Perspective on contemporary spirituality: implications for religious education in Catholic schools

Abstract

A number of constructs like secularisation, privatisation of religion etc. have been used to describe the significant change in spirituality of many of the young people in Australian Catholic schools over the last 50 years, from a more traditional religious spirituality to something that is more secular, eclectic and individualistic. To some extent, this change has been acknowledged; but the religion curricula in Catholic schools still give the impression that all of the students are, or should be, regular churchgoers Á as if Sunday Mass attendance was to be the end point of their education in spirituality. An interpretation of change in spirituality in terms of change in cultural meanings has been developed for the purpose of understanding contemporary spiritualities in other than a deficit model. Such an interpretation may be more persuasive in getting Catholic education authorities and religious educators firstly to accept, rather than condemn or ignore, the significant change in contemporary spiritualty; and secondly, to take steps to address this change positively and constructively in the Catholic school religion curriculum. This article is concerned with the first step Á understanding contemporary spirituality; the second question will be considered in a follow-up article. The framework developed here for interpreting how and why spirituality has changed has relevance to education in spirituality in other contexts.

Religious music in everyday life: adolescents’ identity work in Catholic schooling

“…Engebretson (2009) expresses concern, particularly in relation to adolescents, that secularisation inhibits their religious identity formation process. This is contrary to the work of Chambers (2012) and Rossiter (2010b) Grace and O'Keefe's (2007) book (e.g., Aristimuno, 2007;de Jong, 2007;Dillen, 2007;Mulligan, 2007) point out that staff do not understand the meanings of being Catholic and Catholic identity. This also causes challenges to maintaining the Catholic identity of the school.…”

“…An example she used was the importance of "mates" for teenage boys in the building of a sense of community and friendship, rather than religion. Rossiter (2010aRossiter ( , 2010bRossiter ( , 2011 extensively explores the contemporary society and culture that surrounds adolescents' spirituality and religious identity in Catholic schools in Australia. Rossiter (2011) defines contemporary spirituality as individualistic, eclectic, subjective, and secular.…”

Decoding the mise-en-scène of contemporary secular spirituality: a research monograph. Parts II and III contrasting the mise-en-scène of medieval Christian spirituality with that of contemporary consumerist lifestyle: sociological and educational implications

“…While religious educators may well agree with the cultural diagnosis and pedagogical approach proposed here, the official Catholic religion curricula for schools remain traditional, like scaled-down seminary theological syllabuses (Rossiter 2010). Nevertheless, there is some creative scope for religion teachers to increase the extent of critical interpretation and evaluation of contemporary culture.…”

“…For many young people, this is where their spirituality is located. Hence it is argued that this approach should have a more significant and valued place in religious education curricula, especially in Australian Catholic schools where the religion curricula still tend to be more or less aligned with a traditional Christian spirituality (Rossiter 2010(Rossiter , 2011a. This proposal is contrary to the views of those who think that religious education should remain more or less exclusively concerned with formal religious content, and not with content that is more focused on personal development and on contemporary personal and social issues that do not appear to have an overt religious component.…”

“…In a sense, the prominence of religious art signified a society that was 'overdosed' on religion. Other characteristics of medieval Christian spirituality are summarised in Rossiter (2010).…”