Religious Education In A Pluralistic Society

Religious education in liberal pluralist societies such as the UK, the USA, and Australian underwent radical change in the 1980s and 1990s, with a major shift towards multi-faith, educationally oriented programmes. This has meant significant modifications to both the content and the methodology of religious-education courses and to the way they are conceived of and taught in schools and universities. One important implication of this change for the teaching and study of religion today is the need for a philosophical dimension that deals with issues such as the truth status of religious statements and the moral acceptability of religious claims. This dimension is often insufficiently developed; this lack is made more critical by the multiple competing truth claims of various religions, giving rise to such contentious problems as the growth of fundamentalism, increasing religious intolerance and conflict, and differences of opinion on central moral problems such as birth control, abortion and euthanasia. This text attempts to provide the philosophical underpinning that the study and teaching of religion in modern societies requires.

Many European societies are characterised by increasing forms of secularisation and religious diversity. This results in a paradigm shift with regard to religious education. For a long time, the main aim of religious education was, clearly, to educate children in their own religious tradition. Today, the aims of religious education are much broader: contributing to pupils’ general education (Allgemeinbildung) and preparing them for participation as a citizen in the future, multicultural society. As a result, the following question arises in many countries: how can ‘teaching into religion’ be transformed into or complemented by ‘learning about’ and ‘learning from (the study of) religions’? This book brings several distinguished authors in the field of religious education together to reflect on this paradigm shift. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is rather descriptive and gives an informative and up to date overview of the different discussions about religious education in several European countries. The second part is a normative reflection on the question of how religious education should be organised in plural secularised societies. “This book is very important for the discussion about religious education. Its comparative approach combined with the interdisciplinary dialogue between the different schools in the field of religious education, make this book highly recommendable for everyone who is interested in the state of the art and the future of religious education in Europe.” Didier Pollefeyt, full professor in theology and religious education at the Catholic University of Leuven

The essays in this volume offer a groundbreaking comparative analysis of religious education, and state policies towards religious education in seven different countries and in the European Union as a whole. They pose a crucial question: can religious education contribute to a shared public sphere and foster solidarity across different ethnic and religious communities? In many traditional societies and even in what are largely secular European societies, our place in creation, the meaning of good and evil, and the definition of the good life, virtue, and moral action, are all primarily addressed in religious terms. It is in fact hard to come to grips with these issues without recourse to religious language, traditions, and frames of reference. Yet, religious languages and identities divide as much as unite, and provide a site of contestation and strife as much as a sense of peace and belonging Not surprisingly, different countries approach religious education in dramatically different ways. Religious Education and the Challenge of Pluralism addresses a pervasive problem: how can religious education provide a framework of meaning, replete with its language of inclusion and community, without at the same time drawing borders and so excluding certain individuals and communities from its terms of collective membership and belonging? The authors offer in-depth analysis of such pluralistic countries as Bulgaria, Israel, Malaysia, and Turkey, as well as Cyprus - a country split along lines of ethno-religious difference. They also examine the connection between religious education and the terms of citizenship in the EU, France, and the USA, illuminating the challenges of educating our citizenry in an age of religious resurgence and global politics.

The second edition of Religious Liberty in a Pluralistic Society offers the same structure and thorough coverage of the law of religious liberty as the first edition, along with a new conceptual framework for approaching the religious liberty jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. The first four chapters offer a history of law and religion in the United States that extends from the framing of the Constitution to the early 1920s. Chapters Six through Thirteen examine the statute and case law governing religious liberty in a variety of settings and areas of law, including education, the workplace, tax, the courtroom, property, and the corporate boardroom. The few pronouncements of the United States Supreme Court in each of these areas serve as the anchors for thorough examination of the law of religious liberty in the state and lower federal courts. Ariens and Destro have reorganized Chapter Five, which examines the Supreme Court's efforts to craft a constitutional law of religious liberty since the 1940s. The new conceptual framework is based on the language and structure of the First Amendment, and is designed to help the reader understand and apply the rules the Court has developed in this important area of constitutional law. New in the notes to Chapter Five are references to comparative and international materials. The materials are updated through 2001, and a number of cases are more tightly edited than in the first edition. A revised teacher's manual with sample course outlines and problems will be available.

In the World Library of Educationalists series, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work contributes to the development of the field. Religious Education for Plural Societies highlights key writings from Robert Jackson’s international career in education. It provides a historical perspective in relation to current debates about religious education in the UK and internationally, drawing attention to current issues of concern. Carefully selected examples explore the key themes in religious education that allow us to consider how things were, how they are now and the future for the field of study. Split into parts: empirical research; the interpretive approach to religious education pedagogy; religious education and plurality and human rights and international policy developments, Robert Jackson also provides an overview of the text in the form of a general introduction, and also introductions to each section of the book, allowing the reader a personal insight into why each piece has been chosen. Religious Education for Plural Societies allows readers to follow themes and strands across Robert Jackson’s career and see how his work has contributed to the development of the fields of religions and education. It will be of interest to all followers of Robert Jackson’s work and any reader interested in the development of religious education in the UK and internationally.

This book discusses the philosophical issues underlying the teaching of religious education, and the conflict between religion and democratic values; it scrutinises religious education programmes in the UK, USA and Australia, and evaluates their effectiveness.