Identity: Formation and Transmission among Hispanics and Other Minorities, edited by Martha Bernal and George Knight, 213-234. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993. Mottart, André, Ronald Soetaert, and Bart Bonamie. “Digitization and Culture.” Interactive Educational Multimedia 8 (2004): 24-38. Palmer, Parker J. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998. Park, Sang-Jin. “A Curriculum Model of Christian Education for Faith as Knowing God: A Critique of the Tylerian Model and a Search for an Alternative on the Basis of New Epistemology.” Ph.D. diss., Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, 2001. Park, Jong Soo. Christian Education Curriculum for the Digital Generation: A Case Study of Second-Generation Korean Australian Youth. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2015. —. “Curriculum Innovation in Religious Education for Second-Generation Korean-Australian Adolescents in the Korean-Australian Reformed Church.” Ph.D. diss., University of Divinity, 2014. Phinney, Jean S., Gabriel Horenczyk, Karmela Liebkind, and Paul Vedder. “Ethnic Identity, Immigration, and Well-being: An Interactional Perspective.” Journal of Social Issues 57, 3 (2001): 493-510. Pisano, Gary P., and Roberto Verganti. “Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You?” Harvard Business Review 12 (2008): 3-9. Svahn, Fredrik. “The Sociomateriality of Competing Technological Regimes in Digital Innovation.” In The 32nd Information Systems Research Seminar in Scandinavia: Inclusive Design, edited by Judith Molka-Danielsen, 23-40. Molde University College, Molde, Norway, August 9-12, 2009.

LEARNING DESIGN FOR FORMATIONAL LEARNING IN NON-CAMPUS-BASED LEARNING CONTEXTS DIANE HOCKRIDGE

This chapter outlines an emerging framework for designing learning to foster spiritual formation of students studying theology in non-campus based learning contexts. It draws on insights from learning theory which suggests that designing for technologyenhanced learning must consider three learning theory perspectives: associative, cognitive and situative. These are explored in the light of insights from theological educators about the nature of theological learning and used to identify kinds of learning that are desirable in theological education. The chapter then considers helpful pedagogical approaches for these kinds of learning, drawing on examples from Learning Design practice in other disciplines and on recommended pedagogies for formational learning in the professions. It concludes by describing how research in the field of Learning Design is being used to guide a design-based research project to develop and trial a framework for Learning Design for formational learning in fully online theological degree courses.

Introduction Ridley College is a theological college offering undergraduate and professional graduate degrees to those preparing for vocations in ministry contexts: missions, churches or para-church organisations. For more than 100 years this learning and preparation has occurred in an oncampus, often residential environment. Recently, there has been a move to embrace non-campus-based (online) learning, but there are concerns that the significant formational element of on-campus preparation of students will be lost.

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This chapter outlines an emerging framework for designing learning to foster spiritual formation in non-campus-based learning contexts which draws on insights from learning theory; theological understanding of knowledge and learning; and pedagogical practice in theology and other disciplines preparing people for professional life. First, it considers how learning theory can help clarify our understanding of what learning is and the types of learning theological education seeks to foster. Second, recognising that theological education is not the only discipline concerned with preparing students for the demands of relational professions, examples are considered of how other disciplines address similar educational challenges. Third, it looks at the insights that theologians bring to discussions about the nature of learning and pedagogy and the characteristic ways of knowing that are unique to theological education and explores the relevance of these to the task of designing for learning. The chapter then draws on research in Learning Design to develop a framework that can be used to guide and inform Learning Design for formational learning in theological education.1 In particular it explores ways in which learning designers are making links between theory, specific learning aims and the pedagogical practices that might help achieve these2 and applies these to theological education. The chapter concludes with an overview of how this framework is being developed and applied to Learning Design of wholly online

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The term “formational learning” is used in this chapter to refer to learning that has an intentionally formative purpose. “Formation” should be understood as a holistic process of growth and change in an individual in which growth in character and spiritual maturity is expected. “Formational learning” incorporates common categories of formation such as personal, spiritual or ministerial formation. See Diane Hockridge, “Challenges for Educators Using Distance and Online Education to Prepare Students for Relational Professions,” Distance Education 34, 2 (2013): 142-60. 2 See Helen Beetham and Rhona Sharpe, Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age, Second ed. (New York and London: Routledge, 2013). David Boud and Michael Prosser, “Appraising New Technologies for Learning: A Framework for Development,” Educational Media International 39, no. 3-4 (2002): 237-45. James Dalziel, “Implementing Learning Design: A Decade of Lessons Learned,” in Electric Dreams. Proceedings Ascilite 2013 ed. M. Gosper and J. Hedberg H. Carter (Sydney 2013); Dejan Ljubojevic and Diana Laurillard, “A Theoretical Approach to Distillation of Pedagogical Patterns from Practice to Enable Transfer and Reuse of Good Teaching,” in Proceedings of the 2010 European LAMS & Learning Design Conference. http://lams2010.lamsfoundation.org/papers.htm

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theology degrees at Ridley College. This design research project aims to develop both a specific set of curriculum elements intended to address formational learning, and to embed pedagogical approaches conducive to formation in the whole course structure. It is suggested that such an approach will enable educators to maintain alignment of pedagogical practice with theological and educational presuppositions and desired formational learning outcomes.

Background The growing trend to offer theological education degrees in noncampus based learning contexts, (such as via wholly online programs) presents challenges for theological educators to find ways to help students achieve desired formational learning outcomes in these new learning contexts. Until the last decade or so, teaching methods in theological education institutions to address the broader spiritual, personal and ministerial formation of students tended to be tied to campus-based learning which assumed the physical presence of the students for significant periods of time. These methods were remarkably consistent across theological institutions and included an emphasis on participating in communal activities such as chapel services, common meals, small groups, or mission and ministry experiences. 3 As students increasingly study theology part-time or at a distance the theological education community has been attempting to work out how to address formational learning in these new learning contexts. Unfortunately these attempts have sometimes become misdirected into efforts to recreate what has worked on campus in these entirely different contexts, or distracted by discussions of whether genuine community can be developed online, or by comparisons of the benefits or pitfalls of different modes of learning. This chapter suggests that a more productive way to approach the challenges of addressing spiritual formation in non-campus based learning contexts is for theological educators to consider the issue as educators, asking pedagogical questions. If “formation” is considered a desirable or



3 E.g. Peter Adam, “Education and Formation for Ministry in Theological Education Today,” (Ridley College, Melbourne, 2009). Available at: http://www.actheology.edu.au/resources.php. Les Ball, Transforming Theology: Student Experience and Transformative Learning in Undergraduate Theological Education (Preston, VIC: Mosaic Press, 2012), 20. Steve Delamarter and Daniel L. Brunner, “Theological Education and Hybrid Models of Distance Learning,” Theological Education 40, 2 (2005): 145-64.

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essential part of a theological education, what do we mean by formation? How are people “formed”? Are there ways of learning that are helpful for formation? Can we identify teaching practices and learning experiences which might be helpful in fostering formative learning? Is it possible to identify links between what happens in a learning and teaching context (whether in a classroom, online, or in work or ministry practice) and the desired formational learning outcomes? And how can theological education courses be designed to be formative? In other words, this chapter is an attempt to identify the kind of learning that is desirable in theological education, from which helpful pedagogical approaches for this kind of learning can be identified, which will inform Learning Design Practice.

Insights from learning theory In order to design for learning it is first necessary to identify what is meant by learning, and whether any particular kinds of learning are relevant to the context. Learning theory attempts to explain how people learn, and how teaching practices (pedagogy) impact on learning. The development of learning theory over the past century includes a variety of sometimes conflicting shifts and turns in thinking about the nature of learning and teaching. Educational researchers Mayes and de Freitas have reframed these historical shifts in learning theory as different perspectives on learning, rather than competing theoretical approaches. They suggest that seemingly inconsistent learning theories are best understood as “set(s) of compatible explanations for a large range of different phenomena.” 4 Mayes & de Freitas argue that three fundamental perspectives can be discerned within learning theory: associative, cognitive and situative, each of which is integral to understanding learning, yet is incomplete in itself as an account of learning. Mayes and de Freitas’ reframing of learning theory as different perspectives is insightful and helpful for the exploration of Learning Design that fosters student formation in the discipline of theology. A brief overview of each perspective is provided here; for a fuller explanation of the characteristics of these perspectives readers can consult the original

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T. Mayes and S. de Freitas, “Technology-Enhanced Learning: The Role of Theory,” in Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age, ed. Helen Beetham and Rhona Sharpe (Abingdon: Taylor and Francis, 2007, 2013), Ch. 1, 13.

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chapter.5 A brief summary of some implications from each perspective for learning and teaching in theological education is provided. The associationist or associative perspective views learning primarily as behaviour. It understands learning to involve the gradual building of patterns of associations and skill components. Learning happens through a process of connecting elementary mental or behavioural units during sequences of activity, or practice, which is followed by feedback of some kind. Learning through memorisation drill and practice and the development of progressive sequences of component skills or competencies is emphasised. This perspective is evident in behaviourism, which arose in the 1950s and 1960s. Mayes and de Freitas point out that while behaviourism has been often criticised, (particularly by later educational theorists who favoured constructivism), its positive emphases in terms of Learning Design include: encouraging active learning by doing; provision of immediate feedback of success; and careful alignment of instructional strategies and assessments with learning outcomes. An associative or behaviourist perspective allows the educator and the learner to focus on the detailed nature of performance, task analysis and practice, and is often applied to formal education that focuses on skills training. Recent advances in computer technology have led to increased capacity for individually oriented and detailed automatic feedback (e.g. through online quizzes or more complex online learning task sequences), which has resulted in renewed interest in the associative perspective. Courses that focus on skills-based training and many industrybased e-learning courses tend to favour this approach, but are pedagogies based on an associative perspective relevant or helpful in theological education? While theological education tends to involve inquiry and critical analysis in the style of the humanities disciplines, it does consist of more than this; in preparing people as Christian leaders it also aims to equip students with practical skills relevant to Christian ministry. Two examples of areas of theological training where an associative approach to teaching and learning can helpfully be applied are language learning, in which memorisation and repeated practice is essential, and learning a skill that requires practice and detailed feedback such as preaching.



5 Ibid. See also: JISC Report, Effective Practice With E-Learning: A Good Practice Guide in Designing for Learning (Bristol, 2004). http://jisc.ac.uk/elearning

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The cognitive/constructivist perspective: views learning primarily as construction of knowledge and meaning. Learning is understood to be about building a cognitive framework for understanding, rather than strengthening associations. Knowledge is understood as the outcome of an interaction between new experiences and already created structures for understanding in the learner’s mind. The cognitive perspective initially developed in the 1960s out of information processing theory, and was influenced by theoretical shifts in psychology. 6 Since then cognitive approaches to learning and teaching have increasingly emphasised constructivist assumptions that understanding is gained through an active process of building new forms of understanding through activity. Constructivism focuses on the role of understanding or reflecting on action and the importance of deep learning of concepts. Vygotsky’s emphasis on the importance of social interaction has also been influential and “social constructivism” is often distinguished from broader constructivist perspectives on learning.7 Cognitive/constructivist approaches can be applied in a range of learning and teaching contexts including campus and online learning environments. The emphasis on the importance of learner activity in constructing understanding influences the design of much online learning since learning in an online context necessitates activity on the part of the student. As a result online courses frequently use constructive learning activities such as: ill-structured problems; opportunities for reflection; interaction with other students; or coaching in relevant metacognitive skills. Learning environments that are socially constructivist further recognise the importance of peers for learning and may feature collaborative activities, discussions and shared ownership of learning.8 A constructivist approach focuses on active learning and student ownership of learning, and de-emphasises reliance on transmission-centred approaches to learning. Since theological education requires deep learning of concepts and recognises the importance of reflecting on action and the value of learning productively with others, one would expect that theology courses would be primarily constructivist in their teaching practices.

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Constructivism was particularly influenced by the works of Piaget, e.g. Jean Piaget, David Elkind, ed. Six Psychological Studies (New York: John Wiley, 1967). 7 L. S. Vygotsky, Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978). 8 Beetham and Sharpe, Rethinking Pedagogy, Appendix 1.

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However, Ball’s recent report on Australian theological education identifies a reliance on transmission-centred teaching approaches as a particular weakness.9 He critiques the widespread reliance on a “stand and deliver” model of lectures as the primary source of information for students and recommends a more student-centred approach to learning and teaching that uses class time for active and inquiry-based learning to support students’ reflective critical enquiry and promote holistic and transformational learning. 10 Recent gatherings of Australian theological educators at learning and teaching conferences, such as the one out of which this book has grown, have demonstrated a widespread interest and commitment among theological educators to reduce the reliance on transmission-centred teaching approaches. The situative perspective views learning primarily as social practice and conceptualises all learning as “situated” in the sense that learning is always influenced by the social and cultural setting in which it occurs. Knowledge is seen as situated in practices of communities and outcomes of learning involve the abilities of individuals to participate in those practices successfully. The social setting and peer culture are understood to provide a context that provides meaning and purpose to learning and in which the learner develops a sense of identity. Lave’s seminal work on “communities of practice” explains this as a process of “legitimate peripheral participation” in which learners participate in communities of practitioners, gradually moving to full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community.11 A situative approach to learning and teaching tends to focus on supporting learners to acquire habits, attitudes, values and skills in context, and supporting the development of identities, by providing elaborate authentic opportunities for learning, usually in an authentic context. For example, a professional development program for teachers in Singapore used a scaffolded approach to learning in a community of practitioners designed to bring learners through a process of learning using simulation, participation and “codetermined” interactions of learning.12 Such authentic programs are often used in work-integrated learning programs a variety of

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Ball, Transforming Theology, 24. Ibid., 23-28. 11 Jean Lave, “Situating Learning in Communities of Practice,” Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition 2 (1991): 63-82. 12 David Hung et al., “A Framework for Fostering a Community of Practice: Scaffolding Learners through an Evolving Continuum,” British Journal of Educational Technology 36, 2 (2005): 159-76. 10

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higher education disciplines. These programs are based on the (situative) understanding that to be adequately prepared for professional practice people must experience learning in the actual rich situated context and practices of their profession. In sum, the situative perspective is perhaps most obviously relevant to theological educators’ attempts to address formation. Foster et al. note the professional work of clergy is always tied to situations of human interaction and religious knowledge is directly concerned with “how to be in the world”.13 Attempts to address formation will, at least in part, always be attempt to address questions of identity, meaning and purpose. While “field education” is commonly used in Australian theological education to provide supervised practical ministry experience there is room for improvement in situated learning, particularly in how this learning is integrated within the whole program of theological study. 14 Smith and Smith suggest that Christian educators can learn from Wenger’s account of “communities of practice” which provides a means for exploring how educational vision becomes embodied in particular educational behaviours and how learning arises from those behaviours, which can help further thinking about helpful pedagogical practices. 15 There is also potential to apply insights from the situative approach to distance theological education. Nichols argues that “situated theological distance education” makes full use of the potential of students’ Church or community context for learning and builds on the potential for deep learning through “students reflecting on and sharing their own situatedness, and reporting on what they find to the benefit of others in their situatedness.”16 This brief overview of learning theory suggests that learning can be understood as: behaviour, construction of knowledge and meaning, and as social practice. Each of these three perspectives on learning makes

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Charles R. Foster et al., Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and the Pastoral Imagination (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006), 6. 14 Darren Cronshaw and Andrew Menzies, “From Place to Place: A Comparative Study of 5 Models of Workplace Formation,” in Learning and Teaching Theology: Some Ways Ahead, ed. Les Ball and James R. Harrison (Northcote, VIC: Morning Star, 2014). 15 David I. Smith and James K. A. Smith, Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), 14. 16 Mark Nichols, “A Comparison of Spiritual Formation Experiences between onCampus and Distance Evangelical Theological Education Students” (DPhil. Thesis University of Otago, 2014). http://hdl.handle.net/10523/4943, 224-25.

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fundamentally different assumptions about what’s being explained, and each perspective leads to a particular view of what matters in pedagogy.17 We can recognise ways in which each of these perspectives lies behind or influences various aspects of current theological education practice. This is to be expected, since viewing learning in terms of the three complementary perspectives as suggested by Mayes and de Freitas implies that there is no one “right” way to teach or to learn. Rather it leads us to consider what types of learning are involved in studying theology, and to think more carefully and more educationally about relevant teaching practices.

Insights from other disciplines As well as drawing on insights from learning theory, theological educators may find it helpful to note learning and teaching approaches used in other disciplines. While other disciplines may not be directly concerned with spiritual formation, as theology is, Foster et al. suggest that education for all professions is formative in the sense that it aims to develop character and capacity appropriate for the demands of the profession. Successful preparation for a profession (such as teaching, nursing, or engineering) produces graduates who are able to engage with the challenges and realities of professional life and to explicitly assume responsibility of the public purposes of their profession.18 Sometimes these formative aims are quite explicit, as in this quote regarding medical education: The practical learning environment of medical education is in need of reform...how is it we can train new physicians to embody the character qualities required of good doctoring in today’s society. Can we define a concept of virtue suitable for today’s setting?...can we teach virtue, or more modestly, can we create a new sense of professionalism in new physicians with measurable outcomes? How do we nurture character development during professional training?19



17 Mayes and de Freitas, “Technology-Enhanced Learning: The Role of Theory,” 18-19. 18 Foster et al., Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and the Pastoral Imagination, 10. 19 N. Kenny and W. Shelton, Lost Virtue: Professional Character Development in Medical Education, ed. R. Baker and W. Shelton, vol. 10, Advances in Bioethics (Oxford: Elsevier JAI, 2006), xiv.

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So can theological educators garner any insight from Learning Design and pedagogy in other disciplines that may be of relevance to the task of designing for formational learning in theology? A brief review of the relevant literature reveals that attempts to address broader formative learning aims in other disciplines draw on all three perspectives. Frequently a situative approach is taken, developing programs that focus on providing students with the opportunity to “try out” and gradually hone their professional skills in a safe but realistic context. This may take place through workplace or service learning, or internships, in a range of disciplines such as teacher education, 20 social work, 21 counselling, 22 and engineering.23 Such approaches focus on giving students a legitimate role and tasks through participation in an ongoing community with more experienced practitioners. 24 Current research into design of courses for teacher education students in a fully online learning environment, based on situative and authentic learning approaches may provide some helpful cues for the design of situative theological education experiences in online environments.25

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B. Eckersley et al., “Researching Innovative Partnerships in Education: Working and Learning with Our Partners” (paper presented at the Engaging Communities. Proceedings of the 31st HERDSA Annual Conference, 2008). Sonia Ferns and Julie-Ann Pegden, “Student & Staff Perceptions of Fieldwork Experiences: Assessing Authentic Learning” (paper presented at the Research & Development in Higher Education: Connections in Higher Education. HERDSA Annual Conference, Hobart, Australia, 2012). 21 Julianne Wayne, Miriam Raskin, and Marion Bogo, “Field Education as the Signature Pedagogy of Social Work Education,” Journal of Social Work Education 46, 3 (2010): 327-39. 22 G. Cicco, “Technology in Graduate Counselling Programs: Suggestions for Online Practicum and Internship Courses" in Education & Information Technology Digital Library, Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2012, ed. P. Resta, 258-263. Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). 23 Joachim Walther et al., “Engineering Competence? An Interpretive Investigation of Engineering Students’ Professional Formation,” Journal of Engineering Education 100, 4 (2011):703-40. 24 Sasha A. Barab and Thomas Duffy, “From Practice Fields to Communities of Practice,” in Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments, ed. D. Jonassen and Susan M. Land (New York: Routledge, 2000), 25-55. 25 E.g., J. Downing and Jan Herrington, “Design Principles for Applied Learning in Higher Education: A Pedagogical Approach for Non-Traditional Students in an Online Course” (paper presented at 30th ASCILITE COnference, 1-4 December, Macquarie University, Sydney, 2013).

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In other examples, a combination of cognitivist/constructivist and situative approaches are used to help students develop competency in and habits of reflective practice which will be employed to support their professional practice. A brief search of the literature uncovered instances of intentionally designed programs of reflective practice in disciplines as diverse as: architecture, medical imaging, and clinical pastoral education.26 Further exploration to identify exemplary approaches and learning designs in other disciplines may be fruitful for theological educators wishing to improve their Learning Design practice.

Insights on learning and knowledge from theological educators It is helpful to consider whether there are unique elements of theological learning that should be taken into account in Learning Design. As Carvalho and Goodyear point out, within different disciplines or educational fields knowledge is based on different organising principles, and underlying knowledge practices, or characteristic ways of knowing. They refer to this as the “epistemic architecture” of a field and note that this epistemic architecture inevitably influences Learning Design.27And so we might ask what are the broader conceptualisations of knowledge, the characteristic ways of knowing and the types of knowledge valued in the discipline of theology? What is the epistemic architecture of theology? There is not space in this chapter to address this question adequately, but a few preliminary observations will be made. Theological educators share a set of underlying understandings, assumptions and beliefs about the purposes of education, the nature of knowledge and about how people learn. This shared perspective arises from a commitment to the Biblical text, Christian beliefs and the resulting implications for

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Jane Grellier and Lara Mackintosh, “Reflective Connections for Student Success in an Undergraduate Architecture Program” (paper presented at the Research & Development in Higher Education: Connections in Higher Education. 35th HERDSA Annual Conference, Hobart, Australia, 2012). S. A. Maresse, J. C. McKay, and J. Grellier, “Supporting and Promoting Reflective Thinking Processes in an Undergraduate Medical Imaging Program” (paper presented at the Research & Development in Higher Education: Connections in Higher Education. 35th HERDSA Annual International Conference Hobart, Australia, 2012). 27 Lucila Carvalho and Peter Goodyear, The Architecture of Productive Learning Networks. (New York: Routledge, 2014), 139-40. See also Pinto, 2014, http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/lnj/article/view/4177/4356

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understanding the ultimate purpose of existence and the nature of humanity, including how people know and learn, and how they are known. Among other things, it includes the recognition that people are more than minds and learning is more than simply cognitive, and it acknowledges the role of God’s Holy Spirit in bringing about understanding, growth and change in individuals.28 As a result, the discipline of theology is understood by theological educators as being far more than a set of objective doctrines to learn. Theological educators commonly emphasise their conviction that theology is “lived, relevant, and personal rather than detached, historical and academic.”29 As Foster et al. put it: Unlike the abstract and theoretic formulas of the modern sciences, religious understanding is deeply and inescapably committed to identity and meaning. It carries import for how one understands one’s life, including powerful implications of a normative kind for how one ought to live.30

Farley also suggests that “knowledge” in the study of theology is understood as knowledge of divinely communicated truths pertinent to salvation, and knowledge units are articles of faith.31 This shared perspective on the nature of theology drives the desire for theological education to be formative, of character, life and practice, as well as transformative of understanding and knowledge. Thus, theological education aims to foster in learners not just academic knowledge about the Scriptures, Church history or systematic theology, but a deep personal understanding of God and his purposes, and of one’s identity as a child of God. Farley describes theology as a disposition of the soul towards God,32 theological study thus “deepens heartfelt knowledge

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S. L. Graham, “Instructional Design for Affective Learning in Theological Education,” British Journal of Theological Education 14, 1 (2003). Allan G. Harkness, “De-Schooling the Theological Seminary: An Appropriate Paradigm for Effective Ministerial Formation,” Teaching Theology & Religion 4, 3 (2001): 15970. 29 Nichols, “A Comparison of Spiritual Formation Experiences between onCampus and Distance Evangelical Theological Education Students,” 224. 30 Foster et al., Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and the Pastoral Imagination, 4. 31 Edward Farley, Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), 53. 32 Ibid., 40.

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of divine things” 33 and theological understanding is a “sapiential knowledge engendered by grace and divine self-disclosure,” 34 or a personal and existential wisdom. This means, Farley says, that the underlying rationale or basis of the study of theology actually has the character of personal exhortation. It sets forth to students: “the things you must do to deepen and sustain the disposition already set in you by the Spirit, to lay hold of and understand the things made available to you in revelation.”35 Yet, as Banks points out,36 the study of theology also involves more than simply addressing questions of personal belief and spirituality. Theological learning is expected to impact the whole person and transform practice: “It involves harmonising theological learning with life and practice, growth in godliness, skills, service and love.”37 It involves the holistic development of all aspects of the person where “character, knowledge and practice are mature and well-integrated”.38 Theological education also usually involves the development of specific skills and competencies relevant to Christian ministry and leadership. Earlier it was noted that in general education for the professions is formative in the sense that it recognises the importance of development of an appropriate set of competencies and characteristics within students preparing for a professional role. While theological education also aims to foster the development of relevant competencies or skills, it tends to be more explicit about its formative aims and these tend to be more personally oriented than in other disciplines. Theological education not only aims to produce graduates who are competent for a profession, but also has broader and deeper expectations of moral transformation, spiritual growth and the development of mature character as a disciple of Christ. Moreover these formative aims are also not only directed specifically at preparation for “professional” Christian ministry but are expected of all Christians.

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Ibid., 10. Ibid., 153. 35 Ibid., 53. 36 Robert Banks, Re-Envisioning Theological Education: Exploring a Missional Alternative to Current Models (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 24-27. 37 Participant quote in Hockridge, “Challenges for Educators Using Distance and Online Education.” 38 Adrian Lane, “Celebrating a Centenary at Ridley Melbourne–Towards a Pedagogy of Training for Ministry,” (Ridley College, 2010), 155. 34

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This then is what we might call an epistemic architecture of theological education; knowledge and learning are understood in personally transformative terms and formal theological education and preparation for Christian ministry is understood to involve the whole person and to impact on character and practice and spiritual growth. Theological education is intentionally formative. Formation is part of the epistemic architecture of theology. How does this epistemic architecture influence theological education practice? Its influence can be seen broadly in formalised theological curricula and graduate attributes, in a fairly consistent manner around the globe. A publication of the North American Association of Theological Schools (ATS) states: The curriculum of a good theological school should be understood not as an accumulation of courses and other sorts of academic experiences but as an overall process of critical reflection and integration. The curriculum itself, understood in this holistic manner, is “formative” in the full sense of the term. As one participant put it, “We teach whole people, not just courses.” The goal of a theological curriculum is not just the accumulation of knowledge or the development of ministerial skills: it is a way of understanding, a formed perspective, or, as it has often been described in ATS circles, an acquired habitus or capacity for doing theological reflection.39

A recent exemplary attempt to re-envision the theological education curriculum, undertaken at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, arose from formational intentions. Starting with the assertion that genuine formation only takes place when multidimensional learning is intentionally designed and incorporated through a balanced embrace of the cognitive, affective and behavioural learning domains, the faculty redesigned the entire curriculum. Among other things this included integration of theological reflection throughout the curriculum, repeated opportunities for practice of skills, and the inclusion of credit for experiential elements of learning.40

 39

Donald Senior and Timothy Weber, “What Is the Character of Curriculum, Formation and Cultivation of Ministerial Leadership in the Good Theological School,” Theological Education 30, 2 (1994): 22. 40 Perry Shaw, Transforming Theological Education: A Practical Handbook for Integrative Learning (Carlisle: Langham Creative, 2014). This model is now being refined and shared for wider application, particularly in non-western theological colleges. See: Overseas Council Australia, http://www.overseascouncil.com.au/

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Australian theological education has been described as being “marked by a strongly formative ethos.” 41 The Australian College of Theology, one of the major theological higher education providers, specifically seeks to inculcate four primary attributes in its graduates: it is intended that they will emerge from their courses as: 1) Christian people; 2) Christian scholars; 3) Christian professionals; and 4) Christian leaders. As “Christian people” graduates are expected: to be committed representatives of the Christian faith; to act on the basis of an informed Christian world view; and to contribute to society as members of the Church and local, national and global communities.42

Identifying pedagogical approaches for formational learning How to actually meet these formational learning goals remains an ongoing challenge for theological educators. How is this best achieved? Can teaching practices or pedagogical approaches that will encourage formational learning be identified? And are these different in classroombased teaching and online or distance learning contexts? Mayes and de Frietas’ three perspectives on learning are helpful for understanding different types of learning that may be involved in studying theology. But what are appropriate teaching practices that will foster these types of learning? Foster et al.’s study of theological education in North America provides some helpful insights on these questions. As noted earlier, the authors point out an adequate professional education will include preparation for both role and tasks, as well as skills training, and will include character development, describing the challenge of professional education in this way: How does a professional school prepare its students both for the specific skills needed to perform the functions they must enact, while also preparing them to become the kind of human beings—morally, experientially, intellectually—to whom others are ready to entrust the performance of those functions?43



41 C. Sherlock, Uncovering Theology, the Depth, Reach and Utility of Australian Theological Education (Adelaide: ATF Press, 2009), 13. 42 The Australian College of Theology (ACT) has recently formulated these graduate attributes. This summary is taken from an unpublished submission to the meeting of the ACT Academic Board 13 March 2015. 43 Foster et al., Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and the Pastoral Imagination, xi.

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Foster et al. answer this question by reference to the apprenticeship model of teaching and learning, which has long been used in education for the professions. They identify three types of “apprenticeships” required for preparation for professional life: apprenticeships of practical knowledge or skill development; cognitive knowledge or intellectual development; and normative knowledge or identity formation. Interestingly, these three apprenticeships reflect the three perspectives of Mayes and de Freitas as can be seen in Table 1. Mayes and de Freitas’ three learning perspectives Associationist (learning as behaviour) learning = practice and strengthening associations training in skills development focus on detailed nature of individual performance emphasis on task analysis and practice Cognitive/Constructivist (learning as construction of knowledge and meaning) learning = building a framework for understanding focus on underlying structures and processes for learning learners search for and create meaning through activity emphasis on role of understanding or reflecting on action aims for deep learning of concepts Situative (learning as social practice) learning is situated and influenced by social/cultural context knowledge is situated in practices of communities outcomes of learning involve the abilities of individuals to participate in those practices successfully focus on meaning, purpose, identity engagement with social setting and peer culture gives meaning addresses learner’s motivation

Table 1

Foster et al.’s three learning apprenticeships Practical (doing) requires engagement (hands on) as a condition for knowing focus on skill development

Cognitive (knowing) requires critical and analytical thinking focus on intellectual development

Normative (being - in a situation) focus on developing role and identity helps form dispositions weaves relationships with others into learning concerned with meaning, purpose and identity

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The practical and cognitive apprenticeships correspond fairly closely to Mayes and de Freitas’ associative and cognitive perspectives on learning. What Foster et al. refer to as “normative” is similar to the “situative” perspective. Normative knowledge is concerned with meaning, purpose and identity and requires the learner to be inside a situation. The normative apprenticeship assumes that learning by doing forms a person’s dispositions; introduces relationships with others similarly engaged; and encourages loyalty to a group of fellow practitioners.44 Some theological educators are wary of “professionalising” theological education. Prior to Foster et al.’s study Farley critiqued the professional approach to theological education as being too technically or functionally oriented and as losing its focus on what he calls “theologia” which is the theological understanding that should be at the centre of theological education. Farley’s point was that the education of people for a profession should be defined not by simply identifying the public tasks and acts of the profession, but defined by the nature of the professional community. He notes that the nature of Christian community is redemptive and the task of Christian leaders is to mobilise believers in carrying out the church’s ministries and to facilitate the theological understanding this requires. Farley argues that theological educators therefore need to ask what general areas of knowledge and interpretive skills are necessary or helpful to this mobilisation and facilitation of theological understanding.45 This in fact is what Foster et al. are purporting to do: they are not simply suggesting that the education of Christian leaders should be defined by their expected professional tasks. They are exploring what broad types of learning and knowledge are necessary for an adequate preparation for Christian leadership. Their suggestion is multi-pronged: that there should be a mutuality of cognitive, practical and normative apprenticeships based on an understanding of the interdependence of mind, body, heart. In fact they argue that in theological education, each of these three apprenticeships is understood to be necessary for formation. Their research identified what they call a “signature pedagogical framework consisting of four interwoven pedagogies used by theological educators. These are pedagogies of: a) formation: forming knowledge, skills, dispositions and habits needed for ministry; b) interpretation; c) contextualisation: preparing students to interpret and contextualise texts, situations, and

 44

Ibid., 7. Farley, Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education, 17682.

45

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relationships; and d) performance: preparing students to perform their task and role appropriately and skilfully. They suggest that theological colleges need to foster in their students a “pastoral imagination” which involves the competency/capacity for integrating the various dimension of educational experience and the interdependence of cognitive, normative and practical goals.46 Other theologians have also drawn on a three-fold approach to understanding learning and teaching as knowing, doing and being. Australian theologian, Robert Banks, proposed a missional approach to theological education which reconceived teaching as “missional practice” and intentionally keeps being, knowing and doing together.47 Banks says theological education has a three-fold purpose of spiritual growth, practical development, and cognitive learning and should induct people into a set of practices (ministry development); attitudes (personal formation); and theological reflection (understanding). His additional emphasis is that these three are tied together and achieved by learning in ministry, or in a missional framework. Theological education, he suggests, should involve doing what is being studied and ensure that students are engaging in the work of ministry and reflecting on it. This section has identified a shared understanding about the purposes of theological education, the nature of knowledge and about how people learn and proposed a preliminary outline of the “epistemic architecture” of the discipline of theology. It has suggested that formation is an integral part of this and that theological education is intentionally normative with the expectation that theological education will impact on the whole person. The insights of Foster et al. point towards possible corresponding pedagogical approaches that may be helpful for fostering formational learning, by employing practical, cognitive and normative apprenticeships to provide a formative education that adequately addresses the whole person and prepares individuals for Christian leadership.

From learning theory to learning design So how can these insights be applied to Learning Design? It should be noted that Mayes and de Freitas’ analysis of the three

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Foster et al., Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and the Pastoral Imagination, 33. 47 Banks, Re-Envisioning Theological Education: Exploring a Missional Alternative to Current Models, 142.

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perspectives was not an esoteric exercise but aimed to provide a sound basis for Learning Design decisions. They wanted to “show how technology-enhanced learning can be approached in a principled way.”48 As the authors point out, each of these perspectives on how people learn leads to a particular view of what matters in pedagogy, which in turn has implications for educational design and practice. Beetham further builds on Mayes and de Freitas’ analysis, suggesting that designing for learning should intentionally employ appropriate pedagogical approaches, recognising that people learn associatively (building component skills into extended performance); constructively (integrating skills, knowledge, planning and reflection); and situatively (developing identities and roles).49 This is set out in Table 2. The implication is that if an educator wishes to focus on training in skills they might take an associative approach which emphasises careful task analysis and practice. In contexts where educators want students to engage in deep learning of concepts, a constructivist pedagogy might be emphasised which involves learners in the design of learning activity. Or where participation in community and development of identity or professional role is desired, then situated practice can be employed to give meaning to the process.50 As we have seen, Foster et al. similarly identify a combination of practical, cognitive and normative apprenticeships as being helpful for a formative professional education in general and for preparation for Christian ministry in particular. The proposal of this chapter is that, taken together, these insights can provide the foundation for a strategy for addressing formational learning. First by helping to identify the kinds of learning theological education seeks to encourage, and second by helping to identify appropriate and relevant pedagogical approaches for these kinds of learning. It has been suggested that formal theological education is expected to have an intentionally formative impact on the learner’s character, practice and spiritual growth. In practice, this requires a multipronged approach that includes teaching and learning experiences that are

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Mayes and de Freitas, “Technology-Enhanced Learning: The Role of Theory,” 18. Helen Beetham, “Designing for Active Learning in Technology-Rich Contexts,” ibid., ed. Helen Beetham and Rhona Sharpe, Rethinking Pedagogy, 32. See also: Beetham and Sharpe, Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. Appendix 1 50 Mayes and de Freitas, “Technology-Enhanced Learning: The Role of Theory,” 27. 49

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cognitive, practical and normative, recognising that people learn: associatively (building component skills into extended performance); constructively (integrating skills and knowledge, planning and reflection); and situatively (developing identities and roles).

Learning Design for formational learning (online) At Ridley College, these insights are being applied to the task of designing for formational learning in a collaborative design research project with a small team of faculty members and the educational designer. The team is developing and trialling a framework with three strands aiming to intentionally address formational learning of students in wholly online courses. The three strands are: x guided course work (cognitive/constructive) x guided practice and field work (practical/associative) x mentored reflection and supervised experience (normative/situative) The alignment of these strands with the previously described insights is shown in Table 2. Mayes & de Freitas’ 3 Perspectives

Foster et al.’s 3 Apprenticeships

Beetham: implications for pedagogical approach

Associative (learning as behaviour)

Cognitive/Constructivist (learning as construction of knowledge and meaning)

Practical (Doing)

Cognitive (Knowing)

Skills (building component skills into extended performance) requires skilled teacher results in observable change in behaviour

Knowledge (integrating skills and knowledge, planning and reflection) range of pedagogies employed cognitive change expressed by different conceptual frameworks and problem solving ability

Situative (learning as social practice)

Normative (Being—in a situation) Values (developing identities and roles) needs expert mentor change observable in context: learners occupy more expert roles, act in accordance with roles and expectations

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Proposed design framework:

Guided practice Learning and practising skills in: individual units of study, e.g. exegesis, hermeneutics, homiletics, language learning in ministry context, e.g., through field education

Guided course work Online units designed around: active construction of learning & integration of concepts opportunities for reflection interactive and collaborative learning environments problem solving, questioning, critical reading and analysis, exposure to other perspectives

257 Mentored experience of ministry mentored experience in “Guided Spiritual Formation” unit participation in supervised ministry practice, e.g., field education cultivation of reflective practice focus on authentic learning and acquiring habits

Table 2 The three strands are being implemented as a program of specially designed units for students enrolled in either a Bachelor level degree (Bachelor of Theology, Bachelor of Ministry) or a Masters level degree (Master of Divinity) both of which require the completion of 96 credit points (usually equivalent to 24 individual units or subjects). In terms of specific curriculum components within these degree programs, (in addition to usual program requirements), students completing a degree in online mode are expected to complete a unit in Guided Spiritual Formation with a mentor, which is taken over 4 semesters; and a year-long (2 semester) supervised Field Education unit. In practice it is recognised that the proposed curriculum components do not necessarily slot neatly into one of the three strands. A field education unit for example can utilise the insights of both situative and associative learning perspectives as students participate in supervised practice that is situative in the sense that it involves being in a role and developing their identity as a Christian leader and associative in the sense that there are opportunities for hands on learning, practice and reinforcement of practical ministry skills such as preaching, or leading Church services. The overall aim is to ensure a balance and mutuality of pedagogies and educational experiences that place students in contexts where they have the opportunity to learn in ways that are spiritually and personally formative. The design team recognises that to adequately consider Learning Design for formational learning we need to think about design questions at

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multiple levels of “granularity”51 from individual learning tasks, through individual unit (subject) design, to finding ways to embed pedagogical approaches conducive to formation in the whole course structure. As a result, the design is not limited to “formation specific” elements such as the “Guided Spiritual Formation” units, though these are an important element. The three strands are part of a broader approach to Learning Design which impacts whole course structure and the design of all subjects in the online learning environment (including subjects in Biblical Languages and Biblical Studies, Theology and Christian Thought, and Ministry and Practice). As Nichols points out, the formational dynamics of theological education rest in the process of study itself (and are not dependent on a residential or classroom experience).52 So online units of study are intentionally designed with features expected to allow, foster, and encourage personal and ministry formation. These include: opportunities for practice, reflection, interaction and collaboration with peers; active construction of learning; problem solving, questioning, critical reading and analysis, and exposure to other perspectives; providing personal guidance for students (role-modelling, mentoring, peer-support); helping students to develop frameworks to assist them in reflecting on and in practice, developing self-awareness and establishing helpful processes and practices for Christian life and ministry.53 This design approach recognises that all learning experiences can be formative and takes into account recent research showing that students attribute formational learning to a wide variety of experiences.54 Further drawing on recommendations arising from research into theological distance education it aims to use students’ life and ministry setting for

 51

J. Dalziel et al., “The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design—2013,” www.larnacadeclaration.org. 52 Nichols, “A Comparison of Spiritual Formation Experiences between onCampus and Distance Evangelical Theological Education Students,” 231. 53 See S. L. Graham, “Theological Education on the Web: A Case Study in Formation for Ministry,” Teaching Theology & Religion 5, 4 (2002). Hockridge, “Challenges for Educators Using Distance and Online Education”; Nichols, “A Comparison of Spiritual Formation Experiences.” A. Reissner, “An Examination of Formational and Transformational Issues in Conducting Distance Learning,” Theological Education 36, 1 (1999). C. Sorenson, “Formation, Transformative Learning & Theological Education” (University of Auckland, 2007). 54 Ian Hussey, "Spiritual Formation at Malyon College: Preliminary Findings of a Longitudinal Study,” Paper presented at the Australian College of Theology Conference on Spiritual Formation, Sydney, October 2 – 3, 2014. Nichols, “A Comparison of Spiritual Formation Experiences.”

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learning as much as possible. 55 It also includes consideration of appropriate means of assessment which, depending on the subject will involve the incorporation of multiple, authentic and flexible ways in which students can demonstrate their ongoing formation, e.g. via supervisor / mentor feedback reports, self-evaluation assessments, journals, preparation of portfolios, or capstone projects. This framework is currently in the early stages of being implemented at Ridley College. Using an iterative design-based research approach several cycles of design-implementation-evaluation will be undertaken to monitor the impact of the learning designs and to improve them. Throughout the project, the planning and thinking of the design team is being mapped, using an approach that combines Sandoval’s conjecture mapping 56 with Carvalho and Goodyear’s Activity Centred Framework57 for design and analysis to conceptualise, map and analyse the design space. Conjecture maps aim to set out the aims of the design, what the features of the design are expected to do, how they work together, and how they produce the desired learning. As Sandoval points out, in order to study, learn from and extrapolate from experience educators need a way of identifying our (implicit) hypotheses about how learning happens and how to support it. The design team aims to develop a design map for formational learning that applies at various levels of granularity from course or program level, through individual blocks or components, down to the individual learning task level.58 The Activity Centred Framework for Learning Design, proposed by Carvalho and Goodyear focuses attention on three categories of: activities, materials, and facilitation (which the authors refer to as: task design, “set”, and social structures). It intentionally uses the same framework to both develop learning designs and to analyse and evaluate these. The Ridley design team are using the Activity Centred Framework to help guide consideration of how the social and structural dynamics of the online learning environment can be designed to support and enhance desired formational outcomes.

 55

See Nichols, “A Comparison of Spiritual Formation Experiences.” N. Tran, “Transformative Learning in Online Theological Education: A Case Study of an Online Program at a Theological Seminary,” (University of North Texas, 2011). 56 William Sandoval, “Conjecture Mapping: An Approach to Systematic Educational Design Research,” Journal of the Learning Sciences 23, 1 (2014). 57 Carvalho and Goodyear, The Architecture of Productive Learning Networks, Ch.3 58 Dalziel et al., “The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design—2013.”

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The design team expects that this mapping and analysis may lead to the identification of helpful “pedagogic descriptors” 59 which can be applied to Learning Design for formational learning. Learning Design research suggests that if the “critical pedagogical properties of a design” can be identified, these can be used to support educators in designing for learning.60 It is hoped that an outcome of this design research project will be development of a set of design principles and insights into Learning Design for formational learning which can be shared within the theological education community.

Conclusion This chapter has attempted to approach the challenges of addressing spiritual formation in non-campus based learning contexts by considering the issue from a Learning Design perspective. It has suggested insights from learning theory, the field of Learning Design, pedagogical practice in theology and other disciplines, and an understanding of the epistemic architecture of theology can all contribute to a framework that can be used to guide and inform Learning Design for formational learning in theological education. The emerging framework recognises that multiple perspectives lie beneath knowledge and learning in general and that adequate preparation for all professions requires that multiple forms of learning be employed and that formation of character be addressed. It further recognises that theological education is intentionally formative: it is expected to involve the whole person and to impact on character and practice and spiritual growth. Drawing on Mayes and de Freitas’ three perspectives, Foster et al.’s three apprenticeships, and Beetham’s approach to Learning Design, it

 59

See: Dalziel, “Implementing Learning Design: A Decade of Lessons Learned.” M. Bower, B. Craft,, D. Laurillard, and L. Masterman, “Using the Learning Designer to Develop a Conceptual Framework for Linking Learning Design Tools and System,” in 6th International LAMS & Learning Design Conference 2011: Learning Design For A Changing World ed. L. Cameron and James Dalziel (Sydney, 2011). D Laurillard, et al., “A Learning Design Support Environment (LDSE) for Teachers and Lecturers, ESRC End of Award Report,” (Swindon: ESRC, 2012). 60 D. Ljubojevic and D. Laurillard, “A Theoretical Approach to Distillation of Pedagogical Patterns from Practice to Enable Transfer and Reuse of Good Teaching,” 73.

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has proposed a three-pronged approach to designing for formational learning. This functions at multiple levels of granularity by developing not only a set of specific curriculum elements intended to address formational learning, but also embedding appropriate pedagogical approaches conducive to formation throughout the whole course structure. It is argued that such an approach will further assist to improve theological educators’ Learning Design Practice as it enables educators to maintain alignment of pedagogical practice with theological and educational presuppositions and desired formational learning outcomes.

Bibliography Ball, Les. Transforming Theology: Student Experience and Transformative Learning in Undergraduate Theological Education. Preston, VIC: Mosaic Press, 2012. Banks, Robert. Re-Envisioning Theological Education: Exploring a Missional Alternative to Current Models. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999. Beetham, Helen, and Rhona Sharpe. Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2013. Carvalho, Lucila, and Peter Goodyear. The Architecture of Productive Learning Networks. London: Routledge, 2014. Dalziel, J., G. Conole, S. Wills, S. Walker, S. Bennett, E. Dobozy, L. Cameron, E. Badilescu-Buga, and M. Bower. “The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design—2013.” http://www.larnacadeclaration.org/. Farley, Edward. Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983. Foster, Charles R., Lisa E. Dahill, Lawrence A. Golemon, and Barbara Wang Tolentino. Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and the Pastoral Imagination. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006. Laurillard, D. Teaching as a design science: Building Pedagogical patterns for learning and technology. New York and London: Routledge, 2012. Mayes, T., and S. de Freitas. “Technology-Enhanced Learning: The Role of Theory.” Chap. 1 In Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age, edited by Helen Beetham and R. Sharpe, 17-30. London: Routledge, 2013. Nichols, Mark. “A Comparison of Spiritual Formation Experiences between on-Campus and Distance Evangelical Theological Education Students.” PhD Thesis, University of Otago, 2014.

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Shaw, Perry. Transforming Theological Education: A Practical Handbook for Integrative Learning. Carlisle: Langham Creative, 2014.

“HOW LITTLE WE KNOW”: TEACHING ONLINE SPIRITUALITY, PRACTICES AND VALUES IN A TECHNOLOGICAL AGE PETER MUDGE

This chapter explores the paradox discussed by Karen Armstrong— of “how little we know” in this age of information technology, and relates it to an online spirituality course taught by the author. After providing a brief outline of the course in question, it considers the strengths and limitations of online technology, employing the methodology of narrative inquiry to link the course with sample feedback from its students.

Introduction This chapter explores the paradox discussed by Karen Armstrong—of “how little we know” in this age of information technology1—particularly in relation to religion, spirituality, discernment, compassion, humility and other areas—and all linked to an online spirituality course taught by the author. Armstrong argues that at the heart of “not knowing” is the essential ability to ask questions, and yet at the same time to remain “comfortable” while suspended in a state of openness and wonder. Simultaneously, it also encourages the ability not to be anxious about the existence of the transcendent realm which “lies beyond the reach of the senses and is therefore incapable of definitive proof.”2 In particular, the chapter investigates two key topics linked to the above themes—firstly, a brief outline of the Masters course currently taught in online form by the author—RELT6016: Spiritualities, Practices

 1

Karen Armstrong, “The Seventh Step: How Little We Know,” In Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life (London: The Bodley Head, 2011), 108. 2 Armstrong, “The Seventh Step,” 108. This is discussed in later sections in relation to kataphatic and apophatic dimensions.

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And Values For Professional Leadership; and, secondly, a more detailed treatment of the strengths and limitations of online technology. Referencing authors such as Buber and Heschel, it suggests that reflection on these topics might help bridge the hiatus or “narrow ridge” between “what we know” and “how little we know” in the teaching of online spirituality. The chapter includes a number of selected narratives which elucidate the key themes in the life of the students. Accordingly, the primary methodology used throughout the paper is narrative inquiry. Finally, the chapter also includes a number of brief “cameo” sections which attempt to map the nature of spirituality, of online teaching, and of what particular approach should be taken to technology overall. The chapter concludes with Appendix One—a one page outline of the course RELT6016.

Part One—The context and methodology for an online spirituality course The approach to spirituality in the context of online teaching How is it possible to define a term such as “spirituality” which seems to refer to everything in general and nothing in particular? Some of my previous papers3 have defined spirituality in terms of a reality that has a “transcendent referent” or solely in terms of Catholic, Orthodox and other perspectives.4 However, acquaintance with the literature associated with RELT6016 and with online technology in general has altered some of my “compass points” in relation to spirituality. Witness for example the sobering reality that many of the students engaged in RELT6016 (indeed in all my courses) do not come from any particular Christian or other tradition, or at the very least no longer adhere to practice or communal worship in any identifiable tradition or belief system. Many students in fact, based on evidence from emails and course online introductions, reflections and discussions, have either abandoned a previous tradition, do

 3

See for example my descriptions in Peter Mudge, “Towards a Reclaimed Framework of ‘Knowing’ In Spirituality and Education for the Promotion of Holistic Learning and Wellbeing – Kataphatic and Apophatic Ways of Knowing,” in. International Handbook of Education for Spirituality, Care and Wellbeing VII, Chapter 32, ed. Marian de Souza, Leslie J. Francis, James O’Higgins-Norman, and Daniel Scott (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Academic Publishers, 2009): 611-629. 4 Mudge, “Toward A Reclaimed Framework,” 611-612.

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not adhere to any tradition, or are searching for a system or a meaning system that will answer their deeper spiritual yearnings. Part of this reassessment of the nature of spirituality is fuelled by Fenwick and Lange’s assertion, from a corporate perspective, that “he current positioning of HRD [Human Resource Development] as it enters spiritual realms represents not a caring concern for a broken and searching humanity, but a bid for market share of vulnerable souls.”5 Context and interpretation are everything—spirituality in its understanding and delivery can vary on the spectrum between life and death, blessing and curse (cf. Deut 30:15-19), caring and consuming, belonging and alienation. So much so, that spirituality can no longer be considered solely in terms of “the big five” traditions but must take account of other considerations such as multiple traditions and belief systems, susceptibility to manipulation, multiple pathways (rhizomatic in nature), manifold interpretations, and the current postmodern context. The aforementioned article also cites a range of authors that characterise spirituality as a search or journey; or as two interwoven journeys—“an inner journey of healing, questioning, and exploring the self in relation to mysteries greater than the self, and an outward journey reaching towards others in interconnectedness and faith expressed in action.”6 Some others assert that spirituality is focused on the dissolution of the self (Oliver) or the self in dialogue with eternal communal wisdom (Slattery). However, in the final analysis, Fenwick and Lange agree to describe it as a reality that confirms Armstrong’s assertions about how much we know and yet “how little we know”: Contoured journey towards this mysterious union… [which includes among other things] a person’s struggles to understand self, soul, and purpose; to develop the “spirit” or “higher consciousness”; to conceptualize the problem of evil and the definition of good; to specify values and choose actions for “right” living; and to seek communion with that mysterious realm described variously as interconnectedness, Spirit, the divine, holiness, or the cosmos.7

 5

Tara Fenwick and Elizabeth Lange, “Spirituality in the Workplace: The New Frontier of HRD.” Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education 12, 1 (1998): 65. 6 Fenwick and Lange, “Spirituality in the Workplace,” 68; citing the definition of Diana Butler Bass, associate professor of religious studies at Rhodes College, USA. 7 Oliver and Slattery, insights from Fenwick and Lange, “Spirituality in the Workplace,” 68; quote from ibid, 69.

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Throughout the remainder of their article, Fenwick and Lange reflect on some problematic dimensions of spirituality—including its propensity towards fundamentalism, and at times its invasion of individual privacy, its lack of discernment, its disregard of spiritual community, and its assumptions of globalisation often leading to isolation.8 To this I would add Sheldrake’s caveat that, in describing spirituality, one needs to be ever vigilant towards foundational aspects such as spirituality’s ability to “embrace lifestyles and practices that embody [an aspirational] vision of human existence and of how the human spirit is to achieve its full potential.” 9 I would also reference David G. Benner’s insight that spirituality has too often marginalised the insights of mystics—a critique that the RELT6016 seeks to address. In the case of Christianity (the same argument could apply to Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, shamanic and other mysticisms), this has resulted in the loss of “the big picture” of spirituality. Benner situates this marginalisation as follows, which seems to insinuate the mysterious and intangible nature of spirituality encountered once it is studied online: [The mystics] talk about a journey toward union with God, but the church has often reduced this to a journey of sin avoidance, faithfulness in religious practices, and personal piety. Christian mystics talk about taking on the mind and heart of Christ, but the church talks about adopting certain beliefs and practices. Mystics understand that the heart of transformation is the heart, but the church has too often been content to focus on behaviour.10

The purpose of education and the nature of the teaching/learning relationship In a recent Blackboard survey on online learning and technology for the RELT6016 course under discussion, one student commented on aspects that she appreciated about the course. Note in this excerpt a genus of language that affirms the value of support, community, crossing into new thresholds, and the risking of new ideas outside the narrow domain of the self:

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Fenwick and Lange, “Spirituality in the Workplace,” 74-79. Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 1. 10 David G. Benner, Spirituality and the Awakening Self: The Sacred Journey of Transformation (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2012), 72. 9

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Regular and constant flow of information…very clear organisation… instant email and quiz responses…explicit instructions and supplementary materials on essay writing and assessment…your respectful responses to someone struggling [in online studies], in comparison to other lecturers, who can barely lift a finger to type my name in an email, much less put a request in a sentence…finally, it is such a privilege to read all of these amazing things [on spirituality, practices, values]; …to hear words like the ones in our lectures, it is wonderful beyond imagining. Please thank everyone for all the work they do to assist people like me to take a journey that lifts us out of ourselves, takes us to new lands, [allows us to] experience extraordinary concepts and to learn more about who we are as people.11

Such feedback provides some useful “hook words” into the question of “what is a good teacher, learner, educator?” More precisely, it insinuates the presence of the teacher over and against the givenness of the online environment and its technology. The testimony implies the “voice” and presence of the teacher in terms of respect, availability, proactivity, personal interest, opening up new worlds, engaging the imagination, and raising the student beyond the isolated self to others and the world—its histories, wisdoms, cultures and traditions. The teacher is imaged as a “flesh and blood” presence compared to technology as an inanimate tool; the teacher and the learning community are regarded as human beings in process (verbs), compared to technology as object and equipment (nouns). Abraham Joshua Heschel expresses this same reality in terms of contradistinctions between “time” (being) and “space” (having). In a penetrating analysis he asserts: “Technical civilisation is [our] conquest of space. It is a triumph frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence, namely, time. In technical civilization, we expend time to gain space. To enhance our power in the world of space is our main objective.” He concludes: “Yet to have more does not mean to be more. The power we attain in the world of space terminates abruptly at the borderline of time. But time is the heart of existence.” 12 Which in turn raises the challenges of how to avoid the dissipation of time by space; and how to nurture the complementary relationship between time and space so

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Response by female RELT6016 student on 26 September 2014 to: Peter Mudge, Student feedback form – online learning and technology, EDUC6043 and RELT6016. Pennant Hills, NSW: The Broken Bay Institute and University of Newcastle, survey placed online 24 September 2014. 12 Abraham Joshua Heschel, “The Sabbath: Its meaning for modern man” [sic], in The Earth is the Lord’s and the Sabbath (New York: Harper & Row, 1961), 3. Italics are mine.

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that “the heart of existence”, let alone the RELT6016 course itself, is not decimated? In addition, I would argue that the teacher is unique in his/her human or “enfleshed” ability to stretch the student from the known to the unknown, from subsisting at home to leaving home, 13 from their comfort zone to their discomfort or challenge zone14 or, in Ball’s research-based terminology, towards “discomforting disorientation” or “a significant change in world view or intellectual or social perspective”.15 Likewise, as Lee Shulman observes: “without a certain amount of anxiety and risk, there’s a limit to how much learning occurs. One must have something at stake. No emotional investment, no intellectual or formational yield.”16 In addition to such processes, the teacher also “waits upon” and observes the movements of the student in the learning zone, at certain fertile times the zone of stillness, of no name, status, or paralysis. For this online spirituality course, these could transpire as a zone of not comprehending aspects of Gendlin’s “focusing” technique;17 of navigating the labyrinth; or of grasping the alternative consciousness of Sabbath spirituality.18

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Dan Fleming and Peter Mudge, “Leaving Home: A Pedagogy for Theological Education,” in Learning And Teaching Theology: Some Ways Ahead, ed. L. Ball and J. R. Harrison (Northcote, Victoria: Morning Star Publishing, 2014), 71-80. 14 Walter Brueggemann, “Letting Experience Touch The Psalter,” in Praying The Psalms, Engaging Scripture And The Life Of The Spirit, 2nd Edition (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2007), 1-15. 15 Les Ball, “Where To Next? Recommendations for Principles, Practices and Curriculum Design,” in Transforming Theology: Student Experience And Transformative Learning In Undergraduate Theological Education (Preston, Victoria: Mosaic Press, 2012), 122-123. 16 Lee Shulman, “Pedagogies of Uncertainty,” Liberal Education (Spring 2005): 22. Cf. a recent abstract and plenary paper presented by Ray Land, “Toil and Trouble: Threshold Concepts as a Pedagogy of Uncertainty.” Papers given at Threshold Concepts in Practice Conference, Durham, UK, 9th – 10th July 2014. 17 Gendlin’s focusing text and the technique itself can be found in: Eugene T. Gendlin, “The Focusing Manual” and “The Six Focusing Movements and What They Mean,” in Focusing, 2nd Edition (New York: Bantam Books, 1988), 43-47, 51-64. 18 One who discusses such transitions in relation to Jesus’ ministry of border crossings is: Andrew D. Mayes, “Reaching Beyond Limits,” in Beyond The Edge: Spiritual Transitions For Adventurous Souls (London: SPCK, 2013), ix-xii. The concept of alternative consciousness is from Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1983), passim.

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Furthermore, employing McWilliam’s astute taxonomy, the teacher is one who operates in different guises depending on the teaching/learning context—from the sage on the stage, to the guide on the side, and through to the meddler in the middle.19 Thus the teacher is not only the one that, like a skilful engineer, lays the bedrock of foundational knowledge, but at the same time challenges various ideas, concepts, and readings of reality. 20 He or she helps students to see, engage and cross various thresholds of knowledge, feeling and action which, in the case of this spirituality course, might include threshold transitions 21 from mindlessness to mindfulness, from knowledge to wisdom, or from hardheartedness to mercy and compassion. Another significant transition, according to Maddix and Estep, is from isolation to community in the praxis of online learning. They assert: Distant and online learning, built on student and faculty discussion, has proven to develop community and formation. These learning communities are developing significant relationships with peers and with God [or the transcendent force to which they relate].22

Finally, the teacher is one who helps the student cultivate wisdom and discernment—meaning a practical wisdom shared with others, informed by human reasoning and revelation: beyond mere cleverness.23 Thor May perhaps provides one of the more confronting and primal portraits of the teacher, particularly with its implications for teaching and learning: A teacher is that rare individual who coaxes the existing knowledge of [their] students out of hiding, drags every last tentacle of the monster from

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Erica McWilliam, “Unlearning How To Teach,” Innovations in Education and Teaching International 45, 3 (2008): 264-267. 20 Luke Williams, Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business (London/New York: Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2010); Mark Shayler, Do Disrupt: Change the Status Quo Or Become It (Wales: Do Book Company, 2013). 21 Jan H. F. Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: An Introduction,” in Overcoming Barriers To Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts And Troublesome Knowledge (London & New York: Routledge, 2013/2006), 3-18. 22 Mark A. Maddix and James R. Estep, “Spiritual Formation in Online Higher Education Communities: Nurturing Spirituality in Christian Higher Education Online Degree Programs,” Christian Education Journal 7, 2 (2010): 425. 23 Louis Jacobs, “Wisdom,” in The Jewish Religion: A Companion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 588-589.

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Note that “the monster” exorcised here is “the existing knowledge” and not the person of the teacher or student!!

The online spirituality course and its methodology–RELT6016: Spiritualities, practices and values for professional leadership At the outset, two potentially confusing terms need to be clarified and distinguished. The descriptor “spirituality online” typically refers to information about spirituality. In particular, this includes taxonomies such as information or “facts”, chronologies and checklists. These certainly exist within RELT6016. “Online spirituality”, on the other hand (the primary focus of this article), refers more to a participation in spirituality, its religious practices and community online dimensions. Its main purpose is to reflect on, critique and trial these practices and to contemplate any associated values, and how all these impact on the living out of the spiritual life. 25 The capacity to teach “spirituality online” is well established–but in terms of the capacity for “online spirituality”, the jury is still “out”. The course considered in this chapter, RELT6016, is entitled: “Spiritualities, practices and values for professional leadership”. It is a Masters Spirituality course, classified as AQF level 9, was conducted during Semester Two 2014, and is to be offered again at the same time in 2015 and subsequent years. Its materials are stored on the Blackboard v.9.1 LMS (Learning Management System) which includes lecture notes, readings, course documents, power points, Echo Centre recordings (voiceover power points), YouTube clips, web sites, Turnitin assessment tools, and many other resources. The philosophy “rhizomatic” rather than organised along multiple allows co-construction of

underpinning the structure of the course is “arboreal” 26 –that is, the course content is pathways or learning and assessment, and it course study pathways as well as assessment



24 Thor May, “Unwise Ideas For Teachers And Teaching,” http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/teachers.html 25 Maddix and Estep, “Spiritual Formation,” 429. 26 Seyed M. Sajjadi, “Religious Education and Information Technology,” Teaching Theology and Religion 11, 4 (2008): 185-190.

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options. For example, students can fashion the topics to be studied in their minor and major essays by selecting various TCs (Threshold Concepts), 27 spiritual practices, and spiritual values, listed in menus on the blackboard site. Students however cannot repeat a previously covered topic and must continually “stretch” their learning to new topics and traditions. For their assessment tasks, students must complete two online quizzes, one discussion forum, one minor essay and one major essay. Constant feedback and advice is given to students by the course coordinator throughout the semester.

Course methodology–narrative inquiry The methodology employed in this chapter also reflects what we know and yet at the same time “how little we know”. This methodology is adapted from narrative inquiry and applied in a rudimentary way to student reflection learning logs and online technology evaluations. The author hopes to apply this methodology more systematically to future versions of the course in 2015 and following. Narrative inquiry is a method that is employed across many disciplines such as education, medicine and social work.28 It is used predominantly by social science researchers to “inquire” or ask questions of practitioners in order to seek deeper understanding of life experience, education, spirituality, and other areas. This chapter follows some forms of narrative inquiry which study the process whereby students move from former to new and challenging understandings, exemplified in this research as TCs and TTs.29 Narrative inquiry, in the context of this chapter, also places an emphasis on the stories of those completing reflection learning logs and evaluation feedback, as well as on certain images or constellations of images that they use in their feedback and descriptions. 30 The above constellation of narrative correlates

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This chapter understands a “threshold concept” as a one-word entity such as symbolic knowing, humility, mindfulness or Sabbath. A “threshold transition” refers to the entire movement such as: from pride to humility. 28 D. Jean Clandinin and F. Michael Connelly, Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004). Cathy K. Riessman, Narrative Methods for Human Sciences (Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2007). 29 For the generic process of narrative inquiry, refer to Donald E. Polkinghorne, Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences (New York, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988). 30 Stefinee Pinnegar and Gary Daynes, “Locating Narrative Inquiry Historically,” Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping A Methodology, ed. D. J. Clandinin (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007), 5, 1-34. See also the excellent: Michael Kroth

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embodies both what we know (dates, facts, relationships: kataphatic or empirical data) and how little we know (symbols, metaphors, dreams: the apophatic aspects of existence). In this and other courses taught by the author, typically at the end of each single or double day of lectures, students followed a process whereby they are asked by the lecturer to respond to the four questions listed below. Students made statements, told stories, and included images in their responses to these questions. They referenced both kataphatic and apophatic dimensions of their narratives. Each student response, both in the broader research and within this chapter, emerged from original ideas expressed by a range of teachers, but based on course input and online academic readings in areas such as ancient spiritual journeys, definitions of spirituality, focusing, discernment, and many more. All students were also conversant with the foundational literature that informed both the course and the reflection log question framework, including readings on threshold concepts, the nature of spirituality, spiritual practices, and spiritual values.31 The four survey questions were as follows: 1.

2.

Name a “Threshold Concept” (TC) or “Threshold Transition” (TT)32 that has been troublesome or difficult for you in the topics you have studied so far today. (Examples only: from literal knowing to symbolic knowing; from pride to humility; from mindlessness to mindfulness; from busyness and anxiety to savouring the Sabbath). Where would you place yourself on the following Threshold Concept continuum in relation to the above Threshold Concept? [the sheet suggests some words or phrases but students are invited to add others]

 and Patricia Cranton, Stories of Transformative Learning (Rotterdam, NL: Sense Publishers, 2014). 31 Foundational literature from each of these four areas includes: on threshold concepts (TCs), Meyer and Land, “Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge,” 1-8; on approaches to spiritualities, see Sheldrake, Spirituality; on Spiritual Practices, Nancy T. Ammerman, “Spiritual Practices In Everyday Life,” in Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion In Everyday Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 56-90; and on spiritual values, refer to: Marilyn T. Halstead and Margaret Hull, “Struggling With Paradoxes: The Process Of Spiritual Development In Women With Cancer,” Oncology Nursing Forum 28, 10 (2001): 1534-1544. 32 Meyer and Land, “Threshold Concepts,” 1-8.

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What important insights or wisdom did you receive from the topics covered today? Choose ONE “Threshold Concept” transition covered so far (see list above for examples only). Describe how you might teach this TC or TT practically and concretely in the R.E. classroom, with an adult group or other context, as a result of learning more about it? (either as something you could teach concretely or as something that you could imagine as working in the classroom or group).

Information for this chapter was also gleaned from student evaluation forms related to the online teaching of spirituality and online learning in general, and centred on the following three questions. Students were at liberty to add more comments or observations if they wished:

1. 2.

What in your view are some strengths of online learning and of this course in particular? (NB that a “course” includes not only Blackboard materials, but also PowerPoints, Echos, email correspondence, phone calls, notes, readings, everything that is available digitally and via course communication). What in your view are some areas for development for online learning and for this course in particular? Do you have any other general or additional comments related to online learning, technology, online teaching, the digital age, or any other areas linked to the above topics?

Strengths

Limitations or Areas for development

Effective if sufficient computer skills, equity and access, and literacy

Sometimes raises ethical and justice issues in relation to equity, accessibility, and computer literacy

Great potential in high synergy from active dialogue among participants within Virtual Classroom; especially when dialogue is personal, specific and for proactive or “just in time” learning;

Not as effective in larger groups [cf. “sheep dip”]; has limitations in subjects that are “hands on” or which require deeper reflection, practical applications, spiritual disciplines33

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The last two sets of comparisons from: University of Illinois. Illinois Online Network: Strengths And Weaknesses Of Technology (2010). www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/overview/weaknesses.asp

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Any place, time or pace; can generate synergy

At times issues of accessibility, computer literacy

Student-centred; level playing field; access to wide range of online resources; requires creative teaching

Requires self-directed learners; limitations for traditional lecture and tutorial styles of learning

Favours rhizomatic structure and ways of knowing; Note that the cosmos, brain and internet are all rhizomatic systems34

Does not accommodate more arboreal ways of knowing and those that are limited to that approach35

Requires quality assurance and structure/meta-approach for pedagogy plus feedback from students

Poor pedagogy and lack of student and faculty feedback can hamper technology and delivery36

Online connections can develop into true and memorable “encounters” (role of narrative/ worldview)

Students and lecturers become “passers-by” on the digital highway; disconnected and rudderless37

Online contact leading to opportunities for prayer, contemplation, sacred space, pilgrimage, lectio divina

Can lead to closed forms of quietism, loss of neighbour and relationship, lack of social networks

Balance between silence and the word— leads to listening, warmth and relationship; A bruised Church or community which goes to the streets

Silence and the word become mutually exclusive—leads to rejection, coldness and isolation; a Church suffering from selfabsorption; myopic 38



34 An argument advanced in: Jeffrey M. Stibel, Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2009). 35 The last three sets of comparisons taken from: Seyed M. Sajjadi, “Religious Education and Information Technology,” Teaching Theology and Religion 11, 4 (2008): 185-190. 36 This set of comparisons from Beatrice Johnson, Alanah Kazlauskas, Evan Harris, Des Matejka, Annette Schneider and Brian King (2007). Online Teaching and Learning at Australian Catholic University: Environmental Scan and SWOT Analysis Report (Strathfield, NSW: ACU National, 2007), 33-35. 37 This and the next two comparisons from: Pope Francis I, “Message of Pope Francis for the 48th world communications day, Communication at the service of an authentic culture of encounter,” Sunday, 1 June 2014. Rome.http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/communications/docum ents/papa-francesco_20140124_messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html 38 This and the following comparison from: Pope Benedict XVI, “Message of his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the 46th World Communications Day, Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization.” Sunday, 20 May 2012.

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Communication, dialogue, cooperation

Isolation, mistrust39

monologue,

hostility,

Buber’s sitting on the “narrow ridge”— e.g. online discussion, blogs, live discussions

Lack of dialogue; “entrenched points of view”; can stifle the capacity for “getting outside my world”40

Reproduced below is one piece of student feedback related to the Blackboard materials in RELT6016. It was submitted by a female student preparing for her minor and major essay topics, with her topics coconstructed in rhizomatic fashion in dialogue with the course coordinator. Its topics and tone reflect a student who is engaged with the course, crossing various “thresholds” (“deeper illumination”), and seeking to apply course insights to her field of secondary teaching: I have been thoroughly enjoying the material in the course and it really does draw the inner self into dedicated process (practice/study) so timelines (deadlines) can be dwarfed in importance in the landscape. Honestly, I’m learning a lot, recognising a lot, actually... in new words or deeper representation and illumination. I didn’t think studying a Masters course could be this good! Will be in contact soon about drafts on the essays. I have some ideas that are logical as far as I am interacting with the course content at a cognitive level but I must say there are some hunches that are feeling restless to me and not fully clear to my thinking mind yet. They will bug me until I see if they can have “voice” in the essays. These hunches are to do with recent experiences with the program I am developing [for secondary schools]. It seems there is a crystallising with the apophatic/kataphatic, liminal space

 http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/communications/docum ents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20120124_46th-world-communications-day_en.html 39 Last two set of comparisons based on: Rupert Wegerif, “Education into Dialogue,” in Dialogic: Education for the Internet Age (London & New York: Routledge, 2013): 149-166. 40 This set of comparisons from Martin Buber, Daniel: Dialogues of Realization, transl. with an introductory essay by Maurice Friedman (New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1965, orig. 1913), 45. “I have occasionally described my standpoint to my friends as the ‘narrow ridge,’” writes Buber elsewhere. “I wanted by this to express that I did not rest on the broad upland of a system that includes a series of sure statements about the absolute, but on a narrow rocky ridge between the gulfs where there is no sureness of expressible knowledge but the certainty of meeting what remains undisclosed”, from Martin Buber, Between Man and Man, trans. Ronald Gregor Smith (London: Kegan Paul, 1947), 184.

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Teaching Online Spirituality, Practices and Values notions and transitions/thresholds [themes that have emerged from the course readings and other materials]. Thanks for your encouragement and the abundance of material and guidance in this course! Very sincerely appreciated!!41

Part Two–Assessing strengths and limitations for the online teaching of spirituality Some strengths and areas for development in the online teaching of spirituality Another RELT6016 student adroitly sums up some strengths and areas for development for the course. He refers to both the benefits and yet associated anxieties of the course, and references specifically the types of thresholds that he crossed during his studies. Perhaps it could be said that this student is reflecting, without being aware of it, on Armstrong’s aforementioned assertion in relation to “what we know” and yet “how little we know”, with much of the latter suspended in a state of awe and wonder: A major strength of the online learning is its availability in a busy schedule (if the downloading is working). The volume of material that can be offered requires developing the skill and emotional capacity to quickly discern…what particular direction and material to explore and what one does not have time or energy to take on. The capacity to “store” for future reference is readily at hand. In RELT6016, time to assimilate the concepts, practices and values forces the student to focus very clearly on only what will serve for assessment but this requires passing through the thresholds of fear, ignorance, prejudice, emotional comfort, closed beliefs and one’s own arrogance. The course is less about amassing knowledge (given fish) as about growing personally in wisdom, spirituality skills and gifts (learning to fish). The regular communication was encouraging and very helpful…The only frustration experienced by this student was the occasional technology issues…Any unreliability in the technology impacts negatively on access to materials when desired but also emotionally if only limited time is allotted by the student for course requirements.42

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Personal email from a female student, relating to an essay topic on pedagogy and spirituality, received on Thursday 18 September 2014. 42 This online technology questionnaire feedback was submitted by a male RELT6016 audit student. Italics are mine.

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What in general is possible and more challenging in the online teaching of spirituality? It would appear that certain topics and aspects can be addressed more effectively in an online context rather than in a face-to-face or seminar setting. The online environment is arguably more successful in capturing the empirical and kataphatic dimensions of learning,43 and in defining key terms, timelines, chronological tables, factual summaries and other details contained in power points.44 It is also more adept at teaching the basic skills of describing, critiquing and synthesising. It can successfully outline various definitions of spirituality, and certain “check list” topics such as the rudimentary components of the two halves of the spiritual life.45 On the other hand it is arguably less suited and successful at addressing certain “how little we know” dimensions, what normally lies beyond the reach of the senses and is therefore capable of definitive proof. 46 This includes the various intricacies of apophatic or negative theology,47 along with more complex details associated with teachings of the mystics, with the “depth archaeology” of student narratives, and with spiritual practices—such as praying with icons, mindfulness, and so on.48 It is also less proficient in the articulation, interpretation and praxis of values such as compassion, humility, mercy, prophetic imagination, examination of consciousness, and memento mori, topics which are addressed throughout RELT6016.

The approach to the role of technology In light of the above expositions on the strengths and limitations of online technologies, this chapter adopts the view that effective learning can take place regardless of context—whether computer-mediated distances courses, face to face (seminar) instruction, or online courses.

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Sheldrake, Spirituality, 1-10. Jürgen Habermas, Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 1 (New York, NY: Beacon Press, 1984). 45 Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011). 46 Armstrong, “The Seventh Step,” 108. 47 Harvey D. Egan, “Christian Apophatic and Kataphatic Mysticisms,” Theological Studies 39, 3 (1978): 399-426. 48 Refer to footnote 31 above for sample references. 44

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Perhaps the unanswered question is whether deeper learning about spiritualities, practices and values, at times including spiritual direction, can take place in an effective manner through the same approaches and technologies? In this context, the paper steers a via media between the two extreme arguments on the topic, as presented in the relevant literature. One end of the spectrum could be represented by John Gresham49 who asserts that “the divine pedagogy” can be used as a model for online education and that any sense of “community” cannot be restricted to physical presence but can be enacted in an online context. He is supported by Mary Hess 50 who “reverses the tables” by arguing that the student’s home environment and online context is actually a more incarnational and embodied form of learning compared to the more artificial and abstract world of the classroom. The other end of the spectrum can be represented by views such as those of David Kelsey who asserts that online education fosters a spiritualised and dualistic view of human beings as “spiritual machines” and that it undermines a holistic understanding of human and Christian anthropology. 51 Douglas Groothuis treads similar paths when he cautions about the rise of “cybergnostics”, the advent of “disembodied spirituality”, and the unwanted emergence of “technoshamanism” and “technopaganism”.52 These arguments and others are summed up in more detail within Maddix and Estep’s article.53 In view of the above, this chapter holds that the online study of spirituality can indeed bring students face to face with “the divine pedagogy” and aspects of a communal and a divine presence. Online study can be presented in a way that is embodied and incarnational, both in terms of students’ presence in the course and any applications to their own spiritualities, practices and values. However, it also contends that the impact and potentialities of online spirituality are limited and require ongoing honest evaluation and assessment. Certain instrumentalist and

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John Gresham, “Divine Pedagogy as a Model for Online Education,” Teaching Theology and Religion 9, 1 (2006): 24–28. 50 Mary Hess, Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All That We Cannot Leave Behind (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). 51 David H. Kelsey, “Spiritual Machines, Personal Bodies and God: Theological Education and Theological Anthropology,” Teaching Theology and Religion 5, 2 (2002): 2–9. 52 Douglas Groothuis, The Soul In Cyber-Space (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997). 53 Maddix and Estep, “Spiritual Formation,” 427-428.

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hermeneutical aspects can be taught well within any technological framework (and often better than in a face to face or seminar context) while others that relate more to spiritual practices and values, to critical reflection and engagement with spiritual wisdom and praxis, are less successfully engaged in that same context.

Conclusions Much of what constitutes “spirituality”, “practices” and “values” can be addressed competently online, but much cannot, and is more subtle and evasive. In particular, LMS frameworks such as Blackboard and MOODLE are proficient at the transfer and manipulation of information but less effective in creating meaningful networks, interpreting body language and relationships, and deepening reflection and spiritual practice online. 54 This chapter has argued that the purpose of education is to “stretch” students from comfort to discomfort zones, and to invite them to cross various threshold concepts. Online spirituality in particular will continue to be challenged to promote this approach to education, and to bridge certain difficult shores, such as those from “time” to “space” (Heschel), narrowness to expansiveness, isolation to dialogue (Buber), instrumental to narrative inquiry (Polkinghorne), information to wisdom/praxis (Lovat, Habermas), and from kataphatic to include apophatic knowing and spirituality (Egan, Sheldrake). Arguably, for this lecturer, the immense potential for online technologies is adeptly captured by the representative reflections of a student from another course (EDUC6043) who, like Lazarus (John 11:144) has shifted from a comatose or “asleep” phase to one of focused attention, imagination and renewed creativity: I sincerely appreciate your reply and have been endeavouring (and breaking promises) to reply before now, between a young family and work commitments I have been struggling... I am a primary teacher, in my midthirties and approximately five years in the classroom (I have had a career change). I must admit ALL aspects of the course have challenged me, to varying degrees. I honestly did not realise how stagnant my practice had become and certainly did not view myself that way as a teacher. In saying

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For similar comments in a secular context which analyses both LMS’s see: Shadi Aljawarneh, Zahraa Muhsin et al., “E-Learning Tools and Technologies in Education: A Perspective,” E-Learning Online Journal 1 (2010): 5. http://linc.mit.edu/linc2010/proceedings/session16Aljawarneh.pdf

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Teaching Online Spirituality, Practices and Values this, the neuroscience and transformative pedagogy [course topics] have really stretched me, but in a most enjoyable manner. I can see the impact it is making on my approach and activities for the classroom which gives me motivation to push and implement more - to leap rather than peek through the portal [of various Threshold Concepts]. To try to name the single biggest change for me, I would have to say the change is in my (now conscious) meta-approach, with a striving to transition from noun to verb [the course views pedagogy as a divine process that is dynamic, changing, and constantly re-creating, hence an extension of the Divine Pedagogy discussed above]. I further wanted to thank you for the incredibly comprehensive and guiding feedback that you have taken the time to do as regards our minor essay. (I must say that it has not been the case in all courses I have completed). Your suggestions are clear and I have no doubt that in attempting to implement them in my major essay I will not only gain higher marks but will contribute to my tertiary academic growth. (I am being stretched in all quarters). [The TTs (Threshold Transitions) that I am considering for my major essay are) …from kataphatic approaches to include apophatic knowing and spirituality in teaching and learning; and from common, comfortable knowledge to Jesus’ teaching of alternative and disruptive wisdom and [including the] use of the inquiry or Socratic method including the topic of teaching as a subversive activity). [I will also be researching and applying the TT of] from purely cognitive and informational learning to include learning based on awe and wonder.

Perhaps this was part of the hidden reality that Armstrong was referring to at the outset of this article—so much in life, let alone academic study, is about “what we know” as well as “how little we know”. At times—and this author believes at its best—study in the online environment harries us along on the difficult journey from “purely cognitive and informational learning” to embrace “learning based on awe and wonder”.55 This is surely a journey worth taking.



55 This student reflection is taken from a different course that nevertheless includes focuses on spirituality. It was submitted by a male student in EDUC6043— Religious Education: Theory and Practice. His observations are very close in tone and meaning to those with which this article commenced, referencing Armstrong, “The Seventh Step,” 108. Italics are mine.

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Appendiix One Course at a glance in table forma at for RELT 6016–Spirittualities, prractices and values for professional p l leadership

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Bibliography Armstrong, Karen. “The Seventh Step: How Little We Know.” In Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. London: The Bodley Head, 2011:,116130. Benner, David G. Spirituality and the Awakening Self: The Sacred Journey of Transformation. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2012. Clandinin, D. Jean and F. Michael Connelly. Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004). Tara Fenwick and Elizabeth Lange. “Spirituality in the Workplace: The New Frontier of HRD.” Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education 12, 1 (1998): 63-87. Heschel, Abraham Joshua. “The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man” [sic], in The Earth is the Lord’s and the Sabbath. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. Maddix, Mark A. and James R. Estep. “Spiritual Formation in Online Higher Education Communities: Nurturing Spirituality in Christian Higher Education Online Degree Programs,” Christian Education Journal 7, 2 (2010): 423-434. McWilliam, Erica. “Unlearning How to Teach,” Innovations in Education and Teaching International 45, 3 (2008): 264-267. Meyer, Jan H. F. and Ray Land. “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: An Introduction,” in Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge. London & New York: Routledge, 2013/2006: 3-18. Mudge, Peter. “Towards a Reclaimed Framework of ‘Knowing’ in Spirituality and Education for the Promotion of Holistic Learning and Wellbeing – Kataphatic and Apophatic Ways of Knowing,” in International Handbook of Education for Spirituality, Care and Wellbeing edited by Marian de Souza, Leslie J. Francis, James O’Higgins-Norman, and Daniel Scott. (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Academic Publishers. VII, Chapter 32, 2009): 611-629. Sajjadi, Seyed M. “Religious Education and Information Technology,” Teaching Theology and Religion 11, 4 (2008): 185-190. Sheldrake, Philip. Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Shulman, Lee. “Pedagogies of Uncertainty,” Liberal Education (2005): 18-25.

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Williams, Luke. Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business. London/New York: Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2010.

 

THE RHIZOMATIC AND NARRATIVE BASIS OF PRACTICAL STUDENT LEARNING WHEN TEACHING ONLINE SPIRITUALITY PETER MUDGE

This chapter includes an investigation of three themes related to an online spirituality course taught by the author. First, it explores the rhizomatic nature of online study. Second, it affirms the importance of stories and narrative within students’ lives and also within the technological domain. Finally, it suggests some online practices and strategies, based on a review of the relevant literature that can help ground the learning of online students. The two principal strategies considered in this chapter are narrative-journaling (Cepero, Dorff) 1 and “Developing Scenario Learning” (DSL) (Dalziel).2 The chapter counterpoints the above topics with selected and illustrative student narratives. In concert with the foregoing themes, the primary methodology used throughout the chapter is narrative inquiry.

Introduction The course considered in this chapter is entitled: RELT6016: Spiritualities, practices and values for professional leadership. It is a Masters Spirituality course, classified as AQF level 9, was conducted for the first time totally online during Semester Two 2014, and is to be offered again at the same time in 2015 and subsequent years. Its materials are

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Helen Cepero, Journalling as A Spiritual Practice: Encountering God through Attentive Writing (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2008); Dorff, Francis, Simply Soulstirring: Writing As A Meditative Practice (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1998). 2 James Dalziel, “Developing scenario learning and its implementation in LAMS,” in Proceedings of the 7th International LAMS Conference: Surveying the Learning Design Landscape, edited by L. Cameron and J. Dalziel. Sydney: LAMS Foundation (6-7 December 2012), 32-39.

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stored on the Blackboard v.9.1 LMS (Learning Management System) which includes lecture notes, readings, course documents, power points, Echo Centre recordings (voice-over power points), YouTube clips, web sites, Turnitin assessment tools, and many other resources.

The rhizomatic nature of online learning The philosophy underpinning the structure of the course is “rhizomatic” rather than “arboreal”3 – that is, in practical terms, the course content is organised along multiple pathways for learning and assessment, and it allows co-construction of course study pathways as well as assessment options. The adjective “rhizomatic” derives from “rhizome, which as Barker points out, is “a form of botanical growth that, unlike a single root structure, produces different points of equal growth across a lateral path.”4 He discerns its placement in the field of cultural studies where “the concept is deployed as a metaphor of logic or conjunction that stresses non-linear patterns of interconnection and feedback loops.” This is in contrast to “the culturally predominant arboreal metaphors of ‘root and branch’ in which the image of the tree predominates, with causality running in straight lines.”5 The rhizomatic metaphor “stresses multiplicity, complexity, multidimensionality and chaos in contemporary cultural arrangements.”6 Sajjadi points out that “the growth of the internet has created a ‘rhizomatic space’ possessing new methodological characteristics that create problems for religious education.”7 He describes rhizomatic space variously as a zigzag path, nomadic, and perceived by some as dangerous since “hierarchical relations control of students’ behaviour, and rigid modeling [sic] in religious education [and equally, in this author’s view, in religion and spirituality] are not acceptable in rhizomatic space.”8

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Seyed M. Sajjadi, “Religious Education and Information Technology,” Teaching Theology and Religion 11, 4 (2008): 185-190. 4 Chris Barker, “Rhizome,” in the SAGE Dictionary of Cultural Studies (London: Sage Publications, 2004), 178. 5 Barker, “Rhizome,” 178; Italics are mine. 6 Sajjadi, “Religious Education and Information Technology,” 179. 7 Sajjadi, “Religious education,” 185. 8 Sajjadi, “Religious education,” 187. Sajjadi takes this further and more proscriptively in a later article: “…it is impossible to talk about a religious education particularly compatible with rhizomatic approach to knowledge and truth”; a view that this author would strongly contest; cf. Sayed Mahdi Sajjadi,

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Sajjadi’s rather trepidatory and pejorative view on rhizomatic potential is counterpointed by Grellier who argues for the value of rhizomatic theory and mapping for challenging “traditional power structures, and to give voice to those previously unheard and open issues in messy but authentic ways.” She also asserts the value of rhizomatic mapping which has the capacity to depict “a number of points that elaborate, shape and disrupt each other, encouraging readers to draw their own interconnecting routes or separating chasms between them.”9 The following student testimony is one example of how various rhizomatic threads from two other courses, EDUC6043 and RELT6007, have come together and helped this student make sense of theology. He refers below to Walter Brueggemann’s tripartite taxonomy which has in turn helped him to make sense of theological reflection, threshold concepts and psalmic spirituality, all in terms of his own life: The two days [of lectures] were valuable and very practical in preparation for EDUC6043. Thank you for your honest and engaging lecture style…[I suddenly realised in one of the lectures that you were the author of an article about Brueggemann’s psalmic spirituality that has been significant for me]…namely the “Secure, Disturbed, Surprised…” article10 and was excited to see some other articles of yours similar to this one in EDUC6043. I know what they mean when it is said that something “spoke to me” and it was this article in particular that really allowed me to fully understand the last subject “Theology of Religious Education” [RELT6007]. I am now reading the Psalms with new eyes and had experienced that liminal threshold [cf. Meyer and Land’s publications] during my study last semester that you allude to in your threshold concepts’ readings for this subject.11

Rhizomatic philosophy, when applied to the disciplines of religion and spirituality, allows for a fluid approach to teaching, learning and pedagogy. It also accommodates a range of options engaged in different contexts (e.g. palliative care, parish ministry, teaching, office administration,

 “Can Religious Education Be Rhizomatic?” Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 19, 1 (2014): 42-47. 9 Jane Grellier, “Rhizomatic Mapping: Spaces for Learning in Higher Education,” Higher Education Research & Development 32, 1 (2013): 83-95. 10 Peter Mudge, “Secure, Disturbed, Surprised—Brueggemann’s Three Movements in R.E., Theology and Spirituality,” Selection from unpublished paper prepared for EARLI Conference, Munich, Germany, August. (Baulkham Hills, NSW: Transformative Pedagogies, 2013). 11 Email correspondence received with respect to EDUC6043—Religious education: theory and practice, on 28 July 2014.

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counselling), and results in the virtual elimination of plagiarism. This section now proceeds to outline how this “rhizomatic” nature operates within the RELT6016 course structure but also ways in which the literature around “rhizomatic” has informed the pedagogical design of the course as a whole. First, with reference to the course structure and its philosophy of “co-construction”, students can fashion the topics to be studied in their minor and major essays by selecting various TCs (Threshold Concepts) and TTs (Threshold Transitions), spiritual practices, and spiritual values, listed in menus on the blackboard site. A “Threshold Concept” within an online spirituality context is understood here as a one-word entity such as symbolic knowing, humility, mindfulness or Shabbat. A “Threshold Transition”, on the other hand, refers to any entire movement of spiritual development such as: from pride to humility, mindlessness to mindfulness, or hardheartedness to mercy. Students can choose from a wide variety of spiritual practices to complete their tasks, such as journaling, lectio divina, focusing, and examen of consciousness. They can also choose from various spiritual values, including those mentioned above, and others such as compassion, memento mori, silence and solitude, the willingness to cross thresholds, and prophetic imagination. Many of these spiritual practices and values are addressed across multiple traditions and belief systems—principally Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, along with others such as atheism, shamanism and others.12 However, in constructing their assessment tasks, students cannot repeat a previously covered topic and must continually “stretch” their learning to new topics and traditions. During the course, they must complete two online quizzes, one discussion forum, one minor essay and one major essay. Constant feedback and advice is given to students by the course coordinator throughout the semester. “The course” is taken to include “communication” in its broadest sense—including Blackboard course instruction materials, course documents, course reserves (core and extension readings), videos, YouTube clips, power points, web sites, Echo Centre recordings (voice over power points), email communications, and many more. Secondly, how has rhizomatic theory informed the pedagogical fashioning of the course and its overall epistemology? The chart below

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Refer to Appendix One for a one-page outline of this subject.

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seeks to draw some basic distinctions between “arboreal” (tree structured) and “rhizomatic” approaches.13

Category

Arboreal knowing and processing

Rhizomatic knowing and processing

Structure

Single root and branch

Different points of equal growth across a lateral path

Information and knowing

Information runs in straight lines

Information runs in multiple and divergent lines

Patterns and Organisation

Linear patterns of connection and feedback

Non-linear and random patterns of connection and feedback

What it stresses and reinforces

Stresses singularity, conformity, basic patterns, one dimensionality, predictability

Stresses multiplicity, complexity, multidimensionality and chaos

Tendencies towards

Tends towards reductionism and disconnected knowing

Tends towards multiplicity, multiple interpretations, and embraces holism

Authority and accountability

Hierarchical and closed

Non-hierarchical and open-ended

Degrees of openness and inclusivity

More open to powerful “insiders”

Inclusive of powerless “outsiders” and the “other”

General orientation and purpose

Consolidates and patterns, predicts and confirms reality

Interrogates and disrupts, deconstructs, displaces or disorients reality

This section concludes with a hypothetical comparison between the above two approaches to course design in spirituality, and based on the

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It is constructed on the basis of insights from Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism And Schizophrenia (Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis University Press, 1987); Barker, “Rhizome”; Sajjadi, “Religious education,” 185-187; and Grellier, “Rhizomatic mapping,” 83-95.

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foregoing literature. An arboreal approach to spirituality might include a focus on one set author (e.g. Teresa of Avila) set within the context of one expression of spirituality (medieval Spanish mysticism), one set of texts, and with all assessment tasks focused on the one figure through the completion of one essay topic for all students. A rhizomatic approach to spirituality, on the other hand, would ask students to engage in multiple and multivalent pathways in mysticism (e.g. Pseudo-Dionysius, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Mechtilde of Magdeburg, Thomas Merton, Gregory Palamas, Pema Chödrön) across multiple traditions and inclusive of both genders. It might also ask students to employ the lenses of threshold concepts, spiritual histories/narratives, spiritual values, and spiritual practices, to co-construct an online essay topic in collaboration with the course coordinator/lecturer. Hence the variety of essay topics across the entire span of spiritualities and traditions is virtually limitless.14 The chapter now proceeds to an elaboration of rhizomatic-style theory within another key context for RELT6016—namely within the realm of storytelling, construction of personal/communal meaning, and narrative inquiry.

The role of stories and narrative in the technological domain A significant quote from the Qur’an was recently selected to guide the raison d’être of the recently opened Islamic Museum of Australia, situated in Thornbury, Victoria15—“Such is the description of the people who reject Our Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.). So relate [to them] the stories, perhaps they may reflect?”16 This citation stresses the primal connection between stories, life, reflection and action. It implies that stories give pause for contemplation

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Note the connection between the rhizomatic approach and a pedagogy incorporating Bildkamseit, referring to the plasticity or formability of a human being in his/her relationship to others. In this sense, the teacher invites the student to become an autonomous rational and moral subject; see Ari Kivelä et al., “Towards a Theory of Pedagogical Action,” 1-4, http://wwwedu.oulu.fi/homepage/kkttpp/yptr/toward.htm 15 The IMA was formally opened to the public on 3 March 2014. 16 The Holy Qur’an, Ch 7 Al-Araf, v. 176; Khan translation. from Noorhan Abbass and Dr. Eric Atwell (2014), “The University of Leeds, Qurany Tool,” at: http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/nora/html/7-176.html

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and might at times act as a balm for rejection and alienation. The methodology employed in this chapter is adapted from narrative inquiry and applied in a rudimentary way to student reflection learning logs, online technology evaluations, and other forms of feedback. The author hopes to apply this methodology more systematically to future versions of the course in 2015 and following. Narrative inquiry is a method that is employed across many disciplines such as education, medicine and social work.17 It is used predominantly by social science researchers to “inquire” or ask questions of practitioners in order to seek deeper understanding of life experience, education, spirituality, and other areas. This chapter follows some forms of narrative inquiry which study the process whereby students move from former to new and challenging understandings, exemplified in this research as TCs and TTs.18 Narrative inquiry, in the context of this chapter, also places an emphasis on the stories of those completing reflection learning logs and evaluation feedback, as well as on certain images or constellations of images that they use in their feedback and descriptions. 19 The above characteristics of “narrative inquiry” embody both what Karen Armstrong would call “what we know” (dates, facts, relationships, kataphatic or empirical data) and “how little we know” (symbols, metaphors, dreams, the apophatic aspects of existence).20 The following reflections, encompassing the teaching and reflection of three students, illustrate the potential value of narrative inquiry as a methodology. In particular, these multiple narratives accentuate the abiding power of stories in the context of academic materials, connections with radio and online stimulus material, questioning, networking with other teachers, classroom practice, and the potential transformation of students:

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D. Jean Clandinin and F. Michael Connelly, Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; Riessman, 2004). 18 Donald E. Polkinghorne, Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences (New York, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988). 19 Stefinee Pinnegar and Gary Daynes, “Locating Narrative Inquiry Historically,” in Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology, ed. D. J Clandinin (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007), 5, 1-34. 20 Karen Armstrong, “The Seventh Step: How Little We Know,” in Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life (London: The Bodley Head, 2011), 108. Refer elsewhere in this collection to parallel article: Peter Mudge, “‘How Little We Know’: Teaching Online Spirituality, Practices and Values in a Technological Age.”

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Student 1: I never thought that an online university course could be so rewarding! The aspect that I have enjoyed the most has been the opportunity to be introduced to theories and authors that I would never have come across otherwise. This should not be so surprising and this revelation probably sounds very naive but this appreciation was realised yesterday when I was listening to “The Spirit of Things” on [ABC] Radio National. Rachel Kohn was interviewing Richard Rohr whose short YouTube clip had a profound effect. I was delighted to hear the interview and learn more about his views.21 Student 2: Whatever your consideration, I will be singing your praises to my communities here in Tasmania. Truly, some of the most engaging postgraduate learning I have done. You might be interested to know that a [female] member of our faculty [Student 3], used fertile questioning in her last Year 7 RE unit with wonderful (dare I say it - transformative) results. It will get a mention in the RE page in [our] 2012 College Yearbook.22

Stories, at many different levels, have the capacity to generate many insights and possible responses. First, I will list their broad potential and then conclude this section with a few student illustrations. Stories can extrapolate “social wisdom from personal experience.”.23 As some student testimonies in this chapter thus far have shown, part of this unearthed wisdom might be the capacity of stories to act as repositories of “haunted sites, places in the curriculum [or course] where masked discourses bury unpleasant or inconvenient knowledge, [and] are markers for clues about… ‘something-to-be-done.’” 24 Stories can also reference intuitive and emotional, not just cognitive or analytical, ways of knowing.25 As the final narrative above demonstrates, transformative learning and storytelling are linked. Transformative learning can occur in storytelling when stories lead to critical questioning and consideration of contradictory, even dangerous, points of view. As Kroth and Cranton assert: Discourse or dialogue is generally considered to be an essential component of fostering transformative learning, as are opportunities for critical self-

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Email received from a female EDUC6043 student, Newcastle cohort, on 28 November 2013. 22 Email received from a male EDUC6043, Tasmanian cohort, 15 November 2012. 23 Barbara Regenspan, Haunting and the Educational Imagination (Rotterdam, NL: Sense Publishers, 2014), xvi. 24 Regenspan, Haunting, xiv. 25 John M. Dirkx, Adult Learning and the Emotional Self (New York: Jossey-Bass, 2009), 25.

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The Rhizomatic and Narrative Basis of Practical Student Learning reflection…Storytelling…[helps us learn] through first-hand accounts of others’ transformative experiences.26

Storytelling in general can present “disorienting dilemmas, encourage dialogue where contradictions can emerge, lead to imagining alternatives, and allow them [storytellers] to try different points of view.”27 Narrative inquirers (lecturers or students) can explore the complex and multi-layered storied nature of experience via many pathways—for example, working with metaphors, creating visual and textual collages, found poetry, word images and photographs.28 Narrative inquiry is not concerned solely with “telling stories”. Its deeper purpose is making sense of events and actions in the lives of students. Narrative is the basic system that encodes meaning in our lives. It is more than a list of happenings—rather “it is a process of understanding what those happenings mean in our lives and within the larger picture of society.”29 In this respect, narrative inquiry and analysis can assist in the deeper penetration and critique of stories and interviews. It “offers the potential to address ambiguity, uncertainty, complexity and dynamism of individual, group and organisational phenomena…[It] can be used to record different viewpoints and interpret collected data to identify similarities and differences in experiences and actions.”30 James and Brookfield, too, stress the importance of “the narrative form of writing, with specific emphasis on story and metaphor.” They conclude: “Effective leaders and good teachers both understand that people remember stories more than statistics and that change-agents marshal storytelling to move people to action.”31

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Michael Kroth and Patricia Cranton, Stories of Transformative Learning (Rotterdam, NL: Sense Publishers, 2014), xiv. 27 Kroth and Cranton, Stories Of Transformative Learning, xiv. 28 D. Jean Clandinin and Janice Huber, “Narrative inquiry,” in Internet Encyclopedia of Education (3rd Edition), ed. B. McGaw, E. Baker, and P. P. Peterson (New York: Elsevier, 2014, in press), 13. 29 Kroth & Cranton, Stories of Transformative Learning, 14. 30 Matthew Craig Mitchell and Margaret Egudo, “A Review Of Narrative Methodology” (Edinburgh, South Australia: Defence Science and Technology Organisation), 5 31 Alison James and Stephen D. Brookfield, “How Story And Metaphor Provoke Reflective Thinking,” in Engaging Imagination: Helping Students Become Creative And Reflective Thinkers (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014), 93, 114.

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Some links to the foregoing themes have emerged in student reflection logs. 32 Students (principally primary and secondary teachers) relate stories that teach them practical wisdom about life and learning. Such stories can lead to inconvenient knowledge about teaching as a subversive activity, as well as the value of intuitive and emotional expression (e.g. problem solving about ethical issues). 33 Stories can cultivate critical self-reflection on issues such as pedagogy, values, education, and lateral thinking. In addition, it is perhaps self-evident that stories do not have to follow one approved or consistent narrative thread— they can vary, contradict, present different points of view, even lead to vigorous dialogue. Witness for example the varying world-wide narratives of culture, civilisation, faith and religious practice, whether Jewish, Christian, Islamic or other. Finally, and arguably most importantly, both face-to-face and online teaching testify that one cannot understand students, their pedagogical framework, learning and questioning, without reference to and appreciation of their stories—stories that are at the same time revelatory, disruptive and transcendent. Walter Brueggemann, for example, with reference to Exodus 20, makes the point that both God and students are inside any one story, and yet beyond that story. Without the flesh of stories, we are left with the bare bones of facts, statistics and chronologies.34 The indispensable richness of stories is their capacity to simultaneously reveal, invoke contemplation [Sabbath], and emancipate: But when we consider the identity of this God [in relation to Exod 20:3-7], we are made immediately aware that the God who will brook no rival and eventually will rest is a God who is embedded in a narrative; this God is not known or available apart from that [exodus] narrative…for the God who rests is the God who [also] emancipates….35

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Peter Mudge, “Teacher Reflection Learning Logs, September 2011 to August 2013.” Unpublished collection of papers (Baulkham Hills, NSW: Transformative Pedagogies, 2013). 33 Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner, “The Inquiry Method,” in Teaching as a Subversive Activity (New York: Delta, 1971), 25-38. 34 Refer to one source metaphor for this analogy in the Valley of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37: 1-14. 35 Walter Brueggemann, “Sabbath and the First Commandment,” in Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), 2.

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When theory becomes practice—narrative-journaling and “developing scenario learning” Introduction – the practice of difficult journeys During my recent reading of Susan E. Boyer’s fascinating narrative work entitled Across Great Divides, True stories of life at Sydney Cove, I came across a passage that made me sit bolt-upright in relation to possible associations with pedagogy, teaching and learning, but also perhaps in delayed recognition of what I and students were experiencing as we “learned new things” during course work. Boyer writes: Now that they [the First Fleet, comprising free and convict passengers] had anchored safely in the small cove, they were facing another challenge, another transition. They were again cast into a state of strangeness and uncertainty as they prepared to leave the ship and enter the vast unknown of a new land. In the scene [that lay before them], there was not a single familiar sight. No roads, no fences, no buildings…just wilderness.36

Without drawing too long a bow, these stories of Australia’s early forebears who cross over from indigenous to white culture or vice versa (as the title suggests) sound eerily similar to some learning experiences of my own students as they cross their own particular thresholds of learning (for example crossing the thresholds of spiritual practices and values listed earlier in this article). These students too, at least initially, feel safely anchored in their various “coves”, even after such a long journey from their own “mother countries”, where conventional practice is established, and where they can speak unchallenged in their “mother tongue”. They too might experience states of “strangeness and uncertainty” and must eventually leave the anchored ship to explore vast, unknown and new lands. And finally, as they look out on new territories, there are no familiar sights, no boundaries—nothing resembling their previous frameworks around sources, pedagogies, and perhaps even assessments and online materials. As one saying puts the concomitant challenge: “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”37 What I attempt to set out below represents a similar challenge—how to leave the safe harbours of student comfort zones, of various online pedagogies,

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Susan E. Boyer, Across Great Divides: True Stories of Life at Sydney Cove (Glenbrook, NSW: Birrong Books, 2013), 26. 37 Earliest attribution to John Augustus Shedd, Salt from My Attic (Portland, OR: The Mosher Press, 1928), cited in The Yale Book of Quotations, ed. Fred R. Shapiro (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 705.

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teaching approaches, and learning strategies, and instead head for the boiling open seas of new and perhaps more effective approaches. Such new voyages involve risk, anxiety and at times danger. Transforming theory into practice often calls for new perspectives and new approaches. Both the strategies considered below narrativejournaling and DSL (developing scenario learning) assume new perspectives on, in this case, online learning. This development of new pedagogies necessitates the evolution of what Fullan and Langworthy call “deep learning tasks”: These tasks harness the power of the new learning partnerships to engage students in practicing [sic] the process of deep learning through discovering and mastering existing knowledge and then creating and using new knowledge in the world. Deep learning tasks are energised by the notion of “learning leadership”, in which students are expected to become leaders of their own learning, able to [proactively] define and pursue their own learning goals using the resources, tools, and connections that digital access enables.38

Construction of a Meister Eckhart dialogue using a narrativejournaling method One example of a mystic and storyteller who has prompted many over the centuries to embark on difficult spiritual and philosophical journeys, and often to become “stumped” on the way, is Meister Eckhart (c.1260-1327). Meister Eckhart was a German Dominican famous in his time as a preacher, practical philosopher, theologian and mystic. His preaching stemmed from “intense mystical experience of God” and “he espoused the highest oneness with God in the here and now.”39 For centuries he was largely forgotten, until he was re-discovered during the 1900s. He is the consummate focus for this practical methodology section since, as Timothy Radcliffe points out: For [Eckhart], the spiritual life was not an ethereal existence that leaves us floating six feet above the ground; he rejected any dualism of mind and body. Rather, for him, the spiritual life was grounded in the soil of our

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Michael Fullan and Maria Langworthy, A Rich Seam: How New Pedagogies Find Deep Learning (London: Pearson, 2014), 21. Hence the importance of rhizomatic, co-constructed and narrative structures, as outlined already in this chapter so far. 39 David B. Perrin, “Mysticism,” in The Blackwell Companion To Christian Spirituality, ed. Arthur Holder (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 447.

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The Rhizomatic and Narrative Basis of Practical Student Learning everyday existence, as we struggle with ordinary, everyday decisions. His spirituality is made for people who are immersed in the world and its complexity40 [and this author would add, in the world’s stories, polyvalent pathways, and practical dilemmas].

In addition, Meister Eckhart has been chosen as the subject of this narrative-journaling strategy principally because he has influenced so many other spiritual pilgrims across the ages. Not only did he fuse the scholarship and thinking of the great minds of his own time, such as Rabbi Moses Maimonides, Friar Thomas Aquinas, with his own writings,41 but as Matthew Fox also observes, these Eckhartian alumni range from Rabbi Heschel to Howard Thurman, David Korten to Adrienne Rich, Thomas Berry to Anita Roddick, and from Rumi to Black Elk. Perhaps one of the most significant contemporary writers and religious commentators that Eckhart definitively swayed was Thomas Merton. Fox notes the manner whereby, “in the pages of his final work, Asian Journal, Catholic monk Thomas Merton regularly scribbled in the margins, ‘Eckhart is my lifeboat, Eckhart is my lifeboat.’”42 The narrative-journaling method, as the name suggests, is a fusion between the narrative and journaling approaches. It is based on the belief that student stories can emerge and crystallise in conversation with a spiritual author by employing a number of strategies from both disciplines. Narrative implies all that was suggested in section two above—that stories have the capacity to reveal the deep, inner soul and life of a person. Journaling is simply employed as a personal, reflective tool to help articulate the jewels of this inner life.43 Included below is one possible strategy for fusing student narrative and spirituality with the corresponding themes in Eckhart’s thought. It is based on the processes of listening, conducting research, and drafting a narrative-journal response. It also centres on three essay verbs— describe, critique and synthesise. Students are invited to place themselves

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Timothy Radcliffe, “Foreword,” in Introducing Meister Eckhart, Michael Demkovich (author), with Robert Staes (illustrator) (Ligouri, MO: Ligouri/Triumph, 2006), 11-12. 41 Bernard McGinn, “Introduction,” in Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1986), 17. 42 Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2014), 281. 43 Refer to selected key references in footnote 1 above.

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in conversation with Meister Eckhart, with reference to his sermons, commentaries, aphorisms and other works: 1. Listen to the 5 minute YouTube clip 44 based on Simon Parke’s book Conversations with Meister Eckhart45. 2. Conduct further research on Meister Eckhart’s life, spiritual themes, and writings. Suggested sources to include are: Enders, and Nelstrop & Podmore.46 3. Draft a narrative-journal dialogue that counterpoints your insights with those of Meister Eckhart. The aim of this dialogue is to deepen your understanding of Eckhart’s main spiritual teachings about humility, detachment, and the spiritual life. Your dialogue must show evidence of a description, critique and synthesis of Eckhart’s writings on the foregoing topics.

Applying Developing Scenario Learning (DSL) to online spirituality—a brief background Dalziel claims that Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and role plays are examples of teaching strategies that can foster student engagement and reflection either in face-to-face or online contexts. He combines these two elements of PBL and role play in the pedagogical approach “Developing Scenario Learning” (DSL). DSL challenges students to reflect on different possible approaches to scenarios that they may encounter in future work.47 In the case of spiritual traditions, practices and values, this could include one or more of—“alien” traditions such as Quakerism or Zen Buddhism; new practices such as labyrinth walking, mindfulness, “focusing” or a guided meditation on one’s death and funeral service; or previously



44 Meister Eckhart, Simon Parke and Andy Harrison. Conversations with Meister Eckhart (2010) (full length 5 mins). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBF_x3nMiYM&list=PLHq4p1PEQX4NJLH 2rEFLB1_7XWJO0-OlO&index=74 45 Meister Eckhart and Simon Parke. Conversations with Meister Eckhart (Guildford, UK: White Crow Books, 2010). 46 Suggested sources are: Markus Enders, “Meister Eckhart’s Understanding of God,” in A Companion to Meister Eckhart, ed. Jeremiah M. Hackett (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 359-388; and Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence, ed. Louise Nelstrop and Simon D. Podmore, (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2013). 47 Dalziel, “Developing Scenario Learning,” 32-33.

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unconsidered values such as compassion, humility, silence and kenosis (emptying of self in God). The DSL methodology also demonstrates potential for a number of reasons. When considered in the context of an online spirituality course, and similar to the dynamics of narrative inquiry, DSL has the capacity to move both teachers and students away from “content-transmission models of teaching and towards teaching strategies that foster active student engagement in solving authentic problems and the application of knowledge to real world problems.” 48 DSL also helps develop valuable skills such as “teamwork, communication, research and problem-solving in addition to understanding content knowledge.” 49 In addition, DSL assumes “the role of a facilitator working with a small group of students in a structured process around a complex authentic problem” and involves ongoing student discussion and research rather than an overload of expert content or information from a lecturer. 50 In view of the above, DSL appears to be drawn in part from the twin pedagogical gene pools of transformative learning and inquiry-based learning, where a student investigates a realm of study in a heuristic fashion, drawing upon personal experience and prior knowledge in order to open up other areas of investigation. 51 As such, it possesses all the hallmarks of modern pedagogies, assuming teaching and learning within a context of flux and unpredictability. Dabbagh sums up the current profile of the online distance learner as “emerging, responsive to rapid technological innovations and new learning paradigms, and progressively including a younger age bracket.” 52 Today’s younger students in particular, who have grown up with internet and web-based technologies (e.g. search engines, instant messaging, massive multiplayer online role-playing games [MMORPG], vodcasting) are adept at engaging in online learning activities premised on interaction and collaboration. Dabbagh asserts: “In addition, distributed online learning delivery models such as knowledge networks, learning communities, asynchronous learning networks, and knowledge portals, are designed to effectively meet the characteristics of this emerging learner

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Dalziel, “Developing Scenario Learning,” 32. Ibid, 32. 50 Ibid, 32. 51 Les Ball, Transforming Theology (Preston, Victoria: Mosaic Press, 2012), 27. 52 Nada Dabbagh, “The Online Learner: Characteristics and Pedagogical Implications,” Contemporary Issues In Technology And Teacher Education 7, 3 (2007), 218. 49

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population.” 53 This is the world in which DSL can enhance student understanding of course TCs, and challenge students to consider the conversion of theory into practice.

Construction of some Developing Scenario Learning tasks for RELT6016 Here I attempt to employ Dalziel’s DSL research to outline one such “complex authentic problem” that might emerge from the discipline of spirituality and within an adult study group in a parish, community centre, or perhaps in a staff professional development group in a school. I then further apply Dalziel’s research by articulating a number of process questions that could accompany this problem or scenario.54 The complex authentic problem—You are part of a team of presenters or facilitators in a parish, community group, university, school or other context. Your team has been asked to present a series of three sessions, each a week apart, on an Eastern spiritual tradition such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism or Sikhism. You have been asked in particular to focus on the history of your chosen tradition and to help your target group (c. 10 adults) experience some of the richness of that tradition’s spiritual practices and spiritual values. This topic has been chosen in consultation with the group to enable them to more deeply understand and dialogue with some in their local community that belong to the tradition that you are discussing. The group that you are working with has little or no understanding of that tradition. Whilst the majority of the group is supportive of exploring the planned topics, one member of the group is sceptical of the tradition’s value. Another is openly hostile to the tradition, claiming that it is anti-Christian [other traditions could be inserted here] and bordering on “pagan”and “demonic”. This strategy is referred to as “developing scenario learning” for good reasons. The above scenario represents Wave 1. Wave 2 might take the form of a pre-recorded video clip showing the views of yet another hypothetical member who joins the local spirituality discussion group. Wave 3 could present as each RELT6016 student hypothesising a scenario that he/she believes is realistic for the above context, and then detailing their response, based on academic sources, to this scenario. For all Waves, students are informed that they must link theory with practice; they must

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List of technologies and quote from Dabbagh, “The Online Learner,” 219. Dalziel, “Developing Scenario Learning,” 34-35.

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provide convincing scenarios and responses for the adult group, and they must provide ongoing evidence (real or hypothetical) that group members have crossed the threshold from shallow to deeper understanding of the Buddhist or other chosen tradition. The ensuing process questions for this task (or for a follow-up online discussion) could include some or all of the following: 1. You need to develop some hypothetical thoughts on the group based on your knowledge of spirituality and your experience of working with similar groups. How would you sum up the knowledge of your group, their attitudes and emotional issues? What additional information might you need to more fully understand the nature and dynamics of the group? What key problems begin to emerge as you conduct your three sessions and what is your plan of action to address this problem?55 2. How would you organise your three formal sessions plus the three Wave follow-up encounters? What topics would you pursue, what academic readings do you base these on, and what practical activities do you design for the group? 3. Prior to working with this group, you have completed a Master’s degree with a specialisation in spirituality. Imagine how you would respond to and work with the group, especially with the two members of the group who are either sceptical or hostile to the topic and the processes. 4. You need to be aware that the scenario and its various hypothetical developments do not have one obvious correct answer—rather these are open to a range of interpretations and possible responses. 5. As a person being trained in spirituality, you need to be able to discuss in your answer the evidence for various interpretations of both the tradition and the group’s reactions to it, as well as the merits of different group members’ responses. 6. What evidence would you look for to confirm any transformation within the group? If they were to cross specific TCs (Threshold Concepts) such as tolerance, empathy or intercultural dialogue, what evidence would you look for to ratify this crossing?

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Dalziel, “Developing Scenario Learning,” 35

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7. Given all the above, you now need to document your plan of action to address the current scenario and its possible permutations. 8. The three sessions and three Wave follow-ups have been completed. What biases and questionable assumptions did you encounter whilst working with the group? What type of feedback would you expect from the group—both positive and negative? Did you need to revise your strategies during the sessions based on the responses of the group? What are your final reflections on the whole scenario and what would you change, delete or revise if you had the chance to facilitate the group again?56

Conclusions and discussion This chapter has sought to demonstrate the profound interrelatedness between spirituality, pedagogy, rhizomatic knowing, narrative, and two selected teaching strategies—all in the context of an online spirituality course taught by the author—RELT6016. Supported by selected student narratives linked to online learning, it has argued for the value of rhizomatic knowing and mapping over its arboreal counterpart. It has advocated the use of stories, and the valuable place of narrative inquiry, for all forms of learning, and asserted that understanding and “depthing” the meaning of stories is at the heart of any form of “deep learning.” Rather than buttressing mediocrity and monolithic learning, inclusion of stories has the capacity to unearth skills such as critical selfreflection, dialogue, and common experiences of disorientation among the student cohort. Two teaching strategies are proposed as vehicles for supporting the above theory—narrative-journaling and Developing Scenario Learning (DSL). Both have the capacity to enhance courses structured on rhizomatic and narrative principles, and for allowing students to make concrete applications to their areas of learning and ministry. Concurring with David B. Perrin, I conclude this chapter with the observation that, for many of the above topics, suppositions about online technologies, and strategies, we as lecturers and practitioners never manage to see the full picture—rather our “seeing” is restricted to shards of glass, scattered fragments, incomplete scenarios. Perrin (citing David



56 Refer to Dalziel, “Developing Scenario Learning,” 36-37 for background to nos. 2-5, 7-8 above.

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Tracy) urges that we must let go of all totalising systems, and focus instead on the concrete yet incomplete realms of spirituality and of the mystic—“the explosive, marginal, saturated, and at times auratic fragments of our heritage.” 57 The mystics, like many current theorists practitioners of online study, have not left behind comprehensive systems in their writings but, instead “concentrated reflections, saturated images— fragments.” Perrin concludes: “The task is not to construct a new totalizing system, but rather to piece together a ‘new constellation of fragments’ such that our love relationship with God and our world is constantly renewed.” 58 I would advance the same argument for the rhizomatic, narrative, and practical dimensions of online and blended spirituality courses. We do not possess “the full story” but only fragments thereof. We make modest advances on the basis of intuition, partial evidence, at times inadequate tools, and hunches. Here I would assert that many of the technologies required to embed rigorous online study and flourishing online learning communities, have not yet been developed. Perhaps, in the final analysis, St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:11-12 puts it most eloquently: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, [footnote e - in a riddle] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.59

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David B. Perrin, “Mysticism.” in The Blackwell Companion To Christian Spirituality, ed. Arthur Holder (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 456. 58 Perrin, “Mysticism,” 457. 59 1 Corinthians 13:11-12.

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Bibliography Armstrong, Karen. “The Seventh Step: How Little We Know,” in Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life (London: The Bodley Head, 2011), 116130. Barker, Chris. “Rhizome,” in idem, SAGE Dictionary of Cultural Studies (London: Sage Publications, 2004), 178. Boyer, Susan E. Across Great Divides: True Stories of Life at Sydney Cove (Glenbrook, NSW: Birrong Books, 2013). Cepero, Helen. Journalling as A Spiritual Practice: Encountering God through Attentive Writing (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2008). Clandinin, D. Jean, and F. Michael Connelly. Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; Riessman, 2004). Clandinin, D. Jean, and Janice Huber. “Narrative Inquiry,” in Internet Encyclopedia of Education (3rd Edition), edited by B. McGaw, E. Baker, and P. P. Peterson (New York: Elsevier, 2014). Dabbagh, Nada. “The Online Learner: Characteristics and Pedagogical Implications,” Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education 7, 3 (2007), 217-226. Dalziel, James. “Developing Scenario Learning and Its Implementation in LAMS,” in Proceedings of the 7th International LAMS Conference: Surveying the Learning Design Landscape, edited by L. Cameron and J. Dalziel. Sydney: LAMS Foundation (6-7 December 2012), 32-39. Deleuze, Gilles. and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism And Schizophrenia (Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis University Press, 1987). Dirkx, John M. Adult Learning and the Emotional Self (New York: Jossey-Bass, 2009). Dorff, Francis. Simply Soulstirring: Writing As A Meditative Practice (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1998). Fox, Matthew. Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2014). Fullan, Michael, and Maria Langworthy. A Rich Seam: How New Pedagogies Find Deep Learning (London: Pearson, 2014).

CAN ICT PRESERVE THE FUTURE OF ANCIENT GREEK LEARNING? DAVID GORMLEY-O’BRIEN

This chapter traces the present day plight of Classical language teaching at universities and puts forward the claim that the future survival of these disciplines is closely bound up with ICT. It explores two or three prominent and successful online language courses and, in conjunction with the author’s own experience in teaching languages, puts forward several benefits in teaching languages through ICT as a medium and suggests several best practices for people designing their own courses.

The learning of ancient languages such as Greek, Latin, and Hebrew in Australian theological colleges and universities has seen a sharp decline in the last few decades both in the number of tertiary institutions offering these courses and the number of students enrolled. The reasons are many and diverse, and not solely attributable to the economic reforms in the publicly-subsidised tertiary sector, put into place by successive federal governments placing pressure on institutions to rationalise, that is, excise, courses that traditionally have had small class sizes, treating them as financially unviable. For the most part I contend that many of the problems are of our own making. I am here talking from my own experience and observations in teaching for many years Koiné Greek at the University of Divinity, but there is plenty in common with how other ancient languages are taught in most other universities and theological colleges in Australia. The chief culprit has to do with the predominant pedagogy used for the past century, the grammatical-analytical translation method, by itself, “almost completely bankrupt in its capacity to develop overall linguistic competence.”1 Most students and, dare I be so strident, many teachers, are

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Susan Thornton Rasmussen, “Why Oral Latin?” Teaching Classical Languages 6,

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unable to translate Greek outside of a narrow range of some New Testament texts. 2 The translation process is invariably painful and laborious, necessitating frequent recourse to the lexicon, and never really progresses from there into genuine reading with comprehension. Testing involves mostly Greek to English written translations of set canonical texts, grammar, syntax, and morphological questions requiring almost superhuman feats of memorisation of declension and conjugation tables, which one suspects that even hypothetical native readers of the target language would find very difficult to regurgitate, and a bewildering morass of technical jargon to wade through. Greek for many students is not merely a dead language, a supererogatory hoop that must be jumped through, it is something altogether alien, a code that needs to be deciphered. The ultimate effect is that the grammatical-analytical translation method, used by itself, inoculates many students from ever enjoying the excitement that can come from gleaning the insights and glimpses into another culture from reading and comprehending the target language. Greek is not relevant and it is certainly not fun. If we add to this the difficulties associated with heavy student workloads and an ever tightening curriculum, where tertiary institutions and their stakeholders insist on churning students through the degrees in an unreasonably short amount of time, we get to the point where ancient language learning increasingly becomes disconnected from the rest of the curriculum. In theological colleges, students can be forgiven for questioning the relevance of undertaking Koiné Greek when the New

 1 (2015): 3. Rasmussen uses these words to describe the way that Latin is frequently taught in universities but they are equally applicable to the way that other ancient languages are taught, especially Greek. 2 Daniel R. Streett, “Greek Professors: Do They Know Greek? (Basics of Greek Pedagogy, Pt. 3),” ȀĮȚ ȉĮ ȁȠȚʌȐ, http://danielstreett.com/2011/09/12/greekprofessors-do-they-know-greek-basics-of-greek-pedagogy-pt-3/. To illustrate this point Streett presented a paper at an annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2008 to an audience of around thirty New Testament Greek professors, including some who had published Greek textbooks and grammars, and doctoral students working on New Testament research. As part of his paper he gave each member of his audience a short quiz where they were to translate ten common English words and phrases such as “Yes, chair, ball, cat, nine, red, 'Hello, how are you?'” and so on into Greek. The results were incredibly humbling and revealing. The average grade was 0.4/10; the highest was 2/10; most testees could not answer any question correctly. These were not difficult words or phrases. They were typical words that one would encounter in the first week of an English as a Second Language class or expect a toddler to know.

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Testament exegetical classes do not have the target language as a prerequisite but work primarily on approved English translations. 3 Secular universities have no reason to feel smug here. It is not uncommon for Classics students to be required to undertake a number of language units as part of their program only to attend joint history classes conducted in English in order to be more accessible for students from other disciplines, that is, to attract a greater number of students to make the class more financially viable. In this chapter I shall be focusing on the first problem, pedagogy. There is a growing number of teachers who recognise that ancient language teaching has been done poorly and call into question persisting with the current grammatical-analytical method and inflicting our students with unnecessary grief over an activity that the latter will most likely abandon at the earliest possible opportunity. There is already enough cruelty in the world. Perhaps it is better not to offer the ancient language at all if it is going to be done poorly. However, if tertiary institutions and their stakeholders for whatever reason still desire to offer ancient languages then, these teachers suggest, and I concur, we must take a cue from the way that modern languages are taught at universities in order to assist the student in developing a linguistic competence especially in reading comprehension. Some objections can be raised here by critics. The aims of ancient and modern language learning, they may say, are patently different with a very different set of competencies. But are they, in fact, so different? If we are convinced that ancient language students ought to strive for overall linguistic competence with a focus on reading comprehension, rather than solely the ability to analyse and translate a few canonical texts (as distinct from reading and understanding them), then there are indeed several common goals. A modern language learner, if we follow the WorldReadiness Standards for Learning Languages produced by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, has five goal areas including Communication, Cultures, Connection, Comparisons, and

 3

In my own institution we have the situation where some awards no longer have a language requirement but students are forced to undertake a unit or two of a biblical language solely in order to fulfil ordination requirements. The situation becomes more absurd when these biblical language units can be taken at any point in the program. I personally know a student who feared the prospect of language study so much that she postponed the Greek units until her final year, after she had completed all of her New Testament exegesis units. That student is ordained now.

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Communities.4 In each of these areas there is significant overlap with the ancient language student’s aim of developing competency in reading comprehension. For example: under Communication, “learners understand, interpret, and analyse what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics;” under Cultures, “learners use the language to investigate, explain, and reflect on the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the cultures studied;” under Connections, “learners build, reinforce, and expand their knowledge of other disciplines while using the language to develop critical thinking and to solve problems creatively;” under Comparisons, “learners use the language to investigate, explain, and reflect on the nature of the language studied and their own;” and finally under Communities, “learners set goals and reflect on their progress in using languages for enjoyment, enrichment, and advancement.” In sum, reading with comprehension involves the capacity to read and comprehend a wide range of texts, opens a window to the culture of the target language, encourages the student to reflect on his or her own language and culture, thereby expanding their understanding of both, enhances the student’s ability to think critically and creatively, and sets the student on a path of enjoyable lifelong learning beyond the classroom. The Standards for Classical Language Learning is a guide produced by the American Classical League that applies the five goal areas from the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages specifically to Latin and Greek learning.5 The Standards do not purport to be a curriculum for a Latin or Greek course but rather a description of the various stages in student development of linguistic competency in the target language, and are directly relevant here:

Goal 1: Communication: communicate in a Classical language.

Standard 1.1 Students read, understand, and interpret Latin or Greek. Standard 1.2 Students use orally, listen to, and write Latin or Greek as part of the language learning process.

  

4 For a two-page summary see http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/WorldReadinessStandardsforLearningLanguages.pdf. 5 “Standards for Classical Language Learning,” (American Classical League, 1997), https://www.aclclassics.org/uploads/assets/files/Standards_Classical_Learning.pdf.

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Goal 2: Culture: gain knowledge and understanding of GraecoRoman culture

Standard 2.1 Students demonstrate an understanding perspectives of Greek or Roman culture as revealed practices of the Greeks or Romans. Standard 2.2 Students demonstrate an understanding perspectives of Greek or Roman culture as revealed products of the Greeks or Romans

Goal 3: Connections: connect with other disciplines and expand knowledge

Standard 3.1 Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through their study of classical languages. Standard 3.2 Students expand their knowledge through the reading of Latin or Greek and the study of ancient culture.

Goal 4: Comparisons: develop insight into own language and culture

Standard 4.1 Students recognise and use elements of the Latin or Greek language to increase knowledge of their own language. Standard 4.2 Students compare and contrast their own culture with that of the Graeco-Roman world.

Goal 5: Communities: participate in wider communities of language and culture

Standard 5.1 Students use their knowledge of Latin or Greek in a multilingual world. Standard 5.2 Students use their knowledge of Graeco-Roman culture in a world of diverse cultures.

of the in the of the in the

At the heart of the Standards for Classical Language Learning is the communicative method which involves the student participating in significant speaking, reading, listening, and writing activities all in the target language. Note that the communicative method involves spoken and aural components even for the learning of so-called dead languages such as Latin and Greek! Susan Rasmussen, in her article Why Oral Latin, gives five reasons why oral components ought to be in the curriculum of Latin learning, which are equally applicable to other ancient languages, including Koiné Greek.6 The first and chief reason is based on the premise that in working to a deep understanding of a language one needs to cultivate all aspects of the language. Rasmussen draws on the works of

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various scholars that show that an oral approach is proven to be effective in developing linguistic competence. The grammar-translation approach trains students to develop only one principal skill, reading (and pretty poorly at that), ignoring skills such as writing or speaking (or listening for that matter), and almost invariably leads to a chasm with the culture of the target language. The second reason is the oral Latin enhances the reading ability of the student. When listening to spoken Latin the listener’s comprehension must follow at the same speed as the speaker. The student must develop the capacity to process information in chunks rather than word by word. Speaking in Latin assists a great deal in developing proficiency in grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. It must be remembered that, in many cases, writers of texts in antiquity did not intend their works to be read only, but also to be heard and performed. Speaking and listening helps to cultivate proper expression and to identify the author’s stylistic devices. Both of these skills transfer directly into becoming more fluent in reading. Third, adding oral components to the Latin curriculum accommodates students of different learning styles. Many students have difficulties learning languages solely by grammatical analysis. These auditory learners need help with the reading process. Fourth, and this may be a revelation to some, the grammatical-analytic approach to language learning is not traditional. Prior to the 20th century most students learned Latin with a substantial oral component; one only needs to think of the use of oral Latin in ecclesiastical and monastic communities in the medieval period. Fifth, oral Latin can be enjoyable. It gives students a sense of accomplishment from being able to speak in a second language thereby giving greater motivation to continue with their learning. Having made the case that there is a need to change the way that we teach ancient languages in universities and theological colleges and then proposing that the change involves transforming our pedagogy from a total dependency on grammatical-analytical translation method to adopting a more communicative approach that involves reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the target language in order to foster linguistic competence, I now come to the main part of the paper where I explore ways that we can make the transformation. It is important to state clearly that I am not advocating jettisoning the grammatical-analytical translation approach suddenly and completely. For one thing, the amount of work required to change pedagogies for the teacher would be inordinate, requiring the teacher him- or herself to develop a much higher linguistic competence in the target language even before conducting the first class. Furthermore, a wholly communicative approach, as used in modern language learning, would demand many more dedicated units in an already

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tight curriculum, something which institutions and their stakeholders are unlikely to change in the near future. Therefore we are left with the possibility of migrating gradually to a hybrid pedagogy built on a judicious balance of elements from both the grammatical-analytical and communicative approaches. Nevertheless, the workload for the teacher in making this transition remains large. Fortunately, there are some splendid and accessible resources available to assist teachers to do this. Here I shall draw upon two. Indubitably, the most comprehensive and innovative communicative approach to Koiné language learning is provided by Randall Buth at the Biblical Language Center in Jerusalem. Buth teaches by immersion, where each class is conducted completely in Koiné Greek. Students in his class are asked questions in Greek and expected to respond in like. Indeed, online videos of his classes show that they are highly physical (using Total Physical Response method) with the teacher having the students actively place a cup on the table, or sit on a chair, or walk quickly around the room and so on in response to his commands in Greek. 7 The students find themselves enjoying the class sessions immensely while internalising the target language. For those who cannot travel to Israel to partake in his Koiné Greek classes, Buth has published a series of three textbooks called Living Koiné Greek, accompanied by CDs with hundreds of MP3 audio files and some MP4 video files which function as quizzes.8 The course is in two parts. The first book, covering the first part of the course, comprises mostly of lessons based on simple drawn pictures of everyday people and things, such as a woman, man, donkey, egg and so on, which are linked to the audio files. Everything is spoken in Greek; there are no English translations. Indeed, there are no written words. The Greek alphabet is not even learned until the end of the tenth lesson! The focus in this part of the course is on listening, which Buth claims, provides the deepest initial learning. Students are instructed to listen to the audio recordings while following the pictures. After a couple of iterations students are then to listen to the audio recordings by themselves, without looking at the



7 “Biblical Language Center : Home of the Living Biblical Languages,” http://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/. 8 Randall Buth, Living Koiné Greek: Part One, 2nd ed., vol. 1, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: The Biblical Language Center, 2007); Randall Buth, Living Koiné Greek: Part Two-A, vol. 2, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: The Biblical Language Center, 2008); Randall Buth, Living Koiné Greek: Part Two-B, vol. 2, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: The Biblical Language Center, 2008).

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pictures. Once they understand at least 80% of the material they then proceed to the next lesson. As the students progress, the audio material becomes more complex with single words being replaced by phrases and sentences. Whereas the first part of the course involves a monolingual audio immersion in pictures, the second part, covered in books two and three, while continuing to use elements of communicative methodology, more closely resembles the conventional grammars with important differences. There are twelve lessons, each involving reading, listening, writing and memorising activities with simple dialogues, grammar practice drills, and annotated readings of the New Testament, mainly the Gospels, and a few other contemporary works of the Koiné period. (A salient point to remember is that by the time students reach this part of the course, which is the starting point for most other ancient language courses, they already have a very good foundation of 270 vocabulary items with their various inflections from the previous part.) Typically Greek textbooks based on grammatical-analytical method rigidly divide lessons according to grammatical forms (e.g. Lesson 1: Second Declension Nouns; Lesson 2: Present, Active, Indicative Verbs, and so on), with vocabulary, drill and translation exercises chosen to illustrate the grammar, and the translation passage tacked clumsily on the end. Buth’s lessons take the opposite approach. They are thematically based on the narratives in the selected annotated readings. For example, the theme for Lesson One is a certain woman who loses her drachma (Lk 15.8); the theme for Lesson Three is the banquet (Lk 14.16-19) and so on. The student begins a lesson by listening, reading, and memorising the dialogues, which are a simplified form of the annotated passage, until they can act them. Grammar and vocabulary are then progressively introduced, acquired, and expanded as arising from the dialogue, and reinforced in the interactive practice drills, until the student is equipped to read the selected passage of the lesson with comprehension. There is a far greater sense of cohesion in Buth’s structure. Overall, Buth’s course assists the student to attain standards 1.1 and 1.2 of the first goal in Standards for Classical Language Learning, mentioned above. However, are we consigned to achieve only the first goal of World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages in an introductory language course? In my view, my other example, the Français Interactif program, developed by the University of Texas in Austin, suggests that it is possible both to use a substantial communicative approach to attain the

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first goal and at the same time addressing goals 2-5. 9 While a downloadable textbook is offered in pdf format for free the whole introductory French course can be undertaken online. The lessons are divided into thirteen chapters based on topics from various aspects of contemporary French culture and society. A description of one of the chapters ought to suffice to illustrate this. Chapter 3 is titled, Les vacances en France, which focuses on the weather, seasons, geography, and various vacation activities in France. The chapter is divided into a number of sections: a) a short video introducing the topic of the chapter, holidays in France; b) a list of vocabulary, phrases and clauses (French to English), to be learned with audio on pronunciation. The vocabulary is grouped into semantic domains such as le temps, les saisons, la géographie, all pertaining to the topic of the chapter, as well as verbs, les nombres cardinaux 70-100. The student is given precise instructions for appropriating the vocabulary through listening and speaking; c) a section on French accentuation and the intonations used to express the various moods. Each point is amply demonstrated in audio; d) a carefully indexed grammar section which covers the conjugations of various verbs and tenses. This section concludes with an online quiz which gives instant feedback to the student; e) a video section which draws together the work learned in sections b, c, and d, in context of the chapter topic. Typically the videos show a teacher or different students conversing on particular topics in French. There are also video interviews where people are asked questions and respond in French. The content of all the videos bears directly on the vocabulary and grammar learned in context; f) an internet activity where students apply the understanding of vocabulary and grammar from the previous sections by using a website to plan activities for a hypothetical trip in France;

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“Français Interactif,” https://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/.

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g) a section on the song Ma Louisiane, a song about the Cajun people, a French speaking minority in Louisiana, whose children, in the early 20th century, were often punished when speaking their first language at school. Students are expected to listen to the song in French and fill in the blank missing words of the verses and refrain again in French. After doing this students answer a list of questions testing their comprehension of the song, and their understanding of the cultural and historical context, and translate the chorus. Finally, students reflect on their own reactions to the Cajuns’ story, why they think the Cajuns wish to maintain their way of speaking, and the more general question of how language reflects culture. It can be seen that all the activities in the above program combine to assist the student to achieve the first and second goals of the WorldReadiness Standards for Learning Languages, while the very creative activities, f) and g) in particular, also have elements consonant with goals three to five. Both the Living Koiné Greek and the Français Interactif programs share several things in common in their use of communicative pedagogy: the importance of physical movement, listening, writing, and speaking in vocabulary acquisition; by covering grammar, morphology, and syntax in interesting ways through the use of short dialogues and online drills in the target language (rather than solely by simple recitation of declension and conjugation tables and unwieldy grammatical discussions); with the copious use of online quizzes which give students immediate feedback on their learning; by structuring the course into topics to which students can easily relate rather than sterile grammatical categories, and so on. Nevertheless, this approach to language learning is only made possible due to developments in educational technology (elearning) in the past decade or so. Both programs make extensive use of audio and video, and interactive online quizzes which give immediate feedback to the students, so it is possible for the student to develop his or her proficiency in listening, writing, and reading the target language with comprehension online or in a language lab without ever attending a classroom. In the short interval since both programs became available or had their last revision (LLG in 2008; FI in 2011), e-learning technology and pedagogy have made significant advances and there are ways that we can enhance the interactive aspects of our ancient language courses. For

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example, there has been a lot more focus on learning activity sequencing in recent times. Studies have shown that when students are given freedom to work through the learning material in their preferred way they use a wide range of routes, some work through systematically, others may leave an exercise to look at another section and return later. Whereas ancient language textbooks tend to impose a single, rigid, path through the learning material, e-learning, done well, can in effect emancipate the student from the textbook author, and thereby give a measure of student control. Of course, conversely, e-learning, done poorly, gives the student no control over decisions about the sequencing of content and learning activities and thus may reduce the quality of their learning.10 Here LAMS, which is discussed elsewhere in this volume, as an intuitive visual authoring environment may be conducive for allowing the learning material to be adapted to individual levels and activities to be paced according to the student’s own progress.11 Another exciting recent advance in e-learning technology conducive for a communicative approach to ancient language learning is in the area of flashcards. Multimedia flashcard applications such as Anki can be extremely useful in helping students become proficient with vocabulary and grammatical syntax. 12 No longer are flashcards solely in written format with the target language term on the recto and the English translation on the verso. Now a wide range of media can be used with audio, video, and images in all of their different combinations. So Buth’s monolingual audio immersion with pictures can be easily replicated and enhanced in the new flashcard applications. And the future? Emergent trends in e-learning technology, software applications, and pedagogy have the potential to lead to an even greater revolution in ancient language learning. If we return to our two exemplar programs it may be noted that the main competency not catered for is speaking in the target language. It is possible at the present time to cater for this with the use of internet communication and web conferencing applications such as Skype and Adobe Connect. However, there is an increasing number of mobile devices being developed with natural user interfaces which respond to a person’s gestures or voice. Voice recognition systems and software are making huge advances. There will inevitably come a time in the not too distant future when students will

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Paul Ramsden, Learning to Teach in Higher Education, 2nd ed. (London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2010), 152–3. 11 “LAMS Foundation,” http://lamsfoundation.org/. 12 “Anki—Powerful, Intelligent Flashcards,” http://ankisrs.net/.

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be able to speak in the target language and the mobile device itself will be able to give immediate feedback.

Bibliography “Biblical Language Center : Home of the Living Biblical Languages.” http://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/ Buth, Randall. Living Koiné Greek: Part One. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Jerusalem: The Biblical Language Center, 2007. —. Living Koiné Greek: Part Two-A. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Jerusalem: The Biblical Language Center, 2008. —. Living Koiné Greek: Part Two-B. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Jerusalem: The Biblical Language Center, 2008. “Français Interactif.” https://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/ “LAMS Foundation.” http://lamsfoundation.org/ Ramsden, Paul. Learning to Teach in Higher Education. 2nd ed. London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2010. Rasmussen, Susan Thornton. “Why Oral Latin?” Teaching Classical Languages 6, 1 (Spring 2015): 1–9. “Standards for Classical Language Learning.” American Classical League, 1997. https://www.aclclassics.org/uploads/assets/files/Standards_Classical_L earning.pdf Streett, Daniel R. “Greek Professors: Do They Know Greek? (Basics of Greek Pedagogy, Pt. 3).” ȀĮȚ ȉĮ ȁȠȚʌȐ. http://danielstreett.com/2011/09/12/greek-professors-do-they-knowgreek-basics-of-greek-pedagogy-pt-3/

SECTION SIX BUILDING REAL COMMUNITY VIRTUALLY

SPEAKING CAREFULLY IN THE PRESENCE OF OUR STUDENTS: ENGENDERING TRUST AND CARE IN THE (ONLINE) THEOLOGY CLASSROOM DANIEL J. FLEMING

The shift to online delivery of tertiary education in recent years, whilst greatly increasing access to such education, has given rise to significant pedagogical challenges across the disciplines. Core among their concerns has been the question of how educators can ensure that online students have an equal learning experience to their face-to-face counterparts. In the first place, it would seem that this question is primarily about content and teaching methodology. However, there is much more to it than first appearances reveal. There is a more subtle—but verifiably more important—aspect of education: its relational quality. Data from the Australian Values Education program, for example, revealed that the quality of relationship between teacher and student far outweighs factors of content and teaching methodology when it comes to student success. In the study, the definition of quality of relationship included a teacher’s capacity to engender trust in the classroom through exhibiting qualities such as care and compassion. Is it possible to demonstrate such qualities in the online environment and cultivate the trust that is essential to good learning? This is a particularly poignant question for theology, given the challenging nature of the discipline from educational and personal points of view and the necessity for trust in the student-teacher relations to prevent reactionary “shutting down” in the face of such challenges. This chapter explores some possibilities for utilising language carefully in the presence of students online to exhibit the abovementioned qualities and engender trust. It argues that practitioners within the discipline of theology are (or at least should

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be) in a strong position to lead the way among the disciplines in this regard, given their attention to the careful use of language about God.

Introduction In this chapter I draw on a number of different fields of study to emphasise the importance of the highly intentional use of language for students engaging with theology in the online classroom. The chapter begins by explaining a recent philosophical reflection by Fleming and Mudge which proffers that the experience of studying theology can be likened to “leaving home” for students and that, consequently, it can elicit fear and carry with it some significant resistance. The nature of such fear and resistance is further elucidated through a study of literature from moral and values education which sheds light on how it is that studying a subject like theology online may elicit these kinds of reactions. Turning its attention to the methods of overcoming such resistance posited by these same areas of study, the chapter concludes with a focus on the use of language by instructors in the online environment. It suggests that, given the restrictions inherent in the online environment when it comes to building empathy and interpersonal values such as trust and care which are central to overcoming fear, there is an added pressure to “speak carefully in the presence of students” in order to help create the kind of learning environment that is conducive to the development of the kinds of skills that theology requires.

Background—Theology asks us to Leave Home: Beyond the Place Where We Are Right The Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai penned the following poem which provides an opening reflection for this chapter. One way of reading the poem is that it offers a vision of humility at the heart of epistemology: only when one is willing to let go of the premise that one is right can one consider what is new and different. This is an essential disposition for the journey to truth, if truth is held up as something that is beyond subjectivism: From the place where we are right Flowers will never grow In the spring. The place where we are right

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Is hard and trampled Like a yard. But doubts and loves Dig up the world Like a mole, a plow. And a whisper will be heard in the place Where the ruined House once stood.1

The ability to cultivate an awareness of the whisper of what is new and otherwise is an essential aspect of theological learning. Elsewhere, my colleague and I have defended this hypothesis by utilising the metaphor of leaving home as paradigmatic for theological education, which I will now explain.2 The metaphor rests initially on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, the 20th century phenomenologist. In his philosophy, Levinas reflected deeply on the phenomenon of human consciousness. Typically, he suggested, consciousness was concerned primarily with the continuation of its own existence 3 Levinas suggests that consciousness operates much like a hand trying to grasp the world around it and hold onto what it can, as comprehensively as possible. Indeed, Levinas exegetes the German word for understanding, auffassen, and points to its root word of fassen, which connotes this kind of grasping. 4 Consciousness as understanding is an attempt to grasp at the world and hold onto it. As such, all that is outside consciousness is reduced to its own terms: what is outside of consciousness is utilised for the continuation of its existence, it is brought “home” to consciousness and subsumed within it, in much the same way that food is subsumed into the body when it is eaten, again for the continuation of its existence.5 To elucidate the point further, Levinas suggests that a paradigm for this kind of consciousness can be found in the



1 Yehuda Amichai, Selected Poems, trans. C. Bloch and S. Mitchell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 34. 2 Daniel Fleming and Peter Mudge, “Leaving Home: A Pedagogy for Theological Education,” in Learning and Teaching Theology: Some Ways Ahead, ed. Les Ball and Jim Harrison (Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2014). 3 Emmanuel Levinas, Totality And Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, trans. A. Lingis (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1969), 152. 4 Emmanuel Levinas, “Ethics as First Philosophy,” in The Levinas Reader, ed. Sean Hand (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 1989), 76. 5 Levinas, Totality and Infinity, 158-59.

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ancient Greek character Ulysses, who leaves his home for a journey only to return again. In contrast to Ulysses, however, Levinas offers the paradigm of the Biblical character Abraham, who leaves home for good, on a journey towards a destination unknown in response to a call from a mysterious God.6 Only this paradigm represents the kind of consciousness that can encounter mystery adequately. Whereas the grasping of understanding and “bringing the world home” is appropriate when it comes to those objects which we are free to manipulate according to our needs, it is inadequate for dealing with mystery. For Levinas, mystery is most radically encountered in the other person, who prompts consciousness to leave its home of understanding into a journey unknown. When consciousness encounters the other, it may react in one of two ways: by honouring this mystery with awe and wonder, which implies a disposition of willingness for leaving the home of consciousness, or by attempting to bring that mystery home to itself by reducing it to its own familiar categories. When dealing with mystery this latter approach is inherently violent inasmuch as it forces what is beyond the home of consciousness into yet another object for such consciousness to control at its will.7 Whilst Levinas is fundamentally concerned with the self-other encounter with mystery in his philosophy of radical ethical responsibility, we extend the form of this part of his argument to analyse the experience of studying theology. Inasmuch as theology prompts students to consider what is mysterious, challenging, and otherwise to their existing grasp of understanding, it also prompts them to leave the comforts of their home worldviews. Such leaving home is challenging, and to further explain the phenomenon we utilise Brueggemann’s taxonomy of learning as moving from secure orientation (business-as-usual/staying home) to disturbing disorientation (leaving home) to surprising reorientation (establishing a new home elsewhere).8 Such reflection all implies that theological study is difficult for students. Theology is not a discipline that simply bolsters the home understandings that students enter a classroom with—it necessarily asks them to move beyond these into disturbing disorientation towards what is surprising and new. Given the importance of their theological homes, such study may be difficult for students, especially when the outcome of it requires them to re-evaluate, or even discard, long held

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Levinas, Totality and Infinity, 27, 271. Levinas, Totality and Infinity, 21. 8 Walter Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002), 25-45. 7

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personal views, a point which was affirmed by qualitative and quantitative research into the experience of theology students in the Australian context.9 As a final point to add to the reflection here, Kent Eilers proposes the metaphor of travel, aligned here also with the metaphor of leaving home, to elucidate the simultaneous fear and opportunity for growth that exists in theology classrooms which seek to expose students to what is new and outside of the realms of their home worldviews. He does so by drawing on Albert Camus, who once wrote that the greatest value of travel is fear. Eilers explains: It is the fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our own country…we are seized by a vague fear, and an instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits…At that moment, we are feverish but also porous, so that the slightest touch makes us quiver to the depths of our being.10 In view of these observations, another colleague and I have posited five essential capacities for the study of theology. These are: 1. Humility—the capacity to embrace the possibility that what we currently know is limited, and may be wrong, and the willingness to move beyond this if more adequate knowledge and understanding become available. 2. Intellectual empathy—the capacity to inhabit the thinking and reasoning of other points of view, even if only for a set period of time, and even if these are radically different from one’s own. 3. Patience—the capacity to take the time necessary to grapple with big ideas, study in appropriate detail, and also to be patient with oneself and others in such study. 4. Thoroughness—the capacity to keep “drilling down” into ideas and beliefs, to analyse their presuppositions and interrelated aspects of knowledge too. To leave no stone unturned.



9 Les Ball, Transforming Theology: Student Experience And Transformative Learning in Undergraduate Theological Education (Preston, Victoria: Mosaic Press, 2012). 87. 10 Kent Eilers, “Hermeneutical Empathy: Receiving Global Texts in Local Classrooms,” Teaching Theology and Religion 17, 2 (2014): 165.

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5. Critical thinking—to move beyond “unreflective platitudes about faith, God, or religion” and towards clearly articulated positions which are accountable to rational argument both internally to the tradition of which they are a part, of more broadly in the world of scholarship at large.11 This sets a challenging task for theological education in all contexts and, as I will note later, especially in the online environment. Thus far, we have established that the study of theology is challenging for students, like leaving home, and that such study may elicit fear-based reaction. Thus, theological educators need to be aware of the kind of challenge that their classrooms and the content they cover within them may elicit for students, an awareness which the metaphor of leaving home provides. If this is the case, it is equally important to develop an understanding of why it is that students may react to such challenges in more or less helpful ways. On the latter, we are all familiar with educational experiences wherein a student’s reaction to a new point of view culminates in their storming out of the classroom or, on the other hand, throwing down their pen and ceasing to engage for the rest of the lesson. Fear here prompts them to stay home. More fruitfully, we are also all familiar with cases wherein students relish and new insights, engage with them critically, and ultimately use them develop their understanding. Following from this, there is a need to consider what can be done in the (online) classroom to provide the best possible environment for theological learning as leaving home to occur, and this is essential if we are going to enable all students to meet the kinds of outcomes we desire from them.

When fear comes to mind: Insights from the sciences In an aligned area of research, the combined areas of affective neuroscience, developmental psychology, cognitive science and moral education have proven particularly helpful in such considerations.12 This is especially the case when it comes to better understanding the physiological and psychological underpinnings of fear-based reactions to what is strange

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Terence Lovat and Daniel Fleming, What Is This Thing Called Theology? Considering the Spiritual in the Public Square (Macksville: David Barlow Publishing, 2014), 30-33. 12 See Daniel Fleming and Terence Lovat, “When Encounters Between Religious Worldviews are a Threat: Applying Triune Ethics Theory in a Religiously Diverse Landscape,” Journal Of Moral Education 43, 3 (2014): 377-93.

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and new, as articulated above. The reason for turning to such areas of study is that we are embodied creatures, and we can therefore expect that our experience has some relationship to what we can know about how we function on a physiological level, the necessary underpinning of our experience of the world. In particular, the work of the moral psychologist Darcia Narvaez and her Triune Ethics Theory (TET) will be my focus here. In this section, I will introduce the theory and relate it back to the metaphor of leaving home and the online theology classroom throughout. The ability to demonstrate the kinds of capacities listed above require the human brain to be operating at its optimal capacity, according to Narvaez, which incorporates its combined capacities for empathy, imagination and rationality working in tandem with one another. Narvaez’s theory has been developed as a “broad-brushed descriptive theory that identifies different subjective moral mindsets” which relate to human moral motivation and behaviour. 13 In it, she draws on neurobiology, affective neuroscience and cognitive science and out of her findings suggests that there are three “mindsets” which operate in the human brain, each of which relates to particular systems within our brains. When operative, Narvaez’s research has shown that these mindsets tend to prioritise sets of values which focus interaction, decision making and learning in particular ways, thus manifesting in particular patterns of behaviour. When this occurs, Narvaez refers to the mindset as an “ethic”. The names Narvaez gives to each of the ethics corresponds with their overarching value: the first is called the “safety ethic”, the second the “engagement ethic”, and the third the “imagination ethic”. I will explore each of these in turn. To relate this to the earlier metaphor of leaving home, my suggestion here is that Narvaez’s theory helps us to understand the physiological and psychological correlates of the experience of fear that can occur when students are asked to leave home, and it also assists us in understanding how to overcome such fear and better cultivate the capacities necessary for the study of theology as listed above. I return to these points below. The safety mindset has its foundation in the oldest and most primitive systems of the evolved human brain. Given these origins, the systems on which this mindset is founded are less flexible than more recently evolved systems in the brain, are less easily damaged, and are

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Darcia Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture, and Wisdom (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014), 211.

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“the default systems when other things go wrong.” 14 These systems include the brain’s “rage” system, which is associated with the fight-orflight response, and also its fear system, which is associated with withdrawal. Narvaez’s own words help with clarification here: The safety mindset is about self-protection in view of perceived threat (real or imagined). The immediate goal for safety takes over the mind so energies focus there. When this occurs, the individual can take an aggressive stance (bunker safety), to ward of the threat, or a withdrawing, freezing stance (wallflower safety) to try to escape from the threat.15

As such, what is important is that this mindset tends to activate when threat is perceived and, when it is operationalised, its associated ethic prioritises safety over all other values. According to Narvaez, behavioural manifestations of the safety ethic may include: a defensive, rejecting worldview; ruthless behaviour focused on self-advantage; negative attribution and interpretation of others’ behaviour; narrow ingroup orientation; and lack of moral imagination. 16 Significantly, when triggered, this mindset influences the manner in which the human brain goes about its cognitive functions, too; curtailing “optimal moral decision and actions” and precluding capacities for creativity and open mindedness.17 It does so either through vicious imagination, an example of which would be the student who attacks you vigorously for your presentation of a theory they do not accept and finds allegedly rational reasons for so doing, or through detached imagination, an example of which would be the student who simply ceases to engage after the same presentation.18 To return to the language used above, the induction of the safety ethic relates to values which keep a person “at home”, either by attacking what is outside because it does not fit inside (bunker safety) or by refusing

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Darcia Narvaez, “Triune Ethics: The Neurobiological Roots of our Multiple Moralities,” New Ideas in Psychology 26 (2008): 98. Cf. Darcia Narvaez, “Neurobiology And Moral Mindset,” in Handbook of Moral Motivation: Theories, Models, Applications, ed. Karen Heinrichs et al., (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2013), 324. 15 Narvaez, “Neurobiology and Moral Mindset,” 325. 16 Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 166. 17 Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 161-62. 18 Narvaez, “Neurobiology and Moral Mindset,” 328.

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to look outside at all (wallflower safety).19 Such an ethic has its role, of course. There are some threats we should attack, and some we should withdraw from (an aggressor may be an example of the former, an internet troll the latter).20 As we have noted earlier, however, in the realm of the theology classroom threat can also be perceived: being asked to leave one’s sacred home is no small matter. Where this is the case, the safety mindset is liable to be triggered, and its correlative ethic precludes the possibility for attaining the very kinds of capacities listed above as necessary in the theology classroom.21 This is true even at the most basic physiological level: when the safety mindset is triggered, blood in the brain is shifted away from locations associated with engagement and higher order thinking skills and focused instead on the safety based systems. To understand this, I turn now to consider the engagement and imagination mindsets. The engagement mindset is aligned with the systems of the brain that underpin our social nature, something which we share with other mammals. 22 Developmentally, Narvaez posits that the engagement mindset is underpinned by “early supportive care and practice with presence, reverence, synchrony and intersubjectivity, empathy, metalizing, and perspective taking.”23 Importantly, these systems underpin the human capacity to empathise which, when aligned with our capacities for reason (see below on the imagination mindset) is the condition of possibility for both intellectual empathy and robust dialogue. When analysed as an ethic, the engagement mindset gives rise to a value set that recognises the legitimacy of otherness and wishes to engage with it at a level which does not reduce it to the four walls of the home, hence values such as compassion, openness and tolerance are present here. 24 These kinds of values, as orientated towards the world outside one’s home worldview, provide motivation for stepping outside of home and considering what is otherwise, hence better aligning with the kinds of capacities necessary in the theology classroom. Of particular importance is that such capacities

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Narvaez herself makes the link between the safety ethic and the Levinasian understanding of totalisation, see Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 168. 20 Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 161. 21 Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 161. 22 Narvaez, “Triune ethics,” 100. 23 Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 191. 24 Fleming and Lovat, “When Encounters Between Religious Worldviews Are a Threat,” 384-85.

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are better able to flourish, along with the rest of the learner, in environments which themselves are characterised by the values of compassion, openness and tolerance, as evidenced in updated values education research.25 This crucial point will become key in my discussion of the online environment below. Moving now to consider the imagination mindset, the focus of Narvaez’s work here becomes that which has been the typical focus of educational research in the last 100 years: the human brain’s rational dimension and the systems in the brain which underlie such rationality. These systems are the most recently evolved parts of the human brain, and they underpin capacities for “problem solving and deliberative learning” as well creativity, flexibility, and perspective-taking. 26 Furthermore, the imagination mindset “builds on the other orientations, enlarging the field of possibilities and broadening the landscape for action. Imagination comprises executive functions that include metacognition about morality.”27 The imagination mindset thus provides humans with unique tools for morality, including in the expression of the other ethics. This is an important point, for the imagination mindset does not have an ethic of its own, but operates in tandem with whichever of the other ethics is engaged. When this point is understood along with Narvaez’s argument that the safety and engagement ethics cannot operate in tandem (the operationalisation of one precludes the other from being enacted), the conclusion is that imagination mindset will manifest either as vicious imagination (operating in tandem with the safety ethic) or communal imagination (operating in tandem with the engagement ethic).28 In this way, the imagination mindset lends to the safety or engagement ethics its rational capacity to “frame” behaviour, both past and present, through providing a narrative which legitimises such behaviour. To clarify with a focus on the safety ethic working in tandem with the imagination mindset, this “impacts what sounds reasonable, which rhetoric is attractive, and which actions seem rational. Like a cornered animal, the mind reaches for anything that increases a sense of safety—whether ideas, attitudes, or behaviours.”29 For example, the safety



25 As summarised in Terence Lovat et al., Values Pedagogy and Student Achievement: Contemporary Research Evidence (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011). 26 Narvaez, “Triune Ethics,” 105. 27 Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 193. 28 Narvaez, “Neurobiology and Moral Mindset,” 239. See also Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 198. 29 Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 161.

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ethic in an interreligious context may be framed by a narrative which refers to the religious other in a negative way and construes them as a threat (an instance of vicious imagination) or, as a counter example, the engagement ethic in the same context may be framed by a narrative which has the dignity of the religious other and the right to religious freedom at its centre (an instance of communal imagination).30 Such narratives provide further rational motivation for the kind of behaviour triggered by each of the ethics, and may also help to direct reactions to the cues of the ethics, allowing their values to be expressed or, alternatively, supressing them. 31 As Narvaez points out, it is the imagination mindset that “allows humans through learning and willpower to choose which stimuli are allowed to trigger emotional arousal or action sequences” and, conversely, those which are not. 32 This means that Narvaez’s approach is not a simple case of determinism which posits that subrational processes in the human brain can account for all behaviour.33 Such processes do have an influence and this must be attended to, but education of the rational brain also has a bearing in the operationalising (or not) of the other ethics. In concrete terms, rationality alone is not enough to prevent the safety ethic from being triggered, but rationality in concert with the conditions which allow for the engagement ethic’s operationalising is. The characteristics of communal imagination align with the kinds of capacities noted earlier as essential for theological education. When a student’s mindset is communal imagination, their brains are best able to empathise, conceptualise about different systems and ideas, think impartially about these, and engage in perspective taking and reasoned argument.34 As an ethic, communal imagination works in tandem with the engagement ethic’s values of “compassion, openness and tolerance”.35 In view of this, communal imagination aligns closely with what I referred to above as the willingness and ability to step outside of one’s home. Hence, it is essential that it be fostered in the context of the theology classroom.

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Fleming and Lovat, “When Encounters Between Religious Worldviews Are A Threat,” 387-91. 31 Narvaez, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality, 167. 32 Narvaez, “Triune Ethics: The Neurobiological Roots of our Multiple Moralities,” 105. 33 Jonathan Haidt, “The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment,” Psychological Review 108, 4 (2001): 814-34. 34 See Narvaez, “Neurobiology and Moral Mindset,” 328. 35 Narvaez, “Triune Ethics,” 203.

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How, then, might this occur? And what are the particular challenges in the online classroom?

Fostering communal imagination: the challenge of online learning As I have already noted, communal imagination does not operate in contexts wherein the security ethic has been triggered, meaning that the first step in fostering communal imagination is reducing the risk that the safety ethic will take over. Furthermore, communal imagination is most likely to be operationalised in contexts which are characterised by care and trust, within which a person is less likely to perceive any such threats, and hence will be more willing and able to “leave home”. These points sit well with qualitative and quantitative findings in the Australian Values Education Program wherein the relationship between caring, trusting environments and student improvements in communal spirit and social responsibility was frequently recorded. 36 This research also discovered that a trusting and caring classroom ambience led to greater calm and emotional self-regulation, which in turn resulted in enhanced academic diligence. As articulated in the final report on the findings of the research: “…by creating an environment where these values were constantly shaping classroom activity, teachers and students were happier, and school was calmer, student learning was improving.”37 Further to this, aligned research has demonstrated that the capacities which beget the engagement ethic and thereby underlie communal imagination, such as empathy, can be developed and strengthened over time with consistent practice. This can occur to such an extent that they become dispositional aspects of a person’s character, ingrained in such a way that they prevail even in situations where threat is perceived and the safety ethic would normally be triggered.38 Classroom

 36

See for example Lovat et al., Values Pedagogy And Student Achievement: Contemporary Research Evidence. 37 Terence Lovat et al., “Project to test and measure the impact of values education on student effects and school ambience.” Final Report for the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) by The University of Newcastle (Canberra: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009), 120. 38 For summaries of this research, see Darcia Narvaez, “Building a Sustaining Classroom Climate for Purposeful Ethical Citizenship,” in International Research Handbook of Values Education And Student Wellbeing ed. Terence Lovat, Ron

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strategies which can help to facilitate such cultivation include “empathy and role-taking training” as well as methods in which an “individual is guided through a deliberate examination and reworking of implicit assumptions and judgements (including moral judgments) about the self and others.”39 Aligned with this is a body of research which suggests that such capacities are best cultivated in contexts wherein students can observe the body language of their teachers and where teachers can detect, and communicate their understanding of, the feelings of their students.40 This kind of empathy, which has also been noted as necessary in developing the kind of ambience required for communal imagination to flourish, requires at least in part the capacity to notice body movements and facial expressions, as well as to communicate using the full array of our human tools for so doing, incorporating language, but perhaps more importantly, body language and intonation as well.41 All of this reflects students’ relational needs which, as we have already seen, are fostered and expressed in the engagement ethic. Hence, the classroom is essentially a relational context in which, if perceived threat and the induction of the security ethic is to be avoided, teachers need to cultivate a sense of trust and care in students.42 Osterman suggests the following strategies to help teachers achieve this: interacting with students frequently throughout each lesson, showing fairness and respect, demonstrating their enthusiasm for teaching and learning through words and body language, and disciplining proactively rather than punitively…As teachers interact with students in the classroom,

 Toomey, and Neville Clement (Dordrecht: Springer Publishing, 2010); Darcia Narvaez and Jenny L. Vaydich, “Moral Development and Behaviour Under the Spotlight of the Neurobiological Sciences,” Journal of Moral Education 37, 3 (2008); Norma Deitch Feshbach and Seymour Feshbach, “Empathy and Education,” in The Social Neuroscience of Empathy, ed. Jean Decety and William Ickes (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009). 39 Narvaez, “Building a Sustaining Classroom Climate for Purposeful Ethical Citizenship,” 170. 40 Feshbach and Feshbach, “Empathy and Education,” 88. 41 Jeanne C. Watson and Leslie S. Greenburg, “Empathic Resonance: A Neuroscience Perspective,” ibid., 128. Lovat et al., “Project to Test And Measure the Impact of Values Education on Student Effects and School Ambience,” 71. 42 See Daniel Fleming, “Ethics Is an Optics: The Levinasian Perspective on Value As Primary.” In The Routledge International Handbook of Education, Religion and Values, ed. James Arthur and Terence Lovat (London: Routledge, 2013).

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Speaking Carefully in the Presence of Our Students through their body language, tone of voice, or verbal patterns, their messages communicate their feelings and thoughts about the students.43

Such observations are well and good, and are relatively simple to put in place in the face-to-face classroom with adequate training in interpersonal skills. However, the online classroom presents particular challenges in this regard. Most obviously, it lacks many of the dimensions of communication required for building up the kind of trust and care noted above. Notwithstanding some of the newer, synchronous and videoenabled, communication methods available in the online environment, much is missing: body language cannot be seen, intonation is absent, verbal patterns cannot be considered, facial expressions do not exist. Even with the newer technologies in place, the richness of live interpersonal communication is somewhat lacking. Hence, the task of cultivating the kind of care and trust necessary for avoiding the security ethic and enhancing the operations of communal imagination becomes much, much more difficult. What, then, can be done?

A modest proposal: Speaking carefully in the presence of our students I am confident that there are a number of ways of responding to this problem, but I wish to consider only one (seemingly) modest response. In so doing, I ask the reader to lend me their imagination and capacity for empathy also. Imagine that you are a face-to-face theology student, studying for the first time critically the doctrine of Creation and its relationship to evolutionary science. To this point, you have accepted uncritically a literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation stories, and have been engaged in several ferocious debates with your more Darwinian inclined friends. You are in Week four of your semester, and have cultivated a strong relationship with your lecturer, whom you have seen takes students’ concerns seriously, never belittles anyone for asking questions, and conveys an understanding of the challenges students face when they encounter new ideas. During the lesson, you have a strong reaction to her suggestion that there are other non-literal ways of interpreting the Genesis creation stories, and that may be more sound theologically. You stand quivering at the door of your theological home—

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Karen F. Osterman, “Teacher Practice and Students’ Sense of Belonging,” in International Research Handbook on Values Education and Student Wellbeing, ed. Terence Lovat, Ron Toomey, and Neville Clement (Dordrecht: Springer, 2010), 44, 240.

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not sure whether you should step out or slam the door shut and move back inside. You discuss your concerns at length with your lecturer, and she exhibits the same capacities you have noticed before. She appreciates your concerns, but invites you to consider both arguments in more detail, and gently talks you through the soundness of each argument. How open to leaving home are you here? Now, imagine that you are enrolled in the same subject but in online mode. You listen to your lecturer’s recordings each week, and read his email announcements to the whole group. These are straightforward and clear, with a focus on “getting down to the business of the subject.” After listening to the lecture on interpreting Genesis, you experience the same reaction as before. Again, you stand quivering at the door of your theological home—not sure whether you should step out or slam the door shut and move back inside. You decide to raise your concerns with your lecturer by email, and you receive this response: Ash, It looks to me like you haven’t taken the lecture material seriously enough. Have another listen. The theological argument is sound, so I’m not sure where you’re coming from with this concern. Dan Dr Dan Fleming Lecturer

How open to leaving home are you here? Note that the content in each situation is exactly the same. My proposition here is that the online learning environment places much more pressure on our capacity to communicate using written language in an asynchronous manner, meaning technologies such as discussion forums, email distribution lists, and personal email communication. In such communication, it becomes an impossibility to express some of the key components of the relationship-building process noted above, including synchronous reflection of concern in facial expression and body language. Even where our intent may be good, and our academic message clear, the outcome may be staggeringly different, as evidenced in this example. Hence, the safety ethic not only lurks at the door as it does in the face-toface classroom, but our capacities to avoid it being triggered are greatly lessened because of the environment itself. So what might we do? My suggestion is that this argument emphasises the need to speak carefully in the presence of our students.

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This is a simple suggestion on the face of it, but it is difficult to implement. How to convey empathy, understanding, concern, seriousness, and all of those essential aspects of the synchronous encounter between persons through text alone? This will not be possible on the same level as it is in face-to-face interaction. However, an awareness of the personal challenges faced by theology students combined by a careful use of language can make a difference. And are not experts in theology well placed in their discipline to be able to achieve this? After all, theologians themselves have had to leave home, assumedly, and so should be able to empathise with their students’ concerns. Theology, too, is a discipline which is fundamentally concerned with the careful use of language, either understood as language about God or language used in the presence of God, so one might expect that theologians would be able to take care in the use of language in the presence of their students.44 Placing yourself one more time back in the position of the student mentioned above, and with all that we have mentioned in mind, consider how the following would make you feel: Hi Ash, Thanks for your email. As I mentioned in my announcement earlier this week, some find this content particularly challenging, especially those who have previously found their home with a literal interpretation of these texts. In view of this, I can certainly understand your concerns. What I’d encourage you to do is write these out in more detail: what is it that is challenging you, and why? Is it a case that one argument is more sound than the other? Or is there something else going on here? Once you’ve done that, have a listen to the lecture again and see what you think. Take your time with this. It’s important that we consider all perspectives seriously, but that doesn’t mean that we rush to do this. And, by all means, feel free to write again or a set up a time for us to catch up on the phone to talk through this. With best wishes, Dan

Conclusion In this chapter I have been reflecting on the experience of theology students who encounter material in our classrooms that challenges their home worldviews. The discipline of theology invites



44 Alister McGrath, Theology: The Basics (West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2012), xvii.

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students to leave such homes and move beyond the place where they are right, as Yehuda Amichai put it, in order to truly encounter what is mysterious and otherwise out of dispositions of humility, intellectual empathy, patience, thoroughness, and intellectual empathy. With such challenges in mind, fear is a possible (and perhaps even likely) response and, in dialogue with Darcia Narvaez’s scholarship, I have shown what may elicit such fear, and what correlates it has in the functioning of the human brain. One of the implications of this work is that when the safety ethic, as Narvaez refers to it, is triggered, the brain’s ability to manifest the kind of capacities theology requires is severely impaired, and the more likely response is the kind of “staying home” that undermines theological education. To counter this problem, the research in the latter parts of the chapter showed that building up empathic relationships with students and cultivating classroom environments of trust and care are crucial, albeit with additional challenges in the online environment. Hence, the chapter has suggested one modest but essential factor for online theological educators to keep in mind: to use language carefully in the presence of their students and, in so doing, to better facilitate their theological leaving home.

Bibliography Ball, Les. Transforming Theology: Student Experience and Transformative Learning in Undergraduate Theological Education. Preston, Victoria: Mosaic Press, 2012. Brueggemann, Walter. Spirituality of the Psalms. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002. Eilers, Kent. “Hermeneutical Empathy: Receiving Global Texts in Local Classrooms.” Teaching Theology and Religion 17, 2 (2014): 165-66. Feshbach, Norma Deitch, and Seymour Feshbach. “Empathy and Education.” In The Social Neuroscience of Empathy, edited by Jean Decety and William Ickes. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009: 85-98. Fleming, Daniel. “Ethics is an Optics: The Levinasian Perspective on Value as Primary.” In The Routledge International Handbook Of Education, Religion And Values, edited by James Arthur and Terence Lovat. London: Routledge, 2013. Fleming, Daniel, and Peter Mudge. “Leaving Home: A Pedagogy for Theological Education.” In Learning and Teaching Theology: Some Ways Ahead, edited by Les Ball and Jim Harrison. Northcote: Morning Star Publishing, 2014. Fleming, Daniel, and Terence Lovat. “When Encounters between Religious Worldviews Are a Threat: Applying Triune Ethics Theory in

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a Religiously Diverse Landscape.” Journal of Moral Education 43, 3 (2014): 377-93. Lovat, Terence, Kerry Dally, Neville Clement, and Ron Toomey. Values Pedagogy and Student Achievement: Contemporary Research Evidence . Dordrecht: Springer, 2011. Lovat, Terence, and Daniel Fleming. What Is This Thing Called Theology? Considering the Spiritual in the Public Square. Macksville: David Barlow Publishing, 2014. Lovat, Terence, Ron Toomey, Kerry Dally, and Neville Clement. “Project to Test and Measure the Impact of Values Education on Student Effects and School Ambience. Final Report for the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) by the University of Newcastle.” Canberra: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (,) 2009. McGrath, Alister. Theology: The Basics. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Narvaez, Darcia. “Building a Sustaining Classroom Climate for Purposeful Ethical Citizenship.” In International Research Handbook of Values Education and Student Wellbeing, edited by Terence Lovat, Ron Toomey and Neville Clement, 659-74. Dordrecht: Springer Publishing, 2010. —. “Neurobiology and Moral Mindset.” In Handbook of Moral Motivation: Theories, Models, Applications, edited by Karen Heinrichs, Fritz Oser, and Terence Lovat, 323-42. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2013. —. Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture, and Wisdom. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014. —. “Triune Ethics: The Neurobiological Roots of Our Multiple Moralities.” New Ideas in Psychology 26 (2008): 95-119. Narvaez, Darcia, and Jenny L. Vaydich. “Moral Development and Behaviour under the Spotlight of the Neurobiological Sciences.” Journal of moral education 37, 3 (2008): 289-312. Osterman, Karen F. “Teacher Practice and Students’ Sense of Belonging.” In International Research Handbook on Values Education and Student Wellbeing, edited by Terence Lovat, Ron Toomey, and Neville Clement., 239-60. Dordrecht: Springer, 2010. Watson, Jeanne C., and Leslie S. Greenburg. “Empathic Resonance: A Neuroscience Perspective.” In The Social Neuroscience of Empathy, edited by Jean Decety and William Ickes, 125-38. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009.

TEACHING THEOLOGY ONLINE IN CLASS JOHN MARK CAPPER

This book explores the teaching of theology using technology. This is often assumed to mean moving the whole process online. However, web-supported and technology-enhanced learning can be effective in class as well as online. We now teach theology in a technology-saturated world. Technology allows the blending of online and face-to-face processes in what is sometimes identified as blended learning. Yet learning is always a blend of processes, proclivities, perspectives and personalities. The questions addressed in this chapter are: How might we learn to teach more effectively in the classroom based on our experience of technology, particularly online, often asynchronous, methods? And, how does a theological framework help us to shape our understanding and apply our experience?

Stepping out online: The strange world of home Travel has peculiar consequences. The experience of the return from the “far country”, Karl Barth’s term for repentance, alluding to the “Prodigal Son” (Luke 15), is ours each time we come home. This book has taken us on many trips to new lands. Many of us will return home, as it were, to our classrooms asking, “So what?” Missions have taught us how to adapt our approach to new cultures, and the returning missionary may have fresh eyes to see the old anew. What might we learn from the online teaching mission for our own classroom-based mission? Using the frame of trinitarian community, acknowledging the ever-presence of the Spirit, and recognising historical approaches to ecclesial change inspired by mission and missiology, this chapter considers how online processes and insights might inform classroombased practices.

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I suggest that thinking about the triune community and using some simple processes from ecclesiology may help us. The God who declared that it is not good for a person to be alone also assured those who came to know him in his Son Jesus that he would not leave them alone. Those of us who have pondered our successes (and failures) in teaching are often drawn back to the changes that have occurred in classes, in students and in us through the encounter of God, of each other, and of truth in our learning together. Communities change us. Facebook and the Twitterverse were once strange countries. We needed passports and language lessons to enter. They are now the place of primary citizenship for many. For many younger humans, the Internet is the matrix of reality, and the three dimensional world of objects is its sluggish mimic. Connections are made and unmade in cyberspace, and sometimes the connection spills over into hard space. This observation was made well in the context of both religious community and theological education a decade ago.1

Stepping back home In recent years there has been an upsurge in research in education by educators whose academic discipline is not education. It is not a new phenomenon, but one with historical significance. A major 20th century contributor to professional education was Donald Schön.2 His work remains in print and continues to be influential. Schön’s influence is widespread. From his dissertation on theories of inquiry, his educational travels took him to leadership in the area of urban studies and in architecture education. He encouraged his fellow educators beyond a focus on educating for technical competence to paying attention to the “artistry” of their disciplines. How was it that one might not simply apply what is known of the practice of one’s discipline, but how might one apply the deepest realities of one’s profession? Schön’s influence in organisation learning is attributed to his encouragement to educators and leaders to nurture the investment of learning from life experiences into their professional practice. This has led to appreciation of learning

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See Mary Hess, Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All That We Can’t Leave Behind (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), and Heidi Campbell, Exploring Religious Community Online: We Are One in the Network (New York: P. Lang, 2005). 2 Donald Schön, Educating the Reflective Practitioner: Toward a New Design for Teaching and Learning in the Professions (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1987).

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systems, supra-individual learning, and reflective practice. His journey has informed our journey. Much advance in professional education comes from similar individuals—those whose starting point is not education as a theory, but rather who reflect on education as a practice. For many of us in theological education this is our story. That education was not a recognised university discipline until the early 20th century did not mean that it did not exist, of course. Rather it was an art engaged by many people from many disciplines. Pilgrims and vagabonds, we have learnt from the strange land of learning, and have returned to our own educational practice wiser, though sometimes more confused and surprised by what we used to consider normal. The recent growth in recognition of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is in some ways a return to this dynamic. It has been driven by a number of factors, including a growth in teaching recognition in higher education, funding for SOTL-inspired research, and the ability to count research output in the study of teaching one’s discipline, rather than just in the discipline itself, towards various performance targets (which was previously not possible). This growth is reflected in theological education, with two historical journals (Theological Education [ATS], since 1964 and British Journal of Theological Education, since 1987) now joined by more recent offerings (such as the Teaching Theology and Religion of the Wabash Center, since 1998, and the Journal of Adult Theological Education of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology, since 2004). These sit alongside a remarkable and growing repository of online resources in education. This has yet to be repeated online in theological education.

Coming together in encounter Teaching online has shown, at its best, that the processes of proximity and engagement can be emulated, transferred, and in many cases improved online.3 It has also shown that some of the troublesome indicators of age, gender and ethnicity can be removed from the mix in fully or partially anonymous (but safe) online spaces. Early experiments in

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Mark A. Freeman and John Mark Capper, “Exploiting the Web for Education: An Anonymous Asynchronous Role-Simulation” in Australian Journal of Educational Technology 15 (1999): 95-116.

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distance and online learning had an unintended benefit in improving the educational outcomes of those in the same units in class. This benefit is derived, typically, from the benefit of thinking through the educational dynamic. Learning process specialists, and learning designers, are in evidence in quality online education, and increasingly in face-to-face education. The embracing of the online Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) is evidence of the value of this beyond merely online learning, and the use of Learning Management Systems to support both online and face-to-face classes is evidence of the value of thinking through educational process.

Melding online and face-to-face experience The trend in education is now the embracing of the online—as space of encounter and as paradigm for reality—in all of education. Blending is now the norm, and the experience of most students is a sometimes seamless, sometimes clunky, but almost always hybrid process. The online is as close as—or closer than—the next person. Some useful outcomes of this, as regards the building of learning community: many tertiary educators are now using online resources for students to introduce themselves to the class. This is more timely, avoids many of the pressures of competition in class, and allows students to link to blogs, LinkedIn or Facebook profiles, and to provide more information than could be shared in class—and allows for others in the class to recall who’s who—in the room or online. Even something as simple as pictures—whether a snapshot, or an image of a favoured pet—reminds those in class and those online who each person is, and allows the teacher also to guide the (inevitable) online pursuit by students of her or his own personal information.

Pilgrims in community This chapter is shaped by the question: “What do we as educators in theology bring to education?” Put differently we might as “What is theological about theological education?” This was a recent lively discussion in the course development panel working up the proposal for a Graduate Certificate in Theological Education for the University of Divinity. If theology was merely the content, then we could well either develop a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, as most universities have done, or more pragmatically, use theirs! But the reflection, held as

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strongly or perhaps even more strongly by those outside our institution than those within, was that there is something distinctive about theological higher education. Many answers might be given, including the interplay of the content with the life of the learners, the call to profess, not merely to state, the tenets of theology, the implicit subject of the study as reflexively being humankind as the object of God’s attention, rather than merely an interest in God—whether as concept or being, the experience that we have of being outside the majority of Australian universities, and so on. For me, a key is the interplay between the subject matter and the lives of those who teach and learn theology. Mathematics keeps fewer students awake at night than do theology or philosophy, I think. We rejoice when former students succeed, whether in academia or church leadership, but I think that many of us find yet greater delight in hearing a student pray with conviction and read Scripture with insight. The interplay of the cognitive and the affective, the personal and professional, is profound in our practice. Theological educators typically have stopped to think about this. We are encouraged in our thinking as a community of teaching scholars when we ponder and reframe our vocation. After all, those who know God are not necessarily those who study God. It is we who struggle with God who seek insight in our own exploring. We are inspired by our colleagues, and by our students. Our own practice of faith needs us, in many cases, to draw together with others who like us are “burdened with the difficulty of God;”4 to continue teaching about God because it is too painful not to say something about God; to keep researching in the things of God because otherwise God seems even further away. In my own case, to keep engaged with the God of joy, who commands joy, since otherwise the world seems so joyless and sad. I might otherwise forget to rejoice. The little flame of hope sustained by the life of learning in faith might otherwise be snuffed out. And to go on is more life-giving than considering the option to stop. The online world opens new ways to explore as well as to express this vocation. This is no simple task. If it were, we would be finished by now. Rather, we are drawn into a complex and ever expanding network of knowing. Our analysis of texts and of trends is not simple. It is challenging and it is vexing. There are no neat simple solutions. If there were, we

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Ben Myers, “On Theology and Friendship,” http://www.faith-theology.com/2010/08/on-theology-and-friendship.html.

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would have found them by now. Rather, we strive to engage and to understand. We struggle to make sense, and to communicate that sense as best we can apprehend it today, as we are today, and in the light of what we are becoming. Whilst we try to work to bring the best of simplicity to our teaching, we know that we are dealing with no simple matter. As our subject matter is challenging and requires skill and discernment, so does the teaching of it. There is no simple method. Our quest to improve our teaching practice will continue. There may be, as T.S. Eliot had it, an ongoing journey: And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. (Little Gidding, V, from Four Quartets)

Theological education is complex and involved, it takes hard work, and it is rewarding, just as its subject matter is complex, involved, hard work and rewarding. Karl Barth rebuffed those who wanted theology to be spoken of in simple and intelligible terms on the basis that theology was demanding and required deep understanding. However, his delight was that his theology might stray into the hands of non-theologians who might understand it better than did the theologians. We should not make the subject matter easier than the subject matter allows.5 The changing world, and the parallel world of cyberspace, means that our task is an ongoing one. Discovery of the world and of ourselves go hand in hand.

Inviting worlds to come together Two key articles in Theological Education counterpoint the issues for us: Richard Mouw says that he is often asked, “How in the world did you manage to lead such a diverse school as Fuller?” 6 As part of his reflection on this he says “finding value in that diversity while also

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Karl Barth, Preface to the Second edition of The Epistle to the Romans, trans. E. C Hoskyns (London: Oxford University Press, 1933). 6 Richard Mouw, “What’s Theological about Theological Education?” Theological Education 49 (2014): 1-8. Mouw notes his appreciation of this insight from Arthur F. Holmes Contours of a World View (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 1983).

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constantly exploring the underlying commonalities” was part of his approach. This led him to “admire—…even love—diversity”. This reflection on the diversity of churches and believers led him to appreciate the “considerable diversity in…understanding of the scope and character of theology” and helped him to also appreciate “the [relationship] between theology and religious studies”. Implicitly, theology, and thus theological education, is paying attention to all of life. Mary Hess asks, “What is educational about theological education?” She quotes Mary Boys: “Religious education is the making accessible of the traditions of the religious community and the making manifest of the intrinsic connection between tradition and transformation.”7 Participation in and exposition of the various theological traditions is part of the role of the theological educators. Yet our educational tradition is, at least until recently for most of us who teach today, the classroom. For our students, social and educational tradition is, increasingly, the online world. Our entry into their world (and increasingly our ranks as teachers filled with those from their world) makes for a sometimes uncomfortable cross-cultural exchange. This is, of course, as it has ever been for students! The transformation of our teaching has taken many of us to what was, initially, the strange land of the online world. Yet many have found that we can be at home there, function effectively, engage transformatively, and live and teach well.

The changing role of the teacher To embrace the changing world around us, and to teach effectively in a world shaped by online dynamics, requires us, as educators, to move beyond an industrial era model of “schooling”8. It pulls us off the production line and into community. Kegan and Lahey report that “a series of shifts happen in the midst of adult learning” moving us from “complaint to commitment”, from “blame to personal responsibility.” 9 The egalitarianism of the

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Mary Boys, Educating in Faith (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), 193, cited in Hess, “Learning,” 9. 8 Hess, “Learning,” 9. 9 Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages of Transformation (San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass, 2001). See Hess, “Learning,” 11.

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Internet is a contributor to this. It is part of the resonance of “the symbolic language of various religious traditions.” 10 Knowing learners, engaging with them in their contradictions, working with them in the disruption that comes to their frames of meaning (and sharing their pain) and helping with the reframing in more durable tested containers is part of what is educational about theological education.11 Parker Palmer notes the already–not yet tension in theological education as reflecting the already–not yet tension in theology, and in life.12 It is exemplified in the online-face-to-face dialogue.13 Palmer identifies five practices to help educators embrace this as a healthy and generative tension: a. b. c. d. e.

An understanding that we are all in this together An appreciation of the value of otherness An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways A sense of personal voice and agency A capacity to create community.14

It is interesting to pass current practices in online and face-to-face education through this lens. The experience of engaging the online education process in theological education has affirmed the value of community and agency.

Testing against our own craft The two questions “What’s theological about theological education?” and “What’s educational about theological education?” confront us continually—we are not merely theologians, and we are not merely educators. We are members of communities of faith who are engaged in the communal exploration of the faith and traditions of the community. What does it mean to teach theologically, and what does it

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Hess, “Learning,” 11. Hess, “Learning,” 12. 12 Parker Palmer, Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Heart (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011), 4346. 13 Parker Palmer is a Quaker educator, known to many for his seminal work The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1997). 14 Summarised by Hess, “Learning,” 11

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mean to learn theologically? It is more than content, but how much more, and in what ways? A major contributor to this conversation was Ed Farley, who died on 27 Dec 2014. Farley argued that the academy should engage the large questions of life and faith, the hermeneutics of life and texts, with the seminary attending to the “hermeneutics of vocation”.15 However, as one of his early reviewers noted, this big picture work is an unlikely outcome given that the problem of “the crushing weight of unintegrated specialism in the university’s self-understanding…and the dominance of academic subspecialization with which seminaries now find themselves extensively infected.” 16 Farley defined theology as “the reflective wisdom of the believer,”17 and the refined reflective skills of its teachers are shaped if not mediated by the discipline/s that the teacher brings to their reflection. This reflective wisdom surely should not be sundered between academic theology and the practice of faith. Farley brought skills as a philosophical theologian, and perhaps also from his life as a jazz musician. What do we bring to our work, and how does it shape our teaching? Our own biography affects our work. We examine this when we reflect, as Schön would encourage us, as reflective practitioners. If we fail to do this, we are likely to miss some important insights. Our move to the “far country” and our return have heightened our awareness of the online and the hard world. As theological educators we have many resources at our fingertips. I wish to identify two: history, and ecclesiology.

Particular paradigms and theological education For insights as to the value of a historical matrix, I am indebted to Denis Kirkaldy. 18 Kirkaldy argues that we know and integrate learning when we have a clear framework into which we can integrate understanding. History forces us to confront issues of power, culture and

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Edward Farley, Fragility of Knowledge: Theological Education in the Church and the University (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1988). 16 David Polk, “Review of Fragility of Knowledge,” The Journal of Religion 71 (1991): 286. 17 Edward Farley, “Interpreting Situations: An Inquiry into the Nature of Practical Theology,” in Formation and Reflection: The Promise of Practical Theology, ed. Lewis S. Mudge and James N. Poling (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1987), 9. 18 Denis Kirkaldy, Theological Education in the Anglican Church of Australia (South Sydney: Christian Education Publications, 1992).

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texts. Asking the history question pushes us to engage our own context in the light of insights from the past, and to engage insights from the past with our own context. For insights in the second matrix, ecclesiology, I am indebted to Neil Ormerod. It is a rare week when I am not in a college and engage in or overhear a conversation about community, connectedness, or engagement. Ormerod notes that there seem to be two approaches that pertain in the study of ecclesiology: an idealist (Platonic, supra-historical) and a realist (Aristotelian, structured, historical, real world) approach.19 This divide also seemed to pertain to studies in education. In ecclesiology, the balance seems to be more to the idealist, and in education more to the realist approach. Ormerod notes that unlike other theological topics, ecclesiology seeks not only to describe a reality, but to change it, both in structure and modes of operation.20 The ideal may be set in the purposes of God, but there is much that can be changed and adapted in the day to day life of the church. Thus, ecclesiology is a norming (for Ormerod, normative) discipline. I prefer “norming” to “normative” as it clarifies that what is intended is a prescriptive norm, rather than a merely descriptive norm. Empirical research in ecclesiology tends to identify descriptive norms (the church is like this or that) but the output of most thinkers in ecclesiology is with a view to shaping a reality in line with the norm—thus “norming” the church. It seeks to produce norms, shaping how the church should be and should behave. As an example of idealist ecclesiology, Ormerod notes the work of Miroslav Volf.21 He notes, however, that the three disparate ecclesiologies (those of Zizioulas as representative of Orthodoxy; Ratzinger as representative of Catholicism; and Moltmann as exemplary of the freechurch tradition) are based on the idealist norm of the Trinity. He notes how hard it is to imagine a normative approach to ecclesiology emerging from such a methodology. He engages the alternative contemporary construct of communion similarly, and with parallel results. The symbolic and mystical, it seems, are not a great asset in management! Are they in education?

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Ormerod, “Recent Ecclesiology: A Survey,” Pacifica 21 (2008): 57-67. Ormerod, “Recent Ecclesiology,” 58. 21 Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998). 20

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In examining realist-historical approaches, Ormerod notes that we need to differentiate our approach from Church History. Methodologically, he notes Hans Küng’s 22 which draws implications for the (then) contemporary church from the life of the early church; and David Bosch’s23 which draws implications from the missional life of the early church for the paradigms which he describes that shape the mission of the church of today, as examples of this realist approach. What then, we may ask, is the normative (norming) value of these approaches, since “the problem of normativity is not unique to ecclesiology and in fact is a common problem within the human sciences?”24

Applying insights Empirical research can indeed show us what is observed, but struggles to describe why. Put differently, the matters that can be measured are not always (perhaps not often) the important ones. For instance, that people do a certain thing can be observed, but the underlying questions of value, meaning and destiny cannot be directly observed. Whilst these can be dismissed as non-empirical, there is still an influence from them, so they cannot be ignored. The question then becomes whether and then how the social sciences are appropriated in ecclesiological studies. And in parallel, how they are appropriated in educational studies. In education, as in any human science, it is easy to measure some less important factors. It is the most important ones are often elusive. The norming nature of our investigations into our teaching carries this risk. An awareness of how the disciplines of our own academic expertise can help us engage may help us to avoid confusing the ideal and the real. Just as problems in the study of ecclesiology seem to me to arise when the ecclesiologist is unaware of the methodological limitations of their approach, or when idealist and realist approaches are mixed inappropriately, so can be the case in education.25 How then do we apply what we learn in our adventure into the online domain when it comes to applying our insights into our classroom domain? At the least we note the different contexts. Further, we note that

 22

Hans Küng, The Church (London: Burns & Oates, 1967). David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991). 24 Ormerod, “Recent Ecclesiology,” 61. 25 Ormerod, “Recent Ecclesiology,” 62f describes some instances. 23

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the particular learning in one domain may or may not apply to the other— or to the blend. That is, if the realist or particular insight is context dependent, it is unlikely that the insight will transfer. This has been well documented in the transition from the engaging lecturer in the classroom whose recorded lectures fall flat when provided to the online cohort. It is probably also seen when forums, used well in an online cohort, replace a more valued process, such as open discussion in the classroom. In some processes, context shapes the possibility. What, we might ask, does this particular task or dynamic mean if translated to the idealist? Or better, what is the principle at play, and how does it transfer? One idealist commonality shared by both ecclesiology and education is the value that each places on community—the community of worshippers and the community of learners, led, perhaps, by the community of priests or “pastors and teachers” (Eph 4:11) and the community of scholars, or the “academic community” respectively. Ecclesiologists—from structuralist to constructionist to relationalist—know that it is not the content, but the approach that makes a difference to perception and understanding. How would each of these view the task of teaching? Likely, the content as well as the context will shape the process. The structuralist may well focus on the formwork that allows her own insights to be communicated, whereas the relationalist may prefer to look towards the human interrelations as the matrix in which understanding is forged. It is a fruitful exercise to apply Ormerod’s idealist/realist frame to the theological curriculum, and to the content and learning outcomes of various units. It helped to sharpen our institutional insights as to how we are, implicitly and explicitly, attending to our task as theological educators. Attending to this may also help our work in the scholarship of teaching and learning. How do we link our idealist notions into our practice? How are our graduate attributes linked into the practice of teaching? Each of us, from our own specialisations, will bring insights to this. Our community, as scholars, and as labourers together in theological education, will add insight and opportunity. It will mediate the insights that we draw from the online world back into our classroom, just as it shaped the transition from the classroom to online. It is the place where missiology meets ecclesiology. Questions we might ask ourselves include: Around what, in this unit, will I seek to build community? Will it be the assessment task/s, a

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particular learning activity (debate, seminar, presentation), or interaction around a text or an issue? Will it be online or offline, together or apart? And through all of this we ask: How, as a community, will we build trust, nurture exploration, and encourage integration? These are challenges to us as practitioners in the gathered face-toface classroom. They take on new dimensions when we move into cyberspace. In this context we risk retreat into very private worlds, and the smudging the public/private distinction which seems to be the result of learning when community is absent, and learning becomes a retreat from the public world to the private. The real world of learning experience becomes a small world. The return from the far country of online to the classroom raises its own set of challenges.

Identifying the needs and limits of student cohorts In the theological classroom we are involved in a new “community of truth”. 26 The online makes the remote present and the strange proximate. Heidi Campbell identifies five key traits in online communities of faith: networked communities, storied identities, shifting authority, convergent practice, and a multisite reality. 27 These traits are also part of online life more broadly, and pertain to online education. These traits are distinguished more by rhythms moving between the personal and the collective than they are by the public and private.28 Both Heidi Campbell and Mary Hess have shown that online community can be as engaged and transformative as can face-to-face community. 29 This has been borne out in a number of studies in theological education as well.30 In the online world, as well as in the faceto-face world, we have moved from a “banking [of knowledge] and

 26

Parker Palmer, in Hess, Learning, 15. Heidi A. Campbell, “Understanding the Relationship between Religion Online and Offline in a Networked Society,” Journal of the American Academic of Religion 80 (2012): 65. 28 Campbell, “Understanding the Relationship,” 83. 29 Mary Hess, Engaging Technology, and Campbell, Exploring Religious Community. 30 Diane Hockridge, “What’s The Problem? Spiritual Formation in Distance and Online Theological Education,” Journal of Christian Education 54 (2011): 25-38. Also Thomas Esselman, “The Pedagogy of the Online Wisdom Community: Forming Church Ministers in a Digital Age,” Teaching Theology and Religion 7 (2004): 159-170. 27

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schooling” to a relational view of adult learning which “inhabits the questions”.31

Engaging emerging possibilities What do our theological disciplines bring into this educational world? Translation, context, text focus, a desire for community, and an understanding that the whole is bigger than the parts. The already–not yet tension is a reality. We are ever on the edge of a new world. As Justo González noted, in reflecting on 50 years of the ATS and thus the journal Theological Education: “The worst problem that a (theological) school may have at a time such as ours is to have no problem and therefore not to feel the urgent need for change.”32 An alternative serious issue is the rigidity which does not permit change. History tells us that it is a problem normally overcome. The translation to a new world is an important stress test for ideas and processes. Their translation back adds further insights. How have we built community online, knowing that community—a sense of belonging and of shared practice—is good for learning? And how, having built community online (through forums, shared activities) have we discovered dimensions that when translated back to the classroom build stronger communities of learning? One such dynamic emerged from online anonymous asynchronous role play. 33 Students in that context had not been prejudiced by their learning together through issues of age, gender and ethnicity. In another class which had more than a dozen faith traditions in it, I ensured that even face-to-face we would begin work together and deal with issues that did not require immediate disclosure of our own faith traditions. This built community based on shared concerns drawn for the unit content, and soon students discovered that their learning partners were from traditions different from theirs, and in some cases which theirs considered poorly, but they were unable to exercise prejudice since they had built understanding and appreciation of each other as people. Building students into working groups for later presentation in class builds resilience. Fewer students withdraw early for small reasons,

 31

Hess, Learning, 16. Justo González, “From the Last Fifty Years and Into the Next Fifty,” Theological Education 49 (2014): 43-48. 33 Freeman and Capper, “Online Asynchronous,” 1998. 32

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since they have a task, a commitment, and a loyalty group. Learning together in class has led to some useful experiments online. How might we bring the online learning back to the classroom? How might we build unprejudiced learning community by affirming some anonymity?

Peer marking and self-assessment methods With communities of trust and awareness, two areas emerge: peer processes, including marking, and self-assessment. With trust built in a classroom, some peer work can be undertaken—and with small tasks good feedback can be provided, and higher level critique engaged, through peer marking. The online context also permits students who are preparing short pieces of work to develop higher level appreciation of skills and processes by engaging on some guided peer marking. This can allow interaction between the student and teacher through discussion of the mark awarded to the student themselves and the mark that the teacher would have given (and why). This is a process that is possible in class, but is much better achieved online—both through the benefits of privacy from other students and the faster possibilities for feedback and interaction between student and teacher online compared with face-to-face.

Conclusion Two parameters have emerged in our exploration: the building of learning community, and careful attention to learning design. These are important in both online and classroom contexts. Our experiences of rethinking the community and the educational process online allows a return “home” to the classroom with new insights and heightened skills. It brings also the realisation that there is not one solution that meets all needs. When asked, “What do we need to do to teach well online?” we cannot point to a single solution. It is not the techniques, but the particular context and opportunity that point to possible solutions. No one discipline will give us this answer, for education, like ecclesiology, is eclectic. After a substantial analysis, Ormerod concludes “that any attempted method of correlat[ing] the results of the social sciences with the theological tradition, will inevitably break down.” He identifies four problems, namely: (1) that the social sciences do not provide one unified system of knowledge in their area; (2) the social sciences and the social situation are suffused with the realities of sin and grace; (3) the social sciences are not a self-enclosed body of knowledge, and in fact they need

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theology to appreciate this; and (4) theology cannot simply adopt the results of the disciple(s) of the social sciences but must reflect on the problem of evil and the solution of grace.34 Similarly, in our educational endeavours, there is no one model or one technique. The historian and the biblical scholar both treat historical texts, but each has different methods and different paradigms in play. Each will draw differently from their methodological repertoire, and each will construct different solutions. However, we can learn from each other.35 How might we mediate the solutions of our discipline within the processes of evil and grace? How has anonymity made grace more accessible in some contexts, rather than allowing more evil in others? How has working together built trust, and how do we reduce the risks of misdoing? How might we learn from netiquette the lessons that allow us to work with courtesy in the classroom? How might the asynchronicity of the forum, which allows us to formulate our answers carefully (checking, perhaps, grammar and spelling), allow us to find ways of clear communication in class? Are some processes better moved online, even if they can be done in class? How might the most effective blend of processes be constructed? As the church risks annihilation—standing, as it has been noted, just one generation from extinction—and yet has proved resilient and adaptive, so is theological education. We learn from ecclesiology, and from all of our disciplines, that we have much to offer and much to learn. We learn from history that adaption is a key to endurance. We offer to our students, our churches, and the academy if it will listen, and to ourselves, lessons based on experience and reflection. And we learn from all of these as well. Theological education is an art and a science, well conducted in community, best conducted in harmony with the divine community.



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Neil Ormerod, “A Dialectical Engagement with the Social Sciences in an Ecclesiological Context,” Theological Studies 66 (2005): 832-3. 35 For a non-theological education example, see Emma Pharo, Aidan Davison, Helen McGregor, Kristin Warr, and Paul Brown, “Using Communities Of Practice To Enhance Interdisciplinary Teaching: Lessons From Four Australian Institutions,” Higher Education Research and Development 33 (2014): 341-354.

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Bibliography Campbell, Heidi A. Exploring Religious Community Online: We Are One in the Network. New York: P. Lang, 2005. Campbell, Heidi A. “Understanding the Relationship between Religion Online and Offline in a Networked Society.” Journal of the American Academic of Religion 80 (2012). Esselman, Thomas. “The Pedagogy of the Online Wisdom Community: Forming Church Ministers in a Digital Age.” Teaching Theology and Religion 7 (2004): 159-170. Freeman, Mark A., and John Mark Capper. “Exploiting the Web for Education: An Anonymous Asynchronous Role-Simulation.” Australian Journal of Educational Technology 15 (1999): 95-116. González, Justo. “From the Last Fifty Years and Into the Next Fifty.” Theological Education 49 (2014): 43-48. Hess, Mary. Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All That We Can’t Leave Behind. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Hockridge, Diane. “What’s The Problem? Spiritual Formation in Distance and Online Theological Education.” Journal of Christian Education 54 (2011): 25-38. Kegan, Robert, and Lisa Laskow Lahey. How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages of Transformation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001. Mouw, Richard. “What’s Theological about Theological Education?” Theological Education 49 (2014): 1-8. Ormerod, Neil. “Recent Ecclesiology: A Survey.” Pacifica 21 (2008): 5767. Ormerod, Neil. “A Dialectical Engagement with the Social Sciences in an Ecclesiological Context.” Theological Studies 66 (2005): 832-3. Palmer, Parker. Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Heart. San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass, 2011. Schön, Donald. Educating the Reflective Practitioner: Toward a New Design for Teaching and Learning in the Professions. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1987.

REAL PRESENCE IN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION: E-MEDIA AND “PRESENCE” IN DISTANCE LEARNING TIM BULKELEY

This chapter begins from the premise that real presence is significant in theological education. It argues that all presence is mediated, by the nerves that carry our sense of touch, as well as the air that carries our voice. Different media, including both ancient and more recent technological media, offer different affordances. This is true of the electronically mediated communications we have begun to add to more traditional technological and natural mediation in our earlier practices of theological education. It is especially, but not exclusively, in distance learning that this issue becomes critical. The paper summarises research on the mediation of presence, and focuses on these different affordances of different media as they mediate presence. The interaction of these different impacts with students’ differing learning styles is particularly interesting, and is a focus of the paper. The goal is to contribute to understanding technologically mediated presence in teaching theological disciplines and so encourage better practice.

Introduction My formal education was a disaster both through school and a first degree at university. I was a problem student, often called before head teachers and deans to be warned that I was set for failure. I nevertheless succeeded at two aspects of the system. I did well in intelligence tests, and I passed most exams with good results. I did not understand this mismatch until much later. At length, during my theological training, I experienced a

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system in which my learning could begin to flourish. In the Oxbridge tutorial model the student’s main work was a weekly essay that was then discussed with their tutor. A few years later researching for a PhD showed me a similar educational context in which I could continue to grow. I came to understand this history through three experiences much later in life. Our son was diagnosed ADHD. This disorder has a strong hereditary component, so some of my failure to learn in lectures and classrooms made more sense. Independently of this I began also to recognise that particular forms of teaching are more useful to certain students. Extroverts (especially those with a desire to perform) love being asked to present material to the rest of the class, but some introverts become upset at this prospect. In a couple of extreme cases in my experience, students faced with a requirement to make an oral presentation developed physical symptoms of illness. On a smaller scale than formal class presentations, all face-to-face classroom teaching seems to favour extroverted students. Indeed extroversion is associated with a preference for face-to-face instruction and introversion with a preference for online instruction. 1 It was the third experience that provoked my interest in research that investigated the nature of presence.

Presence and theological education I taught until recently in a Seminary which, for over a decade, has been developing a program of education which can be accessed entirely off-campus in asynchronous modes (participants may access the material at different times). This means students can study at times that suit them. In the case of the course (unit) discussed below, live online tutorials were added. For these tutorials students chose the most convenient time from a limited selection. The degree program comprises twenty-four courses of which only one “capstone” course requires physical presence of the class together. This is an integrative seminar taught in two blocks on-site. The program began as a way to make some of our teaching available across a country with a low population (c. 4.5 million) comprised of two main islands (which between them are about 1,500 kilometres from end to end). Increasingly, this form of course delivery is becoming a common way also



1 Rick Harrington and Donald A. Loffredo, “MBTI Personality Type and Other Factors That Relate to Preference for Online versus Face-to-Face Instruction,” The Internet and Higher Education, Special Issue on the Community of Inquiry Framework: Ten Years Later, 13, no. 1–2 (2010): 89–95, doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.11.006.

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for part-time students, who make up a significant proportion of those studying theology, to access education at times as well as in locations that suit them. During that period there was ongoing discussion among my colleagues and me about the nature and worth of these flexible forms of education compared with our conventional on-site classes. Such discussions continue. In April 2015 as I edit this paragraph there are a couple of such conversations among friends of mine on Facebook. The convenience of flexible modes is recognised by all, but there is a perception by many that these flexible modes are “inevitably” less rich in human interaction. Conversations at Society for Biblical Literature meetings and in visits to overseas institutions suggest that such discussion is by no means a local phenomenon. 2 Nor is it confined to theological educators.3 In the institution where I now teach, such online distance teaching and learning is the norm, though teaching is enriched by optional “facilitation” weekends where students are introduced to the topics of a course by staff in interactive ways.4 One might think that an institution based unequivocally on asynchronous distance learning would have less need to worry about questions of depth of interaction, or presence, in this new learning environment, but I find that the issue is still a sensitive one. In this article I seek to suggest that social presence theory as developed by communications science since the 1970s provides a language for discussing such concerns more precisely. These conversations can be usefully nuanced by incorporating understanding drawn from the empirical studies that have developed from this theory. This sharper talk might in turn allow us to significantly improve our courses for students with a wide range of learning styles. I will also argue that the simplistic assumption that a traditional face-to-face class is best is biased against many students

 2

SBL is the main international forum for biblical studies teachers and researchers, I often attend either the “main” (US-based but international in attendance) or ‘”nternational” meetings. 3 Gary Mersham, “Reflections on E-Learning from a Communication Perspective,” Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning 13, 1 (2011): 51–70; cf. the response Benjamin Kehrwald, “Social Presence and Online Communication: A Response to Mersham,” Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning 14, 1 (2011): 29–46. 4 “Facilitations,” ACOM, 2015, http://www.acom.edu.au/undergraduate-coursesfacilitations. The staff teaching the facilitations are not always the same people as teach the online classes, and I have yet to attend a facilitation.

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whose personalities and learning preferences do not form a good match for this environment, even though their intelligence and other abilities might fit them well for tertiary study. By contrast to this conviction, many of the colleagues and friends with whom I discussed these experiences seemed to believe that “presence” was a binary quality. On this view either one is (face-to-face communication) or one is not (all other forms of mediation) present to the conversation partner. While this fits well with the everyday use of the word “present”, for example it is unlikely someone would claim to have been “present” at a sports match that they watched on TV, it does not fit the complexities of experience as well.

A tale of two students In one striking example drawn from my online teaching, a student in the South Island of New Zealand was expressing, in the forum, some rather rigid notions of the causes of poverty, blaming laziness and other personal failings for most, if not all, cases. Another student, living and working in an Asian city described some of his daily experiences. The first student proved to be compassionate and interested. His rather sheltered life had previously not enabled him to imagine the lives of others who had far less access to opportunities. Gradually, during the course of a semester, his responses changed and a significant development in his attitudes began to develop. Here the interaction of two people, and the indirect impact of the lives of others (merely described, so experienced in any sense only thirdhand), led to significant personal formation.

Research literature In attempting to provide a rationale for these convictions about “presence”, not least that it was a spectrum and not a binary condition, I investigated research into presence. I was surprised to discover that interest in such questions, and empirical studies of them, were not new; research was sponsored by the British Post Office (interested in telephone communications) in the 1970s. The chief researcher defined “social presence” as the sense of an awareness of the presence of an interaction partner in an act of communication. The more one is aware of a person with whom one is communicating, the higher the level of social presence. This means that social presence is significant for the process by which we know and think about other persons, their characteristics, qualities and

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inner states and thus increased presence leads to a better person perception.5 Garrison attempted to refine this concept, arguing that social presence is “the degree to which participants are able to project themselves affectively within the medium.” It is by such affective presentation that we are perceived and perceive others as “real people.” 6 This definition is sharper, and less circular, and has the huge advantage of attempting to define “presence” itself. More recent studies have tended to distinguish different types of presence for example: telepresence (meaning technologically mediated presence); co-presence (the sense of being “there together”) and social presence (implying additionally mutual interaction). 7 The last two categories provide a useful way to distinguish the sort of “presence” experienced by a participant in a webinar from that which one would hope for in an online tutorial, though, of course, it is all too possible for participants to “hide” in a large tutorial group (whether online or face-toface). Important though some such distinctions are in discussions of “virtual reality” contexts, in most contemporary educational settings it is social presence defined as the awareness of a real person with whom the student is interacting that is the primary interest. The International Society of Presence Research defines presence as a “psychological state or subjective perception in which even though part or all of an individual’s current experience is generated by and/or filtered through human-made

 5

John Short, Medium of Communication and Consensus (London: Long Range Intelligence Division of Post Office Telecommunications Headquarters, 1972); John Short, Joint Unit for Planning Research. Communications Studies Group, and Great Britain Post Office, Long Range Intelligence Division, The Effects of Medium of Communication on Persuasion, Bargaining and Perceptions of the Other, Long Range Research Paper, 50 (London: British Post Office, 1973); John Short, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christie, The Social Psychology of Telecommunications (London: Wiley, 1976). 6 D. Randy Garrison, “Computer Conferencing and Distance Education: Cognitive and Social Presence Issues,” in The New Learning Environment: A Global Perspective. Proceedings of the ICDE World Conference (Pennsylvania State University, 1997). 7 E.g. Kristi Nowak, and F Biocca, “The Influence of Agency and the Virtual Body on Presence, Social Presence and Copresence in a Computer Mediated Interaction,” in Proceedings of the 3rd International Presence Workshop (Philadelphia, PA, 2001).

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technology, part or all of the individual’s perception fails to accurately acknowledge the role of the technology in the experience.” 8 This definition seems to focus on the mediated nature of computer mediated communications. In fact all communication is mediated. The Society of Presence Research’s definition attempts to take account of this by limiting the mediation they recognise to “human made technology.” In face-to-face communication usually we are not aware of the air carrying sound waves etc. that mediate such communication.9 In this chapter I will prefer not to restrict consideration of mediated presence according to some predetermined value system that prefers certain forms of mediation to others. I will therefore consider presence as a measure of the sense of a real person with whom one is relating regardless of the media through which this sense of a person is communicated. Such a definition has the advantage of not prejudging the issue of the effects of different forms of mediation, and of recognising that under many circumstances even in faceto-face communications there are degrees of presence.10 This approach also takes into account the everyday experience in which two people in the same room can be more or less present to each other. Imagine sitting on the couch typing on a laptop, perhaps preparing a conference paper, your partner is sitting at the desk playing Scrabble with their son in the Isle of Man. He is more present to them than you are, unless you attract their attention. A casual remark in such a situation may well elicit a response, but often only a half-aware response. Such responses do not indicate full attention to, for example, the things that various people said in the postgraduate committee that afternoon. This approach to presence is similar to, but less precise than the neat “layers of presence” model developed by Riva et al. 11 or the three-dimensional

 8

“About Presence,” International Society for Presence Research, http://ispr.info/about-presence-2/about-presence/. 9 Giuseppe Riva, “Is Presence a Technology Issue? Some Insights from Cognitive Sciences,” Virtual Reality 13 (2009): 159–169. 10 It also leaves open the issue, which needs research, of whether less awareness of the media necessarily equates to a greater sense of presence. 11 Giuseppe Riva, John A. Waterworth, and Eva L. Waterworth, “The Layers of Presence: A Bio-Cultural Approach to Understanding Presence in Natural and Mediated Environments,” Cyberpsychology and Behavior: The Impact of the Internet, Multimedia and Virtual Reality on Behavior and Society 7, 4 (2004): 402–416 doi:10.1089/cpb.2004.7.402.

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model of Shen and Khalifa.12 However, the sort of precision their models each offers seems unnecessary for this discussion. Clearly if the degree of mutual presence thus defined is low, group members will feel disconnected, while if it is high they will be more engaged and involved. When the communication being considered is a course of study then such mutual presence will have a significant impact on learning. Equally, since in most classes (almost whatever their ostensible pedagogy) the teacher is a figure of primary significance, the teacher’s role in facilitating such presence will have an impact on the success of the course.13

Presence in distance education If we now turn our attention to the particular issues of “distance education”, where the students and teachers are not engaging in face-toface interaction, there are a number of quite different media used to communicate. Some of these media, screencasts, podcasts and short videos, for example, are used to communicate information and ideas in one direction from teachers to students. However, an even greater range is used to facilitate communication in two directions between teacher(s) and student(s) and may also operate between students themselves. These all

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K. Shen, and M. Khalifa, “Design for Social Presence in Online Communities: A Multidimensional Approach,” AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction 1, 2 (2009): 33–58. 13 Elizabeth Stacey, “Social Presence Online: Networking Learners at a Distance,” Education and Information Technologies 7, 4 (2002): 287–94; Namin Shin, “Transactional Presence as a Critical Predictor of Success in Distance Learning,” Distance Education 24, 1 (2003): 69–86, doi:10.1080/01587910303048. Shin defined “success” in terms of a student’s perceived learning achievement, satisfaction, and intent-to-persist with their studies, while this is a possible definition; Anthony G. Picciano, “Beyond Student Perceptions: Issues of Interaction, Presence, and Performance in an Online Course,” Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 6, 1 (2002): 21–40 showed that the relationship becomes more complex as a greater variety of measures of “success” are measured. Strikingly Jungjoo Kim, Yangyi Kwon, and Daeyeon Cho, “Investigating Factors That Influence Social Presence and Learning Outcomes in Distance Higher Education,” Computers & Education 57, 2 (2011): 1512–1520, doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.02.005 showed that “media integration and instructor’s quality teaching were significant predictors of both social presence and learning satisfaction, interactivity among participants was a predictor of social presence but not of learning satisfaction.”

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vary considerably in the richness of the cues they seem to afford to facilitate “presence”. These differences have been presented as a hierarchy: x

x

x

x

text-based media such as print, email, most discussion forums etc. provide relatively few cues, though even here indicators of “tone” including the choice of vocabulary and syntax, the use (or absence of) emoticons provide evidence of the person “behind” the message, adding elements like self-disclosing narratives can enrich these media still further pictures especially photographs, and particularly those featuring the person, add another dimension (e.g. as a significantly visual learner working in two different institutions I found that I had a much greater ability to identify students, and knew more about them, in the system where Learning Management System showed an ID photo of the student as well as their name and ID number, compared to a system which showed only the textual information) audio such as telephone calls, Skype and most “virtual classrooms” add indications of inflection (much more vividly than the tone of a written text), ambient sound (one student in an online classroom had her toddler in the room with her, this added an extra dimension to her “presence” in the class), paraverbal utterances (the “ums” and “uh huhs”, while potentially rendering communication of information less crisp, enrich the perception of a person uttering the text) video adds movement, facial expression, posture and other visual cues.

Underneath these differences of media, asynchronous communication is inevitably significantly different from real-time communication in how, and how much, the communication act mediates “presence”.14 In addition to these different media effects, different people interact with different media differently.



14 D. Randy Garrison, E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and Practice (London: Routledge, 2011).

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Individual differences Wheeler sought to investigate these differences. Using Entwistle’s Approaches to Study Inventory, he distinguished autonomous, surface or tenacious learning approaches. 15 He also used two questionnaires of his own which explored student support needs and communication mode perceptions. The results were interesting and surprisingly varied. Autonomous learning is roughly what is often called deep learning, it is where the student is either a natural self-starter or because of the way the course is taught is prompted to discover and learn “for themselves”. By contrast surface learning is when we “cram” facts, figures and ideas to “pass” an exam or assignment with less real engagement. Tenacious learners approach learning strategically, like surface learners they are concerned with results, but they are also strong on organisation and time management.16 In a natural co-present learning space (i.e. a face-to-face class) autonomous learners (due to their independence?) neither needed nor experienced a great deal of social presence. Conversely, in this situation, tenacious students tended to experience high levels of social presence. To complicate matters further, in telephone communications the effect is reversed, with autonomous students perceiving higher levels of connectedness. But for email the more autonomy shown by the student the less social presence they perceived (Wheeler hypothesised that this may have been because they were “not in control”), whilst with email the more tenacious students experience higher perceptions of connectedness. Wheeler speculated that the special affordances of email, being less immediate but more permanent, may explain this.17



15 The three learning approaches Wheeler discusses seem to correspond to the deep, surface and strategic learning approaches discussed by others using Entwistle’s questionnaires; Noel J. Entwistle and Elizabeth R. Peterson, “Conceptions of Learning and Knowledge in Higher Education: Relationships with Study Behaviour and Influences of Learning Environments,” International Journal of Educational Research 41, 6 (2004): 407–28, doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2005.08.009. 16 N.J. Entwistle, “The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST),” Edinburgh: Centre for Research on Learning and Instruction, (University of Edinburgh, 1997); Mantz Yorke, “Student Engagement: Deep, Surface or Strategic,” in Keynote Address to the 9th Pacific Rim Conference on the First Year in Higher Education, (Griffith University, Australia, 2006), 12–14. 17 Steve Wheeler, “Creating Social Presence in Digital Learning Environments: A Presence of Mind?” in TAFE Conference, Queensland, Australia: 11 November, 2005; Steve Wheeler, “Student Perceptions of Immediacy and Social Presence in

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The importance of quick responses to students’ questions (in an asynchronous medium like email or forums) may be greatest for autonomous students, since quick responses may “give back” some of the sense of control of the learning process that would have been present for them in for example telephone-mediated conversations. 18 There is considerable anecdotal evidence that swift responses to email are in general greatly appreciated by at least some students. Especially in distance classes almost always in the open-ended questions of the teaching evaluation questionnaires some will make a point of mentioning this. (I aim normally to check my course email and reply several times each weekday and at least daily most weekends and if possible to respond straight away.) These findings suggest interesting thoughts about face-to-face classes and the claim that theological education requires presence. For if autonomous learners experience less social presence in face-to-face classes, and more in telephone situations, perhaps for these learners some forms of distance teaching provide higher levels of presence than a conventional classroom. Similarly if tenacious students perceive higher levels in email communications, they too are perhaps advantaged by some forms of distance communication. Wheeler did not study the use of the sort of “virtual classroom” which offers various screen-sharing and whiteboard facilities in addition to two-way audio, but his results would also predict higher levels of social presence for autonomous learners in such settings. On the other hand, tenacious students experienced more social presence in email medium. Again, forums were not included in the study, but because of the similar affordances (asynchronous, text-based) one might expect them to experience higher presence in such learning contexts. There is also evidence that some students prefer flexible modes. Indeed an early sceptic recently wrote: Students often sign up for an online course even when the same course is simultaneously taught in a traditional format by the same person. Recently I offered live and online sections of the same course in the same semester.

 Distance Education,” in Distance and E-Learning in Transition: Learning Innovation, Technology and Social Challenges, ed. András Szücs et al. (Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2013), 411–26. 18 Wheeler, “Creating Social Presence in Digital Learning Environments,” 6.

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Real Presence in Theological Education The online section filled up well before classes began; the traditional one ended up half-full.19

The reasons why some students prefer this mode have been investigated. Eom and his collaborators explored six variables that they hypothesised might affect students’ perceived learning outcomes: course structure, instructor feedback, self-motivation, learning style, interaction, and instructor facilitation. Of these only instructor feedback and learning style were found to be significant.20

Experience with Understanding and Interpreting the Bible As well as experiences with text-based discussions in both teacher-organised forums and in various blogging assignments, like the one mentioned above, in which one student’s life experience was co-opted to significantly form a second student, I have recently had experience of running an online tutorial at-a-distance for an introductory class. It is worth describing briefly how this class was organised and the results obtained as this may help flesh out my conclusions drawn from the research literature and from some recent adaptations of “social presence” theory. The class, Understanding and Interpreting the Bible, was envisaged alongside one which offers something close to a survey approach to the Bible’s content. It was intended to provide beginning students in a Bachelor of Applied Theology degree (most of whose graduates will be interpreting Scripture within local church contexts as a result of their study) with practical skills in taking a biblical text and putting it to work within a Christian community. It was offered concurrently as an on-site face-to-face class and as a distance class. Because this was a beginners’ class we chose to use a simple textbook, and to work through the book. The book offers a straightforward step-by-step approach to practical biblical interpretation rather than a

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Glenn A. Hartz, “Why I Changed My Mind About Teaching Online,” Chronicle of Higher Education 59, 6 (2012) http://chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Changed-MyMind-About/134674/ 20 Sean B. Eom, H. Joseph Wen, and Nicholas Ashill, “The Determinants of Students’ Perceived Learning Outcomes and Satisfaction in University Online Education: An Empirical Investigation,” Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education 4, 2 (2006): 215–35, doi:10.1111/j.1540-4609.2006.00114.x.

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broader introduction to biblical hermeneutics. 21 We expect that as they progress to the next stage of their studies students will not only begin to put these ideas into practice but also begin to become aware of some of the ways in which their processes of understanding a text can be enlarged. In particular it is at these subsequent levels that they will begin to use more varied approaches. Alongside the textbook we provided web-based notes with text and pictures that encourage students to begin practising the skills discussed in that week’s chapter, and to begin thinking through some of the issues involved in these skills and the claims made by the textbook. These notes also contained some simple computer scored (mainly multichoice) quizzes. Some of these are for the student’s personal benefit, letting them check as they progress whether they have “got it”. Others have their score recorded and count towards the mark for the course, thus ensuring that most students do seek to master the week’s reading and skills.22 For students who wish to explore the ideas further there are both topical and general discussion forums. These allow (particularly “tenacious”?) students to dig deeper and to question the foundations of what they are learning. Each week there was also a tutorial. For on-site students these were standard classroom sessions, while for flexible students a choice of times for a live online tutorial were offered. We used Adobe Connect as the technological platform for these sessions, but a number of similar products are available at technical and financial costs within the reach of most seminaries.23 Adobe Connect does not require students to download or install software (except a web browser, and Adobe Flash player, which is installed already on the vast majority of Internet-connected computers). There is a small download needed for anyone who needs to share with the class their desktop, or a presentation or other software screens on their computer. In our setting this was only needed by teachers. Each participant

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J. Scott Duvall, and J. Daniel Hays, Journey into God’s Word: Your Guide to Understanding and Applying the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008). 22 In an earlier class, my subjective assessment was that introducing such simple tests increased the likelihood of students actually reading the “required reading” quite considerably. This was accompanied by an increase in student marks (as far as possible potential marker bias was diminished as both before and after versions of the course had their marking moderated by other teachers). 23 “Adobe Connect Alternatives and Similar Software-AlternativeTo.net,” http://alternativeto.net/software/adobe-connectnow/.

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has a main screen which shows either a whiteboard, a document or presentation prepared by the teacher (or virtually anything else which can normally be shown on a computer screen, though I did have trouble trying to share a video clip). Alongside this is a list of participants that indicates who is currently talking. Multiway video options are available but were not trialled because of bandwidth issues; we restricted ourselves to screencasting. As well as the teacher(s), any student who has a microphone may speak though students’ mics need to be authorised by the teacher (this could be useful in larger groups to control the number of people trying to talk)—in groups of 15 or so mature students this is not often an issue. There is also a text chat window where any participant can type messages to be sent to all, or just to some individual (or group if participants are grouped). This provides both a “back channel”, student to teacher one-on-one or between students, as well as providing a “voice” more generally for anyone whose mic is not currently live. The tutorials were recorded so that students who missed a week could catch up on the content. We did not envisage this class as an investigation of social presence at a distance, so no questions were asked about this in the student evaluations. Nor was any stimulus offered to students in the open-ended section to elicit such comments. However, a number of comments were received in the open-ended section of the student feedback forms suggesting that this mix was indeed successful in increasing student satisfaction. 24 The course also produced notably good results from students. The assignments were marked by the two teachers, who then cross-checked a sample of scripts from each assignment. The results from both on-site and distance students were comparable, with a slight tendency for distance students to obtain higher grades, perhaps because of the presence of a number of school leaving age students in the on-site class group.25

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This result may be explained by the finding of Steven R. Aragon, “Creating Social Presence in Online Environments,” New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 100 (2003): 57–68 that earners who have a higher level of social presence are more satisfied with online learning. . 25 Which fits with Jennifer C. Richardson and Karen Swan, “Examining Social Presence in Online Courses in Relation to Students’ Perceived Learning and Satisfaction,” Sloan Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 7, 1 (2003): 74, finding that “students’ perceptions of social presence are a predictor of students’ perceived learning in online courses.”

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Thus this class included a variety of elements, for both on-site and flexible students, which ensured that all had a mix of synchronous and asynchronous communications modes, and both experienced text based and as well as richer communication. As a result, although measures of social presence were not sought the results are compatible with the expectation that such deliberately mixed mode delivery would enhance perceptions of presence, and that this enhances learning. Many attempts to develop a sense of community or presence among distance students involve adding something extra aiming to achieve this result. This bolt-on approach is commonly found in the “cafeteria” forum added to classes (a forum that is not assessed nor directly related to class topics where students are encouraged to “share” news and ideas from their wider lives). Though such forums do sometimes generate significant sharing, and at least serve as a “location” for mutual introductions, they often elicit minimal interaction. Redman describes two such approaches (aimed at students working for higher research degrees) that failed. One offered a “unit” for research students on the learning management system which “offered both social and more research-focussed discussion forums. It also provided links to the various postgraduate resources provided by the university.” The other was a stand-alone system organised by library staff using the Ning networking platform.26 She notes that “one key factor in the failure of the two initiatives outlined above is that that both systems had a purely networking function.”27 Artificial attempts to generate a sense of presence (community) are likely to fail. On the other hand integrating a variety of media and modes of communication can help students with their varied personalities and learning approaches or styles to experience such presence.

Looking forward A sense of presence (of other students and/or of teachers) leads to both greater student satisfaction with courses and to greater learning. Some evidence suggests that a sense of presence may be more effectively generated as a by-product of activities that have other educational goals. For example deliberate attempts to inculcate a sense of presence (“online

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Judith C. S. Redman, “Communities of Practice for Distance Research Students in Australia: Why Do We Need Them and How Might We Create Them?” in Outlooks and Opportunities in Blended and Distance Learning, ed. Belinda Tynan, Julie Willems, and Rosalind James (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013), 348–349. 27 Ibid., 349.

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community”) among postgraduate research students fail. Although we intuitively assume there will be a greater sense of presence in a face-toface classroom, different students will experience greater sense of presence through different media. Classes with a range of media are likely, therefore, to be “better” than those which focus on one form of mediation (even, and for some students especially, face-to-face).28 No studies I am aware of have investigated the effect of “too high” a degree of social presence,29 yet ethical and privacy concerns make it inevitable that some limits need to be placed on “sharing” of personal information in educational contexts. Indeed, aside from privacy and ethical issues simple efficiency dictates that only limited time and resources should be used to enhance a class’s sense of mutual presence. However, in most of the contexts with which I am familiar such dangers are still less commonly experienced, while courses that leave their participants as more or less isolated learners remain a regular experience. In designing future courses I would want to take further this recognition of the importance of presence. Many of the features of Understanding and Interpreting the Bible, in particular the variety of media and channels of communication, are known to be important for other reasons (for example because of their suitability for students with different learning styles). 30 I intend to explore the impact on students’ sense of presence (of a teacher and of other students) of other features like asking them to introduce themselves, and teachers revealing small glimpses of their non-professional lives. I am exploring ensuring that students must interact with the teacher or with each other by building this into the assessment schedules. These ideas need not merely enhance social presence but can have other educational benefits. The old idea of requiring each student to submit a short piece of assigned writing to a class forum, and then to make shorter critical comments on two other students’ work, can still be a useful approach. As well as enhancing the sense of “presence”, it also develops critical skills and such non-academic but necessary life skills as tact. Requiring students to fill in their own grade sheet after reading the teacher’s comments, and then negotiating the grade (or more often simply

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Whether we define “better” in terms of student preferences (or the closely related scores they give on evaluations of teaching) or their scores on assignment tasks. 29 It would be quite difficult to design a study to achieve this ethically. 30 This is true whichever theory of “learning styles” proves the most durable and useful.

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noting and explaining differences between the student’s and teacher’s grade sheets) not only ensures students actually read the comments on their essay, but also develop self-critical awareness. An awareness of the importance of presence for learning, and of the complex interactions between personality, learning preferences and the sense of presence, should contribute to and enrich our course design. This in turn would diminish the bias of our education towards extroverted students with a preference for oral communication, though their needs should still also be met by good design.

Bibliography Aragon, Steven R. “Creating Social Presence in Online Environments.” New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 100 (2003): 57– 68. Bulkeley, Tim. “L’auteur Est Mort, But Won’t Lie Down: Inventing Authors While Reading Amos.” Colloquium 43, 1 (2011): 59–70. Entwistle, N. J. “The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST).” Edinburgh: Centre for Research on Learning and Instruction, University of Edinburgh, 1997. Harrington, Rick, and Donald A. Loffredo. “MBTI Personality Type and Other Factors That Relate to Preference for Online versus Face-to-Face Instruction.” The Internet and Higher Education, Special Issue on the Community of Inquiry Framework: Ten Years Later 13, no. 1–2 (2010): 89–95. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.11.006. Kehrwald, Benjamin. “Social Presence and Online Communication: A Response to Mersham.” Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning 14, 1 (2011): 29–46. Picciano, Anthony G. “Beyond Student Perceptions: Issues of Interaction, Presence, and Performance in an Online Course.” Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 6, 1 (2002): 21–40. Redman, Judith C. S. “Communities of Practice for Distance Research Students in Australia: Why Do We Need Them and How Might We Create Them?” In Outlooks and Opportunities in Blended and Distance Learning, edited by Belinda Tynan, Julie Willems, and Rosalind James, 346–52. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013. Richardson, Jennifer C., and Karen Swan. “Examining Social Presence in Online Courses in Relation to Students’ Perceived Learning and Satisfaction.” Sloan Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 7, 1 (2003): 74. Riva, Giuseppe. “Is Presence a Technology Issue? Some Insights from

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Cognitive Sciences.” Virtual Reality 13 (2009): 159–69. Riva, Giuseppe, John A Waterworth, and Eva L Waterworth. “The Layers of Presence: A Bio-Cultural Approach to Understanding Presence in Natural and Mediated Environments.” Cyberpsychology and Behavior: The Impact of the Internet, Multimedia and Virtual Reality on Behavior and Society 7, 4 (2004): 402–16. doi:10.1089/cpb.2004.7.402. Shen, K., and M. Khalifa. “Design for Social Presence in Online Communities: A Multidimensional Approach.” AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction 1, 2 (2009): 33–58. Shin, Namin. “Transactional Presence as a Critical Predictor of Success in Distance Learning.” Distance Education 24, 1 (2003): 69–86. doi:10.1080/01587910303048. Stacey, Elizabeth. “Social Presence Online: Networking Learners at a Distance.” Education and Information Technologies 7, 4 (2002): 287– 94. Wheeler, Steve. “Creating Social Presence in Digital Learning Environments: A Presence of Mind?” paper presented at TAFE Conference, Queensland, Australia: 11 November, 2005. —. “Student Perceptions of Immediacy and Social Presence in Distance Education.” In Distance and E-Learning in Transition: Learning Innovation, Technology and Social Challenges, edited by András Szücs, Alan Tait, Martine Vidal, and Ulrich Bernath, 411–26. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

CONTRIBUTORS

Andrew J. Brown is the Old Testament Lecturer at the Melbourne School of Theology. Tim Bulkeley teaches Old Testament at the Australian College of Ministries. John Mark Capper is the Director of Learning and Teaching at the University of Divinity, Melbourne. James Dalziel is Professor of Learning Technology at Macquarie University, Director of Macquarie E-Learning Centre of Excellence, and Founder of the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS). Yvette Debergue is the Distance and Online Education Coordinator at the Sydney College of Divinity. Charles de Jongh is Academic Dean at Malyon College, Queensland. David Gormley-O’Brien is the Research Coordinator and Online Coordinator at Trinity College Theological School, University of Divinity. Daniel J. Fleming is Dean of Studies and Lecturer in Theology and Ethics at the Broken Bay Institute. James R. Harrison is Research Director at the Sydney College of Divinity and an Honorary Associate of Macquarie University Ancient History Department.

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Stephen Healey is a Managing Partner of Robertson and Chang, Sydney, and is a facilitator at the Australian College of Ministries. Diane Hockridge is an educational designer at Ridley College Melbourne and a PhD candidate at Macquarie University. Michael Jensen is the Rector of St Mark’s Darling Point and an Honorary Associate of the Sydney College of Divinity. David Morgan is Dean of Quality and Student Administration at Tabor College, Victoria. Peter Mudge is Lecturer in Religious Education and Spirituality at the Broken Bay Institute. Stephen Smith is the Principal of Australian College of Ministries. Jong Soo Park is an Adjunct Fellow, Korean School of Theology, Sydney College of Divinity. Robert Tilley is a lecturer at the Catholic Institute of Sydney. Jan-Albert van den Berg lectures in the Department of Practical Theology at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Andre van Oudtshoorn is the Academic Dean, Perth Bible College.