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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious life & practice > Religious instruction
When the Secular Becomes Sacred: Religious Secular Humanism and its
Effects Upon America's Public Learning Institutions is an analysis
of American K-16 public learning institutions from a unique
perspective. Secular teachings, such as social-emotional learning,
and sexual and identity philosophies, are behind movements to
capture the minds and hearts of America's students. Contemporary
learning institutions resemble places of worship in several ways.
This book will explain how this is the case. From educational
philosophy to classroom practices, this book exposes tactical
intersections between secular humanism and religion. In today's
secular culture there is strong evidence to support the notion that
worship of the self, the individual, has usurped the historically
sacred place reserved for a transcendent deity. The fact is that
this worship of the individual is certainly more fashionable and
attractive than traditional orthodoxy or evangelical theology, in a
today's society. Bolstering this self-worship are mandated
programs, such as those found in states' controversial
History-Social Science Frameworks, English-Language Arts
Frameworks, and new sex education programs. The intention of this
book is to provide the reader a realistic look into the effects of
religious humanism upon America's schools and students. Readers
will be challenged with the notion that separation of church and
state is being ignored for the political advantage of some.
Furthermore, the reader will be presented with the argument that
self-worship has become more attractive than traditional
Judeo-Christian religious teachings, leading to the individual
becoming both the worshipper and the object of such self-worship.
The public university classroom is a place where socialization
still occurs: it's where students learn to be citizens of the
world. Having attended to political correctness and
multi-culturalism, universities are now facing the issue of
spirituality in their quest to educate the whole person. In this
book, Chris Anderson takes up this task by carefully exploring how
a professor of faith can help a public university accomplish its
pluralistic mission. Anderson illustrates how the study of secular
literature throws fresh light on the ways in which the Bible can be
read. He also deftly shows how a sympathetic study of the Bible
trains secular readers for understanding the abiding significance
of the Western literary canon as a kind of scripture. Anderson thus
gives readers a book that is as much about the experience of a
faithful teacher and the proper ends of education as it is about
discovering the right ways to read texts-be they sacred or secular.
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