Christian Religious Education and Indonesia’s Poverty Paradox: Toward a Transformative Christian Education

Rependi Sianturi

doi:10.55927/fjmr.v5i6.93

Authors

Rependi Sianturi Universitas Kristen Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55927/fjmr.v5i6.93

Keywords:

Christian Religious Education, Public Theology, Critical Pedagogy, Multidimensional Poverty, Social Change

Abstract

This paper explores the rebuilding of Christian Religious Education (CRE) as a transformative public pedagogy to address multidimensional poverty in Indonesia. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method with critical literature analysis to explore the confluence of public theology, liberation theology, and critical pedagogy of the socioeconomic context. The results suggest a marked poverty paradox in Indonesia, where, despite falling national poverty figures, structural inequality and economic fragility continue to be widespread. CRE in Indonesia is also generally doctrinal, cognitive, and ecclesiastical, frequently divorced from social realities such as poverty, inequality, and marginalization. Based on Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy and public theology perspectives, this study offers a transformative theological–pedagogical paradigm which emphasizes critical consciousness, ethical economic formation, community empowerment, and public advocacy. This study indicates that CRE must go beyond doctrinal transmission and enter into the terrain of emancipatory praxis, which can nurture socially active, critically conscious, and ethically responsible Christian citizens devoted to justice, freedom, and human flourishing.

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