Earticle

The purpose of this study is to bring some clarity to what is meant by holistic education, and explore how it is applicable to Christian education in view of nurturing an individual towards becoming more balanced and inclusive in his or her behavior, thinking, and activities, and thereby more like Jesus. The problem of educational ministry in the modern church is not a lack of Christians, but rather that they are not growing enough to live a faithful Christian life. This problem usually results from a practice of traditional Christian education that is characterized by limited education and narrow intellectualism, producing experts in biblical knowledge that are helpless to actually practice the faith in their daily lives. In this regard, Korean churches today are challenged with the dilemma of how to create and maintain dynamic educational ministries that keep learners engaged, interacted, and developing towards becoming a whole person in their Christian life. The holistic approach is a subject that has received ample attention both in general education and Christian education. It proposes that education should nurture the development of the intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of personhood. Some applications of this approach to Christian education can help balance an individual’s faith formation in that it promotes a more participative and interactive learning community that facilitates holistic growth in a believer’s life. This study deals with three main chapters. The first chapter briefly overviews the historical roots of and the concept of holistic education. Holistic education gained popularity in the late 1970s and became a much more visible educational movement during the 1980s as a reaction to the mechanistic and reductionist concept of education in those days. The second chapter explores some key features of holistic education. Interconnectedness, wholeness, and inclusion are introduced as three typical features of this educational paradigm. These features are related to the whole learning that deals with the holistic development of a learner. The final chapter deals with some possible implications of the holistic education, considering how to revitalize holistic Christian education among the faith community.

In this paper, the researcher argues that the Biblia Pauperum was written for educating converted Jewish Christians in the late medieval period by analyzing the contemporary social and religious context as well as this book’s structure and content. To affirm Jesus as the predicted Messiah in the Hebrew Bible, friars used the typology directly connecting the narratives in the Old Testament to Jesus’ life and mission. In this research, the medieval people’s interpretation of the Bible and ways of theological thinking are investigated into. Even though this book was written for converted Jewish Christian in the late medieval ages, this book provides insight and perspective for today’s Christian education. Because this paper is the first about late medieval picture bibles, it provides a sort of provisional and introductory research for extended research in the future, particularly with regards to applications concerning contemporary Christian education, church history, and literature.

This study emerges from the fact that Korea is rapidly moving towards a multicultural society. This situation may create major conflicts of interest and further threaten the stability of the community. Within that context, this study aims to seek ways in which Christian education can contribute to helping every human being live together, recognizing immigrants to be vulnerable people as God’s children in accordance with the teachings of the Bible in which it is written that all people resemble the image of God. This work has four research topics. First, it confirms the need for a new paradigm of Christianity and Christian education in a multicultural society after researching the current requirements of multicultural education. Second, it identifies the role of Christian education in contributing to the coexistence of hu- mankind in a multicultural society within the ecumenical movement progressed by the World Council of Churches. Third, it tries to establish the role of Christian education from proposals on Christian education present in the ecumenical movement in order to address the problems arising in a multicultural society. Finally, it establishes the direction of Christian multicultural education, based on general cultural education and the understanding gained of the ecumenical movement.

Some ethnic immigrants socialize around their religious communities. The Korean immigrant church in particular is known to function as a social center where Korean immigrants can perpetuate their cultural and spiritual practices in the U.S. However, few studies have directly focused on the social relationships of younger generations sharing the same space in the church with their parent generations. The main research question is this: How do 1.5-and second-generation Korean-American youths perceive their experience with social relationships in their foreign-born parents’ religious community? The author, through qualitative research methods, examines the experiences shared by American-born or American-raised Korean youths involved in their parents’ religious community. This study will provide a space for discussions about the function of the Korean immigrant church in fostering youths’ socio-cultural development and suggest ways to promote better intergenerational relationships through their time spent together at the immigrant church.

This research examines the case for making strong and healthy families. Specifically, it focuses on determining the importance of parental emotion coaching as a counseling skill within a healthy family. First, the research explores three factors that enable healthy families to function: cohesion, adaptability, and communication. These three factors allow members to support, respect, and share with each other. Second, the research examines parental emotion coaching and its role within a healthy family as an important counseling skill. Emotion coaching can be utilized in couple’s therapy, focusing on emotional repair, intimacy, and creating positive effects and changing interaction patterns among couples. In cognitive couple’s therapy, emotion coaching can help couples think deeply about their relationship and uncover how they feel about feelings within the context of metaemotional philosophy.

Realizing human potential has always been a focal point within the field of education. To further discover ways of achieving this objective, this paper deals with the anthropological understanding of Martin Luther, Alfred Whitehead, and Parker Palmer and the applications of their thoughts on education. Luther emphasized language education as a way of realizing human potential and restoring the relationship between God and humans. Whitehead claimed that conceptual power should be developed through epistemological processes, while Palmer presented a compromise between Luther and Whitehead, emphasizing love. Paulo Freire helped them to achieve the balance between theory and practice through the process of critical reflection and liberation. The holistic understanding of education contributes to a Christian interpretation of creation and the identity of the Christian educator. The goal of Christian education can be examined by producing epistemological development, as well as building loving relationships, because meaning is made through dialectical processes in education and the awareness of the meaning of life liberates people, as Paulo Freire indicated.