As with the other books I have reviewed and will review for Springer International, this book is a textbook, so it is not a read for the faint of heart. It is highly academic in nature and it is geared to make a class of readers think. The argument that the editors are attempting to establish throughout this whole book is that Christian faith can be and is essential to identity formation and education.
There are a few downsides to this book, one of which being the interdenominational approach. I have no problem with associating with other denominations from a Christian perspective, as long as we are in agreement on the vital doctrines of our faith. But this book went to a bit of an extreme, with some schools represented that would identify on the Protestant side of Christianity and others that would identify on the Catholic side of Christianity.
However, there is an upside. This is the encouragement of deep education on all fronts. The authors advocate "going deeper into the texts of one's own tradition; deeper into the texts of others; deeper into commitment to the common good of our world; deeper into the areas of both agreement and disagreement; and deeper into the distinctive sort of collegiality (often developing into friendship) that happens among those involved in the first four deepenings (82)." This deepening of education should be highly recommended for all Christians, even if we don't necessarily agree with each other. We should definitely concerned with knowing what we believe, what others believe, and why we agree and disagree. We should be concerned with helping our world become better (though I would not argue that our world is naturally good). And finally, we should all be concerned with developing friendships in other parts of Christian education, to help others deepen their knowledge as we deepen our own.
This was an interesting book to study and look through. And while I do not necessarily agree with the plurality that is advocated, the depth of education is something that I do advocate. I have covered only a small portion of the book in this review, but my rating affects the whole book. I give 2.5 stars out of 5 for this book, which while presenting some good aspects of Christian education also has some downsides in methodology and fundamental beliefs.
WHERE TO BUY THIS BOOK:
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THIS BOOK:
Stuart-Buttly, Ros and John Shortt, Eds. Christian Faith, Formation, and Education. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International, 2018.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Springer book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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