Memory's Role in Catechesis [microform] / Robert Bryan Williams

The aim of this dissertation is to explicate memory's role in catechesis. Catechesis is a term that early Christians chose to describe their "...work of teaching the gospel and...to mean 'instruction given by word of mouth.'" A brief historical overview confirms the continuity between catechesis and memory from apostolic to present times. Selected tasks of catechesis, liturgy and worship, modeling, personal relationship, verbal instruction or explanation, listening attentively, recitation, practice and study, and selected aspects of memory for which they are stimuli are identified. The functions of the working, procedural, semantic, episodic, automatic, and emotional aspects of memory are defined within a cognitive neuroscientific perspective. Knowledge about the selected aspects of memory, useful to catechesis in planning and carrying out the tasks of catechesis, is discussed. It proposes that one of the goals of catechesis should be to achieve a catechization of the long-term working memory of each student to at least a pedestrian level of expertise indicated by: (1) religious literacy; (2) knowledge, understanding, skills-appropriate to age and capacity to think spiritually, ethically, and theologically; and (3) awareness of the demands of a religious commitment in everyday life seen behaviorally in such practices as regular attendance at Mass, religious studies, and church support via donations or personal service. It concludes with a discussion of the role and relevance of memory to the tasks of catechesis throughout a life-span. The primary points in this dissertation focus on selected aspects of memory, tasks of catechesis, and a view of the pervasive role that memory plays in catechesis. (Contains 13 notes, and 173 references.) (BT)