The Issue of Divine Pedagogy in Educational Practices. A Philosophical Reflection

Abstract

This article attempts to theoretically define the term “divine pedagogy”, which is very important for Christian education practices. On the basis of natural cognition the meaningfulness of this term is based on the view on the existence of personal God, which decontradictifies the existence of a being composed of the act of existence and essence. The human person participates in God. This vertical dimension of human life may also be regarded metaphysically as a continuous keeping in existence. Also, the issue of the personal being of man, his/her natural religiosity are important components that create the intellectual climate of philosophy open to faith. In contemporary culture, this lack of such openness is visible in, which does not facilitate a perception of the place of Christian pedagogy in academic discourse. Philosophical solutions are responsible for this state of affairs. Overall, the point is whether man can cognitively ascertain the reality of the religious relationship on the part of its object, i.e. personal God, and thereby integrate the horizontal dimension of education with vertical one whereby the act of upbringing, human pedagogy is performed in the perspective of divine pedagogy. Therefore, the article recalls the Thomistic metaphysics and its thesis that reason and faith are complementary.