A Curriculum Ideology of Cultural Redemption: What Labor Relations Has to do with Religious Education. Kevin J. Sandberg, C.S.C.

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1 A Curriculum Ideology of Cultural Redemption: What Labor Relations Has to do with Religious Education Kevin J. Sandberg, C.S.C. This paper explores the ideological presuppositions and educational implications when the entirety of culture is considered as the curriculum of religious education. By examining the underlying theological principles biblical truth, cultural mandate, and sphere sovereignty that form a basis for the redemption of culture, the paper critiques a neo-calvinist theory of religious education, as embodied in textual materials, that can be identified as an ideology of cultural redemption. It concludes that such an approach falls short of the self-critical engagement that is vital to education. In light of this, the paper advocates that religious educators attend better to ideologies of curriculum, especially the influence of economic interests. In 2009, the internet version of the news magazine Time listed neo-calvinism as one of the top ten ideas changing the world (Van Biema 2009). It was the only religious topic to make the list. Simply to be included on such a list is itself evidence of a certain influence within culture what it means to change the world or, in the language of neo-calvinism, to shape a worldview. Whether the entry was merited or not is another question. Time serves to shape public opinion, not just record it, and it is understandable that in the very least publicity surrounding the 500 th anniversary in 2009 of Calvin s birth caught the attention of the editors. Regardless, as religious educators imagine ourselves participating in the flow of culture, we would do well to examine, as this paper does, the ideological basis of neo-calvinist curricular material which is premised on actually directing the flow of culture. The curricular material in question is a new religious education textbook called Worldview. Worldview was published in 2009 by a Christian Reformed Church-affiliated think tank named Cardus. The identity of Cardus is no small matter relative to Worldview s ideology, but suffice to say at this point that under the name Cardus Centre for Cultural Renewal the mission of the publisher as a self-described culture-change organization becomes apparent. What is not so obvious is the manner in which Worldview attempts to change culture by shifting the focal point of evangelicalism from typically personal or social realms of conversion to the cultural realm. By shifting the object of conversion to culture, Worldview attempts to engage young adults in the process of cultural redemption by renewing a sense of vocation among them. It is the thesis of this paper that as an instance of religious education such an approach constitutes a curriculum ideology of cultural redemption. Such an ideology depends upon a framework of principles that is susceptible to economic ideology in particular and dichotomizes religion and culture. Ideological Presuppositions It will be helpful to begin by distinguishing what is meant by neo-calvinism, ideology, and curriculum ideology. These terms provide a foundation for understanding the notions of culture as curriculum and cultural redemption as curriculum ideology. It is first necessary to describe briefly the nature of the text in question as the context for these terms and notions.

2 Worldview is comprised of a series of 18 brief essays that have been culled from recent issues of Cardus quarterly public opinion magazine, Comment. These essays have been styled as chapters in a textbook that is, according to its YouTube promotion, designed to enable college students to think Christianly about philosophy, vocation, politics, church life, business, sex, happiness, justice and education itself (Cardus 2009). While the video pitches Worldview to curriculum planners, teachers and professors, Worldview s casual editing, non-academic tone, and eclectic style suggest that it is best suited to campus ministry programs. In this regard, however, it is important to note that Worldview is geared toward nominally-christian young adults. Its objective is not principally to get Christians to think, but to get them to think in a particularly Christian way. To this end, Worldview is typically Calvinist: biblically-grounded, principled on truth, and mission-oriented. Neo-Calvinism. What constitutes Worldview as specifically neo-calvinist is its dependence on the thought of Abraham Kuyper ( ). Kuyper s academic and political careers interpreted Calvinism anew as a public theology and way of life for Dutch society. Initially an enthusiast of 19 th century liberal theology, Kuyper experienced a conversion to orthodox Calvinism in light of the lived faith of the congregation to which he ministered. The roots of Kuyper s understanding of Christianity as a total worldview and life system the essence of neo-calvinism have been traced to this conversion. He discovered that Calvinism was more than an historical and ecclesiastical phenomenon: it was a world of thought and a way of life accepted and understood by ordinary people (Heslam 1998, 34). Ideology. That Cardus named its textbook Worldview points to its neo-calvinist ideology. I hasten to caution that the words ideology and ideological should not be interpreted pejoratively. While ideological labels are rarely accepted without demur, they are nevertheless a principal component of the process by which we interpret reality and take action (Geyer 1997, 83). Simply put, ideologies are beliefs, values and actions by which a group or individual sustains its orientation to the world as reality. Because such ideologies often evade consciousness, this paper serves to raise awareness of ideology as a function of acculturation and as an inherent part of the psychological structures language and theory that we acquire as members of a culture (Eisner 2002, 52). Curriculum ideology. Because culture embodies ideology, religious education should operate under the principle that ideology is as relevant to curriculum as it is apparent in systems of political governance. Moreover, as critically educational in nature, religious education should also foster commitment to and suspicion of ideologies (Elias 1986, 158), i.e., a self-awareness and self-criticism of one s own worldview. What constitutes such suspicion and commitments as a curriculum ideology is the manner in which these hermeneutics are employed to describe, motivate, and interpret the content and context of education, its materials and environments, and the relational structures which govern the teaching-learning experience, i.e., curriculum. Culture as Curriculum We have begun to describe Worldview as an instance of what could be called religious orthodoxy in a taxonomy of educational ideologies (Eisner 2002, 57). By examining Worldview s religious and theological principles in light of a taxonomy of evangelical approaches to religious education, we can further apprehend the manner in which neo-calvinism regards the entirety of culture as the curriculum of religious education. Mary Boys has classified evangelical approaches to educating in faith as ranging from, on the progressive left, religious education understood as the transformation of society to religious 2

3 education understood as the transmission of truth on the conservative right (1989, 117). At a centrist position she situates religious education understood in terms of mission. Worldview sits squarely within this spectrum. As Boys notes, though, evangelicalism has articulated relatively little educational philosophy per se, hence the broader category educating in faith. In this regard Worldview represents a development in evangelical religious education because its authorship comes from academic and intellectual institutions well-suited to work out an explicitly educational philosophy. Indeed, Worldview s authors form a network of Reformed Church intellectual activity across Canada and the United States: nine are professional educators and nine hold doctorates of one sort or another. Yet it should be noted that there is very little ethnic, and absolutely no gender, diversity among the volume s 14 contributors, all of whom are male. At the center of the collection of essays stands its theological foundation in the form of a chapter on the origins of neo-calvinism by the volume s major thinker, Richard Mouw, president of the evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary. More precisely, Worldview clarifies what the general category religious education as mission could be construed to mean, since even by Boys own admission mission is descriptive of all evangelical religious education. For instance, the emphasis which Boys places on witness, fellowship, and outreach in her description of religious education as mission does not capture a particularly educational element, such as curriculum, to the extent that Worldview does. Moreover, Worldview takes evangelicalism s characteristic focal point of conversion to a cultural level. As one author in Worldview describes it, discipleship always takes a cultural shape and challenges the foundational idolatrous faith assumed in humanist culture (Goheen 2009, 9). Whereas the religious right (e.g., Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority) often engender conversion on personal and political levels, and progressive communitarians (e.g., Jim Wallis and the Sojourner Fellowship) often engender conversion through social activism, Worldview s vocationally-oriented, biblically-based framework aims at the conversion of culture itself. In sum, Worldview represents a variant of evangelical religious education that would be better described as cultural rather than simply mission. However meaningfully Worldview supplements Boys typology, the history of Worldview s publisher raises questions about the economic interests that also motivate this variant of evangelical religious education. As previously noted, Cardus is affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church. It is, however, the same organization which until late-2008 was known as the Work Research Foundation (WRF), the research, policy and lobbying arm of the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC). Representing about 47,000 workers, the CLAC operates as an alternative union (what has been called an employer-accommodating pseudo union ) to the traditional AFL-CIO. The CLAC was organized by Reformed Church Dutch immigrants to Canada after World War II. On behalf of CLAC, WRF historically opposed traditional labor unions in order to influence people to a Christian view of work and public life (CLC 2008, 8). Instead, to foster harmonious relations between management and workers that are concordant with divine love and the mandate to dominion, WRF pursued a nonconfrontational labor relations approach that, in the view of traditional labor unions, conceded far too much power to employers (CLC 2008, 12). As a result, the question arises: how does an essentially non-union advocate come to publish a religious education text? Given debate over Max Weber s thesis on the relationship between Calvinism and capitalism, religious educators should not overlook the possibility that economic interests, especially neo-conservative economic ideology, inform the curriculum of religious education. 3

4 Curriculum Ideology of Cultural Redemption While it is beyond the scope of this paper to pursue this possibility, the preceding examination of Worldview s religious foundation and a further examination of its theological principles suggest that neo-calvinism s framework is susceptible to such economic ideology. This is particularly the case due to Kuyper s concept of sphere sovereignty in which selfregulation becomes the principle of all forms, or spheres, of life. To understand sphere sovereignty we must first understand the theological principles from which it is derived, namely, biblical canonicity and the cultural mandate. Biblical Truth. Appropriately enough for a neo-calvinist text, Worldview begins with the bible in an explicitly ideological way, namely, by moving the nominally Christian student from a fragmented view of the bible as narrative to an understanding of the bible as normative. The significance of this is that it stakes a claim to public truth for the bible. Thus, instead of teaching particular biblical stories, Worldview concerns itself with the category of biblical truth, what neo-calvinism calls biblical canonicity. Biblical canonicity means that the bible functions principally as a coherent whole around the dyad of creation/fall-redemption, and only remotely functions as scripture subject to interpretation. By this means the bible resists being fragmented by postmodern culture. Consequently, one of Worldview s weaknesses is that it essentially never goes beyond the book of Genesis, but instead juxtaposes culture to biblical truth. Indeed, the focus on Genesis is quite intentional: the stress on creation/fall serves to relativize culture as fallen and, therefore, in need of redemption. Cultural Mandate. Since only God has the power to redeem, Worldview teaches students to participate in God s redemptive activity by discerning their vocation. God s redemptive activity, however, can only be known relative to biblical truth, a principal teaching of which is the cultural mandate. In neo-calvinism, institutions such as family and community, education and work, the arts and the academy result from obedience to the mandate to be fruitful and multiply in order to fill the earth, i.e., culture (Gen. 1:28). God was pleased with plurality, and culture is evidence of it. However, because creation and, therefore, culture are subject to the effects of the fall, each of these institutions is in need of redemption. Consequently, Worldview teaches that each student s vocation is his or her mandate to redeem culture. This is the essence of an ideology of cultural redemption. Sphere Sovereignty. In order to exercise this mandate, Worldview teaches students to proceed by means of what Kuyper calls sphere sovereignty. Sphere sovereignty is the notion that accounts for the necessary ordering of the multiple forms of life which result from the cultural mandate to be fruitful and fill the earth. Calvinism recognizes that the biblical mandate to multiply provides for tremendous difference in kind and number. Indeed, Worldview teaches that God built such patterns of associational diversity into the very fabric of creation (Mouw 2009, 60), yet it was Adam s prerogative to order creation (Gen. 2:19) and to subdue it with dominion (Gen. 1:28). This is sphere sovereignty. Educational Implications As a result, Worldview has two views of culture: it praises culture in its various forms as myriad perspectives on truth and reality; yet it also criticizes culture as fallen, particularly as evidenced by the cultural paradigm of rational humanism. While this dual perspective on culture might appear at first glance to manifest the suspicion and appreciation of ideology that was advocated earlier in this essay, it is rather merely a unilateral critique of culture. Worldview concedes as much when it aspires to produce sin-contending cultural critics and hope-bearing 4

5 agents of cultural renewal. However, from an educational perspective, the hermeneutics of suspicion and appreciation should foster a dialectic between biblical truth and culture as a selfcritical movement in Worldview. But that is not possible when religion and culture are dichotomized as they are in neo-calvinism. Reason might be held in high regard by Worldview, but given the Calvinist view of reason as deficient (relative, e.g., to the Catholic view of reason), it would be impertinent to regard reason on par with biblical truth. Instead, reason flows from biblical truth. Therefore, to engage in reason while immersed in culture, or to think Christianly, as Worldview describes it, requires the guidance of biblical truth. Sphere sovereignty is that guide. It holds that institutions such as family, work and schooling exist in their own right by the design of God (through the cultural mandate) and function independent of state and church. Historically, these spheres were protected by self-regulating guilds (hence the neo-calvinist involvement with unions). But these sovereign boundaries have been transgressed as a result of rational humanism, as seen through government regulation that interferes with the sovereignty of economic, educational and familial spheres. Consequently, Worldview advocates that through their vocation young adults endeavor to return these spheres of life to their proper sovereignty relative to biblical truth. Recall, however, that biblical truth is different than the biblical narrative. As a result, the teachings of Jesus which have profound implications for the cultural norms surrounding family and economic relations are not considered in Worldview. While Jesus is recognized as the agent of redemption, he is not the symbol of what redemption has wrought. Indeed, no substantial image of Jesus is presented nor doctrine of God developed in Worldview. There is, therefore, no paschal mystery, no proclamation of release to the captives, no breaking of bread with the poor in Worldview. Rather, Worldview vaguely asks pastoral questions (such as, What hurt needs healing in the world?) instead of addressing issues of economic injustice directly, even though evangelicalism increasingly shows concern with the latter (see Van Til 2007). At least due in part to such a thin Christology, it would appear that neo-calvinism s framework could easily cede the ground regarding the reign of God to the irrational exuberance of neo-conservative economic interest which thrive in the self-regulatory environments of sphere sovereignty. Instead of witnessing to lives of solidarity with the poor, Worldview teaches that it is possible to withstand the power of the humanist narrative that predominates culture by cultivating the mind as a first line of defense. Given that Worldview is an educational exercise in neo-calvinism, it is important to recall that this takes place relative to biblical truth. Thus, Worldview instructs students to form a biblical worldview regarding a meaningful existence, to find mentors to guide them in forming that worldview relative to culture, and to sustain themselves in such a worldview by surrounding themselves with a like-minded community. By means of this simple, interpersonal method, Worldview intends to connect knowing with loving, and behavior with belief. In effect, Worldview presents getting close to others, which it assumes as a given for young adults, as an analog for getting close to ideas. This emphasis on getting close to ideas highlights the value that Worldview places on the mind, the cultivation of which is a process of careful questioning that leads to both the discovery and critique of rational humanism. Conclusion Whether Worldview can successfully educate students to think Christianly by pitting biblical truth against rational humanism is questionable when, by virtue of biblical truth, the 5

6 emphasis falls on Christianly (however thinly Christianity is presented in Worldview) to the detriment of think. To be sure, Worldview advocates dialogue and engagement, but short of a self-critical ideology, its method of engaging rational humanism actually serves to highlight the basic problem with which the ideology of cultural redemption is concerned, namely, that young adults are only nominally Christian. With this as its principal concern, Worldview conceives of the interaction between culture and biblical truth as analogous to the interaction between learners and teachers. Insofar as culture is fallen, it must be redeemed, it must learn; and biblical truth is its teacher. Learning itself is part of the process of being redeemed. But the teacher (which in the case of Worldview is biblical truth) must always remain a learner, and a self-critical element in one s ideology is a principal way that the teacher continues to learn. But Worldview nowhere evinces such a process by which the worldview itself learns. This tendency belies a false dichotomy between religion and culture, and fails to engender the critical approach necessary in educational enterprises. Worldview is, therefore, an unredeemed ideology. This shortcoming is dangerous to the integrity of religious education especially in light of Cardus recent history directing the flow of culture toward neo-conservative economic interests away from labor concerns. On that note, religious educators should ask themselves anew: when wisdom holds that one cannot serve both God and mammon (see Matthew 6:24), to what extent are religious educators aware of economic ideologies within our own curricula? It is a critical factor relative to what beliefs, values, and actions are taught, where they are taught and who teaches them. In other words, it is a factor critical to curriculum ideology. It is quite innovative of Worldview to compare the relationship of culture and biblical truth to that of learner and teacher, respectively. But by unilaterally directing the flow of culture from the standpoint of biblical truth, Worldview fosters a dualistic view wherein culture is equally praiseworthy and notoriously fallen. It is also quite innovative of Worldview to move evangelicalism s traditional focal point of conversion from the personal and social realms to the cultural realm. But as it directs the flow of culture, especially economically in a neo-conservative direction, this new curricular material in evangelical religious education remains critically unaware of its own embeddedness in culture. This is less than what critical education demands. REFERENCES Boys, M Educating in Faith: Maps and Visions. Lima, Ohio: Academic Renewal Press [originally New York, NY: Harper & Row, Publishers]. Canadian Labour Congress The Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC): An Overview of An Employer-Accommodating Pseudo Union. In (Appendix I) Testimony before the Legislative Assembly, Saskatchewan, Canada. February Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Labour Congress Cardus Cardus Coursepack: Worldview Promo Video. In YouTube [cited 7 March 2010]. Available from INTERNET. Eisner, E The Educational Imagination. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Elias, J Studies in Theology and Education. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Publishing Co. 6

7 Geyer, A Ideology in America: Challenges to Faith. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press. Goheen, M Reading the Bible and articulating a worldview. In Worldview. Ed. G. Strauss. Hamilton, Ontario: Cardus Heslam, P Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper s Lectures on Calvinism. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing Co. Mouw, R MINE! In Worldview. Ed. G. Strauss. Hamilton, Ontario: Cardus Strauss, G. Ed Worldview. Hamilton, Ontario: Cardus. Van Biema, D Ideas Changing the World Right Now: The New Calvinism. In Time (Mar. 12, 2009). New York, NY [cited 7 March 2010]. Available from INTERNET. Van Til, Kent Less Than Two Dollars a Day: A Christian View of World Poverty and the Free Market. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing Co. 7