Week of February 21, 2009

This week marks the launch of this faith formation review forum. Students in my Religious Education, Evangelization, and Cultures course at Loyola University Chicago will be reviewing faith formation activities and resources from various Christian denominations. Faith formation is a broad term that is meant to encompass what Christians call religious education, Christian education, Christian formation, catechesis, and Sunday school.

Each week for the remainder of this semester, students will post reviews of faith formation materials. Each week, the analysis reflected in the reviews will be grounded in a different reading. This week, the reviews are grounded in the cultural analysis done in the book, Passing on the Faith: Transforming Traditions for the Next Generation of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, (from the Abrahamic Dialogues Series), edited by James L. Heft (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006).

The students in this class are just that, students. They are not expressing their own opinions here but are applying the work of one author to another. The opinions they express are the result of an academic process, not necessarily opinions they hold to be true within their own faith tradition.