Monday, November 5, 2007

Spiritual Formation, Discipleship, Christian Education

What are the differences
between
SPIRITUAL FORMATION
and
DISCIPLESHIP
and
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
?
.

4 comments:

  1. Spiritual formation is the ultimate goal of the process of discipleship in which christian education is one of the means. Sorry, my brain is just not working well.... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks, kar yong.

    I hope to hear more from the others. This is not a trick question.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dallas Willard has tis to say:

    Spiritual formation could and should be the process by which those who are Jesus' apprentices or disciples come easily to "do all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

    http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=58

    If true, then discipleship is the goal and spiritual formation is the process to get there, christian education is one of those processes

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think the *public* (and thus consensually used) understanding of the terms are as follows:

    CE is the modern-day nurturing of the mind to make one think (and act) more like Christ and thus to grow in Discipleship.

    CE would be a sub-set of Spiritual Formation which is the self-focused process of growing as a disciple (a'la Willard).

    Discipleship, however, is "SF + Wide Engagement in Community"

    I confess I'm not comfortable with the term SF, because the orientation still seems to be on a private (and thus 'me-alone') relationship with God, wonderful and necessary as this should be.

    Discipleship is a 'broader' term which I think rightly encompasses one's relation to the community, the environment, and so on.

    E.g. an ascetic monk may be VERY strongly 'spiritually formed' but is exhibiting less than full-blown Biblical discipleship, given his seclusion, no?

    ReplyDelete