In order for one’s faith to be mature, four domains need to be operational—cognitive, affective, behavioral, and volition (realm of the Spirit). You are right that the prevalent, misguided notion that Christian education only addresses the cognitive domain, is a limited view of Christian education. To the extent that these four domains are operational in a person’s life is the extent to which faith is mature. I would argue that Jesus employed all four. But, in addition to this, I think a very important component is the relational issue of faith. I believe the extent to which we are in relationship with God is the extent to which life in Christlikeness is transformational. Perhaps this is the real clue to transformation.

So yes, our faith should influence all aspects of our lives, but I suspect evidence is clear that only to the degree that our connection to God overrides our human cognitive tendency to employ other mental models, are we able to live lives that are truly transformed by God’s grace. For me, it’s all about our relationship with God. Good insight, Tom.

What do others of you think?

I would like to try to engage you in question 4. I would say that we (educators) need to strive live a transformed life where our biblical worldview penetrates all aspects of our lives. We can model this in the classrooms we occupy, at the lunch table when we are sitting across from others on their journeys, in the conference rooms when participating in meetings, etc.

If I understand Sloan correctly, I fear he may be all too accurate. “Christians” do not embrace the grace and faith that they say they have when times get difficult or even during times of celebration. One reason for this is because we (Christian subculture) have labled Christian education is the distribution of information. This is purely a cognitive act.

If, however, this is the way Jesus intended it to be my question would be why did He come down here? He could have avoided the pain of the cross and left it up to the Old Testament prophets. Instead, He chose to come down here, live a transformed life among us, and invite others to join Him. If we (educators) could model this, maybe we could disprove Sloan’s theory.

We can see this phenomenon at several levels. Two examples are, (1) if you are out shopping and return to your car to find that your battery has died and you can’t start your car. All of a sudden your prayer life becomes active and earnest. (2) At a whole different level we see whole churches who use or perpetuate the external locus of control in their members (see Joel Olstein’s et al.).

In terms of Religious Education, the social sciences have always been as much of an informing framework for understanding and “teaching” faith as doctrinal beliefs. And with the continuing cognitive research related to the brain’s functioning I’m certain that the cognitive sciences will continue to be more influential in our understanding of religion and faith as well as pedagogy.