305 Conclusion and Discussion 10 to even deepen the own faith convictions. It also helps them to put their faith convictions into practice outside of their own Christian comfort zones, which belong to the third core component—namely, the practice of social justice in a fragmented world and society. The order in which this paragraph presents the three core components shows that, while the processes are meant to be exercised simultaneously, the order within the practice-theory is that the heart (basic attitude) precedes the head (epistemology) and the hands (social justice). A fundamental premise of this practice-theory is that acceptance of and acquaintance with otherness create space for the real self and its deeper formation. This premise deserves further attention from the Reformed Christian faith community in the Netherlands, given that its strong reliance on the implicit socialising forces of the own group is severely challenged by radical individualisation. The combination of openness and faithfulness that this practice-theory proposes does justice to citizenship when defined as broadly and dynamically as ‘the art of living together’ (Prideaux, 1940) and accords with citizenship education as ‘the art creating social cohesion by inviting students to connect; to each other, the community, society and the world; and to flourish themselves within these connections’. It corrects a distorted interpretation of the old adagio by Groen van Prinsterer (1876) that ‘in our isolation lies our strength’, which does not refer to the social and geographical isolation that has become visible in Dutch society, but to the ability to stand alone as a small, faithful, confessing minority in the midst of and at the service of a broader, ideologically disagreeing society. To practice the combination of faithfulness and openness—and be challenged and formed personally, epistemologically and socially—trainee teachers from the Reformed Christian faith community need to practice with real, personal and physical encounters outside of their safe social comfort zones. These encounters with higher levels of diversity and complexity form a necessary part of faith-based teacher training today. To adopt that as a leading principle for the curriculum is, in the first place, a holistic thing to do, in the sense that it includes knowledge and respect for democratic values, the development of social and societal competences, knowledge about and respect for all types of diversity, including religious views on reality, and the establishment of a school culture that stimulates such practices. In the second place, it is a theological thing to do, in the sense that it establishes a spiritual link between one’s own flourishing and one’s connectedness to others, which, based on God’s creational law, starts with reconciliation with God Himself. This approach responds to the central research question formulated in the introduction to this dissertation: How can a holistic approach to education
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