From expressing wonder and awe about the natural world to contemplating the significance of life to conveying compassion and expressing concern for others, the spiritual child has much to offer the world. However, the topic of spirituality is rarely addressed in early childhood or child development textbooks. Spirituality can be defined in many…

Religious, secular, and spiritual identities (RSSIs) are an important aspect of the complex experiences of students in higher education. Often dismissed or forgotten by higher education professionals, RSSIs have shifted drastically over the 20+ years since Love and Talbot first wrote about them in 1999. While scholarship on RSSIs has steadily…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a theory of critical forgiveness, which we define as a cognitive choice or emotional change towards healing relationships after injustice has occurred, while considering the power and privilege of those involved. We suggest that critical forgiveness is especially applicable to research and practice in…

This paper recaps Henschke's 2021 CIAE Pre-conference paper on the fact that the first 200 years of the epistemology and practice of adult education in the United States was almost exclusively sponsored by the Church. Even in ancient times from the Bible book of Ecclesiastes, third chapter, there are 14 sets of things [28 in number] that God set…

Two Anishnabek kindergarten teachers discuss four principles of Indigenous pedagogies in a project with a university researcher that created a context for children to engage in activities to learn their Anishnabek language and culture, and create positive identities. The university researcher sent a rabbit puppet named Niichii (Friend), who was…

I consider in this paper the question of balance in popular education between what we can call annunciation and denunciation, inspired by the work of Paulo Freire. By annunciation, I mean the role of love, affirmation, encouragement and profound encounters with otherness; by denunciation, I have in mind the spirit of critique and challenge to the…

Matters of interreligious engagement and worldview orientation are becoming more salient on campuses across the country. All-comers policies, conflicts about the Middle East, and intersections of spirituality with other aspects of identity present challenges for professionals working with students on college campuses. This article will discuss…

Discussions of transformational change pervade the field of business but are rare in work with young people at risk--those most in need of deep change. Instead, the nation seems preoccupied with punishing or medicating problem behavior. Some propose the alternative of "rehabilitation," but that term means "to restore to former…

This article attempts to develop a practical theology of resistance for religious education. It is inspired by the struggle of indigenous people in Guatemala in their memorialization of the Rio Negro Massacre in Guatemala, celebrations of International Women's Day, and the creation of a school for survivors of the violence surrounding Rio Negro.…

There are many ways families can incorporate well-being practices into family life. Concerns over grades, getting homework completed, and managing busy schedules can be overwhelming for parents and children. In addition to making plans for their child's educational goals, parents should consider setting well-being goals to create a happy and…

Mentoring is an important but often overlooked resource in theological education and students' academic and spiritual formation. This essay profiles the mentoring practices and postures of the writing tutor and the spiritual director as exemplars of academic and spiritual mentoring. An extended probe of this analogy affirms the integration of…

The benefits of sport and physical activity are endorsed by a number of professionals as a means of improving children's health and their sense of well-being, and their unity with the natural world, other people and the Transcendent. For children, sport is a spiritual source of joy and wonder. Using Champagne's "spiritual modes of…

This paper takes a philosophical view of the spiritual concept "relational consciousness" first proposed by Rebecca Nye in 1998. I will consider the "relational" aspect of spirituality through the ontology of Heidegger and the dialogical relationship "I and Thou" of Martin Buber, examining the problems that contingency and mediation within…

A "native" Christian ethnographer finds religious education at this church-sponsored school to pursue two distinct, and occasionally conflicting, curricula: "love" and "purity." The curriculum of love draws on what Turner called liminality and communitas in an effort to promote spiritual "encounters with…

This essay provides an overview of the distinctive challenges presented to teaching and learning in religious and theological studies by the conditions and characteristics of "millennial" students. While the emerging literature on this generation is far from consistent, it is still instructive and important to engage, as students that…