It was my talk (2016) with power-point given to teachers from the local primary school on spiritual education of children

1. From religion to spirituality;
from knowledge about to encounter with God

2. “Children are not the people of tomorrow, but are people of today. They
have a right to be taken seriously, and to be treated with tenderness and
respect. They should be allowed to grow into whoever they were meant to
be. 'The unknown person' inside of them is our hope for the future.”
- Janusz Korczak

3. Background of religious education:
a recent shift in the theological
landscape
From fall/redemption outlook
to creation-centred spirituality

4. Fall/redemption outlook (dominated
long centuries of Christian self-
understanding)

5. Fall/redemption: the central place:
the cross, Jesus’ passion, death….

6. Fall/redemption: Chris’s sacrifice
– prefigured in Isaac’ story

7. Fall/redemption: the main emphasis on the past (what
did happen in the past) and….

8. … future: return of
Christ and judgment…)

9. Fall/redemption and the dominant view
on God: male, powerful, divine
character….

10. Fall/redemption:
…My God is so big, so strong and so mighty,
there's nothing that he cannot do.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty,
there's nothing that he cannot do.

11. Fall/redemption: the kingdom of
God: ‘up-there’

12. Creation-centred
spirituality
• God: loving and compassionate Parent
• Jesus: vulnerable friend of excluded, poor, weak
• Kingdom of God: here, among us
• The path to God: care for creation, solidarity with
the poor, rejected and those who suffer

13. Creation-centred
spirituality
• Nature, the visible world, the Bible: all signpost to
God who is beyond our imagination

14. Fall/redemption: who I am?

15. Creation-centred
spirituality: who I am?

16. Fall/redemption: what is religion?
Religion is what I do in the presence of God

17. Creation-centred spirituality: what is
religion?
My way of life which responds to God’s care for
the world, other people and my body, mind
and spirit

18. Creation-centred spirituality: why
did Jesus die?

20. From religion to spirituality;
from knowledge about to encounter with God