Search for ways to integrate elements of the scientific knowledge into the educational process of Sunday schools

Abstract

The present article attempts to answer the question of the possibility and pedagogical expediency of harmonizing religious and natural science knowledge in the classroom within the framework of the parish education of children. For quite a long time, natural science knowledge was used as a powerful means of atheistic propaganda and destruction of any thought about faith and religion among the people. At present, there remain difficulties in combining scientific knowledge and religious faith in science and educational practice. As a result of the materialistic approach to teaching natural science subjects at school, the young believers reject the biblical picture of the world offered in Sunday School as contradicting scientific knowledge and suffer from ideological dualism.The purpose of the present work is to substantiate the necessity and value of integrating elements of natural science knowledge into the educational process of Sunday School through effective ways of its implementation. The article reveals the theoretical aspects of the indicated problem and describes practical methods of integrating natural science knowledge into religious education within the framework of parish activity. Such forms of integration as natural science laboratories of a young naturalist, master classes, creative workshops and others are singled out as the most efficient. Basing on the available practical experience, the article presents the real and expected educational effects and highlights the pedagogical conditions that contribute to their achievement.The author expresses the hope that due to the integration of elements of natural science knowledge into the religious education of children, it will be possible to avoid the ideological and religious crisis among teenage schoolchildren and reduce the number of children who abandon the faith planted by parents and teachers and leave the confines of the church.