creativity in religious education

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6 Creativity at the Intersection of art and Religion

Deborah J. Haynes is a Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado at Boulder, former Chair of the department from 1998-2002, and founding Director of a residential academic program in the visual and performing arts from 2003-2011. She is an artist and the author of six books including Bakhtin and the Visual Arts (1995), The Vocation of the Artist (1997), Book of This Place: The Land, Art, and Spirituality (2009), Spirituality and Growth on the Leadership Path: An Abecedary (2012), and Bakhtin Reframed (2013).

• Published: 03 February 2014
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What does creativity mean in the study of the arts and religious traditions? In discussing this question, the chapter begins with general definitions of creativity and the creative process, then examines in more detail how creativity intersects the arenas of visual art and religion. Using an interpretive model based on categories of creator, object, viewer, and context, examples are drawn from diverse cultures. Issues of diversity and cultural differences in the interpretation of creativity within and outside of religious traditions, as well as the relationship of creative artistic work to contemplative practice, are also addressed.

What does creativity mean in the study of art and religion? Or, more specifically, how is creativity understood throughout history and across cultures in relation to the arts and religious traditions? This chapter may be differentiated from more general creativity articles or from discipline-specific discourse because it addresses these questions directly. Following this brief introduction, the first section defines creativity both generally and specifically in relation to the arts and religion. The second section addresses the creative process itself, while the third section offers an interpretive model centered on the categories of creator, object, viewer, and context. In these two sections, examples are drawn from a range of artistic traditions in the visual arts, though the model is applicable to all of the visual and performing arts. The conclusion identifies two significant issues for ongoing exploration, especially diversity and cultural differences in the interpretation of creativity, and the relationship of creative work in the arts to contemplative practice within and outside of religious traditions.

6.1 Definitions

Like the word “culture,” creativity is difficult to define because it is so multivalent. Within different disciplinary arenas, definitions of creativity can be quite specific. For example, since the late 1940s tremendous energy has been expended in creativity studies in psychology and education, with the establishment of two major scholarly journals, a creativity encyclopedia, and numerous publications. 1 Analogously, in the visual, performing, and literary arts, volumes on creativity tend to deal with the creative process of productive individuals. 2

In cultures of the European west, three major conceptions of creativity can be traced to Plato, Aristotle, and Kant, respectively. 3 The earliest discussion of creativity in the arts can be found in Plato’s short dialogue, the Ion . 4 There, Plato suggested that creative activity is dependent upon a muse or external divine power that provides inspiration for the performer, poet, or artist. But Plato’s view of inspiration and creativity cannot be separated from his understanding of imagination. In the Republic (Books VI, VII, X), he articulated a view of imagination as an inferior capacity of the mind, a product of the lowest level of consciousness. 5 The visions of poets such as Homer, as well as the products of artistic creativity more generally, were part of the mantic or irrational world of belief and illusion. As such, they were inferior to philosophy and mathematics, which were higher forms of knowledge. For Plato, human creativity was therefore mimetic and derivative, never able to claim access to divine truth. 6

In contrast to this idea, Aristotle developed the notion of art as craft, a process whereby the artisan’s plan is imposed upon a material to create an object, but not necessarily a new form or new thing. If Plato was mainly concerned to protect the polis from the problems of idolatry, Aristotle’s contribution to developing ideas about creativity and imagination must be seen on a more psychological level. In On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection , he shifted attention to the psychological workings of imagination, interpreting it primarily as the capacity to translate sense perception into concepts and rational experience. Because of our imaginative images and thoughts, we are able to calculate and deliberate about the relationship of things future to things present, which has enormous implications for creative activity. 7

Kant’s articulation of creativity as a function of genius established a third model that has been influential in all modern and postmodern approaches to artistic creation. According to Kant, a genius is capable of establishing new rules, developing new works of art, and evolving new styles. These processes are thoroughly dependent upon imagination. Like the Greeks, Kant saw imagination as the mediator between sense perception and concepts, but he also insisted that it is one of the fundamental faculties of the human soul. 8 Without the syntheses of imagination, we would be unable to create a bridge between these other mental faculties. In other words, imagination fuses sense perception and thinking so that creativity is possible.

But there was an essential difference between the earlier premodern conceptions of the Greek philosophers and Kant’s distinctly modern view. Whereas the premodern philosophers saw imagination as dependent upon preexisting faculties of sense perception and reason, modern philosophers such as Kant posited the imagination as an autonomous faculty, both prior to and independent of sensation and reason. 9 In his Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Judgment , Kant described imagination as a free playful speculative faculty of the mind, “purposiveness without a purpose.” This free play would lead to artistic creativity, as Romantic philosophers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge would also argue. 10

These ideas have been enormously influential in all subsequent philosophies of creativity in European-based cultures. Since becoming a subject of analysis in the late nineteenth century, creativity has continued to generate much interest across various disciplines. By the twentieth century, the word “creator” was applied to all of human culture, including the sciences, new technologies, and politics.

Most modern definitions of creativity emphasize qualities of originality and novelty, although such definitions may be challenged, as we shall see. Originality may involve making connections between what was previously unconnected or being open to questioning, ambiguity, and unpredictability. Having a positive view of uncertainty, with no particular attachment to outcome, can lead to unprecedented results. Novelty, the ability to create something new, may result from vague, indefinable, and mysterious creative processes. Some definitions of creativity presuppose the idea of an innate capacity, talent, or genius, while others emphasize the role of imaginative inquiry and perseverance. 11

All such definitions imply comparison. To say that something or someone is creative is clearly a judgment, and judgments are always culturally specific. Thus, three ingredients are essential to any general definition of creativity: a culture that has established symbolic rules, a person or group whose activity is marked by novelty, and a group of experts or critics who would validate this person’s innovative efforts. 12 An artist must create an object in a particular medium, which is received and interpreted by a viewer or audience in a unique context.

Within the study of religion, creativity can be linked to cosmogonic myths or myths of origin. Creation myths often combine motifs such as creation ex-nihilo, from chaos, from a cosmic egg or from world parents; creation through a process of emergence; and creation through the agency of an “earth diver,” where water is crucial. 13 For much of human history, creativity was the prerogative of the gods, the earth, or the waters. But somewhere in this history, humans became the creators. By the nineteenth century, Karl Marx and others insisted that we even created the gods. A more positive spin on this idea has been articulated by constructive theologian Gordon D. Kaufman, who argues that the human imagination creates images that provide orientation and guidance for the conduct of human life, and that the divine mystery itself may be understood as creativity. 14

Finally, there are at least eight ways in which trying to explain creativity is fraught with mystery and paradox; and each of these may be linked to religion. 15 First, creativity is ubiquitous and every person is capable of creative acts. But creativity is also often defined as extraordinary, as occurring outside of everyday life. In his description of the ethics of creativity, for instance, Nicholas Berdyaev describes the inner and outer aspects of creativeness. The inner aspect involves creative conception, where one stands, as Berdyaev puts it, “face to face with God” and in touch with the mystery of existence; while the more mundane outer aspect involves one’s creative action in the context of others and the world. 16

Second, novelty is often identified as the single most significant characteristic of creativity. Yet, novelty alone is not sufficient for defining the full range of creativity. In many cultures, including Orthodox Christian, Buddhist, and Native American that we will discuss further, novelty is often shunned in favor of adherence to traditions. This does not mean that individual artists never create new forms—one need only consider the innovations of Russian icon painters Andrei Rublev (c. 1360–1427) and Dionysius (1440–1510).

Third, creativity may be interpreted as different from, or the same as, intelligence in general. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences sets forth an interpretation of intelligence along eight distinctive axes. 17 Of these, creativity figures prominently in at least three of the models, including linguistic, spatial, and musical intelligences. Fourth, creative works of art require knowledge and skill, but simultaneously an artist or performer must maintain freedom from the constraints of these conceptual and technical abilities. A fifth point is related to this: creative people are encouraged, albeit tacitly, to deviate from traditional social norms. Simultaneously, there are limits to what social institutions and social norms will allow. Obviously, an artist’s location within a religious or cultural institution, as well as the particular patronage associated with that location, will determine the balance of technical skill and freedom from constraints.

Sixth, many definitions of creativity assume that there must be a creative product or event of some kind. But creativity is often studied without reference to end products and creative practice may or may not yield an enduring product. Medieval and early modern religious paintings by artists such as Giovanni Bellini (1430–1516) and Lucas Cranach (1472–1553), for instance, were designed to last for centuries, while Buddhist sand mandalas and Navajo sandpaintings exist for only a short time span. In contemporary art, installation and performance art share this latter characteristic, whether done for religious or secular purposes.

Seventh, creativity often requires combining personal characteristics that would seem to contradict one another. For instance, humility and modesty or deep self-confidence and self-assertion may characterize, in turns, a given creative process. Finally, creativity can result from opposite types of motivations, from seeking self-aggrandizement to creating as a gift, from seeking external recognition to treating creative work as contemplative practice. In the contemporary world, artistic work in the service of religious institutions may or may not lead to recognition and sales. But as Robert Wuthnow has documented, many contemporary artists, writers, and poets have turned to spirituality more generally as the source of their creative work. 18

Other issues further complicate the nature and understanding of creativity. For instance, age can be a significant factor in creative productivity, as recent studies have shown. 19 Supported by the research of E. Paul Torrance, Robert Sternberg, and Howard Gardner since the 1960s, some attempts have been made to examine the role of socio-cultural environments on the development of various abilities, including creativity and intelligence. A few published studies have sought to redefine creativity and intelligence among diverse ethnic and racial groups, but little has been written about how gender and class inform opportunities for creative work among non-western cultures. We will return to these issues at the conclusion of the chapter.

In the end, creativity must be understood as a multifaceted construct with diverse characteristics. Distinct ways of processing information and solving problems may be called creative. Creativity occurs in a variety of domains from the visual and performing arts to the sciences and religion. It results in a wide range of subjective outcomes and objective products, from feelings of fulfillment and self-worth to the production of paintings, musical scores, poems, novels, and temporary objects and rituals. 20

6.2 The Creative Process

Like definitions of creativity, the creative process is complex. It may be understood as a process of change, development, and evolution in the organization of both the inner life and in the wider context of society. 21 Dating from the early twentieth century, scholars have tried to define a series of four to six steps in the creative process that may or may not be sequential, but are usually recursive. 22 The first step is usually described as preparation or gathering information, which may be conscious and critical or directed by less willful processes of invention. An artist in any medium must master accumulated knowledge, techniques, and skills; gather new facts; observe; explore; experiment; and discriminate—all of which are conscious and voluntary activities. The second phase involves incubation, during which this will to create is joined by more intuitive, unconscious, and spontaneous dimensions of the process. Many artists, writers, and scientists have described the experience as having religious qualities, from a sense of oceanic consciousness to egolessness and complete mindfulness of the present moment.

The third stage is illumination or insight, when new connections are made spontaneously in what has often been called the “Aha!” experience. In actual creative processes, this type of insight may occur at various stages. The fourth step involves evaluation of what is genuinely valuable and worthy of further development, and what can be discarded. This can be a stage of critical assessment, doubt, and uncertainty. The fifth step is elaboration, which is often identified as the most difficult part of the process. At this point, a person must engage in the hard work to give form to ideas and insights. And here especially, the recursive aspect of the process comes into play, as fresh insights may emerge, new skills must be learned, or innovative approaches must be explored. A sixth stage, which is not always acknowledged among creativity researchers, may involve communication to audiences, viewers, and critics, and levels of external validation of the creative process.

Many factors influence how this process evolves for an individual creator, such as the level of knowledge or insight; intrinsic motivation; courage; and other personal factors such as willingness to take risks, relevance, and the religious or other context that supports an artist’s creativity. 23 The success of a creative process is also dependent upon diverse information-processing skills, such as problem-solving, critical and divergent thinking, cognitive flexibility, and the ability to generate fantasies and visual imagery.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has linked the creative process to the “flow experience,” which, like the steps described above, is not linear. 24 His research among diverse groups showed remarkable consistency in descriptions of this experience, which is characterized by clear goals, immediate feedback, and a balance between challenges and skills. Action and awareness merge in mindfulness and one-pointed attention. Distractions are minimized, and self-consciousness disappears. There is little worry about failure and the sense of time is distorted. Finally, the activity becomes autotelic: it is often experienced as an end in itself. There is no external reason or goal for doing such activities other than the experience they provide. Of course, in reality many creative processes involve both external goals and intrinsic enjoyment.

Given this discussion about creativity and the creative process, how can one best examine the intersection of artistic and religious creativity? One might turn to philosophical or theological texts, such as the work of John Dewey, Nicholas Berdyaev, or Gordon Kaufman, or to the writing and art of historical artists such as William Blake or Philipp Otto Runge. But the early philosophical writing of Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin offers a particularly vivid meditation on the crucial links between artistic creativity and religious and moral issues. 25 Along with ideas developed later in his work, answerability, outsideness, and unfinalizability form the core of his extended, if fragmentary, theory of creativity.

Briefly, answerability offers a way of naming the profound connectedness and reciprocity of creative work to life and to living artistic and religious traditions. Art and life answer to each other much as human beings answer each other’s needs and inquiries in time and space. Answerability was his way of naming the fact that art, and hence the creative activity of the artist, is always related, answerable, to life and lived experience. Bakhtin’s interpretation of creativity emphasized the profound moral and religious obligation we bear toward others. Such obligation is never solely theoretical, but is an individual’s concrete response to actual persons in specific situations.

With the concept of outsideness, Bakhtin criticized and tried to balance Neo-Kantian notions of aesthetic empathy and identification. For Bakhtin, aesthetic and moral activity only begin after empathy, which he interpreted as a form of “living-oneself-into” the experience of another person. Creativity itself is only possible because of boundaries between persons, events, and objects and the outside perspective these boundaries establish. The meaning of a creative act evolves in relation to the boundaries—the inside and outside—of the cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic spheres of culture. Indeed, creative activity must be understood in relation to the unity of culture, including religion.

Unfinalizability emphasizes the unrepeatability and open-endedness of creative acts that make change, including religious transformation, possible. Unfinalizability may help us to articulate complex answers to questions about particular works of art. When is a work finished? Can it ever be truly finished? When is a critical perspective or audience reception complete?

This sense of freedom and openness applies not only to works of literature and art, but it is also an intrinsic condition of our daily lives. Such creativity is ubiquitous and unavoidable, and cannot be separated from one’s responsibility toward others and toward the world. There always is a tentative quality to one’s work, one’s action, and to life itself. Even though a person’s life is finalized in death, that person’s work lives on, to be extended and developed by others, an insight we certainly know in relation to important historical artworks, such as Michelangelo’s Pieta , Leonardo’s Last Supper , or Rembrandt’s paintings of biblical subjects. The creative process, too, is unfinalizable, except insofar as an artist or writer says, “I stop here.” Precisely because it is always open to change and transformation, artistic work can be a model for change in the larger world of cultures and religions.

Thus far we have emphasized the ways in which creativity and the creative process are defined, both as autonomous spheres and in relation to religion. The question of how the creative process may be interpreted vis-à-vis actual works of art, however, has not yet been addressed. The following section therefore proposes a four-part interpretive model that is useful for understanding creativity at the intersection of religion and the arts.

6.3 An Interpretive Model

Any work of art may be analyzed in terms of its creator; the object, event, or ritual produced; the viewer or participant; and the wider cultural context in which it has been made. Here we seek to demonstrate how this model actually works by analyzing diverse cultural examples of creativity that are both artistic and religious. Each element in this model may be identified in several ways. The creator of a work may be an artist or performer, a monk, priest, or shaman. An object may be a physical artifact, aesthetic event, or ritual. A viewer or participant may be individual or the audience may be collective. And the context always exists in a particular time and place. The examples considered here range from Russian Orthodoxy, Tibetan Buddhism, and Navajo religion to European and contemporary art.

Creator. In examining the creator of a work of art in relation to religious values, it is helpful to answer several questions. Are there special personality traits or motivations in artists of all genres? Who gets to be an artist? Issues of caste and class must be considered. What is the role of the artist and how are characteristics defined?

In some cultural traditions the role of the artist remains very carefully prescribed. Traditionally, Russian icon painters and Buddhist thangka painters, for example, were anonymous; and they usually worked under canonical authority and strong artistic tradition where both technical skill and personal conduct were carefully prescribed. Icon “writers” use podlinniki , or pattern books, for painting their subjects. The act of painting an icon is described with the linguistic metaphor of translation: the painter quite literally writes a perevod or translation. 26 Analogously, thangka painters use iconometric diagrams for their work. But within both traditions, opportunities for individual expression may still be found in decorative details such as landscape and ornamentation. 27 Since the twentieth century, however, icons and thangkas have become marketable objects, so the painter’s role has changed radically to a producer for the consumer market.

In stark contrast to such definitions that emphasize anonymity and tradition, there have been at least three historical moments when the artist has been esteemed as a cultural hero: in Greek culture, in the early Renaissance, and in modern Europe, synchronous with the Industrial Revolution. 28 The first coincided with the birth of technology, symbolized in the Greek myths of Prometheus and Daedalus. The promethean impulse, however, has lived up to the present—in movements such as the Russian avant-garde and in individual artists such as Joseph Beuys—where the belief exists that artists are able to transform the world once they are aware of their powers.

The second period involved the separation of the fine arts from the crafts in the late medieval period and early Renaissance. The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were years of transition in Europe. Artists, many of whom were anonymous, worked in royal courts, in cloistered religious communities, and as masons who designed and built palaces, castles, and churches. However, the establishment of private patronage by merchant families and princely courts provided fertile ground for the professionalization of the artist and the emergence of the myth of the artist-hero. Giorgio Vasari founded the first academy of art, the Accademia del Disegno, in 1563, which provided an institutional framework for artists, offering them security and social prestige. There, artists were given both a theoretical and practical education according to the stylistic ideals Vasari had developed in his Lives of the Artists. 29 His artist-hero myth was modeled on the stories of Hercules and Launcelot; and it was primarily internalized to support male artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo.

Another nineteenth-century model for the artist that emphasized the relationship of religion and art was the notion of the artist as interpreter and prophet of God. William Blake and Caspar David Friedrich exemplify this model, but in Philipp Otto Runge we find an especially relevant example of such tendencies in European Romanticism. Runge’s art, and his theories about it, were anchored in his Lutheranism, but they were also deeply informed by his interest in the ideas of the seventeenth-century mystic Jacob Böhme. In his ten-point manifesto Runge claimed that the artist should express “presentiment of God,” “consciousness of ourselves and our eternity,” and “perception of ourselves in connection with the whole.” 30 Romantics such as Runge, Blake, and the Russian Isaac Levitan focused on the artist’s unique experience and ability to give expression to the divine, thus fulfilling their image of the artist as mystic visionary and original creator.

Object, ritual, or event. Many questions may be asked about the objects, rituals, or events that are created. How are objects used? What rituals have developed around them? What is an icon? How do religious objects or rituals function within their particular cultural context? How might seemingly secular objects carry religious connotations?

Ideas about the power of icons within Orthodox traditions can be traced to eighth-century writings by John of Damascus. More recently, Russian philosophers such as Pavel Florenskii have added important interpretive strategies. 31 The icon depicts objects in the visible world of the senses that act as reflections of the invisible world of the spirit. Images, from this perspective, are material prototypes of the divine archetype, which is invisible. Yet an image is not merely a symbol of the archetype, but in the icon the holy is made present. Icons serve as channels of grace and mysterious vehicles of divine power, and are often described as windows or doorways into the sacred.

Navajo sandpaintings, and the chantways of which they are a part, function somewhat differently as participatory healing ceremonies. 32 The number of sandpaintings for any given chantway vary, with as many as 300 sandpaintings still known. However, for any particular ceremony, normally a maximum of four to six sandpaintings would be prepared. Materials might include sand, pollen, charcoal, cornmeal and other plant forms, rocks, ores that are pulverized with a metate (flat stone) and mano (handheld stone). The duration of the ritual varies according to the chantway, from two to fourteen days. Elements in the sandpaintings are stylized, with many forms that look human, but they also might include animals, plants and herbs, sacred objects, natural phenomena, and supernatural beings.

A completely different sensibility can be seen in the work of Constantin Brancusi, who was the first distinctly modern abstract sculptor of the twentieth century. 33 In his many variations of the Beginning of the World , Brancusi used the image of the head or egg to create an extended meditation on creativity itself, which had at least two aspects. First, it concerned the fantasy of self-creating that characterized the work of many avant-garde artists. 34 Second, many of Brancusi’s sculptures on this theme were undertaken during and after the devastation of World War I. The French government had waged a campaign to urge women to have more babies; and there was resistance among women. The government imposed draconian laws against birth control and abortion, but both persisted. In this context the head/egg may be read as having to do with birth and regeneration, including the rebirth of art itself. As Brancusi said in 1927, “There still hasn’t been any art; art is just beginning.” 35 Because his work is open to multiple interpretations, we can also now see its prophetic dimension: for women, this century has opened up new possibilities for control of their bodies. This issue has enormous religious and moral implications up to the present day.

Viewer or audience. All images resemble religious images in the sense that they have the potential to involve the beholder. 36 Icons, thangkas, and sandpaintings, for example, involve the viewer in both public and private rituals. Within Orthodox churches, viewers process around the church in devotional prayer, bowing, and kissing the icons. In a Buddhist temple large images in the central sanctuary would be used by monks and nuns for circumambulation, touching, and meditation. Both Orthodox and Buddhist private homes would have an altar with holy images, as well as other objects such as bowls of offerings or water, lamps or candles, incense, and flowers. Navajo sandpaintings are usually laid out on a clean floor of a small dwelling called a hogan. While family or community members observe, the patient sits in the middle of the sandpainting in order to restore harmony and health. Parts of the painting may be sprinkled over the person.

Such examples emphasize the viewer as participant in religious ritual. But what happens when a viewer examines the photographic documentation of Richard Long’s walks and Andy Goldsworthy’s transitory ice sculptures, or experiences contemporary land art such as James Turrell’s Roden Crater Project ? These artists’ work draws attention to the holiness and sacramental nature of the world in which we live, to the viewer’s own act of perceiving, and to the presence of space. Such qualities may combine to create a powerful sense of awe, as Turrell has observed, connecting us “with something that’s beyond our secular life.” 37

Context. The foregoing discussions of the creator, object, and viewer have already alluded to the arts within worship, healing, and ritual contexts. But other key questions remain. How do the historical time and place of an object’s creation influence its use and interpretation? Or, how do the viewers’ experiences within another time and place influence its ongoing interpretation, especially given commercial pressures? Context is obviously a crucial dimension in analyzing all works of visual and performing art.

One of the most useful articulations of this idea is Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope, which is easy to understand. 38 Coined from the Latin chronos and topos , Bakhtin developed the term to describe the time/space nexus in which life exists and creativity is possible. Neither experience nor artifacts of culture such as art and religion exist outside of historical place and time; and both of these always change. In fact, change is essential. Therefore, subjectivity and created objects are always constituted differently. In short, all conditions of experience are determined by space and time, which are themselves variable. Within any situation there may be many different chronotopes, values, and beliefs. What the idea of the chronotope shows, however, is that those values and beliefs derive from actual social relations. With this concept, Bakhtin was not articulating a phenomenology that would objectify time and space, but rather he sought to describe how experience is made palpable in particular times and particular places.

For example, a Wheel of Existence thangka was traditionally used in a monastery or temple vestibule, where it served as a summary of Buddhist teachings. Now thangkas of the Wheel of Existence are produced for commercial markets in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Analogously, Mother of God icons are produced as small inexpensive commodities and are sold in street markets of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities. Sandpaintings, once created by a singer or chanter only for particular rituals, are now glued to boards and sold as tourist art. Thus, in interpreting an icon, thangka, sandpainting, or any other work of art with religious significance such as the Roden Crater Project , it is most useful to investigate its chronotope.

So far, this chapter has focused on definitions of creativity and the creative process, and it has presented a model for interpreting creativity at the intersection of the arts and religious traditions. But this intersection might more aptly be called a major crossroads of diverse cultures and unique chronotopes. For the historian of art and religion, as well as the contemporary artist and religious practitioner, there are many possible avenues for future exploration.

6.4 Conclusion

Much of this chapter has centered on the development of concepts of creativity in the European west. But other issues regarding creativity deserve amplification, including the following. First, how do diversity and cultural differences affect definitions of creativity and the creative process? Second, what is the relationship of creative work to religious or contemplative practice?

One of the major difficulties in interpreting creativity at the intersection of artistic and religious practices concerns the dearth of reflection about the role of cultural diversity in defining these terms and their interrelationships. Unique models for understanding such creativity exist in diverse cultures of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, including in native traditions from Aboriginal Australia to the American Southwest, as we have tried to demonstrate with brief references to Navajo sandpaintings. 39 Many cultures in Asia and Africa do not have a general term such as creativity. However, other long-existing aesthetic categories have influenced the way creativity is understood and practiced.

Within Zen Buddhism in Japan, for instance, Shin’ichi Hisamatsu has described seven major characteristics of the arts and culture: dissymmetry, simplicity, austerity, naturalness, profundity, unworldliness or freedom from worldly attachments, and quietness. 40 Each of these characteristics must be understood in relationship to the others, as none can be regarded as separate and isolated; and each may be considered as both an aesthetic and religious category. In addition, others have described the idea of “deliberate incompleteness,” which forces the viewer into direct non-analytical experience of arts such as calligraphy, Zen gardens, and Noh drama. The term wabi describes the simplicity and roughness of some Zen arts, where an appreciation of asymmetry, accident, and chance are cultivated. Clearly, the emphasis in this tradition is on nonverbal and non-cognitive experience in the creative process. 41

In considering such an example, we should ask what creativity means in traditions where the artist follows prescribed aesthetic and religious categories and models, or where the work is anonymous. This is obviously a very different understanding of creativity than within most contemporary cultures, where the artist signs his or her name to every work of art. One goal of studying creativity at the intersection of art and religion is to challenge current definitions by demonstrating the importance of tradition and continuity alongside innovation and novelty. Beyond this, it is crucial to investigate more deeply the ways in which diverse traditions define this intersection of the arts and religious experience, as well as how contemporary artists are appropriating historical religions and spirituality more generally. Such issues are a fruitful area for future research.

A second arena for further development concerns the relationship of creative work and contemplative practice within contemporary cultures. Contemplative practice includes forms of meditation such as centering prayer and mindful sitting; movement and walking mindfully; focused experience in nature; certain artistic practices, for instance, making the icons, thangkas, and sandpaintings that have been discussed in this chapter; traditions of calligraphy and manuscript illumination; and liturgical music and dance. Contemplative practices help artists develop the ability to observe, to remain in the present, and to attend to the senses, and are directly related to developing self-discipline, which will have a profound affect on all forms of artistic practice.

In addition to undertaking contemplative practice as an aid to the creative process, artistic creativity itself may be a form of spiritual practice, with both inner and outer dimensions. On the one hand, many traditional artists engage in practices of inner purification through their work, cultivating values such as attentiveness, detachment, patience, humility, and silence. On the other hand, the artist gives form to religious and moral teachings. As such, the work expresses a calling or vocation to make spiritual teachings available to various publics. For artists already interested in or committed to a particular religious practice, this interpretation of art as spiritual practice might be easily incorporated into a working process. Although many secular artists actively repudiate any form of organized religion, the inner dimensions of contemplative practice are readily accessible to all visual and performing artists.

This chapter began by posing the question of what creativity means at the intersection of art and religion. It ends with another question: in the howl of contemporary life, where do we have time or space for the solitude and silence that nurture creativity, except in the religious community and the artist’s studio? The deep kinship and interconnectedness of the visual and performing arts and religious traditions are reflected in creativity, the creative process, and in religious and artistic life.

1. See Creativity Research Journal, published since 1988 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; and Mark A. Runco’s and Steven R. Pritzker’s two-volume Encyclopedia of Creativity (San Diego: Academic Press, 1999) .

2. One of the best examples of this approach remains Brewster Ghiselin’s , The Creative Process: A Symposium (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1954) .

3. This idea is also developed by Philip Alperson , in “Creativity in Art,” The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics , ed. Jerrold Levinson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 454 .

4. Plato , “Ion,” in Two Comic Dialogues , trans. Paul Woodruff (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983) .

5. Plato , The Republic , ed. and trans. by I. A. Richards (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966) .

6. Richard Kearney , The Wake of Imagination: Toward a Postmodern Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988), 105 .

7. Aristotle , On the Soul 3, 7, 431b3-431b9, trans. W. S. Hett (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1935), 179 .

8. Immanuel Kant , The Critique of Pure Reason , translated by Norman Kemp Smith (London: Macmillan, 1958), 112 , 142ff, 146, 165; and Immanuel Kant , The Critique of Judgement , translated by J. C. Meredith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952), 30–32, 86, 89, 115, 210, 212, 236 .

Kearney, Wake , 111–112.

10. Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Biographia Literaria I, ed. J. Shawcross , 1817 (repr., London: Oxford University Press, 1965), 167, 202 .

11. Albert Rothenberg , “Creativity and Psychology,” in Encyclopedia of Aesthetics , ed. Michael Kelly , Vol. 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 459 .

12. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 6 .

13. For a useful overview, see Charles Long’s article on “Cosmogony,” in Encyclopedia of Religion , vol. 3, 2nd ed., editor-in-chief Lindsay Jones (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005), 1985–1991 .

14.   Gordon D. Kaufman , In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993) ; and Gordon D. Kaufman , In the Beginning…Creativity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004), esp. 100–106 .

15. This discussion expands upon Arthur J. Cropley’s brief description of paradox in “Definitions of Creativity,” in Encyclopedia of Creativity , vol. 1, 524 .

16. Nicholas Berdyaev , The Destiny of Man , trans. Natalie Duddington (New York: Harper, 1960), 126–130 .

17. Howard Gardner , Frames of Mind: the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 1983) .

18. Robert Wuthnow , Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001) .

19. See Martin S. Lindauer , Aging, Creativity, and Art: A Positive Perspective on Late-Life Development (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2003) for an excellent summary of recent research that has reversed earlier assumptions about when creativity peaks within the life cycle.

20. Giselle B. Esquivel and Kristen Peters , “Diversity, Cultural,” in Encyclopedia of Creativity , vol. 1, 583–589 .

Ghiselin, Creative Process , 2–3.

22. The original articulation of this multi-step process was in Graham Wallas , The Art of Thought (New York: Harcourt-Brace, 1926) . It was further developed in Ghiselin’s “Preface” to Creative Process in 1954; in Cropley, “Definitions,” 511–524; and in Csikszentmihalyi’s Creativity , 79–81.

Cropley, “Definitions,” 516.

Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity , 110–126.

25. Mikhail M. Bakhtin , Art and Answerability: The Early Essays of M. M. Bakhtin , translated by Vadim Liapunov and Kenneth Brostrom , edited by Michael Holquist (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1990) . For an interpretation of these ideas, see Deborah J. Haynes , Bakhtin and the Visual Arts (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995) , and Deborah J. Haynes , “Answers First, Questions Later: A Bakhtinian Interpretation of Monet’s Mediterranean Paintings,” Semiotic Inquiry 18 (1998): 217–230 .

26. Robert L. Nichols , “The Icon in Russia’s Religious Renaissance,” in William Brumfield and Milos M. Velimirovic , eds., Christianity and the Arts (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 140–141 .

27. Pratapaditya Pal , Art of Tibet, A Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 51–53 . Materials about the training of thangka painters are few. Cf. David P. Jackson and Janice A. Jackson , Tibetan Thangka Painting, Methods and Materials (London: Serindia Publications, 1984) .

28. For a detailed explication of this theme, see Deborah J. Haynes , The Vocation of the Artist (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 101–108 .

29. Hans Belting , The End of the History of Art , trans. Christopher S. Wood (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 83 .

30. Rudolf M. Bisanz , German Romanticism and Philipp Otto Runge: A Study in Nineteenth-century Art Theory and Iconography (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1970), 49–55 .

31. Saint John of Damascus , Orthodox Faith , in Saint John of Damascus: Writings , trans. Frederic H. Chase Jr. (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1958), esp. IV.16, 370–373 ; and Saint John of Damascus , On the Divine Images , translated by David Anderson (Crestwood, NY: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1980) . See also Pavel Florenskii , “On the Icon,” in Eastern Churches Review 8/1 (1976): 11–37 ; and Beyond Vision, Essays on the Perception of Art , comp. and ed. Nicoletta Misler , trans. Wendy Salmond (London: Reaktion, 2002) .

32. Wade Davies , Healing Ways: Navajo Health Care in the Twentieth Century (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001) .

33. See Anna C. Chave , Constantin Brancusi (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994) , esp. Chapter 4 ; and Richard Cork , A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), esp. 310–314 .

Chave, Constantin Brancusi , 163.

Chave, Constantin Brancusi , 162.

36. David Freedberg , The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 374 .

37. James Turrell , “Open Space for Perception,” Flash Art 24 (January-February 1991): 112 .

For examples of how the chronotope is useful in analyzing both visual art and literature, see Haynes, “Answers First, Questions Later,” 224–226, and Haynes, “Bakhtin and the Visual Arts,” 298–300.

39. Robert Paul Weiner , Creativity and Beyond: Culture, Values, and Change (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000), 143–193 .

40. Shin’ichi Hisamatsu , Zen and the Fine Arts , trans. Gishin Tokiwa (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1971) .

41. Steven R. Pritzker , “Zen,” in Vol. 2, Encyclopedia of Creativity , 745–750 .

Alperson, Philip . “Creativity in Art.” In The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics , edited by Jerrold Levinson , 245–257. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003 .

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Does religion hinder creativity a national level study on the roles of religiosity and different denominations.

• 1 School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China
• 2 College of Humanities and Social Science, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China

Creativity plays an irreplaceable role in economic and technological development. It seems that religion has a negative association with creativity. If it is true, how can we interpret the rapid development of human society with religious believers comprising 81% of global population? Based on the datasets of the World Values Survey and the Global Creativity Index, this study examined the effects of different religions/denominations on national creativity, and the moderation effect of gross domestic product per capita (GDPpc) in 87 countries. The results showed that: (1) religiosity was negatively associated with creativity at national level; (2) Proportions of Protestant and Catholic adherents in a country were both positively associated with national creativity, while proportion of Islam adherents was negatively associated with national creativity; (3) GDPpc moderated the relationships of creativity with overall religiosity, proportion of Protestant adherents, and proportion of Catholic adherents. In countries with high GDPpc, national religiosity and proportion of Islam could negatively predict national creativity, and proportion of Protestants could positively predict national creativity; in countries with low GDPpc, these relationships became insignificant. These findings suggest that national religiosity hinders creativity to a certain extent. However, some denominations (i.e., Protestant and Catholic) may exert positive influences on creativity due to their religious traditions and values. The religion–creativity relationship at national level only emerges in affluent countries.

Introduction

Creativity, one of the unique human abilities, has been playing an irreplaceable role in human society. Technological advancement and economic growth both can benefit from creativity. For countries, creativity has been considered as a key indicator of national competitiveness ( Florida, 2002 ). Recently, increasing literature on creativity has been conducted from a cultural perspective ( Glăveanu, 2010 ), mostly at national level (e.g., Rinne et al., 2013 ; Efrat, 2014 ; Kaasa, 2016 ). Religion has strong power in shaping societal and individual outcomes ( Herbig and Dunphy, 1998 ; Chan-Serafin et al., 2013 ; Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ), but few studies have examined the effect of religion on national creativity. Some researchers posit that religion hinders creativity, because rules and traditions are over stressed by religion while creativity requires people to challenge traditions and rules to seek a breakthrough ( Gino and Wiltermuth, 2014 ; Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ). But some other researchers argue that religion may be beneficial for creativity because religion cultivates personal virtues (e.g., hard-working) and cognitive schema that are positively associated with creativity ( Day, 2005 ; Assouad and Parboteeah, 2018 ). In fact, empirical studies tend to support a negative association between religion and creativity (e.g., Dollinger, 2007 ; Bénabou et al., 2013 , 2015 ; Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ). However, if religion hinders creativity, it seems paradoxical that rapid economic and technological development can occur in this world where more than 81% of the population is religious (according to the 6th waves of World Value Survey, WVS).

Previous literature suggests that different religions/denominations have dissimilar effects on prosocial behaviors ( Prouteau and Sardinha, 2015 ), trust ( Dingemans and Ingen, 2015 ), and entrepreneurship ( Dana, 2009 ). National economic situation has been found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between religion and outcomes, such as values ( Saroglou et al., 2004 ) and prosociality ( Guo et al., 2018 ). We speculated that the different findings on religion–creativity relationship and the paradox between rapid development and numerous religious populations can be accounted for by the dissimilar effects of religious denominations, as well as the moderation effect of economy. Thus, using datasets of WVS and the Global Creativity Index (GCI), we conducted this national-level study to explore the influences of different denominations on creativity, and the moderating role of economic factor in the religion–creativity relationship.

Creativity at National Level

Glăveanu (2010) classified the research on creativity into three paradigms, namely, He-paradigm, I-paradigm, and We-paradigms. He-paradigm is the earliest strategy for the exploration of creativity, which focuses on outstanding ability and fertility of the genius. This paradigm always considers creativity exclusive to the genius group. With the increase of creativity studies, I-paradigm emerges, which starts to investigate creativity of ordinary individuals rather than genius. In this stage, the relationship between creativity and personal attributes (such as personality and cognition) attracts the interest of many researchers. In the last few decades, We-paradigm, which focuses on social psychology of creativity, has become prevalent. Researchers adopting this paradigm, have gradually realized the great influence of sociocultural factors on creativity ( Glăveanu, 2010 ), and tend to understand creativity in particular contexts (e.g., Rinne et al., 2013 ; Kaasa, 2016 ).

A growing body of literature has examined the relationship between culture variables, especially the Hofstede (1980) cultural values, and national creativity. Using data of 33 countries, Shane (1993) explored the relationship between Hofstede’s cultural values and per capita numbers of trademarks which was used as indicator of national creativity. He found that national rate of innovation was negatively associated with power distance and uncertainty avoidance, but was positively connected with individualism. These findings were completely replicated by Efrat (2014) who used more comprehensive indicators of national creativity, including patents, scientific and technical journal articles, and high-technology exports. However, using a dataset for 43 countries, Rinne et al. (2013) found that only individualism was positively related to indicators of national creativity, the GCI and the Design and Creativity Index. The negative effects of power distance and uncertainty avoidance on national creativity had not been replicated.

Religion and Creativity

There have always been controversies over the religion–creativity relationship. Existing literature supports two opposite standpoints: religion hinders creativity and religion facilitates creativity, which were, respectively, called “hinder hypothesis” and “facilitate hypothesis” in this study.

Okulicz-Kozaryn (2015) argued that religion requires people to follow traditions and discourages people to embrace diversity. Thus most of religious followers tend to be conservative individuals who are more likely to be less creative ( Dollinger, 2007 ). Moreover, creativity is associated with challenging traditions and rules, and tolerance of diversity, which are discouraged by most religious traditions. Brenkert (2009) pointed that rule breaking was a feature of creativity and innovation. Gino and Wiltermuth (2014) found that dishonest individuals tend to be more creative. They further proposed that dishonesty and creativity both involved rule-breaking. These findings may indirectly support the “hinder hypothesis” because religious people are usually more honest and are more likely to follow the rules than their secular counterparts ( Saroglou, 2010 ; Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ). Meanwhile, religiosity has been found to be positively related with conformity that is disruptive to creativity, but negatively with self-direction that is conductive to creativity ( Schwartz and Huismans, 1995 ). Given the above, it seems reasonable to assume that religion hinders creativity.

However, Assouad and Parboteeah (2018) held that the believers’ particular traits (e.g., self-control, honest, spirit of cooperation, and hard-working) fostered by religions can contribute to creativity. By cultivating these virtues in the adherents, religion can build a positive environment and network for creativity and entrepreneurship ( Dana, 2009 ; Assouad and Parboteeah, 2018 ). Day (2005) further proposed that religion can facilitate creativity through different mechanisms. First, people in religious activities can learn to view their experiences in a new way. Second, religious faith can enrich followers’ schemas which provide more ways for organizing information. Third, religious activities can facilitate internal loci of control, which is associated with more effective problem solving ( Day, 2005 ). Recently Shen et al. (2017) have found a positive relationship between morality and creativity, providing indirect evidence for the “facilitate hypothesis.” That is, religion cultivates morality, and morality is positively associated with creativity.

To date there have been only a few researches studying the religion–creativity association at aggregate level. Okulicz-Kozaryn (2015) investigated the relationship between religiosity and creativity at local level (i.e., across United States counties). They found that local religiosity (indicated by adherence per population and church density) correlated significantly and negatively with local creativity (indicated by creative class and patent number), supporting the “hinder hypothesis.” Bénabou et al. (2013) also found negative relationships between religion and creativity both across US states and across the world. Using dataset for 30 countries, Assouad and Parboteeah (2018) found that the normative aspect of religion had a positive relation with firm-level innovation, which supports the “facilitate hypothesis.” But they also found that the regulatory aspect of religion was negatively related to firm-level innovation, while the normative aspect of religion showed no relationship with creativity.

Contrary to the scarcity of direct research, there are a greater number of indirect studies on the religion–creativity association, mostly supporting the “hinder hypothesis.” Scientists are considered to be the most creative people both by the public and by the academia. Scientists tend to have lower level of religiosity and smaller proportion of adherents than the general population ( Larson and Witham, 1998 ; Ecklund and Scheitle, 2007 ). Furthermore, the proportion of believers among scientists has been observed to be on a downward trend ( Larson and Witham, 1998 ). Besides, the I-paradigm also provides indirect evidence for the “hinder hypothesis.” For example, Dollinger (2007) found that highly conservative individuals, who had poor performances on creativity, tended to use religiosity as the common theme in a photo essay task. Using the data of WVS, Bénabou et al. (2015) found that individual religiosity negatively predicted pro-innovation attitudes and positively predicted anti-innovation attitudes even when numerous socio-demographic variables were controlled.

The Present Study

Culture is the set of customs, traditions, and values shared by people in a society or a community ( Kaasa, 2016 ). Herbig and Dunphy (1998 , p. 18) defined religion as “a socially shared set of beliefs, ideas, and actions which……is believed to affect the course of natural and human events.” From these definitions it is easy to find that religion and culture are similar constructs. Religion and culture shape each other, and are part of each other ( Ronen and Shenkar, 2013 ). Culture’s influence on creativity has been revealed by numerous studies (e.g., Shane, 1993 ; Efrat, 2014 ), while the relationship between religion and creativity/innovation has not been soundly addressed. This is the reason why this study was designed and conducted.

Using datasets of GCI and WVS, we explored the relationship between religion and national creativity. GCI covers three aspects of national creativity, namely technology, talent, and tolerance ( Florida, 2002 , 2014 ). Thus it is an indicator of national creativity more comprehensive than that used by Bénabou et al. (2013) , as well as that used by Assouad and Parboteeah (2018) . Considering the results of direct and indirect research on religion and creativity, we propose that religiosity is negatively related with creativity at national level ( Hypothesis 1 ).

Religion plays an essential role in influencing individual even social/national outcomes. And creativity is a vital factor in shaping social development and economic growth of each country, whether it is religious or not ( Raghupathi and Raghupathi, 2017 ). However, existing literature seemingly shows that religion is not beneficial for creativity, despite there are still different voices. Religious population comprises more than 81% of the world’s population. And the overwhelming majority of countries in the world are religious. If the conclusion is in accordance with reality, the technological development and economic growth in our world should have not been so rapid. What causes this paradoxical phenomenon? We propose that different effects of religions/denominations and moderation effect of economy may be solutions to this perplexing question.

Berry (1999) investigated the general relationship between religious backgrounds and creativity, using about 1,400 outstanding achievers in art- or science-related areas. He found that the achievers in science areas were mostly from Protestant background, while the achievers in art-related areas were mostly from Catholic background. Dana (2009) also found that religion may have both positive and negative impact on entrepreneurship, which may differ across religious denominations. Various religions value entrepreneurship differently, and contribute to different networks (including credit, employment, information, and supply networks of co-religionists) that affect entrepreneurship ( Dana, 2009 ). These findings show that the effects of religions on national creativity may depend on teachings and values of different religions/denominations. Previous literature suggests that the proportion of adherents in a population can be considered as an indicator of the religious culture (e.g., Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ; Einolf, 2017 ). And the tradition and values maintained and promoted by a religion/denomination could pervade religious boundaries and exert influences on the whole society ( Lam, 2006 ). According to samples and variables in the dataset of WVS, this study used five religious denominations (i.e., Protestant, Orthodoxy, Catholic, Islam, and Buddhist). We propose that various religions/denominations have different relationships with national creativity.

According to the Protestant work ethic ( Weber, 1930 ) valuing hard work, discipline, and frugality ( Inglehart and Oyserman, 2004 ), and the finding that a greater number of achievers in science-related areas come from Protestant background ( Berry, 1999 ), we hypothesize that Protestant culture is positively related with national creativity ( Hypothesis 2a ). Due to the fact that Catholic also has a tradition encouraging hard work and thrift which can translate into economic success ( Andersen et al., 2017 ), and the finding that achievers from Catholic background have more creativity in arts than counterparts from Protestant background ( Berry, 1999 ), we hypothesize that Catholic culture may also have a positive relation with national creativity ( Hypothesis 2b ). What effect Orthodoxy has on creativity is not hypothesized in this study because the Orthodoxy–creativity relationship has seldom been studied by existing literature. With respect to Muslim, we hypothesize its relationship with national creativity is negative ( Hypothesis 2c ), because determinism is deeply embedded in Islam culture ( Herbig and Dunphy, 1998 ; Westwood and Low, 2003 ). Furthermore, traditional interpretations of Islam are not compatible with the development of science, which also hinders creativity. It is a little difficult to deduce the Buddhism–creativity relationship. On one hand, Buddhism may “de-emphasize materialism and encourage acceptance and quietude” ( Westwood and Low, 2003 , p. 242), suggesting that Buddhism does not encourage change and innovation. On the other hand, Buddhism emphasizes impermanence and recommends its adherents to engage in mindfulness and meditation practice, which can improve creativity ( Colzato et al., 2012 ; Ding et al., 2014 ; Berkovich-Ohana et al., 2017 ). These effects of Buddhism may operate in the opposite directions, leading us to hypothesize that there is no relationship between Buddhism culture and national creativity ( Hypothesis 2d ).

Creativity and economy influence one another ( Rinne et al., 2013 ; Raghupathi and Raghupathi, 2017 ). It seems that economic factors should be taken into consideration when the religion–creativity relation is examined. Previous literature has indicated a moderating effect of economy in the religiosity–prosociality relationship at national level ( Guo et al., 2018 ). This suggests that roles religion plays may vary according to different levels of economic development across countries ( Saroglou et al., 2004 ). Therefore gross domestic product per capita (GDPpc) was introduced as a moderator in this study to explore the detailed relationship between religion and creativity.

The relationship between economy and creativity/innovation is bidirectional ( Rinne et al., 2013 ; Raghupathi and Raghupathi, 2017 ). However, in the initial phase of economic development in a country, economy can be developed prior to or even be independent with innovation. In developing countries, the patents of foreigners take up a considerable proportion ( Raghupathi and Raghupathi, 2017 ), and technology mostly relies on “spillovers” of developed countries ( Fagerberg et al., 2010 ). In this case, the religion–creativity relationship may be too weak to be observed. But with full development of economy, the impact of religion on creativity/innovation should become evident. This is because that in developed countries creativity/innovation is an essential factor for economic development ( Fagerberg et al., 2010 ). In this case, intrinsic relationship of religion with national creativity will rise to the surface. Thus, we proposed another hypothesis that the association of religions/denominations and national creativity may be moderated by GDPpc. Specifically, the religion–creativity relationship would be weaker in low (even disappear) relative to high GDPpc countries ( Hypothesis 3).

Materials and Methods

A nation-level design was applied in this study, regarding a country as a unit of analysis (e.g., Rinne et al., 2013 ; Kaasa, 2016 ; Guo et al., 2018 ). Finally there were 87 countries in our analyses with data available for all research variables.

Independent Variables

Religious variables were provided by the WVS 1 ( Inglehart et al., 2014 ), a major cross cultural survey on beliefs and values. Since 1981, WVS has been conducted for six waves, generating a dataset including about 100 countries. Datasets for six waves were all involved in this study.

According to previous research ( Bénabou et al., 2013 ; Guo et al., 2018 ), overall religiosity of a country/region was measured with four items of WVS: church attendance, importance of deity, importance of religion, and religious faith for children. The item, “Apart from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services these days?” with an 8-point scale ranging from “several times a day” to “never,” was used to capture the church attendance. The importance of deity was measured by the question “How important is deity in your life” using a 10-point scale (1 = “not at all important,” 10 = “very important”), where the particular deity depends on the participants’ religion. The importance of religion was measured by the item, “How important is religion in your life” with a 4-point scale ranging from “very important” to “not at all important.” After reverse-scoring the negatively worded items, each score of these items was averaged according to country/region (individual-level Cronbach’s α = 0.70). The religious faith for children was measured by the proportion of participants in each country who chose religious faith as one of the important qualities (up to five) for children. Then the four scores were standardized at country level and combined into the indicator of overall religiosity of each country (national-level Cronbach’s α = 0.82). It should be noted that both religious and irreligious respondents answered these four items. We computed the overall religiosity indicator for all valid respondents rather than for only adherents of the five denominations.

Religious denominations in WVS have been classified in great detail. Following previous literature ( Berger, 2006 ), we identified five religions/denominations (Protestant, Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Muslim, and Buddhism) and merged their sub-denominations (see Table 1 ). The number of believers of each denomination was calculated according to answers to the item “Do you belong to a religion or religious denomination? If yes, which one.” Then the numbers for believers of the five denominations were divided by the valid sample sizes, respectively, to indicate the percentages of five denominations in each country.

TABLE 1. Religious denominations and sub-denominations.

Dependent Variable

National creativity was taken from the research of Florida et al. (2015) . In their study on GCI, an indicator of nation-level creativity, of 139 countries across the world, was measured on a 3Ts (Technology, Talent, and Tolerance) model of creativity ( Florida, 2002 , 2014 ). GCI is a broad-based measure of national creativity that includes research and development investment, patent applications, creative class, educational attainment, and attitudes toward minorities. Thus, compared to indicators used in previous research, such as patents per capita (e.g., Bénabou et al., 2013 ) and proportion of individuals in creative occupations (e.g., Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ), GCI can be considered as a more comprehensive measure of national creativity.

Moderator Variable

GDPpc, which is usually used as an economic variable in national-level studies, was taken from the World Bank Open Data 2 . The last WVS wave was conducted from 2010 to 2014, so the indicator of GDPpc was calculated by averaging the data collected during 2010–2014. A logarithm transformation was applied to GDPpc in order to yield normally distributed data.

Control Variables

Intelligence is significantly associated with creativity (for a review, see Sternberg and O’Hara, 1999 ). Cinnirella and Streb (2017) argued that religious tolerance, measured by the religious pluralism index (RPI), had a positive effect on creativity and innovation. Therefore, national IQ and RPI were used as controls in this study. National IQ was obtained from a research focusing on intelligence and human capital ( Meisenberg and Lynn, 2011 ). In this research, the missing data of human capital were extrapolated by national IQ, as a high correlation between them ( r = 0.981). Thus, the missing data of IQ were substituted by the Human Capital reported by Meisenberg and Lynn (2011) in this study. Scores for national RPI were calculated using the formula 1-Σ N i = 1 π i 2 ( Cinnirella and Streb, 2017 ), where π i refers to the percentage of individuals who believe Protestant, Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Muslim, Buddhism, or other religions in each country, respectively.

Descriptive statistics for 87 countries/regions, including the numbers of valid participants and believers of different denominations, scores for overall religiosity, national IQ, GDPpc, and RPI were presented in Table 2 .

TABLE 2. Descriptive statistics at national level ( N = 87).

National-level correlations among variables in the present study were shown in Table 3 . The overall religiosity was negatively related to GDPpc, GCI, IQ, and PRI. Proportion of Catholics had a positive correlation with GCI. Proportion of Protestants was positively correlated with GCI and PRI. In addition, proportion of Muslims was negatively connected with GCI, GDPpc, IQ, and RPI.

TABLE 3. Correlations among key variables at national level ( N = 87).

Then a hierarchical regression was conducted to further explore the religion–creativity relationship, controlling IQ and RPI. IQ and RPI as the controls were entered in Step 1, and overall religiosity or denominational cultures (indicated by proportions of different religious denominations) were entered in Step 2 (see Tables 4 , 5 ). Table 4 showed that RPI and IQ could significantly predict GCI. But religiosity no longer had a significant effect on GCI when RPI and IQ were controlled. As Table 5 shown, only Protestant proportion and Catholic proportion could positively predict GCI, which is consist with the correlation analysis, but the negative Muslim–GCI relationship disappeared in the regression model.

TABLE 4. Regression analysis of the relationship between overall religiosity and GCI ( N = 87).

TABLE 5. Regression analysis of the relationships between denominations and GCI ( N = 87).

To test the moderating effect of GDPpc on the relationships between religion and GCI, Hayes (2013) PROCESS macro for SPSS was employed. Six moderation analyses were conducted in Model 1 with 5,000 bootstrap samples. The detailed results were presented in Table 6 .

TABLE 6. Moderating effects of GDPpc on relationships between religion and creativity ( N = 87).

GDPpc moderated the relationship between overall religiosity and GCI (see Table 4 ). As Figure 1 shown, in countries with high GDPpc, the overall religiosity could negatively predict GCI ( b = −0.016, t (81) = −2.023, p = 0.046, 95% confidence interval, CI = [−0.033, −0.000]), but in countries with low GDPpc, the predictive effect of overall religiosity on GCI was not significant ( b = −0.004, t (81) = 0.522, p = 0.603, 95% CI = [−0.011, 0.018]).

FIGURE 1. Moderating effects of GDPpc on the religiosity–creativity association.

The interaction between GDPpc and proportion of Protestants in a country positively predicted GCI (see Table 4 ). As shown in Figure 2 , in countries with high GDPpc, proportion of Protestants could positively predict GCI ( b = 0.214, t (81) = 2.302, p = 0.024, 95% CI = [0.029, 0.400]), while in countries with low GDPpc, the predictive effect was not significant ( b = −0.178, t (81) = −1.143, p = 0.257, 95% CI = [−0.488, 0.132]).

FIGURE 2. Moderating effects of GDPpc on the Protestant–creativity association.

In contrary, the interaction between GDPpc and proportion of Muslims in a country negatively predicted GCI (see Table 4 ). As shown in Figure 3 , in countries with high GDPpc, proportion of Muslims could negatively predict GCI ( b = −0.448, t (81) = −5.071, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [−0.624, −0.272), while in countries with low GDPpc, proportion of Muslims failed to predict GCI ( b = −0.009, t (81) = −0.193, p = 0.847, 95% CI = [−0.104, 0.085]).

FIGURE 3. Moderating effects of GDPpc on the Muslim–creativity association.

Creativity exerts strong influences on society, economy, science, and technology. The effect of culture on national creativity and innovation has been found by numerous studies (e.g., Efrat, 2014 ; Kaasa, 2016 ). Religion has a complex interaction with culture ( Ronen and Shenkar, 2013 ), and is essential for human society. This study explored the effects of different religions/denominations on national creativity, and revealed some intriguing and innovative findings.

Overall Religiosity and National Creativity

Consistent with previous findings ( Bénabou et al., 2013 ; Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ), correlation analysis in this study showed that overall religiosity had a negative association with GCI. Moderation analysis further indicated that this relationship was significant only in countries with high GDPpc, but disappeared in countries with low GDPpc. However, hierarchical regression analysis illustrated that religiosity failed to predict GCI when national level IQ and RPI were controlled. Therefore hypothesis 1, namely “hinder hypothesis,” was partly supported.

Religion and creativity in some sense are opposite in nature. Religion is about obedience and conformity to traditions ( Schwartz and Huismans, 1995 ), while creativity is about challenge and change ( Brenkert, 2009 ; Gino and Wiltermuth, 2014 ; Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ). Religion is associated with conservatism ( Dollinger, 2007 ), prescribing inheritance and protection of religious traditions. Common beliefs, values, and religious practices yield particular patterns shared by believers in a religious community ( Dana, 2009 ). Moreover, religion emphasizes rules and traditions. Compared to secular people, it is more difficult for religious people to accept creative and innovative ideas that challenge rules and traditions. On the contrary, creativity requires a critical and doubtful spirit that traditions and existing relationships in the world are challengeable ( Brenkert, 2009 ). Strong endorsement of obedience and conformity to traditions among religious adherents can create a conservative atmosphere in the whole society and exert a negative influence of creativity. Creativity is a social or situational phenomenon ( Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2015 ). On one hand, creative ideas usually come from social interaction, allowing different ideas to collide and interact; on the other hand, whether one idea/activity is creative depends on perspectives of the society or the public. These features suggest that creativity is less likely to occur in societies with strong religiosity ( Glăveanu, 2010 ).

Correlation analyses also showed that the overall religiosity was negatively related to RPI, and RPI was positively related to GCI. These results echo Cinnirella and Streb (2017) argument that religious tolerance has a positive relation with innovation and creativity. In addition, previous research finds that religiosity has a negative relationship with diffusion rate of innovation ( Azam et al., 2011 ) and total factor productivity ( Herzer and Strulik, 2016 ), providing indirect evidence for the “hinder hypothesis.” Here the “hinder hypothesis” should be given more consideration. In this study, we found that the negative effect of religiosity on creativity became insignificant when IQ and RPI were controlled, and the religiosity–creativity relationship is significant only in affluent countries. This suggests whether the “hinder hypothesis” holds depends on other factors (e.g., economy).

The Effects of Different Denominations on National Creativity

Correlation and regression analysis in this study illustrated that both proportion of Catholics and proportion of Protestants had a positively correlation with GCI, while only the correlation analysis showed that proportion of Muslims had a negative correlation with GCI. Proportions of adherents of Orthodox and Buddhism had no significant relation with GCI. Thus Hypothesis 2 was supported. These results can account for the controversies over the religion–creativity association. That is, the effects of different denominational cultures on national creativity were dissimilar.

Religions can build social networks based on different religious traditions, doctrines, and values ( Dana, 2009 ). This suggests that religions can influence creativity and innovation through norms, customs, and beliefs that are to some extend pervading ( Herbig and Dunphy, 1998 ). Berry (1999) argued that different religious traditions had dissimilar value systems encouraging the adherents to attain achievements in different domains.

This study showed that two denominational cultures, namely Protestant and Catholic, had positive effects on creativity, supporting Hypothesis 2a and 2b. The positive effect of Protestant culture on creativity can be partly attributed to the Protestant work ethic. Weber (1930) pointed that Protestant work ethic that emphases hard work, discipline, and frugality was conducive to rapid development of economics and science. Individuals are religiously compelled to work hard to thrive in a secular career, facilitating the accumulation of capital. Berry (1999) further proposed that the emphasis laid on utilitarianism and disinterested inquiry into “Nature” were responsible for Protestant fruitfulness in science-related areas. Protestant culture also values individual choice, personal freedom, and self-actualization ( Inglehart and Oyserman, 2004 ), which are contributive to innovation and creativity. Existing research finds that intrinsic motivations are usually associated with increased creativity, while extrinsic motivations are usually associated with decreased creative performance ( Hennessey, 2003 ). Professional development, achievement, and wealth accumulation advocated by Protestant work ethic can stimulate more intrinsic motivations in Protestants to achieve maximized personal value. Westwood and Low (2003) argued that achievement orientation and individualism in Protestant culture are beneficial for creativity and innovation. Consistently, this positive connection between individualism and creativity or innovation has been supported by much national level research (e.g., Shane, 1993 ; Efrat, 2014 ).

Recently, some researchers hold that the work ethics such as hard working and thrifty have spread in Catholic world before Protestant Reformation ( Parboteeah et al., 2009 ; Andersen et al., 2017 ). These ethics, which have translated into economic success and productivity growth, can partly account for the positive relationship between Catholic and creativity. Herbig and Dunphy (1998) proposed that the values conductive to creativity and innovation, such as achievement-orientation, materialism, and individualism, are not exclusive to Protestant. These propositions are supported empirically by Berry (1999) who found that Catholic may be as creative as Protestants.

Contrary to Protestant and Catholic, Islam has a negative relationship with national creativity, supporting Hypothesis 2c. This suggests that countries with a greater proportion of Islam adherents tend to have a lower level of creativity. In Koran, supreme power regulates everything, the duty of adherents is only to obey and follow faith and rules. The faith that Allah determined all and creates the entire world is deeply rooted in Islam culture, leading the believers to accept all givens and refuse to spontaneously seek to alter things ( Westwood and Low, 2003 ). These traditions, in some sense, are disruptive to innovation and creativity. Herbig and Dunphy (1998) proposed that fatalism, non-secularism, and belief in absolute truth in the Islamic world impeded science and innovation. However, there are also studies showing that Islamic tradition has a positive impact on creativity in art-related areas ( Lubart, 2010 ). Furthermore, in our regression model the negative effect of Islam on GCI was partialed out by IQ and RPI, indicating that the association between Islam and creativity need further investigation.

In line with the Hypothesis 2d, Buddhism had no relation with creativity. Asceticism advocated by Buddhism devalues materialism and productivity growth ( Westwood and Low, 2003 ). This may counteract the positive effects of Buddhist practice such as mindfulness ( Berkovich-Ohana et al., 2017 ) and meditation ( Colzato et al., 2012 ; Ding et al., 2014 ) on creativity. However, the effects of Buddhism on creativity need deep investigations in future studies. Because Buddhism encourages the impartial investigation of nature, which is consistent with modern Western scientific and philosophic thought ( Yong, 2005 ).

Effect of GDPpc on the Relationship Between Religion and Creativity

This study found that GDPpc had a moderation effect on the religion–creativity relationship. Specifically, the overall religiosity–creativity association, the Protestant–creativity association, and the Islam–creativity association were all moderated by GDPpc. Further analysis showed that only in countries with high GDPpc the national creativity can be predicted by overall religiosity or denominational cultures (Protestant and Islam). Thus Hypothesis 3 was also supported.

It is surprising and interesting that no matter whether the religion–creativity relationship is positive or negative, the originally significant relationship lose its significance in low GDPpc countries. This can be account for by the fact that a considerable amount of patents belong to foreigners in low GDP countries ( Raghupathi and Raghupathi, 2017 ). Fagerberg et al. (2010) also indicated that technologic advancement in developing countries mostly relies on “spillovers” of that of developed countries. In other words, the GCI scores of low GDP countries are not indicative of the creativity of the residents of these countries. A heavy reliance on the innovation and technology in foreign countries may have weakened the influences of religions/denominations on national creativity in low GDP countries.

The economies of less affluent countries are mostly in factor-driven or investment-driven stage, with innovation/creativity being less important in economic development, while the almost all of developed countries are in innovation-driven stage ( Ozawa, 1992 ; Acs et al., 2008 ). In less affluent countries, foreign direct investment is an important impetus to GDP growth ( Seyoum et al., 2015 ). Ozawa (1992) proposed that the foreign direct investment provided not only finance but also technology for developing countries. That is, domestic creativity of a developing country is largely invisible and occupies a small portion. But for affluent countries, creativity/innovation became the core impetus to economic growth, causing the fact that the relationship between creativity and its restraining or promoting factor starts to emerge, and that creativity/innovation mostly relies on domestic resources. These may partly account for the moderation effects of GDP in this study.

Limitations and Future Directions

To our knowledge, there was only one research exploring the religion–creativity relationship at national level ( Bénabou et al., 2013 ). We have made a significant progress in using more comprehensive indicators of religiosity and national creativity. In addition, we investigated the effects of different denominations on national creativity, as well as the moderation effect of economy in a larger sample of countries. But there are still some limitations.

First, although GCI used in this study is a more comprehensive indicator of creativity than that used in previous research, it still lacks creativity measures of other domains, such as music, literature, and painting. Various cultures encourage creativity in different areas ( Westwood and Low, 2003 ). Findings in this study thus cannot be generalized to creativity in other areas. Future researchers are expected to explore whether religions/denominations are associated with creativity in these domains.

Second, this study has only explored the effects of limited numbers of denominations/religions in creativity. There are many denominations that are not included, such as Judaism. Judaism may be more strongly contributive to innovations in both science-related and art-related areas than other religious traditions ( Berry, 1999 ). However, in the WVS dataset that comprises 340,297 responders, there are only 2,172 Judaists. Judaists contribute to a proportion that is too small to be used as an indicator of Judaism religious culture that may exert influence of national creativity. Maybe individual level study is more appropriate for investigating the Judaism–creativity association.

Third, this study was conducted at national level, with no individual level data to validate the research findings. We hope that this limitation can be overcome by future research. In the investigation of the effects of religion on social outcomes, individual level findings may collide with national level findings ( Myers, 2012 ).

The present study found that the overall religiosity has a negative relationship with national creativity, which is consistent with previous research. However, different denominations show dissimilar effects on creativity. Protestant and Catholic are positively related with national creativity, while Islam is negatively related with national creativity. This study also finds that the religion–creativity relationship at national level was moderated by GDPpc. Specifically, the influences of religions/denominations on creativity only exist in affluent countries. These results provide explanations for why there are paradoxical findings on the roles of religions in influencing creativity.

Author Contributions

ZL collected and analyzed the data under the supervision of QG. QG and ZL designed the study. QG, RW, and ZW contributed reagents, materials, and analysis tools. ZL, QG, PS, and RW contributed to the writing of the manuscript. ZL, QG, and ZW contributed to the revision.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords : national creativity, religion, denominational differences, GDP per capital, national level

Citation: Liu Z, Guo Q, Sun P, Wang Z and Wu R (2018) Does Religion Hinder Creativity? A National Level Study on the Roles of Religiosity and Different Denominations. Front. Psychol. 9:1912. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01912

Received: 08 June 2018; Accepted: 18 September 2018; Published: 08 October 2018.

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Copyright © 2018 Liu, Guo, Sun, Wang and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Peng Sun, [email protected] Zhao Wang, [email protected] Rui Wu, [email protected]

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Religious Educator Vol. 18 No. 3 · 2017

Critical thinking in religious education, shayne anderson.

Shayne Anderson, "Critical Thinking in Religious Education,"  Religious Educator  18, no. 3 (2018): 69–81.

Shayne Anderson ( [email protected] ) was an instructor at South Ogden Junior Seminary when this article was published.

A common argument in an increasingly secular world today is that religion poses a threat to world peace and human well-being. Concerning the field of religious education, Andrew Davis, an honorary research fellow at Durham University, argues that religious adherents tend to treat others who do not agree with them with disrespect and hostility and states that efforts to persuade them to behave otherwise would be “profoundly difficult to realize.” [1] Consequently, he believes that religious education should consist only of a moderate form of pluralism. Religious education classes, in his view, should not make claims of one religion having exclusive access to the truth.

Others argue that religious education should consist only of teaching about religion in order to promote more democratic ways of being. [2] Their perception is that religion is yet another distinguishing and divisive tool used by those who seek to discriminate against others, thus impeding the progress of pluralistic democracies. Further, those perceived as religious zealots, so the argument goes, are the least apt to give critical thought to either their own beliefs or the beliefs of others. [3] This reasoning, in which religion and critical thinking are viewed as antithetical, is especially prevalent in popular culture, outside the measured confines of peer-reviewed publishing.

Reasons for why religion and critical thinking might be viewed as incompatible are as varied as the authors who generate the theories. They include the following: religions often claim to contain some amount of absolute truth, an idea in itself that critical theorists oppose; individual religions generally do not teach alternate views, a requisite for critical thinking; and, in critical theory, truth is comprised of “premises all parties accept.” [4] Theorist Oduntan Jawoniyi reduces the argument down to the fact that religious claims of truth “are empirically unverified, unverifiable, and unfalsifiable metaphysical truths.” [5]

One explanation for variations in opinions concerning the place of critical thinking in religious education may be that no consistent definition exists for critical thinking, a concept that stretches across several fields of study. For instance, the field of philosophy has its own nuanced definition of critical thinking, as does the field of psychology. My first aim in this article is to survey a range of definitions in order to settle upon a functional definition that will allow for faith while still fulfilling the objectives of critical thinking, and my second aim is to explore how this definition can apply to religious education in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Defining Critical Thinking

The first definition under consideration comes from a frequently cited website within the domain of critical thinking. Here critical theorists Michael Scriven and Richard Paul endeavor to encapsulate in one definition the wide expanse of critical thinking’s many definitions: “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/ or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.” [6]

Assessing the definition in parts will allow for a thorough examination, beginning with a look at critical thinking as being active and intellectually disciplined. Such admonitions are repeated often in the scriptures. The thirteenth article of faith teaches that members of the Church “seek after” anything that is “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.” The Prophet Joseph Smith borrows terminology here from what he calls the “admonition of Paul”—from the book of Philippians, where Paul lists many of the same qualities and then suggests, “Think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Common scriptural words that suggest active, skillful, and disciplined thinking include inquiring , pondering , reasoning , and asking . Additional scriptures suggest such things as “study it out in your mind” (D&C 9:8) or “seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118). Assuredly, the portion of the definition of critical thinking pertaining to intellectual discipline fits well within the objectives of the Church’s education program.

The next part of the definition given by Scriven and Paul includes “conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/ or evaluating information.” The Gospel Teaching and Learning handbook, used by teachers and leaders in the Seminaries and Institutes of Religion program of the Church, sets forth the “fundamentals of gospel teaching and learning.” [7] Included in these fundamentals are (a) identifying doctrines and principles, (b) understanding the meaning of those doctrines and principles, (c) feeling the truth and importance of those doctrines and principles, and (d) applying doctrines and principles. Comparing the definition for critical thinking to the fundamentals of gospel teaching and learning, one can argue that conceptualizing is akin to identifying and analyzing, both of which require the understanding sought for by the previously mentioned fundamentals. Synthesizing and evaluating can be a part of understanding and feeling the importance of a concept. Also, application is found in both the definition and the fundamentals of gospel teaching and learning. It is an integral part of critical thinking and effective religious education within the Church.

Finally, according to this definition, critical thinking assesses “information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.” This portion of the definition seems equally suited for religious education. So much of religion is based on personal experience and reflection on those experiences. Owing to the personal nature of religious observations, experiences, reflections, and reasoning, adherents often find them difficult to fully explain. This personal experience may be compared to a baseball player who has mastered the art of batting. Intellectually, the player may understand perfectly what must be done, as he or she may have practiced it innumerable times, but when asked to explain it to someone else the player is unable to do so. Such a situation does not detract from the fact that the batter has mastered the art, yet the explanation remains difficult. Additionally, religious experiences are often very personal in nature. Due to the value attributed to those experiences, a person may not choose to share them frequently because of a fear that others will not understand or may even attempt to degrade and minimize those experiences and the feelings associated with them. Thus, even on the occasion when someone attempts to articulate such experiences, they remain unexplained.

In a religious setting, information derived from observation, experience, and communication may come from meeting with others who share religious beliefs. Moroni 6:5 touches on this idea. “And the church [members] did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak with one another concerning the welfare of their souls.” Congregating has long been a cornerstone of religious experience. Doing so provides members opportunities for observation, experience, reflection, and communication, all of which make up the delicate tapestry of religious belief and behavior.

Adding to the definition given by Scriven and Paul, college professor and author Tim John Moore asserts that another quality important in critical thought is skepticism, verging on agnosticism, toward knowledge—calling into question whether reality can be known for certain. [8] This skepticism carries with it immediate doubt prior to being presented with knowledge. Others have termed it as a “doubtful mentality.” [9] This definition does not seem able to coexist with faith-motivated critical thinking. Many scriptures teach about the importance of faith trumping doubt, the most recognizable among them likely being James 1:5–6: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”

Concerning the type of doubt that arises even before learning facts, Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Church’s First Presidency said, “Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” [10] This admonition indicates that there is an ultimate source of truth, and when our doubts loom large it is better to doubt those doubts instead of doubting God. The Doctrinal Mastery: Core Document , a part of the S&I curriculum introduced in the summer of 2016, states that “God . . . is the source of all truth. . . . He has not yet revealed all truth.” [11] Thus, doubt should be curbed at the point when we do not have all the evidence or answers we seek. Such is the case in the scientific method: a tested hypothesis leads to a theory, and confirmed theories lead to laws. Fortunately, neither hypotheses nor theories are abandoned for lack of proof or the existence of doubt concerning them.

Some within a religious community may be hesitant to apply critical thinking to their own religious beliefs, believing that doing so could weaken their faith. Psychologist Diane Halpern, however, suggests that critical thinking need not carry with it such negative connotations. “In critical thinking , the word critical is not meant to imply ‘finding fault,’ as it might be used in a pejorative way to describe someone who is always making negative comments. It is used instead in the sense of ‘critical’ that involves evaluation or judgement, ideally with the goal of providing useful and accurate feedback that serves to improve the thinking process.” [12] Applying critical thinking need not indicate a lack of faith by a believer—an important point to consider when applying critical thinking to religious education. Critically thinking Christian believers are adhering to the Savior’s commandment to “ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7).

Religious believers may be concerned that other critical thinkers have reached an opinion different than theirs. This concern can be addressed by the way critical thinking is defined. Professor of philosophy Jennifer Mulnix writes that “critical thinking, as an intellectual virtue, is not directed at any specific moral ends.” [13] She further explains that critical thinkers do not have a set of beliefs that invariably lead to specific ends, suggesting that two critical thinkers who correctly apply the skills and attitudes of critical thinking to the same subject could hold opposing beliefs. Such critical thinking requires a sort of mental flexibility, a willingness to acknowledge that a person may not be in possession of all the facts. Including such flexibility when defining critical thinking does not disqualify its application to religious education. A religious person can hold beliefs and knowledge while remaining flexible, just as a mathematician holds firm beliefs and knowledge but is willing to accept more and consider alternatives in the light of additional information. In other words, being in possession of facts that a person is unwilling to relinquish does not mean that he or she is unwilling to accept additional facts.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke about the idea of differing conclusions when addressing religious educators. “Because of our knowledge of [the] Plan and other truths that God has revealed, we start with different assumptions than those who do not share our knowledge. As a result, we reach different conclusions on many important subjects that others judge only in terms of their opinions about mortal life.” [14] Each person brings different life experience and knowledge, which they call upon to engage in critical thinking. While both are employing critical-thinking skills, they may be doing so with different facts and differing amounts of facts. All of the facts in consideration may be true, but because of the way those facts are understood, different conclusions are reached. Still, the thinking taking place can be correctly defined as critical.

Another belief included by some in a definition of critical thinking, though at odds with the edifying instruction presented in LDS religious education, is addressed by Rajeswari Mohan, who suggests that to teach using critical thinking would require “a re-understanding of the classroom.” [15] Generally, the understanding that currently exists of the classroom, both inside and outside of religious education, consists of creating an atmosphere of respect and trust, a safe place to learn and grow—something that Mohan calls “cosmopolitan instruction.” [16] In its place Mohan advocates that the classroom become “a site of contestation,” [17] which connotes controversy, argument, and divisiveness. Of course, it is possible to contest a belief, debate, and even disagree while still maintaining trust and respect, but such a teaching atmosphere is what Mohan considers cosmopolitan and, as such, it would require no re-understanding to accomplish it.

Elizabeth Ellsworth described her experience when attempting to employ the type of approach Mohan suggests in her own classroom. [18] In reflecting on the experience, she noted that it exacerbated disagreements between students rather than resolving or solving anything. She summarized what took place by saying, “Rational argument has operated in ways that set up as its opposite an irrational Other.” [19] Rather than having her class engage in discussion and learning, Ellsworth witnessed students who refused to talk because of the fear of retaliation or fear of embarrassment.

Such a situation does not align with D&C 42:14, “If ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.” Additionally, this confrontational atmosphere in the learning environment seems to run counter to the doctrines taught by the Savior. Consider the words of Christ in 3 Nephi 11:29: “I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.”

Many authors who offer definitions of critical thinking discuss how critical thinking leads to action; one author states, “Criticality requires that one be moved to do something.” [20] President Thomas S. Monson, while a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said, “The goal of gospel teaching . . . is not to ‘pour information’ into the minds of class members . . . . The aim is to inspire the individual to think about, feel about, and then do something about living gospel principles.” [21] This application is the foundation of the teachings of Jesus Christ, the very purpose of his Atonement, to allow for individuals to change. This change does not solely consist of stopping some behavior but also includes starting new behaviors. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, for example, suggested that many of us could make more spiritual progress “in the realm of the sins of omission . . . than in any other place.” [22]

Critical Thinking Exaggerated

President Boyd K. Packer taught that “tolerance is a virtue, but like all virtues, when exaggerated, it transforms itself into a vice.” [23] This facet of critical thinking whereby critical thinking prompts action must be explained carefully, as it can be exaggerated and transformed into a vice. Mohan described this aspect of critical thinking that moves individuals to action outside of the classroom as having a “goal of transformative political action” aimed at challenging, interrupting, and undercutting “regimes of knowledge.” [24] Pedagogy of the Oppressed author and political activist Paulo Freire taught that this action brought about the “conquest” [25] of an oppressed class in a society over its oppressors. Some would argue that if it does not lead to this kind of contending, transformative action, critical thinking is incomplete. [26]

Transformative action taken by individuals to change themselves is necessary. Yet the idea that one can effect change within the Church, for individuals or the organization itself, by compulsion or coercion in a spirit of conquest can lead to “the heavens [withdrawing] themselves; the Spirit of the Lord [being] grieved” (D&C 121:37). Critical thinking defined to include this contention does not have a place in religious education within the Church.

A balanced definition of critical thinking that allows for faith in things which are hoped for and yet unseen (see Alma 32:21) may look something like this: Critical thinking consists of persistent, effortful, ponderous, and reflective thought devoted to concepts held and introduced through various ways, including experience, inquiry, and reflection. That person then analyzes, evaluates, and attempts to understand how those concepts coincide and interact with existing knowledge, ready to abandon or employ ideas based upon their truthfulness. This contemplation then leads the person to consistent and appropriate actions.

Because of the benefits of critical thinking, some have taken its application to an extreme, allowing it to undermine faith. Addressing a group of college students in 1996, President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “This is such a marvelous season of your lives. It is a time not only of positive thinking but sometimes of critical thinking. Let me urge you to not let your critical thinking override your faith.” [27]

Examples in Doctrine

Despite a potential to undermine faith when applied incorrectly, critical thinking holds too much promise to be abandoned. This is particularly the case for religious education in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not only do questions and critical thought have an appropriate place in the Church, but as President Dieter F. Uchtdorf has pointed out, the Church would not exist without it. [28] He explains that the doctrinally loaded and foundational experience of the First Vision came as the result of Joseph Smith’s critical thought toward existing churches and a desire to know which he should join. Knowing for ourselves if the church that was restored through Joseph Smith’s efforts is truly the “only true and living church” (D&C 1:30) can be done only by following his lead and “ask[ing] of God” (James 1:5). “Asking questions,” President Uchtdorf said, “isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a precursor of growth.” [29]

This concept of critically thinking while still acting in faith is illustrated in Alma 32:27–43, when Alma teaches a group of nonbelievers who nonetheless want to know the truth. Table 1 compares Alma’s words with concepts of critical thinking.

Figure 1. Alma and Critical Thinking.

The necessity of exercising faith is a major component of all religion. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9). “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). “I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do” (1 Nephi 4:6). “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (D&C 6:36). The skeptical critic of religion could assert that these statements amount to blind faith or towing the line without a rational or logical reason to do so. Applying critical thinking to such assertions may disclose, ironically, that such approaches are no different than using rational thought.

In Educating Reason , author Harvey Siegel responds to a criticism sometimes waged against critical thinking called the indoctrination objection. His argument provides a means for reconciling faith with logic. In short he observed that critical thinkers have traditionally been opposed to indoctrination of any kind. Over time much has been applied to the perception of, and even the definition of, indoctrination, which now carries with it highly negative connotations of teaching content that is either not true or is taught in such a way that the learner is not provided a way to measure the truthfulness of what is being taught. Yet the fundamental definition of indoctrination is simply to teach.

The indoctrination objection is based on the idea that critical thinkers want to reject all indoctrination, but they cannot do so because critical thinking itself must be taught (indoctrinated). The definition he gives to indoctrination is when students “are led to hold beliefs in such a way that they are prevented from critically inquiring into their legitimacy and the power of the evidence offered in their support; if they hold beliefs in such a way that the beliefs are not open to rational evaluation or assessment.” [32] Siegel delicately defines an indoctrinated belief as “a belief [that] is held non-evidentially.” [33]

It must be acknowledged that children are not born valuing rational thought and evidence; those values must be taught, or indoctrinated. According to Siegel, “If an educational process enhances rationality, on this view, that process is justified.” [34] He later adds that such teaching is not only defensible, but necessary. “We are agreed that such belief-inculcation is desirable and justifiable, and that some of it might have the effect of enhancing the child’s rationality. Should we call it indoctrination? This seems partly, at least, a verbal quibble.” [35]

A teacher is justified in teaching students and a learner is justified in studying if doing so will eventually enhance rationality and if students are allowed to evaluate for themselves what is being taught.

There may even be a period when rationality is put on hold, or the lack of rationality perpetuated, temporarily for the sake of increasing critical thought in the end. This concept of proceeding with learning without first having an established rationale for doing so is the very concept of faith. Just as “faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things” (Alma 32:21), reasons may not always be understood at first, just as a rational understanding for accepting a teaching is not always given at first. The moment when a learner must accept a teaching without first having a sufficient reason for doing so is faith. Students who continue to engage in the learning process are acting in faith. If the things being taught are true, those things will eventually lead those students to increased rationality and expanded intellect. Such teaching should not detour the student from seeking his or her own personal confirmation. Teaching in a manner that discourages students from establishing their own roots deep into the ground is antithetical to both critical thinking and the purposes of LDS religious education.

Teaching in a way that encourages and invites students to think critically about doctrines reflects not only teaching practices encouraged in today’s religious education within the Church but also doctrines of the Church. The culture and doctrine of the Church seeks to avoid indoctrinating members in the negative or pejorative sense. On the Church’s official Newsroom website is an article explaining what constitutes the doctrines of the Church. Included in that list is this statement: “Individual members are encouraged to independently strive to receive their own spiritual confirmation of the truthfulness of Church doctrine. Moreover, the Church exhorts all people to approach the gospel not only intellectually but with the intellect and the spirit, a process in which reason and faith work together.” [36] More than solely a statement of doctrine on a newsroom website, this concept is bolstered by the words of canonized scripture: “Seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118). “You have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me” (D&C 9:7–8). And finally, from the admonition of Paul, who, after speaking of doctrines, counseled believers to “think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

The Prophet Joseph Smith addressed the relationship between faith and intellect. “We consider,” he said, “that God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and that the nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views.” [37] In other words, acting in faith, or giving heed and diligence to light communicated from heaven, can enlarge the intellectual faculty and clarify views. Diligence and heed are required in religious education, in which the content being taught is considered irrational by secular society. Amid ridicule by the irreligious, when the intellect is enlarged, the faithful recognize enhanced rationality and clearer views that are never realized by those who are ridiculing. This process continues until full rationality is achieved and the promise of God is fulfilled: “Nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known” (Luke 8:17). What a promise for a critical thinker!

Critical thinking has the potential to be a powerful tool for educators; that potential does not exclude its use by teachers within the Church. When used appropriately, critical thinking can help students more deeply understand and rely upon the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ. The testimony that comes as a result of critical thought can carry students through difficult times and serve as an anchor through crises of faith. As Elder M. Russell Ballard teaches,

Gone are the days when a student asked an honest question and a teacher responded, “Don’t worry about it!” Gone are the days when a student raised a sincere concern and a teacher bore his or her testimony as a response intended to avoid the issue. Gone are the days when students were protected from people who attacked the Church. Fortunately, the Lord provided this timely and timeless counsel to you teachers: “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” [38]

Critical thought does not consist of setting aside faith, but rather faith is using critical thought to come to know truth for oneself.

[1] Andrew Davis, “Defending Religious Pluralism for Religious Education,” Ethics and Education 3, no. 5 (November 2010): 190.

[2] Oduntan Jawoniyi, “Religious Education, Critical Thinking, Rational Autonomy, and the Child’s Right to an Open Future,” Religion and Education 39, no. 1 (January 2015): 34–53; and Michael D. Waggoner, “Religion, Education, and Critical Thinking,” Religion and Education 39, no. 3 (September 2012): 233–34.

[3] Waggoner, “Religion, Education, and Critical Thinking,” 233–34.

[4] Duck-Joo Kwak, “Re‐Conceptualizing Critical Thinking for Moral Education in Culturally Plural Societies,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 39, no. 4 (August 2007): 464.

[5] Jawoniyi, “Religious Education,” 46.

[6] Michael Scriven and Richard Paul, quoted in “Defining Critical Thinking,” Foundation for Critical Thinking, http:// www.criticalthinking.org/ pages/ defining-critical-thinking/ 766.

[7] Gospel Teaching and Learning Handbook: A Handbook for Teachers and Leaders in Seminaries and Institutes of Religion (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2012), 39.

[8] Tim John Moore, “Critical Thinking and Disciplinary Thinking: A Continuing Debate,” Higher Education Research & Development 30, no. 3 (June 2011): 261–74.

[9] Ali Mohammad Siahi Atabaki, Narges Keshtiaray, Mohammad Yarmohammadian, “Scrutiny of Critical Thinking Concept,” International Education Studies 8, no. 3 (February 2015): 100.

[10] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Reflection in the Water” (CES fireside for young adults at Brigham Young University, 1 November 2009), https:// www.lds.org/ media-library/ video/ 2009-11-0050-the-reflection-in-the-water?lang=eng#d.

[11] Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, Doctrinal Mastery: Core Document (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2016), 2.

[12] Diane F. Halpern, “Teaching Critical Thinking for Transfer across Domains,” The American Psychologist 53, no. 4 (April 1998): 451.

[13] Jennifer Wilson Mulnix, “Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 44, no. 5 (July 2012): 466.

[14] Dallin H. Oaks, “As He Thinketh in His Heart” (evening with a General Authority, 8 February 2013), https:// www.lds.org/ prophets-and-apostles/ unto-all-the-world/ as-he-thinketh-in-his-heart-?lang=eng.

[15] Rajeswari Mohan, “Dodging the Crossfire: Questions for Postcolonial Pedagogy,” College Literature 19/ 20, vol. 3/ 1 (October 1992–February 1993): 30.

[16] Mohan, “Dodging the Crossfire,” 30.

[17] Mohan, “Dodging the Crossfire,” 30.

[18] Elizabeth Ellsworth, “Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering? Working through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy,” Harvard Educational Review 59, no. 3 (September 1989): 297–325.

[19] Ellsworth, “Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering?,” 301.

[20] Nicholas C. Burbules and Rupert Berk, “Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy: Relations, Differences, and Limits,” in Critical Theories in Education , ed. Thomas S. Popkewitz and Lynn Fendler (New York: Routledge, 1999), 45–66.

[21] Thomas S. Monson, in Conference Report, October 1970, 107.

[22] Neal A. Maxwell, “The Precious Promise,” Ensign , April 2004, 45, https:// www.lds.org/ ensign/ 2004/ 04/ the-precious-promise?lang=eng.

[23] Boyd K. Packer, “These Things I Know,” Ensign , May 2013, 8, https:// www.lds.org/ ensign/ 2013/ 05/ these-things-i-know?lang=eng.

[24] Mohan, “Dodging the Crossfire,” 30.

[25] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed , trans. Myra Bergman Ramos (New York: Continuum International, 1970).

[26] Donaldo Macedo, introduction to Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed , 11–26.

[27] Gordon B. Hinckley, “Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign , October 1996, https:// www.lds.org/ ensign/ 1996/ 10/ excerpts-from-recent-addresses-of-president-gordon-b-hinckley?lang=eng.

[28] Uchtdorf, “The Reflection in the Water.”

[29] Uchtdorf, “The Reflection in the Water.”

[30] Harvey Siegel, “Indoctrination Objection,” in Educating Reason: Rationality, Critical Thinking, and Education (New York: Routledge, 1988), 78–90.

[31] Halpern, “Teaching Critical Thinking for Transfer across Domains,” 451.

[32] Siegel, Educating Reason , 80.

[33] Siegel, Educating Reason , 80.

[34] Siegel, Educating Reason , 81.

[35] Siegel, Educating Reason , 82.

[36] “Approaching Mormon Doctrine,” 4 May 2007, http:// www.mormonnewsroom.org/ article/ approaching-mormon-doctrine.

[37] B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), 2:8.

[38] M. Russell Ballard, “The Opportunities and Responsibilities of CES Teachers in the 21st Century” (address to CES religious educators, 26 February 2016), https:// www.lds.org/ broadcasts/ article/ evening-with-a-general-authority/ 2016/ 02/ the-opportunities-and-responsibilities-of-ces-teachers-in-the-21st-century?lang=eng&_r=1.

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Creativity and Religious and Moral Education

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​This learning resource explores how creativity skills can be developed through Religious and Moral Education (RME) using four key creativity skills:

• open-mindedness
• imagination
• problem solving​

How to use this exemplar

The information provided in this learning resource, invites you to consider the role of creativity skills in education and how these skills might contribute to the delivery of high quality RME.

Individually or as a team, consider the following improvement questions in your own context:

• How can I support the development of curiosity in learners around RME topics?
• RME requires open-mindedness – how can I develop this further in learners?
• Imagination allows learners to link learning in RME to their own thinking and developing beliefs and values – how can my learners use their imagination skills in RME?
• RME deals with many difficult and  controversial topics – how can problem solving help learners to develop their learning in RME.​

PDF file: Learning resource - Creativity and Religious and Moral Education (741 KB)

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Why Classical Christian Education?

By Joe Boot   / May 14, 2018

Topic  Education

Scripture  Isaiah 28:24-29

The utmost concern of the Christian should be the relating of their faith in Christ Jesus and his infallible word to the world around them beginning in the family. In fact that is what Christian education in essence is.

Explaining the critical importance of Christian education to many professing believers today – despite the radically secular, humanistic and even pagan direction that is being pursued in the state-funded schools – often winds up sounding like the warning label on a bottle of medication: this activity can lead to looks and expressions of disorientation, disbelief and dismay. More often than not, after an uncomfortable silence or pained contortions of the face, there is an implicit or explicit denial that Christian education is either possible, necessary or desirable. Such conclusions are one of the reasons the church is in the marginalized position it is today, and why we are losing the vast majority of our children to unbelief before they have even finished university – for it is at university that they feel a sufficient sense of independence to tell their parents they don’t believe in Christianity anymore.

By contrast, Abraham Kuyper , the great Dutch theologian who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands in the early twentieth century, was convinced that in the late-modern world, in the wake of the falsely named Enlightenment, it would be critical for Christians to once again begin (as in the past) distinctly Christian institutions and organisations that approached life and culture from a truly scriptural standpoint. This was because Kuyper recognized that Western culture was pulling up its roots in the gospel of Christ. He wrote the following concerning secular humanistic institutions and schools:

The leadership in such organisations never falls to us [i.e. Christians], but always and inflexibly to our opponents. They carry out their intention , and whoever of us embarks with them ends up where they want to land but where we never may land. The spirit at work in such principially unbelieving organisations is so alluring and contagious that almost none of us, once he enters into such company, can offer resistance to it. One absorbs this poison without suspecting it … once one is part of such organization, one sees one’s Christian principle doomed to silence. [1]

Spoken at the beginning of the last century, these words have proven remarkably prophetic when you consider the lack of Christian influence in education in the modern West – the general silence of the Christian principle in this regard is notable. Neither do many Christians recognise the slow contagion affecting their children, reducing the faith to a place of irrelevance. And yet the utmost concern of the Christian should be the relating of their faith in Christ Jesus and his infallible word to the world around them – beginning in the family. In fact that is what Christian education in essence is – the relating of the faith to the totality of life. So I want to highlight here three simple ways in which a Christian education enables us to relate Christ and his Lordship to the world around us.

Education and World-and-life-view

First, a Christian education helps us to see the world and our lives right side up . Like a good set of lenses it enables us to see truly and accurately. A huge part of living the Christian life is loving God with our minds (one of the great commandments – Matt. 22:37) and learning to see everything in the cosmos and human culture through the lens of God’s Word-revelation in creation and Scripture. Everyone has a worldview whether they have thought it through in detail or not, because we are all religious beings, and we each have an interconnected set of beliefs and assumptions through which we look at life. These belief sets, in turn, shape our approach to everything we do, including how we educate . As a consequence there is no such thing as a neutral education. Education will be done in terms of one worldview or another.

The Christian view of reality asserts at the outset the creative work of God. There are many aspects of creation that are studied in school – for example the arithmetical, physical, biological, sensitive, logical, historical/cultural, lingual, social, economic, aesthetic, juridical, moral, pistical and so forth. But the central question is, how do these relate to each other? What gives them meaning? In biblical faith, none of these aspects of our experience exist by themselves or for themselves, but are coherently interwoven in mutual relationship, pointing toward each other and beyond themselves to their origin. Think of the human person. A human person participates in all these aspects of reality, but cannot be reduced to any one of them. We are physical beings with a biological make-up. We are emotional and rational creatures constantly engaged in cultural formation with the ability to symbolically communicate and socially interact. In all that we do and in all our relations there are economic, aesthetic, juridical and moral considerations and judgments, and lying at their root is our faith orientation toward some idea of ultimacy – something which, in our worldview, does not depend on anything outside of itself to live and move and have its being. The coherence of these various aspects of creation points beyond itself then to a totality of meaning .

We might think of it this way. The sun’s light is refracted through a prism into a spectrum made up of seven bands of color . Each band is in itself a dependent refraction of white light. No one band of light can be thought of as the sum of the various colours and none of them exists without an unbreakable coherence with all the others. If white light is blocked before being refracted, all the colors vanish into nothing, and yet white light is not found in the refracted colors. The non-refracted white light represents a totality to which all the aspects point. And just as light has its origin in a light source , so all of the cosmos takes its rise from an origin, by whom and for whom it was created. God’s creation law-word is the totality of meaning behind the diversity of aspects in created reality. In other words, the cosmos is meaning creation governed and sustained by the Word of God.

That biblical picture of the world has huge implications for education . Firstly it reveals that what is created can never find its resting place or origin in itself – God has created everything in relation to himself, so nothing can be understood fully and truly except in relation to him. Education that simply leaves students with certain information about aspects of reality and offers no coherence and relationship between them, offers no meaning. We can discover meaning in the world (even when we deny the source of that meaning) because everything is related to everything else by design . Everything in reality that can be studied by a student is meaning because it is related to everything else and because it points beyond itself to its origin, the eternal Word of God, Jesus Christ. To leave students without an understanding of the coherence and relationship of all things in relation to their origin is to leave them with a false, incomplete, reductionistic, self-destructive vision of the world. The great lack in modern education is therefore the loss of an integrating principle that brings unity in the diversity.

Secondly, in any attempt to offer a vision of coherence or meaning, what a non-Christian education does is, in one way or another, takes one or more aspects of reality – for example the physical, it doesn’t matter which – and tries to use that one strand of color to account for all the colors – that is, all the aspects of reality . The result is a radical reductionism and a destruction of meaning, leaving students empty and unprepared for life and freedom.

So the first reason a Christian education is so important is that only when we see the root of all creation in Christ, with the coherence and meaning this brings, can we really grasp the truth, wonder and beauty of the cosmos and our place in it. A Christian education is therefore a Copernican revolution which sees Christ and his Word at the centre of all things. In the Christian worldview, in his light, we see light .

Education and Work

A Christian education also links Christ’s Lordship to the real world by connecting it to our work and calling. Much modern education today has become pragmatic and instrumentalist . In other words, the concern of most education is not the cultivation of a critical, discriminating, analytical and creative mind, ready and equipped for all the challenges and opportunities to be confronted in life, but the molding of a child to fulfill a particular role or task that the modern state deems important for its ideal future – i.e. being a good, progressive citizen. Much of what passes for education is in fact humanistic indoctrination into a mold to fulfill a function useful to society. Education is not seen as a good end in itself for the flourishing of the human spirit, it is simply an instrument to get something else. Even higher education has become primarily about training oneself for a particular job – often in order to make as much money as possible – rather than preparing for the much broader work of life and culture itself.

In Christian education the importance of work is central, but it is set in its proper context; one much greater than getting a job to make money. The scriptural context is that God created human beings as his image-bearers , making them creators of culture in terms of a purpose. The calling of our first parents was fundamentally to turn creation into a God-glorifying culture. This began with cultivating the ground in the garden. From the beginning work was not a curse but a blessing when set in relation to our creator and his purposes.

Now to accomplish the task of faithful culture-making – culture that is meaning full , not meaning less – wisdom is required . The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ” (Prov. 1:7). It is not the end, but the ground of wisdom and therefore the foundation of education. As the prophet Isaiah says:

Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?  Does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border?  For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him.  Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread?  No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom (28:24-29).

We see here that it is by submission to God and his Word for creation that we both learn truth, discover our true task and find purpose in it. Christian education therefore is directed toward the vocation of human beings under God as image-bearers, and is in fact an integral part of that calling , so that we learn not just to ‘get a job,’ but to rejoice in life, to discover meaning, and to find our calling.

Because Christian education is directed toward this cultural work , it must take history and culture into account. This is where the classical component comes in – a pedagogy which reflects with special attention on the cultural work of the Western world and social order. This is appropriate because it is where our children live! The term ‘classical’ for the Christian should not mean bypassing two thousand years of history to get to classical Greece and Rome in a romantic attempt to return to the pagan classical world. Neither does it denote a syncretistic approach to education, taking the last two thousand years into account, but at the same time trying to weld Christianity onto the ideas, concepts, philosophies and values of the classical world. This approach would be to corrupt the Christian gospel. Rather a classical Christian approach takes the full spread of history and Western cultural development into account, acknowledging and celebrating God’s disclosure of truth even in non-Christian cultural contexts, whilst asserting the Lordship of Christ and the final truth of his Word over all life and culture, unveiling the real-world consequences of different religious visions for the cultural task.

The Apostle Paul models this approach when he shows in his letters and in the book of Acts a thorough knowledge of the Greek language, thought and culture – including their poets and philosophers. This is not so that he could synthesize it with Christianity, but so that he could bring the claims of Christ and his Word to bear effectively upon them. Remember Paul’s Words regarding Greek thought:

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:20-21).

Douglas Wilson makes the important observation that when Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2 that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, the term he uses for ‘natural man’ is psychikos . This was a word coined by Aristotle for man at the peak of this thinking and form , not an uneducated or idle individual. Consequently Paul is clearly not a pagan classicist, for he critiques Aristotle’s natural man, but he is a biblical classicist. As Wilson writes, “He does not run from classical culture, nor is he defeated or compromised by it. Rather he declares the Lordship of Christ over it.” [2]

When classical method and learning submit to Christ’s Lordship (and do not attempt to merge with it), then a classical Christian education emerges, resting on the authority of Scripture, concerned to enable students to work in creation, within their historical context, for the culture of Christ.

Education and Worship

Lastly, education is an aspect of our worship that brings glory to God. If we think of the education of our children as part of our family worship, it will have a massive impact upon our educational choices, because education is that process of learning to worship and serve God in opposition to all idols .

This introduces the simple but important distinction between structure and direction in education. The structure of things concerns creation – the laws and norms which govern all created things. The direction concerns the religious root, purpose and focus of all that we do; it concerns ultimately our worship. As Paul writes, “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). To illustrate the distinction, both Lady Gaga and Johann Sebastian Bach are employing the same notes and musical notation (i.e. structure) in their creative process, but between them is an entire world in terms of the direction of their music.

In the same way, whilst non-Christians educate and have schools and often get at the same information in chemistry, math and physics (i.e. structures), the direction of the education is altogether different. This is first seen in reference back to the ideas of origin and meaning – in which direction is reality said to point? This orientation will affect how we theorize with regard to the relation of the various aspects of reality. Now a truly Christian education will scrutinize all the non-Christian genius out there – that by God’s kindness is able to get at truths in creation (concerning structures), albeit without proper insight – and then take that discovery and redirect it, turning it to godly purpose as an act of worship (direction). We do not synthesize with the ideas of the world, which is idolatry, but redirect all true knowledge in worship and service to God .

In the end, all education is an expression of what moves and directs the heart

How can you live openly in this world, God’s cosmonomic theatre of wonder, while the graciously preserved unbelievers revel in music and drama, painting, poetry and dance with a riot of colour, a deafening sound raised in praise to themselves and their false gods, how can you live here openly and be silent? Are you satisfied with bedlam for God? Where is our concert of freshly composed holy stringed music? Our jubilant dance of praise to the Lord? What penetrating drama have our hands made? Why do we not break into a new song … this is needed to show our God we love the Lord here to, passionately … that humans of darkened understanding can make merry under God’s nose and curse the Lord with desperately, damnably forceful art should hurt you. God is not dead. Christ lives! Human existence is not absurd: we glory in the image of God. The world is not a curse: it is good creation, struggling under sin toward final deliverance. [3]

John Milton saw that education was about just that: repairing the ruins of our first parents that we and our children might regain to love, serve and worship God in the cosmic struggle toward final deliverance . Christian education is central to that struggle and is therefore a defining investment in the life of our children and the kingdom of God. Which side of this struggle is your family on?

[1] Abraham Kuyper, Pro Rege , or the Kingship of Christ (Kampen: Kok, 1912), 3:184–94 (§ XIX). Translated and abridged by Harry Van Dyke.

[2] Douglas Wilson, Repairing the Ruins: The Classical and Christian Challenge to Modern Education (Moscow, ID: Canpn Press, 1996), 24.

[3] Calvin Seerveld, A Christian Critique of Art and Literature (Toronto: Tuppence Press, 1995), 21-22.

Creative Pedagogy

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• Andrei G. Aleinikov 1  

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Creative teaching methodologies ; System of creative teaching

Creative pedagogy is the science and art of creative teaching.

Introduction

If pedagogy in general is defined as the study of the process of teaching, then creative pedagogy is defined as the science and art of creative teaching (Aleinikov 1989 ). Creative pedagogy is a branch of pedagogy that emphasizes the leading role of creativity for successful learning. In its essence, creative pedagogy teaches learners how to learn creatively and become creators of themselves and creators of their future.

The functional definition of creative pedagogy is longer and more complex. The founding work on creative pedagogy gives a definition in the form of a formula of invention – a strict word pattern used to describe inventions for patenting:

Creative pedagogy that includes educational influence on the learner for acquisition of certain study material (subject) [as pedagogy in general] and differing from the above by the...

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Andrei G. Aleinikov

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Correspondence to Andrei G. Aleinikov .

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Aleinikov, A.G. (2017). Creative Pedagogy. In: Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6616-1_13-2

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You are here, rob stephan receives creative teaching award.

Dr. Rob Stephan , Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Religious Studies and Classics, has been awarded the University’s 2024 Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award.

Announced by the Office of the Provost , the award is given by the University of Arizona Foundation in recognition of “unusually outstanding teaching methodologies; a demonstrated effort to ensure the quality of students' learning experiences; and consistently high scholarly standard in both rigor and currency of course content.” Stephan will receive a $2,500 award and the placement of a plaque in the Donna Swaim Honors Lounge in the Student Union Memorial Center.

Since arriving at the University of Arizona in 2016, Stephan has become known for his creativity and passion, attracting thousands of students each year ( 4,467 students during the 2023 calendar year) and putting large introductory courses in Classics at the top of students’ lists of “must-take” classes, for any major.

“Dr. Stephan has the kind of presence in the classroom that can hold the attention of hundreds of students, and his presentation of materials, both in class and online, are visually and pedagogically stunning,” said Karen Seat, Head of the Department of Religious Studies and Classics. “A consistent theme in student testimonials is how Dr. Stephan put them at ease as nervous freshmen entering large lecture halls for the first time, and how he always made the time to help them overcome stress and uncertainty in pursuing their studies. Clearly, Dr. Stephan is doing important work at our university as we endeavor to recruit and retain students, including first-generation and underserved student populations.”

“He doesn’t just stand out as the best teacher at the university, both for general undergraduate courses and advanced graduate ones, he reinvents what it means to be the best and sets a higher standard for other teachers,” wrote one student. “He is an unending fountain of enthusiasm and knowledge, capable of keeping up with all the students he speaks with and approaching them in both a friendly and scholarly manner.

“From the three classes of his that I have taken, Dr. Stephan has consistently been a passionate, caring professor who puts his all into his classes to make sure that they are fun, thought-provoking, and accessible,” wrote one student nominator. “I have never had another professor dedicate this much time and energy to perfecting their classes, and that has made my college experience all the better. Dr. Stephan has turned me, a STEM nerd, into a lover of the ancient world. That is something I had thought impossible until I took his classes.”

“His passion for Classics is undeniable and he shares this passion with each of his students through incredibly engaging video lectures, creative assignments and well-structured learning modules. He cares deeply about the success of his students and makes that readily apparent through quick replies to emails as well as personalized feedback on every assignment,” wrote another student. “His enthusiasm for the Classics is contagious as his video lectures are filled with striking visuals, witty humor, and incredible storytelling that capture the minds of his students and draw us into the life of these ancient civilizations. There truly is no other professor like Dr. Rob Stephan.”

This is just the latest teaching award for Stephan, who won both the Margaret M. Briehl and Dennis T. Ray Five Star Faculty Award and Gerald G. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence in 2021 and has received the College of Humanities Distinguished Teaching Award, in 2020, and Distinguished Undergraduate Advising/Mentoring Award, in 2019

Why do religious teens engage in less risky behavior? A psychologist explains

Professor of Psychology, University of Florida

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James Shepperd receives funding from the Templeton Foundation (Grant No. 12829).

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Researchers have long known that religious teens are less likely to engage in risky behavior . My team’s research explains why.

We surveyed multiple times the religious beliefs and risk behavior of over 1,400 teens from Florida between 2010 and 2012. Although the majority of our sample self-identified as Christian, many of the teens identified as belonging to other religious groups or as nonreligious.

Our work has focused on risky behaviors – such as using alcohol, drugs and tobacco – that are socially unacceptable, potentially harmful and often illegal for teens.

Why it matters

We identified four conditions that can reduce risky behavior: low opportunity, appeal, acceptability and a high level of self-control.

Take drinking alcohol, as an example. Teens are less likely to drink if they lack opportunities or if they view drinking to be unappealing , perhaps because the people who are important to them view drinking unfavorably . Teens are also less likely to drink alcohol if they find drinking to be morally unacceptable . Finally, teens are less likely to drink if they can control their impulses and resist the temptation or peer pressure .

These four conditions overlap. For example, peer disapproval can reduce both the appeal and the moral acceptability of using alcohol. In addition, circumstances such as parent supervision that limit opportunity may also communicate that the behavior is morally unacceptable or unappealing.

Although religions differ in their beliefs, they all share three features that can affect the four conditions that deter risky behavior.

First, all religions offer people a worldview , which is a set of beliefs that addresses questions such as why people exist, how they should behave and what happens after they die.

Worldviews provide guidelines that can influence the appeal and moral acceptability of risky behavior. My research team found that religious teens – that is, teens who express stronger religious beliefs and display more frequent religious behavior – possess a stronger sense of meaning and a clear understanding of what is right versus wrong . These benefits of a worldview were also linked to lower rates of smoking, drinking and marijuana use.

Second, religions often revolve around belief in an omniscient entity or God that monitors and can punish or reward behavior. Belief in God, in turn, can promote self-monitoring, self-control and ultimately less risky behavior .

Third, religions are not just a set of beliefs; they represent communities of people who can influence thought and behavior. They can limit opportunities to engage in risky behavior. They can convey values , such as the idea that using alcohol is wrong, that influence the appeal and moral acceptability of risky behavior. And they can offer support and feelings of belongingness that can help youth with impulse control.

What still isn’t known

Most research exploring the effects of religion on risk behavior examines Christians in the U.S. and Europe. We need more research from other cultures and other religions. It is noteworthy that our research suggests that the link between greater religiousness and less risky behavior is generally the same for boys and girls and across religious and racial groups .

Research suggests that a sense of meaning and clear understanding of what is right and wrong is linked to engaging in less risky behavior even among nonreligious teens . Our interpretation is that having a strong worldview matters more than the source of the worldview.

In addition, secular communities lack belief in an all-powerful God. But the larger point is that monitoring and rewards from authority figures can influence risky behavior . Secular communities may be able to reduce risky behavior in teens through greater monitoring and rewards and by adapting the other features of religion that appear to deter risky behavior in religious adolescents.

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