Catechesis and Christian Recitation: Teaching the Old Testament in a Digital Age

Old Testament catechesis is too varied and too dependent on the story of the Old Testament (as we remember it) to be spiritually formative. Especially given the way the current secularized, “modern moral order” (Taylor) pressures Christians toward neo-Marcionism, the Christian church ought to take m...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Parker, Jonathan Deane (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2023
In: Pro ecclesia
Year: 2023, Volume: 32, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 294-316
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Old Testament / Catechesis / Declamation / Holy Spirit
IxTheo Classification:HB Old Testament
NBG Pneumatology; Holy Spirit
RF Christian education; catechetics
Further subjects:B Charles Taylor
B Recitation
B Catechism
B Narrative Theology
B violence in scripture
B Digital Culture
B Miqra
B postliterate
B neo-Marcionism
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Old Testament catechesis is too varied and too dependent on the story of the Old Testament (as we remember it) to be spiritually formative. Especially given the way the current secularized, “modern moral order” (Taylor) pressures Christians toward neo-Marcionism, the Christian church ought to take more seriously the way the Old Testament has been shaped by the Holy Spirit and the way it encourages catechesis to be done, that is, through memorization and recitation of the very words of the Old Testament, recovering Old Testament as Miqra. Such a practice is not only more in keeping with the Spirit's work in forming the Old Testament, but reciters will be able (a) to appreciate better its non-narrative sections (incl. law and poetry), (b) to pay attention to self-correcting features in its most difficult and violent passages, and (c) to have their imaginations and metaphors reshaped by its poetry. Such catechesis by recitation is not antithetical to classic “question-and-answer” catechisms, and it is easily recovered by beginning with reciting in households and/or reciting the Ten Commandments (as in the catechism of the Book of Common Prayer). In the end, this ancient, religious reading of the Old Testament is not too antiquated but timely and needed, given the postliterate nature of our current digital culture.
ISSN:2631-8334
Reference:Kommentar in "The Old Testament and Catechesis: Response (2023)"
Contains:Enthalten in: Pro ecclesia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/10638512241275746