Binding Things Together: Teaching as a Religious Activity

Description

'There is something mysterious and wonderful about the act of teaching someone how to do something. Good teaching can lead to personal and social transformation.' In Binding Things Together, author Ronald Noone contends that religion and education remain indispensable vehicles for living authentic, rewarding and valuable lives so long as these terms are not confined by the institutions that seek to claim ownership of them. One of the many definitions of religion, from the Latin 'religio', means 'to consider carefully', while re ligare means 'to re-connect' following Saint Augustine. The author's preferred definition for religion is 'that which binds things together'; religion helps makes sense of existence or gives a purpose. Teaching is the act whereby showing someone how to do something can also give a sense of purpose to both the teacher and the learner. The author addresses the new gods appearing in schooling and education: the god of technology; the pursuit of 'wellness' in school settings; the obsession with data and metrics; and the influence of business on education, with the corporatisation of school boards and the demand that the chief responsibility of schools is to prepare students for the workforce. Binding Things Together addresses the cultural questions of the day that are facing parents, teachers, school administrators, clergy and religious laity. The author argues that the broad range of teaching is, at a fundamental level, a religious activity.

The Revd Dr Ronald Noone began his career as a secondary school teacher in New South Wales before studying theology at Trinity College, University of Melbourne. He also holds a Master of Sacred Theology from the General Theological Seminary in New York and a PhD in Education from New York University. He has been a Chaplain at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria; Director of the Anglican Department of Education in Perth, Western Australia; Lecturer at Murdoch University; Visiting Professor of Religious Education at the General Theological Seminary in New York; Vicar of All Saints' Newtown in Geelong; Examining Chaplain for the Diocese of Melbourne; and Head of Religious Education and then Senior Chaplain at Melbourne Grammar School. Since retiring in 2012, Ronald has conducted a number of locums in the Diocese of Melbourne, and in 2016 he was Interim Rector at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York.