Applying St. Cyril’s Pedagogy to Contemporary Christian Education

Abstract

This article asserts that early Church educators, like St. Cyril of Jerusalem, offer contemporary Christian educators theological and pedagogical insights and methods. It describes the trend of Christian education programs to teach a living relationship with a living Christ at a time when categorical, rational and empirical methods predominate in education. The article describes St. Cyril’s catechetical theology and pedagogy. Finally, it applies pedagogical methods, used or inspired by Cyril, to contemporary Christian education.

Teaching ascesis: Recovering the neglected center of early Christian pedagogy

“…We must, however, recover this central aspect of Chrysostom’s understanding of how teachers are to train an “athlete for Christ” by taking seriously the ascetical presuppositions that inform Chrysostom’s entire approach to virtue and faith formation. Indeed, as Bullis (2018: 369) summarizes a central insight of the pedagogical approach of the church fathers, “our bodies are a physical witness to our soul’s education,” for our students’ “senses and the Holy Spirit are partners in Christian education.”…”