CHANGE, CONFLICT, AND SELF-DETERMINATION: Next Steps in Religious Education

Believing that religious education today has come to a point where creative innovation is desirable, Dr. Cully describes some of the new possibilities. She starts with the current cultural situation, in which the dominant feature is the rapidity and extensiveness of change, where the future, rather than the past becomes the point of orientation. This approach is significant because it replaces the traditional manner of beginning the discussion of Christian education by a restatement of theological premises. Theology, says the author, follows the assessment of the cultural situation and is affected by it. The process of religious education is then seen as reflecting both cultural and theological changes, as well as responding to changes in the theory and practice of education itself. The argument of the book is thoroughly supported by reference to the literature in these aspects of the survey. Indeed, one of the limitations of the book is that at times the discussion seems simply to be restating via brief paragraphs the thought of one writer after another. But the premise has a certain value.