Promising approaches to catechesis in church communities: towards a research framework

Abstract

Abstract The central focus of this article is to research how the modern religious and cultural landscape, in which our youth is growing up in, impacts the way catechetical practices in the various churches are organised and what type of catechetical learning environments seems to best fit the churches’ aim to be a community in this landscape. The author describes three educational models of catechetical learning environments and hypothesizes that the apprenticeship model is a promising catechetical model for church communities. The study concludes by presenting a practical theological research framework in which catechetical learning environments and learning processes may be empirically studied in such a way that ‘evidence’ may be gleaned for a particular hypotheses linking the relationship between the modern societal context, the church as a community and the religious identity development of today’s youth.