304 Chapter 10 heart and hands align with what are seen as necessary directions to take on the macro-, meso- and micro-level of the fragmentation scheme. The three terms in the third column can be identified as the core components for the holistic Christian citizenship formation this study aimed to achieve. They accord with the three key elements of the conversational community’s theology of disclosure presented in Section 2 of Chapter 9: a servant attitude, a thoughtful epistemology and the subjectifying shalom idea. The three identified core components fit together holistically. This means that they are all part of the same integrative approach, from which not one can be isolated, let alone be missed, to really foster social cohesion in a fragmented world. They are all guided by subjectification, which means that they honour one’s personal freedom but at the same time strongly invite to respond to the challenges of otherness and thereby idealistically aim to achieve a sense of belonging. However, subjectifying education with the aim of practicing social justice becomes highly superficial if it is not based on attitude formation aimed at the heart—as an invitation to be in society and to respond to its needs. When talking about others, we should talk of real otherness, which makes it necessary to understand how to connect with people who exhibit very different life conceptions than our own. This reveals the need for an epistemological formation that stimulates humbleness and frees students from the experienced need to uphold truth all by themselves. A relational epistemology helps to be faithful to one’s own convictions and, at the same time, to be open to—and really interested in—others from whom we, as relational creatures, can always learn something. Critical openness and critical faithfulness form, through their balanced tension, the central dynamics of the practice-theory that includes the three identified core components. To train (future) teachers for Christian citizenship in a modern, fragmented society, we need to invite them to be true to themselves, their personal faith and their own cultural and religious background. At the same time, they must be open towards others, otherness and society’s ethnic, cultural and directional diversity. This means inviting them as clear selves to adopt the attitude of service that a fragmented society and fragmented world ask for. To enable them to do so, we need to simultaneously work with them on their epistemological formation. A relational epistemology will help them to combine faithfulness and openness not only in their actions but also in their cognition and emotions. Understanding that the truth they believe in does not stand or fall with their adherence to it—as the strong reliance on socialisation rather than on subjectification currently visible among DCU students suggests—provides a way to open up towards others with vulnerability, to learn from them and
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