• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.68
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• pp.175-216
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• 2021

This essay aims to seek an alternative model of catechesis, as this form of education faces various challenges from the Korean Church especially during COVID-19 pandemic. For a long time, catechesis in the Korean Church narrowly focused on the act of producing Christians who would be loyal to the local church, rather than focusing on nurturing members loyal to Christ, an issue that has been problematized in recent publications on catechesis. Thus, the loss of social trust in the Korean Church and the decline of its public image exemplify how this type of catechesis as disciple-making for local church's benefit, mostly nurtures a vertical dimension of faith. The current teaching and learning method mostly employs a unilateral transfer of doctrine from the teacher to the learner and emphasizes the memorization of doctrine. This type of instruction renders the catechesis as the most lackluster and outdated form of Christian education. This essay aims to reconceptualize the traditional model of catechesis. This essay first critically evaluates current situations of catechesis and presents several alternative meanings on the concept of doctrine. Then it explores the theories of catechesis through different models posed by Christian educators such as John Westerhoff III and Richard Osmer. The final section is devoted to presenting an alternative form of catechesis that focuses on seeking holistic faith.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.63
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• pp.39-64
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• 2020

COVID-19 is sweeping the world, and it is in crisis in all aspects of politics, economy, culture, and religion. As people experience the beginning and spread of COVID-19, wince and re-spread, the people are living in anxiety and depression. Because of the COVOD-19 crisis, Korean churches were unable to provide on-site worship, and online worship began, and churches that started on-site worship also performed online worship. In the case of church schools, the functions of fellowship and education were paralyzed and many are offering online Sunday service only. Many people eagerly want to go back to what it was before COVID-19, but it seems difficult because COVID-19 has become a global issue and a pandemic situation. We can't wait to get better out of this. In the COVID-19 crisis, the church was unable to properly handle the church's original work and to fully fulfill the mission of education. The response of many churches was to postpone the planned ministry to the second half of 2020. Now, we should try to set a new direction and prepare specifically to move in the new direction. With this perspective, this paper studied the direction of Christian education in the post COVID-19. Specifically, the theoretical basis of the direction of Christian education in the post COVID-19 was found in the theory of Agape's encounter, Catechesis theory, and diakonia theory, and specific directions were suggested according to these theories. Specifically, based on the theory of Agape's encounter, Christian education that emphasizes the encounter with the natural environment, Christian education that emphasizes the encounter among family members, Christian education that emphasizes the encounter among citizens of the world, and Christian education that emphasizes the encounter through online were presented. Based on the Catechesis theory, Christian education copping with the attack of heresy was presented. Finally, based on the diakonia theory, Christian education of service for society and Christian education of service based on data were presented.