Religious Education in Context of Plurality and Pluralism by Hope S. Antone, jointly published by New Day Publishers/Christian Conference of Asia, 2003, pp. 141.

This book takes readers on a very interesting journey of developing religious education in multireligious and multicultural contexts of Asia. Hope Antone, the writer, points out that education theories are shaped by the context of the people, through people’s experiences. Therefore, people and their context cannot be ignored in education process.

According to the writer, Christian/Religious education in the past ignored the historical reality of plurality of Asia and relied heavily on materials from outside Asia. Christian education in Asia has largely been conditioned by the theological orientation of the early missionary movement, which has generally been triumphalistic and condescending in attitude to other religions. Due to this inherited church teaching, many Asian churches continue to be guided by such an orientation and find it hard to relate with Asians of other religions.

The writer credits the missionary movement that came to Asia for its positive contributions but does not discount how some of them also evoked mistrust, suspicion and anger especially among the well established religious communities. Since the present Christian education lacks “Asianness”, the writer stresses the need to develop a relevant contextual education which takes seriously Asian reality of plurality.

The context in Asia is a multiplicity of plurality - multicultural, multilingual, multiethnic, and multireligious. With Asia being the cradle of the major religions of the world, developing religious pluralism is the need of the hour. Except in the Philippines, Christianity is a minority religion in the whole Asian region. Moreover, Christianity is a ‘latecomer’ to Asia and the minority Christian communities exist in the midst of the majority communities of other faiths. And yet many Christians are defensive and not open toward other religious communities. The parochial and narrow-minded teachings of Christianity have created ignorance, misunderstanding, intolerance and suspicion of other religions and eventually resulting in religious fanaticism and fundamentalism in the whole Asian region. Hope challenges those traditional missiological approaches, and presents some alternatives using experiences and lessons gained from ‘trailblazing’ efforts of Asian theologians. This implies a rethinking of the theology of mission which includes shifting from an attitude of exclusivity to inclusivity, from the desire for conversion to the need for healing, and from the need to become majority to being content with being minority, among other things.

With the great plurality in Asia, Asian theologians have claimed that in fact to be an Asian means to be interreligious – i.e. being in dialogue with one’s neighbors of other cultures, races and religions. Hope Antone uses Diana Eck’s definition of religious pluralism in proposing a religious education theory that is responsive to Asian plural context. Religious pluralism includes commitment to one’s faith and openness to the multiple religions and cultures around. Religious education that takes the approach of religious pluralism makes use of meaningful dialogic encounters. To support all this, Hope offers both biblical and theological foundations, using her own Asian feminist and pluralist ways of reading the Bible to construct relevant theologies and meaningful interpretation. She also clarifies relativism and syncretism, which are often confused with pluralism.

Education for pluralism leads us to rethink the very understanding of the term ‘education’ in religion. The terms ‘Christian education’ and ‘Religious education’ are often interchangeably used. The question is whether education in religion should just be about doing ‘Christian education’ or should it in fact be really doing ‘Religious education’ in the true sense of the word. Hope examines different shifts in education theory in the history of Christian/Religious education up to the present ecumenical education. Using Gabriel Moran’s idea of “Religious Education as a second language,” Hope suggests that ‘Christian education’ can be regarded as a particular form of religious education within the Christian community, hence, the Christian’s first language. ‘Religious education’ is the second language which can be used to relate well with peoples of other faith commitments, hence, it is the broader type of education of, for, and among seekers and learners who come from various religious groups or faith communities.

Hope proposes a religious education theory using the metaphor of ‘mealtable sharing’ as an appropriate model for religious education in Asian context of plurality. Table is a very inclusive metaphor; a symbol of warm hospitality, open invitation, sharing, communion, celebration, etc. Hospitality around feasts and meals has long been part of most Asian cultures, and Hope uses these as symbols that capture the needed openness and hospitality in religious education. She cites many biblical evidences where meals have become events which foster sharing. Mealtable sharing method is honest, open, participatory and fosters dialogical sharing. The aim is to bring reconciliation, healing, peace, harmony and mutuality among different communities. Hope also believes that the ‘mealtable’ sharing metaphor can apply to having an open dialogue on such issues as globalization, injustice, fundamentalism, and terrorism, and this will lead to conflict transformation in the society.

This is a well-written and scholarly book, a good resource book for Christian education in multireligious context of Asia. It has seven chapters, quite fascinating and easy to read. The author, being an Asian, brought out the rich and tremendous resources from diverse Asian cultures for developing educational theories for churches in Asia. I am sure this valuable book will have a lasting impact upon the life of the churches in Asia.

- Limatula Longkumer

Limatula Longkumer comes from Nagaland, North East India. She teaches Religious Education at Eastern Theological College in Jorhat, Assam. Currently she is doing doctoral studies under the South Asia Theological Research Institute (SATHRI) in Bangalore.