Binding Things Together : Teaching as a Religious Activity

‘There is something mysterious and wonderful about the act of teaching someone how to do something. Good teaching can lead to personal and social transformation.’ In Binding Things Together, author Ronald Noone contends that religion and education remain indispensable vehicles for living authentic, rewarding and valuable lives so long as these terms are not confined by the institutions that seek to claim ownership of them. One of the many definitions of religion, from the Latin ‘religio’, means ‘to consider carefully’, while re ligare means ‘to re-connect’ following Saint Augustine. The author’s preferred definition for religion is ‘that which binds things together’; religion helps makes sense of existence or gives a purpose. Teaching is the act whereby showing someone how to do something can also give a sense of purpose to both the teacher and the learner. The author addresses the new gods appearing in schooling and education: the god of technology; the pursuit of ‘wellness’ in school settings; the obsession with data and metrics; and the influence of business on education, with the corporatisation of school boards and the demand that the chief responsibility of schools is to prepare students for the workforce. Binding Things Together addresses the cultural questions of the day that are facing parents, teachers, school administrators, clergy and religious laity. The author argues that the broad range of teaching is, at a fundamental level, a religious activity.