Religious Education in a Plural, Secularised Society. A Paradigm Shift

Contents

Introduction

Religious Education in a Religiously Pluralised and Secularised Society

Part I: Different Models of Religious Education in Europe

Situation and Current Developments of Religious Education in Europe

1. Introduction

2. Key Characteristics of Religious Education in Europe

3. European Developments

4. Perspectives

Religious Education in Belgium: Historical Overview and Current Debates

1. Introduction

2. Historical Overview

3. Some (Impressive) Facts and Figures6

4. Practical Problems

5. The New Sociological Situation

6. Struggling and Coping with Depillarisation, Diversity and Secularisation

Teaching about Religious Issues within the Framework of the French “Laïcité”

1. The Principle of Laïcité: Church, State and School

2. Towards Awareness of the Necessary to Stress More on Teaching about Religious Issues

3. Teaching about Religious Issues within the Schools

4. Conclusion

References

Without Fear or Favour: Forty Years of Non-confessional and Multi-faith Religious Education in Scandinavia and the UK

1. ‘Without Fear or Favour’

2. Forty Years of Non-confessional-multi-faith Religious Education

3. Why did Non-confessional, Multi-faith Religious Education Develop?

4. The Influence of Phenomenology

5. Forty Years Later

6. Forty Years Later in Non-confessional, Multi-faith Religious Education

7. Varieties of Non-confessional, Multi-faith Religious Education

8. The Lessons of Forty Years

10. Remaining Questions

11. Conclusion

References

Religious Education in a Pillarised and Postsecular Age in the Netherlands

1. Introduction

2. From State-Protestantism to Pillarisation

3. From a Pillarised to a Post-secular Society

4. Positioning Religion(s) in Denominational Schools: Current Situation and Trends

5. Education of Encounter

6. Squaring the Circle: Religious Citizenship Education

7. Concluding Remarks

References

Religious Education in Norway

1. Introduction: Obligatory Integrative Religious Education – the Norwegian Context

2. Religious Education in Norway until the 1990s: the Emergence of a Separative Model2

3. The Introduction of Integrative Religious Education in the 1990s

4. Norwegian Integrative Religious Education and International Law: the Human Rights Issue

5. Religion, Livssyn og Etikk (RLE): the Revised Subject of 2008

6. Conclusion: Obligatory Education about Religions in Contemporary Plural, Secularised Societies

References

Part II: Should Religious Education be Part of the (State) School Curriculum? Three Normative Views

Dialogue Needs Difference: The Case for Denominational and Cooperative Religious Education

1. Denominational Religious Education in Educational Perspective

2. Should Denominational Religious Education be Part of the (State) School Curriculum?

3. Dialogue and Difference

4. Different Approaches to Dialogue in Religious Education

5. Perspectives for the Future: Different Paths towards Dialogical Religious Education in Different Locations?

References

Why Religion Education, as a Matter of Course, ought to be Part of the Public School Curriculum1

1. Why Religion must be Studied and Taught about – Fundamentals

2. A Compulsory, Separate Religion Education: Fundamentals

3. Final Remarks and Arguments

References

Why Religious Education should not be Exclusively Religious

1. Introduction

2. The Five Models Briefly Introduced

3. Religious Education and Secularism

4. Traditional Secularism and Secularism Renewed

5. Secularism and Criticism of Religion

6. The Implications of Free Debate on Religion for the State Curriculum

7. The Implications of Secularism for Religious Education

References

Conclusion

The Challenges of the Paradigm Shift in Religious Education

1. The Importance of National Contexts

2. A Shift in Paradigm

3. Convergences

4. Challenges and Discussion

5. Conclusion

Biographical Details