Educating for Redemptive Community

Jesus made claims about redemptive community throughout his ministry when he called people to extravagant grace. Even in the midst of the oppression of his day, Jesus preached and taught that redemptive community was possible if his followers would simply stop hoarding, hiding, and excluding. What a prophetic word for today in the midst of modern day oppression and fears of scarcity! In this edited volume, in honor of religious education scholars Jack Seymour and Margaret Ann Crain, eight of their PhD advisees--each scholars in their own right--join Seymour and Crain to lay out their vision of redemptive community. Rooted in their own scholarship, each contributor proposes ways in which Jesus' vision of redemptive community can become reality in churches and congregations, and in our larger world. In addition to essays by Jack Seymour and Margaret Ann Crain, scholars contributing to this volume include Dori Grinenko Baker, Reginald Blount, Evelyn L. Parker, Mai-Anh Le Tran, Leah Gunning Francis, Carmichael Crutchfield, Debora B.A. Junker, and Denise Janssen. The foreword by Mary Elizabeth Moore and afterword by Seymour and Crain set the volume in the larger context of the church and academy. "Educating for Redemptive Community is a treasure of cutting edge scholarship on the ability of education within faith communities to address the world's most pressing issues. . . . There could not be a more fitting description of a faithful response to the needs of a world in crisis, nor for the deep and abiding values that flow through Crain's and Seymour's years of individual and collaborative work. This volume leads readers into an illuminating exploration of both." --Lucinda Huffaker, Executive Secretary, Religious Education Association, Director of Supervised Ministries, Yale Divinity School "The fabric of faith that has been woven in the lives of Crain and Seymour is visible in the themes of these contributors--how belief transforms individuals and communities for living together with a public face of faith. These essays reveal a patchwork quilt of hope and challenge for all who seek to live in response to God's call." --Elizabeth F. Caldwell, Professor Emerita, McCormick Theological Seminary Adjunct Professor, Vanderbilt University Divinity School "In this collection of essays, these scholar-practitioners of religious education . . . reflect upon what it means to educate for redemptive community. . . . This book is a testimony to their commitment to religious education and theological education." --Virginia Lee, Associate Professor of Christian Education & Director of Deacon Studies, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary "This book is a guiding light for all people committed to working for the common good. . . . Crain and Seymour's diversity of background, denomination, ethnicity, and nationality offer a dialogical approach to tackling issues that threaten the future of life on earth. . . . Crain and Seymour continue to make significant contributions to both the content and the processes that foster faithful and redemptive ways of living." --Linda J. Vogel, Professor Emerita, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Denise Janssen is Assistant Professor of Christian Education at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. She is the author of Fostering Faith: Teaching and Learning in the Christian Church (2014) and Reclaimed: Faith in an Emerging Generation (2015).