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Solidarity and Christian Religious Education

Steffano Montano

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Introduction

In my work as service-learning coordinator for the theology department of the Catholic

university that I work in, I am privileged to engage the students with the community in a way

that helps to build bridges. The university strengthens its ties to the community through the

partnerships we develop, bridging academia with those who live and work in the urban

environment surrounding the university. It is this encounter with the day-to-day lives of people

who are struggling against unjust systems and structures that creates a bridge between our

students and those who are working to shape a more just society. Helping students cross that

bridge leads them to another: one that connects their spiritual lives and religious understandings

with the work of transforming the world into a more just, caring, and inclusive community.

Reflecting on this experience has led me to the task of uncovering and understanding the role

that solidarity plays in Christian religious education and the role that Christian religious

education can have in helping to shape a world that is moving towards the Reign of God through

relationships of solidarity. This paper will begin with a theological definition of solidarity, its

origins, and its place in society. A reading of religious education as socialization and

Christianization will be followed by the importance of uniting the two practices as a

transforming pedagogy. Finally, the paper will end with a survey of methods and empirical

evidence demonstrating the efficacy of a pedagogy of solidarity in the lives of students.

Solidarity

“…because we are all really responsible for all.” – Pope John Paul II

The concept of solidarity has undergone multiple revisions throughout history and can

still be used in a variety of ways today. From a feeling of accompaniment to the complete

immersion in the suffering and liberation of others, the spectrum allows for some muddled

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understanding, and equally muddled solidary practices. It is important to be able to nail down a

definition before continuing, lest the point of this essay become equally ambiguous. Rebecca

Todd Peters, in her recent work Solidarity Ethics, defines solidarity as the intersection of three

concepts: mutuality, the preferential option for the poor, and social change. Her description of

the evolution of the term solidarity provides us with a good starting point to differentiate its

usage.

Solidarity as a term has been used by philosophers, sociologists, and economists in

different ways. The following chart illustrates the use of the term in the secular sphere as

chronicled by Todd-Peters:

Philosopher Theory

Charles Fourier Solidarity as a shared feeling of community; social insurance for collective

debts; willingness to share resources with the needy; feeling of community;

living wage

Pierre Leroux Solidarity is primarily social relationships between people, applicable to the

organization of society as a whole.

Auguste Comte Fought against individualizing society, arguing we are at our core

interdependent with one another

Emile Durkheim Mechanistic Solidarity: how well we incorporate into our social context /

family

Organic Solidarity: finding community among interest / work / class / etc.

Max Weber Actions oriented towards friends / family are self-regulating in

accountability.

Actions oriented towards self-interest need external accountability.

Exclusionary solidarity: an “us” that can be against a “they”

Karl Marx Solidarity of the working class against oppression, leading to utopia.

Karl Klautsky Economy of solidarity: co-ops and worker owned enterprises as more stable

and egalitarian than pure capitalist model

Table 1 (Todd-Peters 2014, 19-23)

As can be seen above, the word has had a variety of meanings and uses in the academic sphere

but all generally refer to a feeling of interdependence and mutuality among members of a

society, often extending beyond groups of kin or interest, but not necessarily. Tied to this feeling

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must be a sense of action, social organization, or accountability regulation of some kind. In

more contemporary forms, the word continues to evoke emotions of unity and community, but

Todd-Peters stresses that what differentiates solidarity from these other feelings is action and

transformation.

Todd-Peters notes how solidarity can be misconstrued with several other moral intuitions,

including sympathy, responsibility, and mutuality. (Todd-Peters 2014, 35-42) Upon witnessing a

situation of injustice, suffering, or tragedy, most people exhibit some kind of internal “gut”

response. As has been shown, the muddled use of the term “solidarity” has led many to believe

that these gut responses are in fact solidary responses. Rebecca Todd-Peters has carefully

categorized three such responses and shown how they contrast to solidarity. Sympathy, an

emotion that is often tied to pity, often makes itself known through moral indignation or outrage

at a troubling situation and is usually focused on the victims. Some actions that may arise out of

a sympathetic response are donations of time or money, but the actions themselves do not

correspond to an enduring commitment to become a part of the lives of those who are suffering.

A second “gut response” is characterized by feeling responsible for the plight of others. This is a

moral intuition that moves closer to solidarity as it recognizes a level of moral culpability on the

part of the person witnessing the injustice: they have the power and privilege to help and so they

feel that they should. It does not recognize structural causes at play and instead assumes a fairly

even playing field where those who are suffering simply need to be given a chance to do better.

Further, a responsibility reaction also tends to disenfranchise those who are suffering from

determining what solutions should be implemented to alleviate their injustices. Responses

stemming from a responsibility gut reaction may include the fairly harmless practices of

augmenting purchasing patterns and boycotting certain brands or the more dependency

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generating solutions of constructing infrastructure or linking to services that are not owned and

operated by those who they were built to help.

The third moral intuition that Todd-Peters develops is mutuality, which comes closest to

her own definition of solidarity. Mutuality is the recognition that the interdependence of all

creation should animate the responses and solutions generated to solve injustices. There is a

recognition of the respect and partnership that must be cultivated and maintained among all who

are involved in the decision-making processes as well as a moral equality that looks to an

individual’s social, political, and economic context as the primary cause of their situation of

injustice. Mutual responses may include donations, but also typically include collaborative

strategizing among those who are suffering and those who wish to help so that the dignity of

those who are suffering is maintained. Todd-Peters recognizes that the moral intuition that can

most easily lead to solidarity is mutuality and as such it is an intuition that should be cultivated.

But because it is only an intuition, a gut response or visceral reaction, it is important that careful

analysis, action, and commitment follow this response. These action steps are what create a shift

from intuition to true solidarity. In order to help people arrive to the intuitive response of

mutuality, a process of growth, education, and conversion must take place. In the Christian

tradition, we would call this process religious education, which can begin from an experience of

metanoia.

Metanoia, or transformation of heart, word, mind, and deed, is essential to an experience

of true solidarity. The pivotal difference between solidarity and any of the moral intuitions listed

above is the decision to commit to sustained action on behalf of another. This commitment

requires an encounter along the lines of what Gustavo Gutierrez has termed the “evangelizing

potential of the poor.” The potential to reveal who Christ is and to generate metanoia is there,

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not because the poor are necessarily better or holier but because an encounter with them,

properly reflected, indicts the structures and systems responsible for poverty and creates an

emotive response for change. An encounter with Gutierrez’s poor helps to reveal what the

Gospel message was truly about: the Reign of God in the world that liberates and transforms

unjust structures so that those who have been marginalized can be ushered into the center or

social concern. Rebecca Todd-Peters discusses metanoia, the ancient Greek term for turning

around, in light of the experience of privileged first-world encounters with disenfranchised

others. To her, metanoia is found in the crossing of a chasm of experience between the

privileged and the poor. Theologically, she begins by highlighting the baptism of John as a call

to metanoia, where soldiers and tax collectors stop extorting others and those who enjoy an

abundance of food and clothing share with those who do not. (Todd-Peters 2014, 60-61) This

example of metanoia is closely tied with solidarity as it demands a change in a person’s life for

the benefit of those who suffer. The metanoia that can be experienced by us today is one that

demands a participation in the creation of a just social order to benefit all. This is consonant to

the vision of the world that catholic social teaching espouses.

Within Catholic Social Teaching, solidarity is considered an attitude, a duty, and a virtue

to be cultivated through practices of social justice and social change. Meghan Clark has pointed

out this threefold understanding of solidarity as the best way to remove the ambiguities

surrounding its definition. As an attitude, solidarity relies on the recognition of the

interdependent reality of our existence and therefore a “necessary variable for ethical decision

making.” (Clarke 2014, 108) From this perspective, Todd-Peter’s moral inclination of mutuality

and Clarke’s attitudinal understanding of solidarity are nearly identical and both theologians note

how the action stems from the attitude / inclination. As a duty, Clarke points to solidarity as an

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obligation to uphold both human and community rights. From this perspective, the duty of

solidarity is to protect the dignity of each individual by ensuring their opportunity to live

abundantly, that is fully, as members of community. This requires not only an individual

responsibility to not usurp another’s rights (Amartya Sen’s perfect obligation) but also to

structure society in a way that ensures that rights are protected (correcting Sen’s imperfect

obligation), which is where solidarity as a virtue comes alive. As a virtue, solidarity is the

“commitment to personal flourishing and the participation in the universal common good.”

(Clarke 2014, 110) Clarke cites from Sollicitudo Rei Socialis the words of John Paul II as he

states that the virtue of solidarity “is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the

misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering

determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of

each individual because we are all really responsible for all.” (Clarke 2014, 110)

All virtues must have an object and an end, and for solidarity, the object is our shared

human experience and the end is the participation in the universal common good. (Clarke 2014,

112) Participation in the universal common good has to come from a standpoint of equality, or

else risk the same harms that Todd-Peters speaks of in regards to actions stemming from the

moral intuition of responsibility: a furthering of dependency cycles and a disenfranchisement of

those who suffer. Solidarity can therefore be defined as actions on behalf of others taken with

the mutuality, reciprocity, and equality of all being respected. As a virtue, it is something that

can be cultivated through practices. In this regard, both Todd-Peters and Clarke offer practices

of human rights and social change as the way to cultivate solidarity in our lives. As we begin to

analyze Christian religious education, it is important to take note as to how such practices are an

integral part of authentic Christian discipleship, and therefore of authentic Christianization.

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Christian Religious Education

“Shall the primary purpose of Christian education be to hand on a religion, or to create a new

world?” – George Albert Coe

Just what exactly is meant by the term Christian Religious Education? Is Coe’s choice in

the quote above a mutually exclusive one? Thomas Groome’s definition of Christian religious

education is carefully developed to build upon a tradition of education that is cognizant of its

place in time, its context, and its mission towards developing Christian praxis (of which

solidarity is one example). He begins with the word “education”, which he defines as “political

activity with pilgrims in time that deliberately and intentionally attends with people to our

present, to the past heritage it embodies, and to the future possibility it holds for the total person

and community.” (Groome 1980, 21) By the phrase “pilgrims in time” he is refering to the

movement of people in history towards an end goal or end time.1 We are not, in other words,

static individuals simply living out our existence, but rather societies who benefit from the labor

of the past and whose experiences and work in the present will serve as a contribution to the

future. The concern of educators must also be tied up with these three temporal realities: we can

only know what we know because of the discoveries and thoughts of those who came before us

and all of our present contributions to education, indeed the only reason to educate, is to create a

benefit for others in the future.

Groome’s definition of “religious education” as an “activity [that] is a deliberate

attending to the transcendent dimension of life by which a conscious relationship to an ultimate

ground of being is promoted and enabled to come to expression” points us toward the idea of

1 The idea of pilgrimage toward an end time is a distinctly relgious one which Groome developes

from the Hebrew scriptures and which certainly finds a home within the Christian tradition’s

understanding of the Kingdom of God as an eschatological reality (but not only).

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relationship with the divine. (Groome 1980, 22) The word “transcendence” implies the existence

of something beyond mere created, observable reality. A relationship with transcendence is a

faith relationship affecting the purpose and direction of our being and can take place in a myriad

of ways either from a specific religious tradition, multiple religious traditions, or from the non-

religious approach found in many social and scientific studies. But the word “relationship”, like

the word faith, implies a holistic response to transcendence that goes beyond mere curiosity; a

response that demands dedication and priority in the decisions that are made regarding who,

what, why, and how a person chooses to be.

Christian religious education goes the further step of defining transcendence in a

particular way as the God described in the Christian narrative: “Christian religious education is a

political activity with pilgrims in time that deliberately and intentionally attends with them to the

activity of God in our present, to the Story of the Christian faith community, and to the Vision of

God’s Kingdom, the seeds of which are already among us.”2 (Groom 1980, 25) The word

“political” stands out sharply in the definition as seemingly out of place, but Groome explains its

inclusion not as a matter or choice but as a matter of fact or inevitability. Christian religious

education does indeed make a statement as to how we are to behave towards one another and

therefore will in and of itself affect the lives of those being instructed or formed and those whom

they surround themselves with. I would add that another reason for the political nature of

Christian religious education is its inability to be taught outside of a culture, society, or nation,

both because these contexts help to shape religious expression and because Christianity is

inherently a community of people believing together.

2 Groome has used the term Kingdom of God, which I have chosen to change to Reign of God in an effort to be

more sensitive to the gendered nature of the word King-dom.

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Socialization is an important aspect of Christian religious education and certainly of

education in general. Groome defines socialization as the process of being inducted into the

ethos of a stable group of people, which in turn produces the continuous and stable awareness we

have of our self-image, world view, and value system. This is done through a process of

externalization, objectification, and internalization: our entering into relationship with others

creates social structures for the sake of order, which are then cemented into the fabric of society

as elements necessary to the self-sustainability of our existing together, which then becomes the

basis for our self-identity. Parallels to Durkheim’s mechanical solidarity are clear: the process of

education ultimately brings the person being educated into a form of solidarity with the cultural

and moral norms of a particular society. In this instance, that society is the Christian tradition,

which makes up a culture that invites filial relationships between its adherents.

The danger of socialization lies in its acceptance and protection of the status quo.

Unreflected and unchallenged socialization can lead to the continuation of toxic systems of

injustice for the sake of continuity with social norms. To this end, the dialectic between

Christianity and culture, itself the product of the Christianization of individuals and society,

holds a mirror up to the socializing influences (Durkheim’s collective consciousness) to allow

for critical reflection. The process of “Christainizing” a group of people is a dialectical one. As

Groome elaborates:

“When Christian faith is understood as believing, trusting, and doing in response to the

Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ, then clearly such a way of being in faith, by the grace of

God, emanates from and is an expression of the total person, his or her self-identity. But

if self-identity is shaped by interaction with a collectivity, then to become Christian

selves requires that we have socializing interaction with a Christian faith community

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which is capable of forming us in such faith. It is within a Christian social / cultural

environment that people come to appropriate the symbols which carry forward the

tradition. It is there that they encounter role models, a world view, and a value system

that can be interiorized as their own Christian self-identity.” (Groome 1980, 115)

The dialectic occurs between the self and the Christian community and leads to the decisions that

help to make up the uniqueness of each of us as Christian persons: processes of discernment of

personal gifts, ministry, and vocation are all a part of Christian individuality. Beyond this,

Groome makes the point that the dialectic also serves to help transform the Christian community

into one that is continually developing into the Reign of God; the Church itself is truly called to

be a pilgrim Church that is constantly reforming itself on its journey. The dialectic extends to a

juxtaposition of Christianity and secular culture, where the multiple socializing influences that

each of us experience daily can be recognized, sorted, and turned back upon themselves through

the Christian social vision of the Reign of God to transform the culture and change society. In

this manner, it can be recognized that mere socialization is never enough. Education, especially

religious education, must be developmental and progressive, must constantly flow into new

frontiers and glimpse new horizons if it is to have the effect of uprooting unjust structures in both

religious and secular society.

Having spoken of the Christianization of society and individuals, it is important to define

just what it might mean in practice. What it does not mean is the rise of “Christendom”, or a

new theocratic regime that marginalizes and destroys non-Christian religions. What it does not

mean is the abdication of the individual freedom each of us has to choose the way in which we

are to live our lives. The Christian tradition emphasizes that God has granted each of us freedom,

because of the love that God has for us, which demands that we be given the freedom to choose

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to return that love to God and to others, and because of our being created in the image of God,

who is not only love but also perfect freedom. So to believe that Christianization of society and

culture would do anything but advocate for individual freedoms, including individual religious

freedom, and social justice is to deny the love that God has for us and the freedom we were given

out of it. What then does it mean to socialize and educate people into this particular religious

tradition? It means that the Reign of God must be the primary goal of Christian religious

education. Groome provides a cogent synthesis of what exactly is meant by the term, which I

have summarized in the box below.

Summary of Groome’s Twelve Statements on the Reign of God

1. The Reign of God is a symbol that represents the active presence of God in history. The

completion of God’s vision for creation will be realized only at the end of history, but

meanwhile God is active in the midst of history to bring about the fullness of God’s

reign.

2. The Reign of God is past, present, and future. Past in that it has already come definitively

in Jesus Christ; future in that it’s fullness is “not yet,” and its completion will have a

radical newness to it; present in that there are signs of it already among us, and it is

existentially realized when God’s will is done in our time.

3. The Reign of God is a divine gift. It has come and is coming by the grace and power of

God. Though we have our part to play, it cannot be constructed by human effort alone.

4. In Christian faith, God’s gift of God’s Reign and the power by which it has come and is

coming were incarnated in Jesus Christ. God’s intervention in Jesus is definitive activity

of God on behalf of God’s Reign in history. Thus the dying and rising of Jesus Christ is

the source of power by which the God’s Reign is possible to us.

5. As Christians, we are called through Jesus Christ to a relationship with God and each

other as members of God’s Reign. This demands a response of obedience to God’s will.

While God’s Reign is a gift and an invitation, it is also a task and a responsibility.

6. God has willed to love all people, and thus God’s will for all people is that they be loved.

Therefore, the primary mandate to be obeyed by respondents to God’s Reign is that we

love God and our neighbor in response to God’s love for us. It calls for one radical love

of God through love of neighbor as ourselves.

7. The Reign of God invites a response of constant conversion that must turn us outward

toward God in our neighbor. This love requires, in turn, that as individuals we strive to

live justly and for justice, peacefully and for peace, equally and for equality; that we live

by and to promote the values of God’s Reign which is God’s will for the world.

8. Our conversion requires that we strive to live sinless lives as individuals, but it also

demands that we oppose and struggle against all the social and cultural expressions of sin

in our world.

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9. The promise of God’s Reign in Jesus Christ is of a redeemed people in a redeemed

society and universe. Therefore, we must struggle to create social political/economic

structures and cultural arrangements that are capable of promoting the values of the

Kingdom.

10. The Church, through empowering people to respond to God’s grace and will in the

present, through critiquing what is not of God’s Reign, and through holding on to the

hope of God’s Reign’s final completion, acts as a sacrament or efficacious sign of God’s

Reign.

11. The fruits of our living such a response to God’s intentions for creation are a

manifestation of God’s Reign in the midst of history, and the fruits of our present efforts

will remain in the completed Reign. The awareness that we can be shapers of history adds

urgency to the demand that, by the grace of God, we take and shape our present in the

direction of the Reign of God.

12. Our preaching and education is only complete if we include both the Reign of God and

our Salvation in Jesus Christ.

Box 1, (Groome 1980, 49-51)

It should be clear from the above statements on the Reign of God, from the emphasis that

Christian religious education needs to place on it, and from the importance of a balanced

approached to socialization education that any pedagogy for the Reign needs to be carefully

developed. It is with this purpose in mind that I hope to unite principles and practices of

solidarity with Christian religious education.

Solidarity and Christian Religious Education

We invite you to witness to your faith by your lives of holiness, by your kindness to all, your

charity toward those in need, and your solidarity with all the oppressed. "By this all men will

know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:34). – Synod of Bishops

A Christian religious education is incomplete without a proper understanding of

solidarity as self-identification with others, especially the “least of these” with whom Christ

himself claims solidarity. (Mt. 25:31-46) If the point of Christian religious education is to hand

on the story and values of the Christian tradition, (the narrative of Christ and the Reign of God)

then it must include a praxis component that exemplifies discipleship. As Schipani notes from

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Sobrino: “In other words, while embracing whatever can be known about Jesus – from correct

pieces of information to orthodox formulations – states Sobrino, it is discipleship, or the concrete

following of Jesus, that must be seen as indispensible for actually knowing Christ.” (Schipani

1988, 125) Learning about God and encountering God are often juxtaposed as competing ideas,

but the reality is that they are one in the same: one cannot know God unless one has made an

effort to live out the imago dei through love of neighbor and self. For this reason, Christian

religious education must include experiences of encounter with others, particularly the “least of

these”, in order to truly understand the love of God that theology attempts to describe.

Given that the building up of the Reign of God is the primary mission of the Christian

church, Christian religious education must provide a clear understanding of that mission as well

as a potential moment of metanoia to bring Christians to a praxis response. This potential

moment of metanoia must coincide with what is termed in Catholic Social Teaching as the

preferential option for the poor, which is also an important focus of liberation theology. As

Schipani notes, “…a commitment to praxis fundamentally connotes a sharing in the life and

struggles of the poor and oppressed in search for liberation, justice, and peace. That

sociopolitical option in turn calls for further affirmation of an epistemological stance that

assumes the paradoxical privilege of the poor and oppressed and the corresponding need for

conversion and solidarity as requisites for transformational knowing and learning and creative

theologizing.” (Schipani 1988, 119) It is of paramount importance that this knowing of the

Christian mission and attempt at Christian praxis be couched within the experience of the poor

and suffering that the mission is directed towards. Solidarity, as much as doctrinal instruction, is

the mechanism by which the Christianization of an individual occurs, albeit gradually. A

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university setting, especially a religious one, provides institutional resources and commitments to

further this process along.

Socialization and Christianization go hand in hand with a Catholic university’s mission of

social projection, which is focused on “all those means by which the university projects the truth

it discovers directly into the social world outside the campus in order to help shape social

consciousness.” (Brackley 1999). Brackley notes that this social projection is in line with the

Catholic church’s document on Catholic universities, Ex corrde ecclessia: “Of the Catholic

university, it says that its research activities will . . . include study of serious contemporary

problems, such as the dignity of human life, the promotion of justice for all, the quality of

personal and family life, the protection of the natural environment, the search for peace and

political stability, a more equitable distribution of world resources and a new economic and

political order that will better serve the human community at the national and international level.

University research will have to be directed toward in-depth study of the roots and causes of the

grave problems of our time . . . .” (Brackley 1999). Teaching solidarity to students is in line with

this mission, as it calls for students to enter into the communities around their campus in order to

encounter the “other” to whom they will find themselves linked through solidary relationships.

This encounter can be facilitated through a pedagogy known as “service-learning”.

Teaching Christian Solidarity

Teaching Christian solidarity, then, is of paramount importance for the building up of the

Kingdom of God. What are the strategies for doing so? How effective are they, especially when

working in a university setting with undergraduates? How exactly does the process create

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transformation? Answering these questions will allow us to move towards the praxis portion of

the paper, and hopefully provide some wisdom from experience.

Any strategy for teaching Christian solidarity must incorporate an experience with

“others” from which linkages to the Christian theological tradition can be drawn and that leads to

an authentic praxis of solidarity. “More than a pedagogical strategy, the action-reflection

paradigm encompasses a wide variety of activities in tune with the very mission of the church in

the world… A number of processes are included, such as immersion into a given situation and

“conversion” (i.e., making values explicit, or turning to values), observation, and description;

analysis and use of both scripture and tradition as well as contemporary disciplines;

problematizing and problem-solving; actual testing and revising assumptions; and further action

and reflection.” (Schipani 1988, pg. 140)

Alex Schlich, in his dissertation entitled “The Pedagogy of Grace in a Trinitarian

Paradigm: The Student-Person-in-Relation and Service Learning in Theological Studies ” notes

several studies that show the efficacy of the service-learning pedagogy on student

transformation. Schlich’s focus is on the ability of service-learning to lead students into

relationships that they would not normally become involved in, thus promoting a Trinitarian

Christian anthropology and ethic. Entering into relationships with those who are radically other

is a necessity for any sort of solidarity to take place and serves as an important practice in the

teaching of solidarity. Schlich first looks at the research of Eyler and Giles, which uncovered that

52% of surveyed service-learning students placed a great amount of importance on the

realization that the “others” they encountered in the community “where like me”. This

identification with others, specifically others who are struggling to improve their lives and

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communities, is an important first step towards solidarity. As Schlich notes, this encounter with

the community

“enables students, according to Eyler and Giles, to grow in appreciation of different

cultures, to experience a reduction in negative stereotyping, to develop an increased

tolerance for others, to discover that people formally unknown or thought about

negatively share personal qualities with them, to achieve greater self-knowledge and

spiritual growth, to find it rewarding to help others, and to discern an increased sense of

personal efficacy… The study results suggested that service-learning “led students to a

stronger sense of community connectedness… affected students’ valuing of social justice

and the need for political change, as well as the belief that it is important to have an

impact on the political system… [and] had an impact on students’ belief in the

importance of volunteering, for both themselves and citizens in general.”

Schlich then goes on to address the study by Astin and Sax, which supports Eyler and Giles’

study by noting the willingness of service-learners to be more involved in their communities,

promote racial understanding, and be more inclined to believe that individuals can contribute to

social change. The study is of particular interest as it compared service-learners to non-service-

learners and found that those students not involved in the pedagogy actually decreased their

commitment to influencing social values.

The work of Welch and Koth illustrates the process of transformation taking place as a

result of service-learning. In their work together, they have highlighted the parallels between the

phases of spiritual development and the stages of student engagement in service-learning.

(Welch and Koth 2009)

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Developmental Stage Service-Learning Spirituality

Stage 1 Exploration Unknown Self

Stage 2 Encounter Awareness

Stage 3 Realization Authentication

Stage 4 Activation Radicalization

Stage 5 Internalization Integration

Table 2

Service-learning begins with an exploration of different communities or groups of others. The

spiritual phase mirroring this is that of the unknown self, which can act as a barrier to truly

knowing others. The second stage of student engagement in service-learning involves the

encounter with the community they are serving in, which is paired with the spiritual phase that

allows them to become aware of an-other outside of themselves, “co-existing but not

interacting.” (Welch and Koth 2013, 620) The next phase of service-learning is that of

realization, in which students make connections between their experiences of service through

reflective processes which ushers them into the spiritual development phase of authentication, in

which personal assumptions are challenged or even altered. The fourth stage of service-learning

is that of activation of a strong sense of solidarity with those being served, which is accompanied

by the spiritual phase of radicalization in which the student’s behaviors begin to change. The

fifth and final stage of service-learning is the internalization of the service experience to the

extent that lifestyle and habits are irrevocably changed, which is paired with the spiritual phase

of integration with ‘something bigger,’ a self-identification or oneness with the other whom they

have been serving, as well as those who are in similar situations.

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Facilitating this process of spiritual development through engagement is a method of

reflection connecting the situation a student is immersed in with an analysis of root causes and

any praxis response the Christian tradition may provide. Given that service-learning so often

deals with a segment of society that has been marginalized, I decided to begin my exploration in

reflection methods with Holland and Henriot’s Social Analysis. They define social analysis as

“simply an extension of the principle of discernment, moving from the personal realm to the

social realm.” (Holland and Henriot 1983, pg. 13) It is a way for students to understand that

while their service with the poor can help to ameliorate a particular circumstance, the larger

structures and systems at play must be addressed if justice is to be done.

“Effective pastoral planning necessarily involves this movement from the anecdotal to

the analytical. We must move from issues – e.g., the high cost of housing, job

discrimination against non-whites, the decline of urban services, exclusion of women in

decision-making posts, hunger in developing countries, etc. – to explanations of why

things are the way they are. To stop with anecdotes, to concentrate only on issues,

obscures the comprehensive systemic picture. If the picture is obscured, one becomes

trapped in immediate, ad hoc solutions.” (Holland and Henriot 1983, pg 10)

This method calls for a deeper understanding of the structures and systems than can envelop the

situation. The student would begin with an analysis of their own culture and values as they relate

to the situation (as well as an ethnography), and any values that the Christian tradition might

bring to bear. Then, the student provides a description of the situation, gathering facts through

personal interviews and traditional research. The situation is then analyzed to expose the

historical, economic, social, political, and power structures at play. The student then chooses two

or three root causes that they deem as playing a significant role in the situation. Theological

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reflection begins from those chosen root causes: parallels in scripture or tradition are found,

questions such as “Where is Jesus in the situation?” and “What is grace / sin in the situation?”

are asked, which allows the student to delve deeper into their course work. Finally, the student

must make a decision as to what the appropriate Christian response to the situation would be.

This reflective process allows the student to not only become aware of the structural

issues at play in their service experience, but also to get in touch with their own values and note

any changes that may have taken place within them. The emphasis on praxis is also important,

as it can help to identify not only those pastoral, political, or economic responses that might be

most appropriate to the situation, but also what changes they can make in their own lives that

contribute to systemic changes. A road map of actions is vastly important to the conversion

process, as it allows the student to plan important next-steps once their service-learning

experience ends. Finally, it remains a hope that students walk away from the course with a

particular method to create their own theological ideas and views, if they so wish, as well as an

ability to critique those theological statements that so often inform values and opinions at play in

our political system.

A thematic approach to service-learning can serve to facilitate classroom interaction in

ways that the often used a la carte approach might not. The below chart illustrates a few thematic

partnerships at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida:

Theme: Gang Violence Theme: Sexuality Theme: Immigration

Partnership Opportunities:

- Gang Violence

Outreach

- Juvenile Detention

Partnership Opportunities:

- Human Trafficking

Hotel Outreach

- LGBTQ Safe Space

Partnership Opportunities:

- Coalition of

Immokalee Workers

- Citizenship Clinics

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Mentoring

- School-to-Prison

Reading Program

Accompaniment - Immigration Detention

Center Visitation

Table 3

As can be seen, a number of opportunities can be made available within a theme, which

allows for a deeper contextual engagement than would be possible with a broader selection of

choices without a theme. Students in themed service-learning courses also are given access to a

greater amount of information regarding the social systems and structures at play within the

theme, which are often presented to them in the form of informative media, community speakers,

and companionship texts. Each of the themes described above take place within a standard

introductory course (as is the case with the first and third examples) or within an upper level

specialized course (as is the case with the second example). Students do report that their outlook

on each particular situation before and after their experience often changes dramatically.

Students in an introduction to theology classroom themed around gang violence are

partnered up with the Miami Anti-Gang Strategy. This partnership gives students the opportunity

to participate in a gang violence neighborhood outreach, which targets areas victimized by a

recent homicide for a door-to-door check-in to ensure that social services are being provided and

that residents are able to express concerns directly to city officials. Students may also learn about

and get involved in helping to break the school-to-prison pipeline by tutoring at schools within

the neighborhoods identified by the gang violence neighborhood outreach as having recently

experienced gang violence. Another aspect of the Miami Anti-Gang Strategy is to set up

mentoring relationships between community members and youths detained in the juvenile justice

system.

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Sex, Sexuality, and Morality is an upper level course that is able to focus on two specific

aspects of its subject area: human trafficking and LGBTQ issues. The course allows students to

get involved in the Showing One Love hotel outreach to spread information about human

trafficking and look for missing minors that may be victims of prostitution (an experience which

often results in a startling revelation that one or two of the missing children they are looking for

have been sighted in the area as victims of trafficking). Students may also get involved at

Pridelines Miami, a local LGBTQ afterschool safe space, where they can provide homework

help and accompany these teens through sharing circles where they can speak of their

experiences of marginalization at home and in school.

The immigration theme in one of the introduction to theology sections allows students to

get involved with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, where they are given a tour of the city as

well as informed about its organizing history, are trained in how to do an action at a local Publix

or Wendy’s (two corporations that as of this writing are being targeted by the CIW), and are then

invited back to Immokalee later in the semester to participate in a protest. Other opportunities

that the immigration theme has provided include participation in a Citizenship Clinic to help

undocumented immigrants file for status as well as touring a local immigration detention center

and visiting with the detainees as part of a partnership with Friends of Miami-Dade Detainees, a

local affiliate of the CIVIC (Community Initiative for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement)

organization.

These examples of class room pedagogies have had great success with our

undergraduates and continue to form and inform their relationship with God and others.

Adaptation of these pedagogies for congregations and other settings is possible and would

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greatly contribute to the opportunities that Christians have to encounter God through solidary

commitments that inspire metanoia.

Conclusion

Solidarity is a cornerstone of Christian religious education that helps to not only

familiarize the student to Christian doctrines and missions, but to ultimately shape a student’s

relationship with God through others. As students enter into the stories of those who are poor

and suffering, metanoia begins to take place at some level. As Michael Kelly notes, “the hearing

of these stories furthers the process of breaking down the barriers that arise through forgetfulness

and isolation. It makes solidarity a process of conversion that emerges from a commitment to

hear the memories and participate in the lives of those who suffer. This conversion through

engagement with the other leads to re-reading the biblical narrative and also the official histories

of the nation with a degree of suspicion that enables us to enter into the perspective of the

victims of history. This conversion is compelted when practical commitment and the

hermeneutical perspective of [the] forgotten and voiceless becomes the basis for a critique and a

transformation of existing structures.” (Kelly 1998, 62) Experiences of compassion and justice,

discovery of the radical other, and a commitment to changing society that begins with a change

in ourselves are the fruits that solidarity bears within a Christian religious pedagogy. Without

these elements, Christian religious education becomes merely the passing on of knowledge rather

than the creation of a new world.

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