251 Relational Epistemology and the Art of Living Together 7 of the second-year diversity module and ensured that its accent was on real encounters to go on practicing open listening and keeping one’s own convictions. In year 4, real internationalisation tracks are offered, with a masterclass that, once again, returns to the principle that giving space to cultural and religious otherness secures one’s own space. The element added at this point is that students learn that not every element deemed formational and valuable within their own Christian tradition is core to the Christian faith and practiced by all Christians. Thus, they learn to identify what is core for themselves and what is dependent on how the core of faith has, over time, been translated differently within different cultures. 7.4 CONCLUSION The epistemological formation of Christian trainee teachers requires continuous attention as part of their broad citizenship formation. This is especially true in the case of DCU students because they come from a relatively homogeneous Christian background in which Biblical truth is seen as a given that, many times, remains unquestioned while in wider society there is hardly any public acceptance of Biblical truth claims. As part of their loyalty to their upbringing, DCU students generally want to be faithful rather than open, although they also feel on a more subconscious level an urge to be open to society. To combine critical faithfulness and critical openness—which is fundamental for them to connect simultaneously to themselves, their own (faith) communities and to people and groups with fundamentally different convictions—the analysis of the conversational community’s work proves that they need to learn at least three things. In the first place, they need to learn that critical faithfulness and openness can be combined because they are both related to the Biblical mission of Christians in society and the world. As such, they both need to be part of the training of Christian trainee teachers. This mission, however, has to be explained in its Biblical broadness: not only as spreading the gospel—which focuses on sending—but also as listening and seeing others in their otherness and showing sincere interest in who they are and what their viewpoints are. It is this sincere interest—or Biblical love—that enables to really connect on different levels and with very different groups—including the own—without harming one allegiance by another. In the second place, they need to learn that neither the Christian mission nor the Christian truth claims mean that the Christian teacher holds the truth in his or her person, or in a social network with other Christians. Through bringing
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