The Dogmatic Approach to Religious Education

The dogmatic (also referred to as traditional or

magisterial or catechism) approach to religious

education has been used for many years and

implemented in Australian Catholic schools from

their beginning up until the 1960’s.

Central to the dogmatic approach is the text the

Catechism.

The catechism, a text containing the doctrines or teachings of the church,

was developed in medieval times.

Following the development of the printing press, the catechism reflected

the transition from oral instruction to written instruction which was

distributed widely across the world.

Ryan (2007) states that by the twelfth century a question- and- answer

format was developed to enable the contents of the Catechism to be

memorised.

Further distribution of the text occurred in 1529 when Martin Luther

published a catechism to be used for instructing children.

In 1885 a decision made by the Plenary Council to

have a uniform catechism resulted in the

characteristic text being the teaching resource for

thousands of Australian school students.

This text was used for nearly eighty years, with

the last revision being released in 1936

(Rummery, 1977).

Limitations

Rummery (1977) indicates that there was little attention

paid to the history of the Bible or the history of the church

and very limited direct teaching from the Bible.

The teacher was viewed as an authoritarian whose role was

to ensure that their students memorised the Catechism.

This was also an expectation of the teachers, parents and

the clergy.

Rummery (1977) suggests that the dogmatic approach

relied on memorisation and learned facts and as a result

removed a connection to God.

In addition, the approach did not provide opportunities to

critique the doctrine or question.

Further, the lack of personal involvement and unrelatedness

to the real world disconnected the learning from translating

the teachings into the student’s life.

AdvantagesThere were a number of advantages in using the dogmatic approach to religious

education.

The approach allowed the language of religious education to remain unchanged.

The approach required limited teacher training due to the question- and- answer

format.

It enabled the teachings of the text to be passed down from generation to

generation.

The teachings provided understanding of Christian life, the truth, and therefore

limited confusion in the recipients of the knowledge (Rummery, 1977).

The dogmatic approach was used for many years

as a method of sharing religious teachings.

The disadvantages of the approach eventually

outweighed the advantages and therefore was

progressively phased out of religious education.

Reflection

Identify aspects of teaching religion and

teaching people to be religious in a

particular way.