Classroom Formation & Spiritual Awareness Pedagogy Based on Bonhoeffer's Life Together

Abstract

BONHOEFFER'S LIFE TOGETHER describes disciplines for Christian formation. Based on communal life, these disciplines assist Christians to take seriously Christ's call to discipleship. This article describes the disciplines of dispersion and community, reading Scripture, prayer, solitude, discernment, service and confession. Disconnected from contemporary Western life, they seem to bear little relationship to spiritual awareness pedagogy contemporary classrooms. The article considers some classroom processes akin to Joyce and Weil's Personal Family and Social Family models of teaching that contribute to spiritual awareness pedagogy that eventually enables children to embody these disciplines as Christians who take their call to discipleship seriously.