Randy S. Woodley - Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview: A Decolonized Approach to Christian Doctrine

Pedagogy

As a way of setting a proper context for the book, it is necessary that I mention a few particularities concerning an Indigenous pedagogy, which is rooted in Indigenous values. Even the word pedagogy implies teaching from a place of unequal positions or the problem of the subject/object paradigm. You will notice the dialogical nature of my style, especially in the question and response sections following each chapter. I feel that, when teaching or presenting, it is paramount to hear all the other voices in the room, not just my own. Although the Hayward Lectures are created in a very Western style, I tried to bend that style toward a more Indigenous platform. The word pedagogy technically implies a learning style resembling an adult teaching a child. Pedagogy implies that one person, the teacher or adult, has knowledge to share with the other, the receiver or child. In my graduate and undergraduate courses, I have always referenced my students (another word that implies the former inequality of position) as co-learners. Co-learners, short for collaborative learners, implies we are positionally equal, learning together. Yes, I likely have more years of study in the subject matter than many of them, but knowledge, not applied, does us little good. I have found that most learning experiences stick best when we bring not just knowledge but our own truth and experience to the conversation. As co-learners apply the knowledge that I help them bring forth, making it real in their own contexts, we learn from one another. Thus, real knowledge, that which is real to each ones experience, is shared together as co-learners in collaboration with the subject matter.

Much has been written about adult learning or what some of us call anthrogogy, and I need not repeat it here. Master teachers such as Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Myles Horton have influenced my teaching style, but suffice it to say, the ideas of democracy and teaching from an egalitarian anthrogogy were on this continent long before Europeans arrived. Indigenous teaching styles embody a respect for co-learning without diminishing the authority of the teacher and without objectification of the co-learners. I always cherish conversations when people speak from their hearts, even if I disagree with them. Over the years, I have learned to face a reality in my own lifenamely, there are few areas in which I have no opinions or at least have no leanings, and therefore my assumptions are best challenged in groups by others who are thinking on the topic in a different way.

In many of our Native American traditions we have a prayer that often goes something like, Have pity/understanding on me Creator and remember, I am just a human being. The idea behind this prayer is that perfection is the enemy of attainment. We are all simply human beings, imperfect but learning from our mistakes. Those mistakes make us human. And being human by climbing out on a limb in order to reach others is the most spiritual state of being in which we may find ourselves. When those special moments come, everyone in the room feels like we have experienced something together that is truly sacred. Perhaps promoting knowledge among co-learners in an atmosphere of sacred space is the most important role I have as a scholar and a spiritual leader.

Narrative

In this book you will also notice what may seem to some to be an abundance of stories, both of a traditional Indigenous style and my own personal stories. Narrative theology, like anthrogogy, has been used as a primary communication tool among Indigenous peoples from time immemorial. Traditions are passed on orally, often through story, reinforcing the values developed over time among Indigenous peoples. Included in those values is an understanding that spoken words have primordial power. Tribal stories, then, are considered sacred and are not to be used lightly. These sacred stories reinforce other Indigenous values, much in the way ceremony and songs do. Naturally, stories, both shared tribal stories and ones own personal stories, are a primary vehicle for teaching and sustaining life.