Courage to Act: Social Transformation through the Church and Education
The place of religion in the public life of society has been questioned since the rise of the secular realm and anti-religious politics. Today, Religion is back in academic discussions, but it is entering a world in which secular reason and post-totalitarian societies have become the challenges. In this new situation, the discussion of religion enters.
The course explores how religious education and church-based practices can contribute to the strengthening of civil society in post-totalitarian contexts. The primary case explored in the course is Ukraine and Orthodox Christianity, with particular attention to the ways religious narratives, institutions, and educational practices respond to experiences of repression, war, and social transformation.
Hannah Arendt’s understanding of action as the capacity to initiate something new constitutes a central interpretive perspective for examining both the possibilities and limitations of religious engagement in public life. A key question in the course is the courage to act – as both a collective and individual challenge – under conditions characterised either by fear and historical traumas (in post-totalitarian countries) or by a lack of a sense of urgency in Western contexts.
Drawing on the pedagogical thought of Paulo Freire, the Nordic Folkbildning tradition, and related approaches to emancipatory education, the course approaches education as a dialogical and transformative process rather than the transmission of fixed knowledge or conventional dogmas. Through theoretical texts, case studies, and refl ective discussion, participants will explore how education can either reinforce passivity and ideological conformity or foster critical awareness, agency, meaning-making, and democratic engagement in times of crisis.
Learning objectives
Upon completion of the course, the participants are (individually and collectively) expected to be able to:
- discuss in an informed way how totalitarian regimes function (according to Arendt) and contribute with their own perspectives how religious education can foster the courage to act within the structures of education itself;
- reflect on their personal and collective responsibility, exploring their own capacity to act courageously and ethically in societal, community, and educational contexts;
- employ collaborative practices in church-society relations; and
- reflect on their own contexts and together with others design ideas or projects whereby the Church can promote democracy, participation in civil society, and representative governance.
Requirements
Attendance is compulsory. Participants are expected to take part in all course activities, both by attending and actively participating in scheduled sessions and by completing assignments outside scheduled lessons. If participants miss lessons, they may need to complete additional assignments to meet the course’s learning objectives. To be considered as having completed the course, 80% attendance and active participation are required.
Syllabus
See the syllabus for further information.