WORDS Father Andrew Hamilton SJ

When we think of Church Teaching we often imagine Pope Benedict speaking in Rome. But if we think of people learning faith, we are more likely to imagine children sitting in a classroom.

The two images go together because they correspond to two questions we ask about teaching faith.  They describe different processes. We can ask how people learn about faith and how they are taught. We can also ask how we can make sure that what they learn is right. In this Explorations, we shall look at both these questions. 

How do people learn about faith?

We learn about faith in many ways. I’ll begin by describing what might happen in a family in which both parents take faith very seriously, pray together, and attend Church regularly, and send their children to Catholic schools. Of course, not all our families are like this, but it helps us understand how faith is taught.  

Some babies first meet faith in the cradle. They hear their parents praying, and are surrounded by religious images. The baptism ceremony reminds parents that they are the first teachers of their children in faith, and prays that they will be the best of teachers. The parents can make a home where faith can be taken for granted, and children can explore it.

In Catholic schools we begin to learn more systematically about faith. Teachers help us to pray, introduce us to Scripture and explain more about the sacraments and Catholic life.

Children also learn when they attend church with their parents.  They ask questions, and often learn wordlessly from the way in which people pray, from the hymns, and from the gathering of people after Mass. They learn by doing.

In the later years of school, teaching about faith is usually more exploratory. Most young people learn through informal conversations with peers and with older people. They raise questions that puzzle them about faith, or listen as other young people speak about what faith means to them. 

Conversations continue to be an important way of learning. We may belong to parish groups in which we talk together about what faith means in our lives, or reflect together on Scripture. In these conversations people with a different or deeper perspective encourage us to think more deeply.  Casual conversations with our friends or workmates or in book clubs can be equally important.

As adults, too, we learn more about faith through personal reflection, reading and prayer. When we stop to think we find we often see something freshly. When we read about Catholics in the daily newspaper or see reports on television, we often want to know more. We may be struck by articles written by the Pope or by our own Bishops.

Not all learning is by listening or reading. Many of us learn best through experience. Older Catholics will remember the parish missions that drew people back to the message of Christ and his way of life. Retreats, cursillos, pilgrimages still help us make connections we hadn’t made before.

These simple ways of teaching and learning can be very powerful.  During centuries of persecution in Japan, people held on to their faith because they came together to pray and to share. They had no bishops, no priests, no schools.  

A sixth century group of Syrian Christian traders, too, took the silk route through Samarkand, and shared their faith right into China. Their monuments remain today, reminding us of the people who learned about Christ and the church through conversations and praying together.

Passing on the faith accurately

When we look at the many ways in which people learn about faith, we can see how big a challenge it is to ensure that we hand on to others the same faith in Christ that we received. There are so many teachers of faith, so many conversations, meetings, retreats, talks and articles, that it seems a miracle if everybody is reading off the same page.

That has always been a challenge. In the Scriptures those who have seen the risen Christ hand on the faith. They had been part of Jesus’ mission. Their meeting with the risen Christ changed their lives and made them recognise what God had done for them. Christ told them to pass on this experience and understanding to others and so to build the church. The Holy Spirit guided them in their teaching and their hearers in their listening. 

Even so, the New Testament shows us people hearing and interpreting the Good News in different ways. For example, St Paul criticised people who failed to see that Jesus had liberated people from the details of Jewish law. He criticised others who believed that Christians could live dangerously in their sexual encounters. These attitudes were inconsistent with the message that he had received about Christ. John’s writings, too, warn their readers against views of Christ that regarded him as less than fully human.

The Apostles also had to sort out differences among themselves about what faith in Christ meant for their lives. Paul, for example, insisted that non-Jewish converts should not be expected to observe the strict laws about diet that Jews followed. Peter was more ambivalent. They came together with the other leaders of the Church and came to an agreement.

The early Christians faced two challenges. One was to spread Christ’s Gospel as widely as they could.  The other was to ensure that people heard the full Gospel. So an early Christian pamphlet instructs congregations to welcome evangelists who come from other churches.  But it also warns them not to listen to anything that does not fit with what they have been taught.

These early Christian writers, of course, are teachers. Like all teachers, their big concern is to make sure that people understand correctly what they are taught.  But they could give us the wrong impression that only Paul, the Apostles and those they appointed were engaged in teaching the faith. But the reality is that Christian faith was passed on by many people:  the local teachers, visiting prophets, the evangelists who founded the churches, parents, friends and workmates. That is why Paul and the Apostles were concerned to make sure that the many streams by which people learned Christian faith were fed by the pure stream that came from Christ.

Passing on faith today

All churches need structures to address the two challenges of encouraging people to share their faith and to ensure that what they pass on is the full Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the Catholic Church the order is fairly simple. The Holy Spirit is the central player both in handing on the Gospel and in ensuring that Christ’s Gospel is preached and heard.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit gave words to the Apostles who had previously met the risen Christ. So the Holy Spirit is active wherever Christ is spoken of.
The responsibility of the Apostles for teaching in the early Church is now carried by the Bishops.  St Peter, who was entrusted with bringing together and strengthening his brethren in faith, is now represented by the Bishop of Rome. He is asked to preserve the unity of the other bishops in faith, and so to keep the whole church united.

Of course, if the Bishops are to ensure that Christ’s message is heard and lived in their churches, they need help. They work through the priests who lead local congregations, through teachers, groups, media and the informal conversations among Catholics. The more deeply that both appointed and informal teachers live their faith and soak themselves in the Scriptures, the more effectively they will share faith.  

That is why adult education is so important in the church. It makes for better teaching and learning. Through the history of the church, adult education has changed much.  At the time of the Reformation, for example, monks were often well educated, with much time to read and to meditate on Scriptures and the works of the Church Fathers. Then priests often learned through apprenticeship in a parish.  The Council of Trent had future priests gathered in seminaries where they received a more systematic theological education.

More recently theological colleges, attended mostly by laypeople, have grown in importance. So have courses for catechists and teachers of religious education.  These are today’s ways of encouraging better and more effective teaching about Christ and faith, and ensuring that good teaching will correct weak teaching in natural ways.

Teaching in conflict

Church documents about church teaching often emphasise the authority of bishops and of the Pope to judge whether the full Gospel is being preached or not. They defend the right of the Pope to declare what is correct. When we read these documents it is easy to imagine that the Pope and Bishops are the only genuine teachers in the church, and to forget the importance of everyday teaching. We can even get the impression that it is dangerous for other people to speak about faith because they may fall into error.

These impressions would be mistaken. It is certainly true that Bishops and Popes are responsible for what is taught in the Church.  They sometimes need to deal with cases where the faith is badly or one-sidedly taught. During the history of the Church, people and groups have often separated themselves from the universal church because they read the Gospel in ways that are finally judged not to fit with Christ’s Gospel. Usually what they are passionate about is right; they are wrong in what they attack or deny. Because what they are passionate about is usually right, the separation could be violent and distract Christians from loving as Jesus invited us to do. In such circumstances it is appropriate to insist on clear lines of authority. 

Most disputes about what Christian faith involves are local and are resolved locally. Someone in a parish has a strong experience, an insight into what faith means, thinks about it and shares it. Some people are impressed by it. Others have doubts. They argue.  If their insights are half baked, in most cases they and their hearers will develop them through their conversations, prayer and a feeling for where the different people involved are coming from. In these ordinary arguments one-sided versions of faith are almost self-correcting. The Holy Spirit works to point to the truth through conversation and prayer.  
If the disagreement continues and grows, the dispute will probably come to the local Bishop. He will normally listen to the people involved and speak with them. That will often be the end of the matter. If the Bishop or Pope intervenes decisively in a dispute about faith, it usually means that relationships and conversations have broken down.

So when they are reflecting on teaching the faith, Popes and Bishops often focus on conflict. They carry a heavy burden in preserving the unity of the church in its faith. They sometimes have to act in crisis and need to have the power to do so decisively. We should recognise the importance of authoritative teaching in the Church. But it should not make us miss the varied, rich and everyday ways of teaching. 

A car needs good steering because the engine is powerful. So does the church in its teaching. When we buy a car we need to pay attention both to the engine and the steering. In the church’s teaching the cooperation of many people in teaching and learning makes for a good engine. Then it needs the good guidance of the people appointed to teach.

Questions

1.    What are some of the ways in which you learned what being a Catholic means?
2.    How important have informal conversations and reading been for your faith?
3.    How did the early Church make sure it handed on the genuine faith in Christ?
4.    Why do arguments arise about what believing as a Catholic means?
5.    Have you had any arguments about what being a Catholic means?  How were they resolved?
6.    What are the Bishop’s and the Pope’s roles in teaching?

Resources

Catechism of the Catholic Church
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM

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