Call and Crisis

The Divine Pedagogy of Formation

Abstract

The divine call and the progressive training given to Abraham in order to be a ‘blessing to the nations’ provide us with a clear notion of the divine pedagogy of formation. Unlike an overprotective mother who refuses her baby to grow up by not letting it go off her knees, the divine formator often leaves humans alone in order to face challenges. The humans through bumping into crisis one after the other and employing every bit of their survival skills, are expected to develop the divine maturity and to realize that their ultimate survival is in God. Failures and falls form an integral part of this formative dynamics which serve to imprint in the mind of the formees the eternal truth about their absolute dependence on the divine providence. They are feeble creatures who cannot subsist by themselves. The formee must again and again confess that he/she is an agathi, who needs to cling to God. The divine pedagogue often makes use of various situations and persons to realize his goal rather than directly getting involved in the formative process.