Abraham: A Man of His Time

In this post, Level 3 Catechist Lynn Winkelman shares some of her own preparation for presenting the Abraham materials to the nine to eleven year olds in the Golden Thread Atrium.

Honestly, I dreaded studying Abraham with the children and put it off until this year.  The reason for this is that I have never been comfortable with the “Sacrifice of Isaac.” Like many of you, I was taught that Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s command to kill his son Isaac was evidence that he was a great man of faith. I could never reconcile my own understanding of God with a God that would ask such a thing of a parent. My own daughter asked her father several years ago about this story and what he thought of the “test of obedience” given to Abraham. To my surprise, (because of the tradition I had been raised in), he responded that Abraham actually failed the test by agreeing to sacrifice Isaac. He told her that God never wanted death in his honor.


I came to a new understanding of this story in my EfM class ** and some new materials developed for the Level III Atrium that made the teaching of the whole story of Abraham, including the “sacrifice of Isaac,” congruent with the God of love and life.

The new scholarship on this story suggests that this was a lesson that was intended to show that human sacrifice was unnecessary and never acceptable to God. To understand why this lesson was important we must see Abraham as a man of his time and place. Human sacrifice to the Gods was practiced by many cultures in his part of the world, even sacrifice of ones child. 

So, it should not be so surprising to us that Abraham considered such a command a test of faith. The part of the story where God stops him from killing Isaac demonstrates that, for the descendants of Abraham, human sacrifice would never be a part of their worship or culture. This relationship with the one true God was different from anything Abraham saw around him.

Knowing this, I looked forward to presenting the study of Abraham to the children, including the story of Isaac.


** EfM or Education for Ministry is an ongoing course that meets weekly at Christ Episcopal Church. Speak with Leslie if you would like to learn more!

Essential Lessons

After my last post, I wanted to share something about the theology that the children have lifted up for us in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. There is so much that could be said!  But for now, I'll just say this:

It is so easy to underestimate children, expecting them to like the "cute" stories from the Bible, and wanting to make the stories "fun" to catch their interest.  For me, one of the most significant revelations from the children is their desire for the the most essential understandings of our Christian faith. Awe and wonder at God becoming a tiny baby, joy at the gift of the light of Christ given at Baptism, deep love for Jesus the Good Shepherd of the sheep, and gratefulness for the gift of Jesus in the bread and wine -- these are just a few of the central themes of the Christian message that catechists discovered over and over again in their observations of children.

As a result, in the Good Shepherd Atrium (for 3-6 year olds) we present the heart of our Christian theology to the children.  As they grow we have no need to "go deeper."  Instead we continually draw the circle wider to bring in more for the children to ponder.

The Materials

In my last post, I talked about some of the ways that the atrium environment meets the developmental needs of the children, and fosters independence. Here, I want to look a bit more closely at the materials, and how they were chosen for inclusion in the atrium. I think this is one of the best things about the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd -- the materials at each level have essentially been chosen by the children themselves.  

Just like Dr. Montessori, we catechists are scientists at heart and we are charged with the job of observation. Each week, we make an effort to sit and watch the children as they interact with the materials and each other. Our desire is to learn about their spiritual lives. We watch to see which materials children are repeatedly drawn to and which materials bring them joy. We listen carefully to their comments and questions and prayers, and we study their drawings for insight.  

This practice has been in use by catechists for over fifty years!  Our founders, Sofia Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi, and their colleagues began by making materials - small figures for meditating upon scripture passages, model altars and altar pieces, maps of the land of Israel -- all for 3-6 year olds. Then they carefully observed the children's responses. Pieces that the children were drawn to again and again found a permanent place on the shelves.  Materials that appeared in drawings and brought the children contentment were kept.  But legend tells of many amazing materials - beautifully handcrafted items that catechists LOVED - that were put away because they just didn't speak to the children.  Some of our presentations were actually developed by the children themselves, when they brought together materials and concepts in their meditation and catechists observed their connections!

Over many years, patterns began to emerge. Specific presentations were treasured by the children at specific ages, and the decisions about what materials would be presented, when, and to whom, were made.   This process of observation and refinement has been practiced with all three levels of the Catechesis, and is still at work in atria around the world today.

This is the thing that I love -- the materials really do speak to the developmental needs and spiritual yearnings of the children.  And I am so grateful to the wise and faithful children and catechists, across continents and years, who have made it so.