These are slides from a presentation I made at the 2017 TheoCom conference held at Santa Clara University in July of 2017.

1. Storying faith amidst digital cultures
Renewing religious education in the 21st century
Mary E. Hess, PhD
THEOCOM / Santa Clara University / July 24, 2017

2. citations and references are either underlined as
active links to the source in question, or cited at
the end of this slide show
you can find this complete set of slides at my
slideshare site:
https://www.slideshare.net/maryhess1

3. my context:
• Roman Catholic professor at a Lutheran
seminary in the upper midwest of the US
• focused on questions of formation and learning
amidst digital cultures
• work with theological faculty, with church staff,
with families and children, and with multi-faith
organizations
• long term project: storyingfaith.org

4. what does it mean to “story faith” in the midst of
digital cultures?

5. rich practices

6. a different set of practices

7. what is the role of a religious educator at this
intersection?

9. as one quadrant shrinks, three others grow…
there is a message worth noting here!

10. seeing the whole thing…

11. how do we inhabit adaptive change?

12. adaptive Christianity can be found in the heart of
deep relationality with God, a story of faith that is
born in an overwhelming love, and that embodies
that love in communal sharing and practice

13. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all
nations…” (Matthew 28:19)
Disciples are learners and learners must risk first their
own understanding.

14. be not afraid!

15. we get into trouble when we live from fear, rather
than resisting fear and leaning into God’s
transcendent love

16. what does it mean to “story faith” in this world?

18. Mario D’Souza
• “the unfathomable and the true are inseparable”
• “language is an indispensable means of encountering the
real and reality”
• “the natural habitat of truth is human conversation”
• “be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be
responsible (Lonergan)”
citation

19. “The three major festivals of the Church — Christmas,
Easter, and Pentecost — all have to do with the advent
of a divine stranger. In each case this stranger — a
baby, a resurrected Christ, and the wind of the Holy
Spirit — all meet us as mysterious or strange visitors,
breaking into our world, challenging our worldviews
and systems and welcoming us to new worlds.”
(Bevans and Ross, 70)

20. what does it mean to “story faith” in this world?

21. it means that…
• we need to begin from the clear conviction that God
continues to reveal Godself
• we need to base our search and any interpretive stances
we want to use, on the conviction that God is Trinity, that
God is communicative within God’s very self and in
communicative relationship with all of Creation
• if we see God in this way we must also see ourselves in
this way

22. given that we so often “get it wrong,” what helps
us to do good discernment? and how do we do
that in ways that ignite curiosity and wonder in the
midst of everyday practices?

23. story is at the heart of all of these challenges

24. authority, authenticity, agency

25. Bell, Roberts, Irani, and Murphy
• “…stock stories .. are the most public and ubiquitous in dominant,
mainstream institutions… the other story types critique and challenge their
presumption of universality
• Concealed stories … are often circulated, told and retold by people in the
margins whose experiences and aspirations they express and honor, and they
provide a perspective that is often very different from that of the mainstream
• Resistance stories are … stories, both historical and contemporary, that tell
about how people have resisted [oppression], challenged the stock stories
that support it, and fought for more equal and inclusive social arrangements
• Counter Stories … are new stories that are deliberately constructed to
challenge the stock stories, build on and amplify resistance stories, and offer
ways to interrupt the status quo and work for change”
citation

26. For example …
• to glimpse a stock story (Generic Brand Video by Kendra
Eash)
• concealed stories (The War on Drugs by Jay Z, et. al. )
• resistance stories (Understanding Charlotte, by Dr.
Rodney Sadler)
• counter stories (Knowing by Mai Vang) (Seriously by This
American Life)

27. it is inevitable — and appropriate! — that people
learning how to discern such stories in our wider
social spaces will also use them for discernment
close in at home, in religious ways and places and
practices

28. So, for example…
• a stock story (Bp. Nienstedt in MN)
• a concealed story (House for all Sinners and Saints in
Denver, CO)
• a resistance story (music video from Selma) (MN United
campaign)
• a counter story (House for All Sinners and Saints)

29. confessing God as a Trinity is a confession of deep
commitment to communicative practice, to
relational understanding — if we refuse this we are
in peril…

31. We believe in a God who creates everything —
creative action is clearly a part of who God is and
who we, being made in God’s image, are.

32. We believe in a God who shares God’s very Being
into the world through Incarnation. Sharing is very
much part of who we are made to be.

33. We believe in a God who continues to be very
much present to us, breathing through the Holy
Spirit, drawing us ever close into communion, ever
more deeply into belief.

34. “digital storytelling is a workshop-based,
participatory media practice focused on self-
representation”
Vivienne

35. creating and sharing something in this way almost
inevitably leads to deeper belief

36. Hilberath and Scharer

37. an example from a digital storytelling workshop

39. but what about stock stories?

41. theological reflection with commercials
• what is your experience?
• image or theme
• what is existence like in that image or theme? what is life-giving and
joyful? what is broken or sorrowing? what possibilities for healing?
• what biblical passages come to mind in resonance?
• now read that passage several times, and ask the same questions
• what insights emerged for you from this conversation between a piece of
digital culture and the deep structures of your faith? Have any pressing
questions emerged for you? Are you being called in any way to direct or
concrete action?
Killen

42. this process assumes…
• a robust theology of grace
• a profound conviction that God is always reaching out to
us in everything and in every way
• that our human thirst for meaning is in fact a thirst for
God, a God who is intimately caring and passionately
involved in our lives
• that revelation is ongoing, intimately touching our daily
lives while at the same time it is historically privileged in
the gospels and the theological heritage of the Church
Killen

43. we rest on the utter certainty that we are
inescapably wrapped up in a community of truth

44. we do not need to build fortresses around our
convictions — we can lean into them, and lean
outward into the world which God has created —
this is also how we think about mission as
prophetic dialogue, and what has been evoked in
“the new evangelization”

45. digital storytelling is an essential practice of faith
formation in the world we inhabit

46. we must enter the circle “create, share, believe” by
helping people to create in the midst of digital
media, and in doing so open ourselves to the
strangers in our midst

47. what is religious education in the 21st century?
“religious education is the making accessible of the
traditions of the religious community and the
making manifest of the intrinsic connection
between traditions and transformation”
citation

48. discovery, memory, mentoring…
Christensen

50. citations:
Mario D’Souza: lecture he offered at the University
of St. Michael’s College, in the University of
Toronto, on April 18, 2017. For more, see his book
Mary Boys’ definition of religious education:
Educating in Faith (San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1989) 193

51. references to various images and videos:
Spotify logo (http://
kpcbweb2.s3.amazonaws.com/companies/329/
logo/original/Spotify.jpg?1364424490)
Youtube Nation logo (goo.gl/e9O6P1)
Instagram logo (https://4.img-dpreview.com/files/p/
articles/3759280259/instagram.jpeg)
Adaptive change (goo.gl/VqnB3E)
Iceberg image (https://
cdn6.organisationsberatung.net/wp-content/
uploads/Unternehmenskultur-Organisationskultur-
verbessern.jpg)

52. further references:
Trinity graphic (http://rapgenius.com/Action-
bronson-the-come-up-lyrics#note-1452273)
Faith 2020 diagram (http://www.lifelongfaith.com/
uploads/5/1/6/4/5164069/ff_2020_chapter_1.pdf)
Create/Share/Believe circle (Eric Celeste)
Communicative theology diagram (from The
Practice of Communicative Theology)
Wonder Bread (cf. Mary Hess for permission)
#EatTogether commercial (https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDuA9OPyp6I)
all other photos by Mary Hess

53. more information:
mhess@religioused.org
storyingfaith.org
meh.religioused.org
https://www.slideshare.net/maryhess1