Small Christian communities and religious education: A study of the movement in the Archdiocese of Seoul

This dissertation investigates problems that constituted the background to the stagnation of the Small Christian Communities Movement in the Archdiocese of Seoul, Korea. By utilizing historical methodology, it explores the history of the Archdiocese of Seoul in terms of small Christian communities in order to research into the root causes of the stagnation. Since SCCs are ecclesiological phenomena, the research approaches the movement with theological and ecclesiological analyses. It seeks alternatives for the development of the Archdiocese of Seoul and its Small Christian Communities Movement. The study also examines an international context of small Christian communities in order to raise the uniqueness and universality of the Small Christian Communities Movement in the Archdiocese of Seoul and in the Korean Roman Catholic Church. Finally, it explores the educational implications of small Christian communities from the religiously educational vantage point, especially for the religious education of the adult in the Archdiocese of Seoul. Dealing with religiously educative dimensions of small Christian communities, the study focuses on how small Christian communities operate as the agents of the religious education of the adults in terms of community, prayer, teaching, proclamation, and service. The study seeks to enlarge the concept of religious education in the Korean Roman Catholic Church beyond its traditional child and youth centeredness. It shows that religious education in the church should be done for all the members of the church, ranging from children to elders and that the whole church community should become an agent of religious education