Go and Make Disciples
Go and Make Disciples: Living the Great Commission is the program of studies for high school religious education offered in Religious Studies (Roman Catholic) 15, 25 and 35 courses. These courses prepare students to examine the culture through the lens of the Gospel and our Catholic Tradition. They are challenged to be transformed in seeing through faith the Truth, Beauty and Goodness of their lives and the society in which they live. By deepening their understanding of the joy and sacrifice of discipleship they can explore with confidence the ethical and moral guides for living based on the Truth they discover through the authentic witness and teaching of our Catholic educators. This curriculum is essential to the very nature of religious instruction in Alberta's Catholic high schools, both for our students and Catholic teachers.
Religious Studies (Roman Catholic) 15 – Christ and Culture
The principal aim of Christ and Culture is to assist students, with the help of the Gospel, to participate as Christians in the shaping of our culture. The program explores major cultural issues from a Christological perspective. Beginning with their own life experiences, students acquire a deeper and more systematic knowledge of themselves, Christ's message, and the Church. Connections between the Church and contemporary culture are explored in term of what it means to be a responsible adolescent developing as a member of a Catholic, Christian community while living within the context of a broader culture. For 20% of the course students will study how the stories, signs, symbols, and rituals from other World Religions and Canada’s Indigenous communities have influenced cultures both in Canada and throughout the world.
Religious Studies (Roman Catholic) 25 – Jesus Christ: God’s Gift of Salvation
Jesus Christ: God's Gift of Salvation invites students to deepen their relationship with Jesus through a study of Scripture. Students will explore the Jewish historical, religious, and cultural world into which the Messiah was born, and the Old Testament covenant fulfilled. Using the Gospels as primary sources, the course explores Jesus' birth, early life, and ministry; his preaching of the Kingdom of God; his special teachings, particularly the parables; and his
miracles. It then focuses on the scriptural accounts of his death and Resurrection, and the Ascension, and their central significance for the church’s understanding of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. In addition to the study of the history of the Jewish faith, students will study salvation doctrines of other World Religions, as well as the way that contemporary Christians (both Catholic and from other Christian traditions) cooperate to total 20% of the course.
Religious Studies (Roman Catholic) 35 – In Search of the Good
In Search of the Good challenges students to understand themselves as moral persons called to discipleship by living the way of Christ. Through an examination of ethical theories, the revelation of Sacred Scripture, and the lived experience and teaching of the Catholic Church, the course invites students to mature as active participants in their faith. At the heart of catechesis is the human search for happiness as the completion of the superabundant love of God. The same tension which exists between the revelation of God's love and the explorations of human reason are worked out in the areas of freedom, justice, human relations, ecology, and reconciliation, life in community and political life. For 20% of the course, students will learn how other World Religions understand their own sacred texts as guides to moral living, plus how they approach current moral issues.