Attention as ascesis Digital acedia and the formation of attention in Christian religious education in the era of deep learning policy
Abstract
Indonesia’s deep learning policy, enacted through Regulation of the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education 13 of 2025, requires mindful, meaningful, and joyful learning, yet supplies no anthropology explaining why human beings are able—or fail—to become deep. This article argues that attention is the precondition for depth, and that the erosion of attention in the classroom is not a disciplinary problem but a formative one, named by the early Christian tradition as acedia. Using constructive practical theology structured by Osmer’s four tasks, the study describes the digital ecology of attention, interprets it through Evagrius Ponticus, John Cassian, and Thomas Aquinas, constructs a norm of attention as ascesis through Simone Weil, and formulates a pedagogy of attention for Christian religious education. It concludes that Christian religious education can supply the anthropological content the word “deep” currently lacks in national policy: depth is not merely integrated conceptual mastery but the relational capacity to remain, to wait, and to love.
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