Learning to teach from the angels

Rev. Dan Goodenough's 1975 address to the council of the clergy, “Angelic Methods of Instruction - A Survey of Memorabilia,” is one of the best pieces I've read about a New Church approach to teaching.

Angels... do not try to force learning on anyone.... Spirits, like Swedenborg, and like men on earth, learn an enormous amount from experience. But it is significant that in the memorabilia, when experience results in learning, it is nearly always accompanied by instruction from angels.... Experiences, then, are of enormous value in instruction, but not by themselves.... Thus experiences serve to arouse interest, to confirm teachings, and to illustrate them by living examples. In the memorabilia they seem to be not a mere adjunct of learning, but an essential element....

The angels concern for their learners affections is perhaps best illustrated by the very frequent use of questions.... One period of instruction was introduced by some angels inviting, “Let us have an exchange of speech by questions and answers; for where a subject is taken in solely from hearing, the perception of that subject does indeed flow in, but unless the hearer think of it from himself and ask questions, it does not remain” (Conjugial Love 183:2)....

[T]he angels purpose in posing questions in this way is to have the learners themselves face the complexity of the problem at hand and realize they need to be instructed.... In other words, the questions and discussion often are used not so much to get right answers, but to arouse a desire for the truth....

Affection of the truth does not mean just getting excited about it, and the angels encourage learners to be patient and take their time in learning. “Think about what we have said,” they say. “Wait until later to learn about some things.” ....