‘Faithfully Christian Education’ An Exploration into What it is That Inspires Christians to Research and Practice Education in the Twenty First Century. (Theological Reflection as a Resource for Christians in the School)

This paper begins from within the UK context of Church school education and then offers insights into wider cultures and other contexts which will include Australian Church schools. It does this by initially outlining the historical context in the UK which is currently trying to maintain an understanding of what it is for a school to be both ‘distinctively Christian and inclusive’. One way to do this is by opening the concept and to ask what it means for any school to be ‘faithfully Christian’. To develop this, this paper offers research that has been conducted into listening to what it is that motivates Christian practitioners in their current practice. In overview terms this theological reflection can be articulated into three areas which are 1) ‘The Character of God’, 2) ‘The General Action of God’ and 3) ‘The Specific Mission of God’. These research findings are then given further reflection as to what it means for a school to be faithfully Christian by having staff who are faithfully Christian. This is applied into educational context considering how a Church school might be a worshipping community.