This thesis contributes towards understanding of how ‘ordinary’ Christians, who have little or no experience of academic biblical study or theological training, might be enabled to engage more deeply with the Bible. I propose that attempts to cultivate the skills of biblical engagement among ordinary Christians might be shaped around lectio divina, this ancient practice being adapted for the situation of contemporary readers. The adaptations would involve use of a range of modern media with which to encounter the texts, working in small groups in order to make space for a more intentional engagement between the voices of multiple ordinary interpreters, and employment of strategies to enable readers to navigate a perceived tension when approaching the Bible: one between head and heart, academic learning and spiritual growth. More specifically, I propose that the promotion of biblical engagement among ordinary Christians should be undertaken as a planned programme with a suite of different resources, which complement one another in both style and aim, together with a sign-posted framework to show participants what each stage is designed to achieve. It should begin with a widely accessible introduction to the whole Bible that conveys the overall narrative and historical setting while communicating the sense that the reader is a participant in the ongoing biblical story. This and subsequent resources should be selected in order to attempt to integrate cognitive and emotive approaches to the texts and, where possible, straightforward terminology would be employed to maximise accessibility. These proposals emerged from my evaluation of an experiment in promoting biblical engagement among ordinary Christians (Bible Society’s ‘Pathfinder’). Analysis of, and reflection upon, the rich qualitative data generated there led to my examining the process of developing biblical engagement in the context of the lectio divina tradition and in the light of contemporary theological reflection across a wide range of theological hermeneutics.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:38:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissJLD.pdf: 709635 bytes, checksum: c2fef89dc8360bdcac2d6dd626444615 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-10-23 / The objective of this research is to show the changes occurred in the ephistemological format of religious taught in public schools after the promulgation of law number 9475/97 that altered LDB article 33 number 9394/96; and to reveal its ideological inclination. These changes were observed specially in São Paulo state in 2001, when the state department of education regularized the subject and the Board of Education implemented in the public school system. We researched the historical development of the relations between the Church and the State in Brazil and its interference in education since Jesuit school. This historical study observed varied forms in which religion appeared in the school system and confronted them with the new form adopted in São Paulo. We crowded our historical retrospective with the elaboration process of the 1998 Constitution and LDB number 9394/96 until the definition of the 9475/97 law. Thus, we proceeded to the ephistemological analysis of two distinct materials implemented by the Board of Education as of 2002, as the subsidy to Religion teachers in the official state schools during the first two years of the implement Our analysis of the presence of Religion in the public school system settled on a theoretical and ephistemological perspective that conceives religion, religiosity and religious or clerical institutions as historical products expressing the relations people share with one another, under the determination of distinct interest presented in society. Our research noticed that the redefinition of Religious Taught shows a catholic effort in order to respond to a new reality in which religious pluralism is manifested and even more openly in Brazil. This effort gives continuance to an ecumenical line adopted by the Catholic Church in the Vatican from 1962 to 1966, and also shows, as seem in the past the pressure of the Catholic Church, now joined to other small evangelical denominations, in the sense of keeping privileges in the public system by material subsidies for its evangelical action. It shows that catholics don´t accept the lay formula as a deal which consists of recognizing the religion as a private subject to preserve the public system against possible embarrassments. / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi evidenciar as mudanças ocorridas no formato epistemológico do Ensino Religioso na escola pública após a promulgação da Lei nº. 9475/97, que alterou o artigo 33 da LDB nº. 9394/96, e desvendar a sua inclinação ideológica. Essas mudanças manifestaram-se, sobretudo, no estado de São Paulo a partir do ano de 2001 no momento em que o Conselho Estadual de Educação normatizou a matéria e a Secretaria de Educação iniciou a implantação da disciplina na rede oficial. Pesquisamos o desenvolvimento histórico da relação entre a Igreja e o Estado no Brasil e sua interferência na educação desde a escola jesuítica. Esse estudo histórico objetivou acompanhar as variadas formas através das quais a religião se fez presente no espaço escolar, para, por fim, confrontá-las com o novo formato adotado no Estado de São Paulo. Coroamos nossa retrospectiva histórica com os processos de elaboração da Constituição de 1988 e da LDB nº. 9394/96 até a definição do substitutivo que resultou na Lei 9475/97. Por fim, procedemos à análise epistemológica de dois materiais distintos implementados pela Secretaria de Educação a partir de 2002, como subsídio aos professores de Ensino Religioso nas escolas oficiais paulistas nos dois primeiros anos de implantação da disciplina. Nossa análise da presença da religião no espaço público e do Ensino Religioso na escola pública assentou-se numa perspectiva teórica e epistemológica que concebe a religião, a religiosidade e as instituições religiosas ou clericais como produtos históricos que exprimem as relações que os indivíduos travam entre si, sob a determinação dos distintos interesses existentes na sociedade de classe. Nossa pesquisa constatou que a redefinição do Ensino Religioso expressa um esforço católico de responder a uma nova realidade em que o pluralismo religioso se manifesta cada vez mais abertamente no Brasil. Esse esforço dá continuidade à linha ecumênica adotada pela Igreja Católica no Concílio Vaticano II, entre 1962 a 1966, mas expressa, assim como no passado, a pressão da Igreja Católica, agora aliada a algumas pequenas denominações evangélicas, no sentido de manter privilégios no espaço público por meio de subsídios materiais para sua ação evangelizadora. Expressa também que os católicos não aceitam a fórmula da laicidade como um acordo que consiste em reconhecer a religião como assunto privado para preservar o espaço público de possíveis constrangimentos.