Audiovisual presentations and study material related to various chapters of Life to the Full

These materials have been used in professional development programs for religion teachers. In some instances, the presentations include material from earlier versions of the final text in the book chapters.

They complement and fill out the discussion of topics and issues in the book. The materials are not extensive or exhaustive in terms of studying the topics. But they set out to provide a useful starting point for considering and further examining the various questions.

The audiovisual material is particularly relevant for chapters 5, 6 and 7 on consumerist religion.

Click here to return to the Download page for the book Life to the full

A study of 'Consumerist Religion', as related to chapters 5, 6 and 7.

A different perspective on secularisation: How consumerist lifestyle, fuelled by ‘media orchestrated imaginations of what life should be like', functions like a religion for many people: Implications for religious education

Secularisation is often understood as a decline in the prominence of religion in personal and social life. But it may well be that many secularised people are still quite religious – it is just that their functional religion is a consumerist lifestyle. This topic is specially concerned with the way the 'media-marketing-advertising' complex provides an iconography that is influential in shaping people's feelings and behaviour in relation to expectations of the 'good life' (or 'life to the full')

Click here for the introductory title powerpoint for the presentations

This is a short repeating powerpoint introducing the other presentations. It plays up the theme "Imagine a beautiful life -- Imagine a comfortable life" etc

NOTE: Audio commentaries covering the two powerpoint presentations are linked in here. The idea is to download both and play the audio (stopping and re-starting according to the slides) while going through the powerpoint. Viewers can advance the slides at their own pace. The material relates to the text in chapters 5, 6 and 7.

Click here or photograph for Powerpoint Presentation 01

Click for audio mp3 file that goes with the powerpoint as a commentary

(Alternative wma file of the audio commentary)

Part 1. Emerging understandings of relationships between the media, religion, secularisation and marketing – the research literature

 

Including both Part 2 and summary introduction to Part 3

Part 2. Decoding the mise -en- scènes of Medieval Christianity and Contemporary Consumerist Lifestyle – A research pedagogy

Part 3. Implications for religious education: appraising the spiritual / moral dimension of consumerist lifestyle

Click here or photograph for Powerpoint Presentation -02

Click for the audio mp3 file audio that goes with the powerpoint as commentary

(Alternative wma file of the audio commentary)

 

Link to Materials with details of Part 3 -- critical evaluation of contemporary consumerist lifestyle

Links to material for details in Part 3 that are not included in Powerpoint Presentation-02. This fills out the discussion of the following:-

1. Teasing out the mise- en -scène of contemporary lifestyle with a view to informing education and religious education

2. From bespoke for the wealthy towards designer status for whosoever can afford it

3. Why do people shop to buy designer status?

4. Anyway, what is wrong with having designer branded goods? A question of balance.

5. How visual imagery in the media resonates with the consumerist mise- en -scène and conditions people's thinking and behaviour

This html file includes some of the initial material in Part 2, elaborating further on similarities and differences between the mise-en-scene of medieval Christianity and contemporary consumerist lifestyle. It then provides a long segment looking into the critical evaluation of contemporary consumerist lifestyle which was only signposted in Part 3 of the presentation 02 above.

ConsumeristReligion-Parts2and3.html

 

The need for a critical, inquiring research oriented pedagogy and more issue-related content
Related to chapter 10

Section06-CriticalPedagogy-SD.html

This material has much of the chapter 10 text together with some illustrations in video and powerpoints.

Below are links to some materials used when looking at how religion teachers might use an inquiring, research-oriented pedagogy for learning and teaching about the following religious topics.

These materials are not comprehensive. They try to suggest how the critical inquiring pedagogy considered in chapter 10 might be followed through into the teaching of religious topics as well as spiritual/moral issues as was empahasised in chapter 10

Prayer and teaching pupils about prayer in religious education
Part 1- Experiential

Part 2 General issues 		Issues for the teaching of Church history, and pupils' historical perspective on the development of the Christian church
The prominence of ‘story' and ‘story-telling' related to the interpretation of Scripture:  Issues for religious education Teaching morality in religious education and some ideas about moral/values education.
Key issues for teaching about Jesus across the K – 12 religion curriculum  

 

The changing landscape of contemporary spirituality
Related to chapters 3 and 4

The discussion of consumerist lifestyle as functioning like a religion, as covered at the top of this webpage, is part of a more systematic discussion of secularisation -- in particular a study of how and why there has been such significant changes since the 13th century.

Before his death, Lutheran scholar Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his cell in a Nazi prison in 1944:

The secular movement which I think had begun in the 13th century has in our time reached a certain completion. People have learnt to cope with all the questions of importance without recourse to God as a working hypothesis. In questions concerning science, art and even ethics this has become an understood thing which one scarcely dares to tilt at anymore

This material sets out to help show how and why secularisation occurred since the 13th century. It makes use of the contrasts between medieval christian spirituality and contemporary secular spirituality. It also serves as a prelude to the discussions of 'consumerist religion' in chapters 5-7.

Section03-ChangingSpiritualityPartA-SD.html

Section04-ChangingSpiritualityPartB-SD.html

 

A discussion of religious faith and spirituality
As related to chapter 2

This material looks into ideas about Christian Faith and raises questions about what it means to 'educate' faith.

Section02-EducatingInFaith-SD.html

 

 

Issues with language in the discourse of religious education
As related to chapter 9

This material goes into more detail than chapter 9, together with some illustrative cartoons. It shows how there have been problems with the language of religious education since the 1970s.

913-Section05-LanguageOfRE-SD.html
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For any inquiries, contact g.rossiter@bigpond.com