The ancient Narratio as an ecclesial participation in the divine pedagogy : a study of its sources and proposal for its current application
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Authors
Innerst, Sean
Issue Date
2010-11
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Narratio , Catholic catechesis , Augustine of Hippo , De catechizandis rudibus , Narrative theology , Haggadah , Anamnesis , Divine pedagogy , Catechetical methodology , Catechetical content
Alternative Title
Abstract
This study represents a work of practical narrative
theology which originates in the notable prominence of an ancient
form of catechesis in a modern document, the General Directory
for Catechesis (GDC), issued in 1997 by the Sacred Congregation
for the Clergy in the Vatican. The GDC first mentions narratio
explicitly in number 39 in the form of an imperative:
"Catechesis, for its part, transmits the words and deeds of
Revelation; it is obliged to proclaim and narrate them and, at
the same time, to make clear the profound mysteries that they
contain." It is under the weight of that obligation that this
study came to be.
Narratio, or the narration of salvation history, which was
a standard part of the catechesis of the Church of the fourth and
fifth centuries gave way to the exigencies of a changing Church
in which the catechetical focus turned from adults, who needed a
Judeo-Christian worldview to replace a Greco-Roman one, to
children who had grown up in communities shaped by a Christian
vision.
This doctoral thesis proceeds by, first, surveying Roman
Catholic magisterial teaching immediately preceding the issuance
of the GDC to trace the roots of this apparent innovation within
an institution which is otherwise noted for its conservatism.
After establishing the context and character of the GDCs call
for revival of narratio, this thesis examines the historical
setting, rhetorical structure, and function of narratio in
Augustine of Hippo's De catechizandis rudibus, and then its
scriptural precursors in the two Testaments in order to discover
how this narration functioned in the Jewish and Christian
communities which practiced haggadic and anamnetic recitals of
God's saving works as a means to the formation and maintenance of
communal identity.
This study seeks to establish that a positive response to
the GDC's call is as much warranted by the evidence provided in
the biblical and post-biblical Jewish and Christian practice of
ritual/covenantal remembrance as by the Catholic magisterial
imperative in the GDC. In this, it may aid to inform and direct
such a positive response to the GDC for the revival of the
catechetical narratio.
Description
Citation
Innerst, Sean (2010) The ancient Narratio as an ecclesial participation in the divine pedagogy: a study of its sources and proposal for its current application, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/4948>