Theology – Youth and Theology Palmer's To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey focuses on the concept of truth as personal and communal faith in Jesus as the source of truth. For Palmer, teaching is a faith-based, holistic, communal, healing endeavor in which the teacher and students practice obedience to the whole truth. This approach drastically differs from our current social communication of knowledge, in which the universe is deemed chaotic and all are seen as disconnected beings who must dissect, manipulate and master the objectified world. Palmer's educational ideal is a quest in which the teacher and students are dedicated to a spiritual formation teaching obedience to the truth. ?
Theology -- Youth and Theology
Genuine truth is the focus of Palmer's To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey. Pointing to Jesus as the source of truth, Palmer contrasts truth with society's currently deranged approach to knowledge. The author also discusses a faith-based, holistic, communal, healing approach to education in which the teacher is a lifelong student who creates space in which the teacher and students practice obedience to the whole truth.
What is Truth?
Parker J. Palmer's To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey hinges on Truth; consequently, exploring the author's approach to education logically begins by discussing the meaning of truth. According to Palmer, truth consists of more than facts and reasons (Palmer xxiv). Truth is personal and communal Christian faith focused on "the person who said, 'I am…the truth'" (Palmer 47). It consists of living relationships with Jesus and each other in community (Palmer 49) and it is in these relationships that the truth becomes known.
b. What is the purpose of teaching?
The purpose of teaching is to "form students in the image of truth" (Palmer xxvi). To that end, teaching creates a space in which the teacher and students practice obedience to the whole truth, including our failure to live the truth (Palmer 105-6). In this context, "obedience" means mutual service to the community of truth (Palmer 109), in which we teach ourselves and our students about our connectedness, which is vital to living an ethical life (Palmer xix). This holistic educational method requires that we use both the mind and the heart to "re-member" (Palmer 103): to bring the fragmented portions of truth back together in order to heal ourselves individually and as a community (Palmer 2, 103). Parker's faith-based, holistic, communal, healing approach to education markedly differs from the knowledge that is currently communicated in our society and youth groups.
c. What is different from the knowledge that is communicated in our society and in our youth groups?
The knowledge that is currently communicated in our society and in our youth groups approaches the universe as a chaotic mess in which we are alienated from Jesus, from our inner selves and from each other, imposing our separate wills in a vain attempt to forge a safe and sane little niche for ourselves (Palmer 4). This distorted view of the universe and our place in it does not accept life as the gift it is; rather, it treats the universe and everything in it as objects that we must dissect and manipulate in order to gain profit and mastery over them (Palmer 2, 107). In this arrogant and opportunistic worldview, truth becomes "whatever works" (Palmer 4) and education becomes a slave to our manipulative, power-hungry economic system (Palmer 107). Victims of this system must resort to objectivism, which attempts to tell the universe what it is, and/or to subjectivism, which listens only to our separate selves (Palmer 67). Palmer rightfully states that this approach distorts and deranges life (Palmer 2).
d. How would one go about creating an environment where youth can learn and be transformed?
If there is a chronological first step to creating an environment where youth can learn and be transformed, it consists of the teacher's realization that he/she is a lifelong student who is also in need of healing and discipline. Rather than blaming the educational system for the current crisis, the teacher must realize that the institution projects whatever is occurring in the human heart (Palmer 107). Therefore, starting with the teacher's own human heart, he/she must discipline himself/herself with "spiritual formation that teaches obedience to the truth" (Palmer 107). Within the educational setting, the teacher must both learn and teach: the humility of listening to ourselves and to each other (Palmer 109); the faith that "empowers us to speak" our own truth (Palmer 109); the reverence that focuses on Jesus as the loving source of truth (Palmer 111); the grace that sustains us in dealing with often conflicting forces (Palmer 112); listening attentively to the teacher, the student and the subject itself and conversing with all of them (Palmer 98); meditation, allowing the unobtrusive entry into new areas of knowledge (Palmer 117); solitude, in which we are open to love and learn what is inside us (Palmer 122); friendship among the teacher, students and subject (Palmer 104-5); and prayer, in which we can "know as we are known" (Palmer 125). Within the educational setting, these can be accomplished by lectures, discussions and private, silent study (Palmer 101).
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