{"id":3362,"date":"2017-05-19T16:04:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T20:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/practicalmattersjournal.ecdsdev.org\/?p=3362"},"modified":"2017-05-23T07:49:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T11:49:52","slug":"grace-of-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pmcleanup.ecdsdev.org\/2017\/05\/19\/grace-of-playing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grace of Playing: Pedagogies for Leaning into God’s New Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"
Download PDF: RV Lavallee, The Grace of Playing<\/a><\/h5>\n
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By Courtney T. Goto
\nEugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016. 150 pages. $22.00<\/h3>\n
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In this short yet insightful text, religious education scholar Courtney Goto argues that \u201ccreating conditions for revelatory experiencing can be better understood in the light of playing,\u201d and situates this thesis within an understanding that \u201cplaying provides insights into pedagogies in which learners are creating and are created anew\u201d (12). Goto asserts that the language of playing provides creative and imaginative insight into the communal nature of revelation\u2014as something that occurs between persons\u2014and the transformative aims of religious education. To this end, the author engages a practical-theological examination of playing as a social-scientific, theological, historical, and aesthetic reality. As a contribution to the study and practice of religious education, the text provides a critical examination of revelatory experiencing in teaching and learning at the intersection of two contexts wherein playing is often unfortunately marginalized: the church and the academy.<\/p>\n

Four central chapters of the text provide analytical perspectives of playing through which Goto develops a practical-theological analysis of playing and an inspiration for teaching generated through such analysis. In each chapter, Goto is careful to explore both the benefits and limitations of each perspective. The first of these chapters (chapter two) provides a social-scientific examination of playing, wherein the author relies on the psychological work of D.W. Winnicott in order to develop an understanding of playing as \u201closing and finding oneself in engaging reality and one another \u2018as if,\u2019 exploring freely a world of possibilities bounded by structure that facilitates relationship\u201d (15). This definition of playing (particularly in terms of engaging reality and one another \u201cas if\u201d) grounds Goto\u2019s theological, historical, and aesthetic analyses of playing as pedagogy for \u201cleaning into God\u2019s new creation.\u201d Goto notes that \u201cacting or believing \u2018as if\u2019 is vital for nurturing faith\u201d (32) and \u201cthis \u2018not-yet\u2019 and \u2018already\u2019 dimension of revelatory experiences\u201d (a dimension that appears in scriptural metaphors of the \u201ckingdom of God\u201d and God\u2019s new creation) \u201care theological ways of referring to what acting or believing \u2018as if\u2019 is also attempting to describe in the language of playing\u201d (33).<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying Theologically\u201d (chapter three) explores this reality more deeply through a critical analysis and reconception of J\u00fcrgen Moltmann\u2019s work, Theology of Play<\/em>. Goto uses this analysis and reconception to shape a theological understanding of playing as a practice that provides \u201cformative, aesthetic experience for Christian faith\u201d (46).<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying Historically\u201d (chapter four) describes two historical examples of revelatory experiencing through playing in community: the Christian tradition of the \u201choly fool\u201d and the use of devotional dolls among Rheinland Catholic nuns in fourteenth century Germany. In this chapter, which provides psychoanalytic and theological perspectives on these practices, Goto concludes with insights for facilitating revelatory experiencing though playing.<\/p>\n

Finally, of particular interest is the author\u2019s development in chapter five of the concept of \u201clocal practical theological aesthetics\u201d (LPTA), which she defines as \u201cthe sensibilities that guide a Christian community\u2019s unique \u2018style\u2019 of relating form and theological content\u201d (109), and which she explores through a liturgical art installation at Sacramento Japanese United Methodist Church called, The Garden Series<\/em>. Goto notes that \u201ca community\u2019s aesthetic sensibilities are based on their experiences of being \u2018taken in\u2019 by God\u2019s beauty, which combines the sublimity of God\u2019s transcendence with the groundedness of God\u2019s vulnerability in taking human form\u201d (109). Understanding, engaging, and helping to shape local practical theological aesthetics provides a significant contribution to practical theology and religious education. As Goto notes, \u201cthe faithful do not know the good news simply because they have read or been told about it. They experience it in relating to others, knowing it in their bodies, with the senses, in heartfelt imaginings, and authentic exchanges that hit home\u201d (128). This statement describes the heart of revelatory experiencing in loving community with others, and it highlights both the importance of playing and the local practical theological aesthetics that playing nurtures.<\/p>\n

Good practical theology (like good religious education) engages processes of becoming rather than merely relating sociological or theological theories and religious doctrines. Goto\u2019s text embodies a commitment to engaging processes of becoming through its consistent emphasis on active images (playing as opposed to play; revelatory experiencing as opposed to experiences). Goto is insightful in pointing out that \u201ca drawback of play theology and theology of play is that they do not treat playing as something one does. This creates a strange disconnect from life experience\u201d (38). Playing, teaching, learning, and leaning into God\u2019s new creation are things that people do together in love. The present work offers readers a helpful entrance into understanding and engaging ways in which revelatory experiencing may be fostered and facilitated through playing and pedagogies of play.<\/p>\n

Cover image used by permission of Wipf and Stock publishers. www.wipfandstock.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download PDF: RV Lavallee, The Grace of Playing By Courtney T. Goto Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016. 150 pages. $22.00 In this short yet insightful text, religious education scholar Courtney Goto argues that \u201ccreating conditions for revelatory experiencing can be better<\/p>\n

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