Hill Road Journal

Religious Education in the Pre- and Post-Exilic Periods

WONG Fook Kong

This article is a survey of children's religious education in Israel in the pre-exilic period and among the Jews of the post-exilic period up till the completion of the Talmud (500 CE). Religious education was carried out at home in both the pre - and post-exilic periods. In the pre-exilic period, there was no compulsory school education in Israel. A limited number of schools were available to train scribes for the court. These schools preserved the wisdom tradition in written form. Late in the post-exilic period, we have clear evidence of formal schooling among the Jews. Compulsory education began some time later. Apart from a formal school setting, religious education was also woven into the fabric of the Israelite/Jewish culture. Their customs (eg, dietary laws, circumcision) and festivals (eg, Passover, Feast of Tabernacle) have pedagogical purposes. By observing them the Israelites and Jews, of later time, were reminded of their salvation history and their covenant with God.

The Transformation of Catechetical Instruction: Early Church and Reformation

Nathan K. N.G.

This article seeks to investigate the development of catechetical instruction from the early church to the reformation by giving a brief historical survey of related writings and by comparing two catechetical works from Augustine and Martin Luther.

Augustine's On Catechizing the Uninstructed (De Catechizandis Rudibus) was an outstanding catechetical treatise in the early church. Responding to the request of a catechist Deogratias, a Carthaginian deacon, Augustine wrote the treatise discussing various issues of instruction with a long personal reflection and two model catecheses. He suggested teaching the candidates for baptism the entire bible history as well as church history with special emphasis on the love of God.

The exalted status of Luther's Small Catechism (Der kleine Katechismus) during the time of reformation is unquestionable. It was intended as a popular work to be used by the lower clergy and general public to instruct the uneducated laity. The main body consists of five parts, explaining by means of question and answer the Ten Commandments , the Apostle's Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar.

On examining the education strategy and philosophy of these two treatises, the author finds that they have both continuity and discontinuity. Their dissimilarities may easily be explained by the difference between the general condition of their catechists, their accepted concept of education, and the combination of their students. Discerning the needs of the age is crucial in making a good catechetical instruction.

Preaching and Children Religious Education: Some Remarks and Reflections

Poling J. SUN

Preaching and children religious education are understandably linked by the practice of children's sermons in Sunday worship. Preaching to children during Sunday worship, however, is a recent development in North American churches and has since become a matter of contention. Although there is no evidence that this practice is emerging as an issue among Chinese churches, a preliminary exploration of the issue is still of worth. In fact, this article suggests that an investigation into the issue demands further reflections on the ministries of preaching and religious education.

This article examines the pros and cons of the place of children's sermons in worship. It further clarifies the significance and content of children religious education. Granting the important place of children's sermons in worship, this article proceeds to a discussion of the content and framework of children's sermons and offers some suggestions to preaching to children. Following on the observations that children's sermons, sermons, and religious education have lacked a vision of cultivating theological and biblical literacy among congregations, this article offers, from the perspectives of religious education and theology, some remarks on preaching.

Life Education and the Molding of Personality for Modern Humanity

Wai-yin CHOW & Kwok-keung YEUNG

Societies like Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland on the way to prosperity and openness face profound changes in social structure and values. Besides the explosion of information, images and consumer activities, there are greater respect and protection for individual rights and freedom. At the same time, the moral authority that used to transmit traditional values has lost its grip on society. As social rules and regulations keep changing, the old well-defined social order and cultural landscape have been in a state of flux. Drastic social changes sometimes can be manifested in palpable social problems, such as youth suicide and violence that have beset Taiwan and Hong Kong recently.

These fundamental changes once again confront educationists with the same old question: What kind of a person do we expect our youth to become? What qualities do we expect our next generation to possess so that they can take up the challenge of the new century and make contribution to human society? Perhaps, we may pose our question from the perspective of personality psychology: Into what kind of behavioral, thinking and emotionally-responsive pattern would we like to nurture the new generation so that they will become prosocial members?

There are people in Hong Kong and Taiwan who find that students in both societies lack a positive attitude toward life and are unable to cope with adversities. As such, they propose a wide range of activities to inspire the students to take good care of their lives and work hard for their goals. Educationists in both places also advocate different kinds of “life education” projects and programs in the hope of nurturing the students with a holistic approach, resulting in a balanced development in their intellect, as well as emotion and mind . One then can learn to reflect on and feel about the relationship one has with oneself, as well as others, with society as well as the natural environment, the world and even the universe. With this all-encompassing approach, students can search for the meaning and goal of life, and contribute to the community as well as humanity as a whole. In other words, through a holistic approach, life education tries to bring up a new generation endowed with a prosocial personality.

This article tries to outline the ideal personality traits of the 21st century, and the challenges posed by social realities. It also illuminates how life education, as an integration of emotional education, character education and spiritual education, can nurture students with a prosocial personality, hence fulfilling the ideal of holistic education.

A Reflection on Christian Children Religious Education in Light of “Whole Language” Approach

Grace HC Lo

The author first introduces and defines what “whole language” approach in education is and what its underlying ideas are. The “whole language” approach, as different from traditional educational approaches, is an educational philosophy which is a synthesis of learning theory, language theory , a perspective on teaching, and a perspective on language-based curriculum. The “whole language” philosophy is an integration of educational theories put forward by John Dewey, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky and values the cooperative, participatory and student-centered mode of learning, the integration of the “four skills” (listening, speaking, reading and writing), the community of learners, and the social nature of language.

Based on her personal understanding, the author seeks to explain what is meant by “whole language” approach as used in areas like students, teachers, learning environment, curriculum design, learning activities and parental education in an effort to help readers understand, reflect and explore further its application to children religious education in local Christian churches. The author finds that the religious education currently in practice in our churches has already included many of the component parts of the “whole language” approach. She concludes by noting that success in implementing the “whole language” approach depends on one's specific preference and situation, and also on adult Christians who need to receive continuing education as they seek to walk and grow together with children in the church.

Chinese Education between Tradition and Modernization: An Example of Chan Chi-bao

Chee-kong LEE

Chan Chi-bao is a Cantonese educator who is unknown to most people. He was born on 11 March 1862 and died on 4 July 1922. At an early age, he received a traditional Chinese Confucian education and obtained a provincial graduate status (Chu-yan) in 1893. In 1898, Chan traveled to Japan to observe the local education system. In the following year, he returned to Macau and started his educational career.

In 1893, Chan took the same provincial graduate examination with Kang Yu-wei, and ranked higher than the latter. Noticing Kang's scholarship, he studied in Kang's school and became Kang's student. There he participated in Kang's “Kung-che shang-shu". After the Reform Movement of 1898 (Wu-hsu pien-fa), he escaped to Japan to study the local education system. Upon returning to Macau, he did not join the Emperor Protection Society (Pao-huang tang). Instead he supported the revolutionary movements of Sun Yat-sen. This reflected a change from reformatory to revolutionary in his ideology. The schools which he established in Macau focused on the education of children and women, ranging from kindergarten to primary levels. He wrote about fifty books for his students' use. He also set up the Education Society in 1900. Chan was the first Chinese to advocate the Plain Language Movement and equality between the sexes. For these he was called a “Teacher of Women and Children. "

In 1889, Chan believed in Jesus and was baptized in Tao Chai Church in Hong Kong. He moved to Hong Kong in 1918 and established two schools at Caine Road and Bonham Road respectively. He participated actively at church. He spoke at the charity school of Hong Kong Christian Mutual Improvement Society and wrote essays witnessing the teachings of Jesus. His works focused mainly on the establishment of primary schools. Thus he fulfilled his educational ideology of promoting popular education and to serve God in his career.

Preaching the Old Testament: Learning from Walter Brueggemann

Poling J. SUN

Preaching the Old Testament is a formidable task for most Christian ministers. Such a difficulty is subtly built into the understanding of the Christian Canon. The very notion of the Christian Canon, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, automatically assumes a relationship between the two collections of writings. The relationship is hermeneutically constructed under the pattern “promise” and “fulfillment”. Although this hermeneutical principal is sound, it could result in a neglect of the Old Testament text in its own right if care and labor are not exercised. Aspiring an Old Testament text too much and too quickly from a New Testament perspective could only silent the text's own voice.

The renowned Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has made significant contribution to this concern and has demonstrated the possibility of preaching the Old Testament rightly in its own Hebrew scriptural context and also canonically, within the Christian traditions. By introducing Brueggemann's effort and examples from his recent works , this essay wishes to visit once again the issue of preaching the Old Testament.

Introduction to Augustine: His Life, Works, Secondary Literatures, and On the Soul and Its Origin and On Christian Doctrine

Andres S. TANG

This paper aims to give a brief introduction to the study of Augustine in eight parts. 1. Introduction. 2. The life of Augustine. 3. Autobiography. 4. Works including Confessions, City of God, On Christian Doctrine, The Trinity, Literal Commentary on Genesis, sermons, early writings, and written disputes. 5. Bibliography: text and translation, secondary literature, biography, bibliography of the study of Confessions and City of God, bibliography of the study of Augustine's thinking. 6. Recent research on Confessions, City of God, letters, Bible and biblical interpretation, On Christian Doctrine, interpretation of Psalms, Christology, and the theology of grace. 7. Introduction to On the Soul and Its Origin. 8. Introduction to On Christian Doctrine.

Further Reflection on Comparison: A Response to Professor Andres Tang

Kevin SK CHENG

Various approaches are available for comparative study, including an emphasis on similarities as well as on differences. Similarities and differences can have further nuances; there can be similarities-in-differences and differences-in-similarities. It is obvious that a one-sided emphasis on identifying similarities will yield different results from a one-sided emphasis on differences. But if a one-sided emphasis on similarities merely constitutes the first step, the product will be tentative and will not be final. It would be part of a process . A further step underlying the differences could lead to a revision of the preceding result. It is argued that highlighting similarities or highlighting differences as a first step are equally valid. What approach one takes will depend on the social and cultural location of the author.

Possible yet Difficult: A Response to Professor Kevin Cheng

Andres S. TANG

This short paper is a response to Dr. Kevin S. Cheng's “Further Reflection on Comparison”. The author follows Dr. Cheng's paper point by point so as to clarify and discuss the issues of comparison in depth. (1) The Confuciusization of Christianity is a crucial issue that has to be noted. (2) It is necessary for us to clarify at which level the similarity and difference are situated. (3) All conclusions are provisional depending on further research, including the author's response to Cheng's Book on the comparison of Karl Barth and Tang Junyi. (4) It is possible that the similarity or difference at the root will influence the similarity or difference on the surface. (5) Concerning the author's “A Tien-tai Buddhistic Interpretation of Karl Barth's Christology ”, the difference between Buddha's nature and Christ's being is not quantitative but qualitative. (6) The study of similarity should be complemented by that of difference for a complete picture. (7) The author does not intend to propose a general methodology of comparison through the response to Dr. Cheng's case study. (8) It is true that all researches are situational and contextual, but text readings are sufficient for us to find out the similarity and difference.