{"id":786,"date":"2008-01-16T00:28:01","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T04:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/786"},"modified":"2007-12-31T15:28:46","modified_gmt":"2007-12-31T19:28:46","slug":"book-review-fashion-me-a-people-by-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/786","title":{"rendered":"Book review: Fashion Me a People by Harris"},"content":{"rendered":"

The title of Maria Harris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 work, Fashion Me a People<\/a>: Curriculum in the Church <\/em> (Louisville: Westminster\/John Knox Press, 1989), engages the reader from the outset. Here is a work about the Church claiming its identity as the people of God to live out its pastoral vocation. Anyone who is passionate about being God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people and the particular call \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to end our isolation from others by living each day of our lives rooted \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6in the Christ,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d will want to read, explore and most importantly engage this work. However, it is not a book for the pastor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s library or for the Christian educator\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resource shelf alone. It is a work that is written for reading together as the church community and is written to engage both clergy and laity. It is a book written to and for the church with sound theological reason and practical exercises, not only for group reflection but also for group participation. <\/p>\n

harris.gif<\/p>\n

Harris begins with an acknowledgment of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the first portrait of church curriculum,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d found in Acts 2:42, 44-47. While the reader may consider her ideas new, her basis is found within the early church! From these passages, she identifies \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the set of forms\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is the core of the educational ministry of the church.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She expands the definition of curriculum to include \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all the facets of the Church\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and thereby enlarges the definition of education as well. Her poetic description of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creative force as art allows for imagining the Creator\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s activity at work within God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people and moves the reader from a narrowly defined view for whom and where Christian education takes place. Harris stresses that education is more than what occurs in Sunday School and that is not just for children only. Noteworthy is her expansion of the narrow definition of curriculum as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153printed, published resources.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In her broader approach and reliance on the Acts passage, she grasps a fuller definition of curriculum to include all of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153forms through which the church educates, such as worship, proclamation, community, and service.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n

The book itself is well outlined and lends itself to the vital \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fashioning\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people. Part One speaks of the context of educational ministry with the crucial understanding that the church has both a pastoral and educational vocation. She unpacks her broader definition of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153curriculum\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by noting the historically broader use of the term within the church and the contemporary challenges that seek reclamation of the broader definition. Perhaps this first section is a bit redundant but understandable on Harris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 part to overemphasize that which has been under emphasized. Part Two follows with a breakdown of how the whole life of the church is curriculum, by identifying the curriculum of community, prayer, teaching, proclamation, and service. Here is where Harris offers a blueprint, a catalyst, for the reader to work with others in their particular communal setting. Part Three calls for planning of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153practice of fashioning\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which is, claims Harris, an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153artistic process.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The artistic work is then guided through an especially strong practice and reflection section found at the end of each of her chapters. <\/p>\n

Harris meets her goal. She provides a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153serious\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153understandable\u00e2\u20ac\u009d work to engage both laity and clergy, thus reaching the total community. In her introduction, she notes that she desires her work to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153provide the leverage we need to move toward a more vital educational understanding and practice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The only way her work will provide the leverage we need is for us, the people of God \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the church \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to embrace this work and offer our community for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fashioning\u00e2\u20ac\u009d her title, and most importantly, God desires. <\/p>\n

Reviewed by guest blogger: Deborah Carlton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of Maria Harris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 work, Fashion Me a People: Curriculum in the Church (Louisville: Westminster\/John Knox Press, 1989), engages the reader from the outset. Here is a work about the Church claiming its identity as the people of God … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,37,36],"tags":[275,99],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews-recommendations","category-congregational-life","category-curriculum","tag-curriculum","tag-harris"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}