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These are enormously challenging times for faith on earth, says School of Theology and Ministry Professor Thomas H. Groome, an internationally renowned authority on religious education who recently authored the book Will There Be Faith? A New Vision for Educating and Growing Disciples.
“There’s plenty of religion,” says Groome, citing the increasing role of religion in American politics and in conflicts across the globe. “But there’s nothing more dangerous than bad religion.”
The need for life-giving faith is critically important in today’s postmodern world, according to Groome.
“Good religious instruction not only informs and forms people in their own particular religious tradition, but also embraces tolerance and appreciation for other religious traditions.”
Religious education that “promotes interfaith understanding and respect is imperative,” writes Groome, “not only for the future of religion, but for the future of the world.”
Groome — chair of STM’s Department of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry and a BC faculty member since 1976 — drew upon his 35 years as a religious educator, a teacher of religious educators, and a parent to write Will There Be Faith?, a guide for parents and teachers on how to hand on the faith to the next generation.
Parents and religious education instructors have their work cut out for them, says Groome, citing research on social and cultural influences that actively discourage faith. Data from the Pew Foundation bears this out, he says: All mainline Christian denominations are losing their youth and young adults at an alarming rate, with the Catholic community suffering the greatest losses. In fact, the survey states there are as many as 30 million “former” Catholics in the US.
Groome proposes a holistic, contemporary, natural and flexible approach to religious education, 360-degree total community catechesis that emphasizes the shared responsibilities of parents, the parish and the Catholic school or religious education program in handing on the faith.
You don’t “grow” Christians by merely sending them to religious education once a week, says Groome. To raise good Christians — who know the faith intellectually, feel it in their hearts and demonstrate it with their actions — Groome says parents need to have intentional Christian practices in their homes.
“Parents and the family are the primary religious educators of children,” says Groome, who hopes that Will There Be Faith? will provide parents with the “confidence and resources to take on this responsibility.”
It is interesting, notes Groome, that “back in 1965 the Second Vatican Council said the greatest heresy of our age was not materialism, Communism, or individualism, but rather the gap believers maintain between the faith they profess and the lives they live.
“I think it is still probably true,” he said. “People claim they believe in God and attend services on Sunday, but their faith is not life-giving, meaning it does not permeate the ordinary and everyday of their lives.”
Groome’s approach to religious education is a “life to faith to life” model that harkens back to the way Jesus taught during his ministry. Jesus talked with people, learned about their lives and then used parables to talk about faith. He then let people appropriate the faith into their lives and make decisions in its light, according to Groome.
Groome urges teachers and parents to tackle religious education in much the same way: Start by talking to children and young people about their lives and follow that by an introduction on a tenet of the faith — then circle back to the person’s life to reflect on how the two can be incorporated.
It is a simple, not simplistic, approach that is very effective, says Groome says, who emphasizes that in the end all the work is worth the effort. While you can live a good, moral life without faith, he adds, we are spiritual beings and faith enriches life with purpose, meaning, value and hope.
Groome’s latest book has been praised as the capstone of his career as an educator. US Catholic magazine calls Will There Be Faith? “an amazing tour de force,” while America magazine writes that “every religious education director in the country — in fact, anyone with serious hope for the future of the Catholic faith in America — needs this book. Urgently.”