A Beautiful Death
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21700152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Houston Blankenship‐Lai (Earlham School of Religion Earlham College Richmond Indiana USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 11-18 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Teaching Theology & Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1368-4868 • E-ISSN: 1467-9647 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/teth.12658 |
| OpenAlex | W4393155516 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
This article is about the death of a graduate school for spiritual formation and theological education. I ask what the death of this school can teach us about teaching theology and religion for the sake of student transformation and more loving pedagogies. I also ask how, when an institution dies, it can die beautifully. The underlying thesis of this article is that there is, alive in our classrooms (and ourselves, perhaps), a spiritual wound that can be named an experiential death of divine love—and that this wound is manifesting as unshepherded fear, rage, and discontent. I suggest that this spiritual wound be tended through skillful pedagogical tenderness, flexibility, and liberative co‐creation with students to cultivate a presence of love and feed the spiritual hungers of our time. I also suggest that a school (and a teacher) dies beautifully when its death is allowed and free to become a scene of beautiful instruction
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |