This book discusses the possibility of a holistic approach to religious education, taking into account religious and cultural diversity, different aspects of secularisation and different academic disciplines that inform the subject. Issues discussed are the view of children as spiritual and religious subjects, identity formation, the concept of child theology, the relationship between faith and morality, the meaning of spirituality, the notion of wonder as an inroad to learning, religion as culture, and the meaning of holism. A point of departure is taken in a typology of attitudes to religion in public education, and the line of reason ends in a search for viable metaphors for holistic religious education. Sturla Sagberg (born 1951) is professor of religious education and ethics at Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education in Trondhem, Norway. He has a doctoral degree in theology, and has for many decades taught and done research related to teacher training as well as to church education. He has published several books in Norwegian, of which the latest translates into Religion, Values and Formation: Children and the big questions in life. Many of his articles in books and journals are written in English.

Recent decades have brought forth much enlightenment in the areas of best educational practice as it related to holistic, authentic learning, and the crucial ingredients of faith formation for the young. The researcher believes that multiple spheres of influence, not only from the realms of education and faith formation, but also brain research, sociology and psychology have much to offer a holistic approach to religious education that will assist movement towards a personal and established faith. This study seek to fuse what is relevant from these disciplines and forge ingredients of best practice into a practical tool that can not only make vision and purpose accessible, but holistic religious education, and ultimately spiritual formation more possible. The resulting Transformational Planning Framework offers a re-centering of the focus and modus operandi of religious education. It serves to protect what is valued in Adventist educational philosophy, and propel it towards the ultimate goals it so highly esteems.

In Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education, scholars from around the globe address the theory, practice, and poetics of holistic education. Some of the topics explored include educating the soul; partnership education; nourishing adolescents' spirituality; education and the modern assault on being human; the Eros of teaching; personal creativity as soul work; pedagogies of compassion; and meditation, masculinity, and meaningful life.

The book comes out of the ecumenical movement and is one outcome of the Holistic Education Study Process of the World Council of Churches. It contributes to a dialogue between education philosophy and religious education, spiritual education and the search for peace and justice, reconciliation and healing as a yearning of all human beings.

From being on the margins of scholarly debate for much of the past century and a half, religion is being recognized once again as an area of concern for scholars, politicians, and public policy makers, and thus, the role of religious and spiritual education has taken on a new importance. Apart from its socio-political ramifications, the place of religiousness and spirituality in the make-up of individuals has been given renewed prominence through updated brain science, and neuroscientists regularly refer to elements of this brain science in terms such as spiritual intelligence and even mystical consciousness. This book explores many of the new directions being taken in the field of religious and spiritual education, as new developments challenge the priorities of formal education, and open up new avenues for incorporating religion and spirituality into the modern curriculum. It asks whether the educational aims of teachers should be focused on specifically personal development, or whether religious education should be used to develop understanding of more global and social issues such as citizenship, conflict, and ethics. The book also addresses neuroscientific insights, which suggest a need to engage with cognition and emotion in order to create a rich learning environment, something to which a particularly contested subject area like religion and spirituality is well-placed to contribute. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Beliefs & Values.

What sort of religion education (RE) is best suited for public education? Should RE teach young people how to deal with religious diversity, or should it provide them with religious guidance and a sense of belonging? Should it do both? Religion Education in Politics is an in-depth study of the ways in which Norwegian politicians have negotiated such issues, both before the introduction of an integrative and non-confessional RE subject and after the verdict against Norwegian RE in the European Court of Human Rights. The book offers analyses of ideas about RE in parallel with ideas of national and religious identity and the purpose of education. Thus, it sheds new light on the complexities involved in political debates around the subject. A broad array of political positions is studied in the book and it therefore provides insights valuable for policy makers, researchers, school managers and other stakeholders in the field of religion education.

This book focuses on the question of how different contexts are relevant in the shaping and expression of individual spirituality spanning from early childhood to young adulthood. Past decades have witnessed a strong expansion of research on spirituality and spiritual education. This expansion has proved to have many advantages in understanding the experiences, values, identities and behaviours of individuals and communities. Such research has benefitted from different research disciplines and methods, from its openness toward different faith traditions and non-religious belief systems, and from the agility in adapting to diverse and evolving contexts. These aspects are essential in producing robust and timely international knowledge on children’s spirituality and their education. This volume is one such ambitious endeavour. The chapters describe issues related to religious and spiritual development in different contexts of growth, such as school and church, and spanning from early childhood to young adulthood in Finland, UK, Turkey and Malta. In addition, the authors utilise diverse methods in their studies. Furthermore, the studies are based on conceptions of spirituality ranging from holistic spirituality and religiosity to world view based definitions. Finally, the chapters represent foundational research on spirituality, applied research on spirituality and contextualised research on spirituality – a typology suitable for assessing future studies on spirituality. Issues in Spiritual Formation in Early Lifespan Contexts will be a key resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Religion, Religious Education, Education, Educational Research, Developmental Psychology, Research Methods, and Sociology. The chapters included in this book were originally published as a special issue of International Journal of Children's Spirituality.

Although it is rarely given sufficient consideration in either scholarly or political debates, early childhood education plays a crucial role in the integration process of young immigrants in European countries, since it not only enables the children to be integrated into society, both linguistically and culturally, but it also provides their parents with the opportunity, through their children, to view the society more directly and to reflect on their own values in the encounter, or to potentially seek new orientations. The quality of young migrants’ educational achievements, which have repeatedly caused current political debates in European countries, should not be considered independently of the elementary education measures since they are very closely related. Prof. Dr. Ednan Aslan is Chair of Islamic Religious Education at the Institute for Islamic Theological Studies at the University of Vienna.

How to open up spaces to make education more meaningful? The concept of space can involve educational interactions, relationships, contents and other relevant aspects relating to this purpose. The book presents three perspectives to engage in opening up spaces. It empowers pupils, students, and teachers to develop as unique individuals, better relate to the communities and cultural traditions to which they belon, and to develop new visions, understandings, and ways of living. This volume is the result of the search of a number of educational professionals on how to open up spaces to make education more meaningful. The opened spaces involve educational interactions, relationships, contents and other relevant aspects relating to this purpose. The book presents three salient perspectives to engage in this envisioned path. It empowers pupils, students, and teachers to: Develop as unique individuals. This process includes engaging with personal feelings, developing a personal way of thinking and judging, and articulating one’s own voice in relation to others and the specific social context. Relate to the communities and cultural traditions to which they (want to) belong, and to interact with others who may belong to different cultural traditions. Develop new visions, understandings, and ways of living in order to lead a sustainable life within the potential of our eco-system, together with the myriads of other life forms on planet earth. These interconnected perspectives are elaborated in the domains of Bildung, worldview education, mathematics, physical sciences and language. The volume provides an inviting new perspective, which holds that students and teachers are already entangled in worldly tensions and issues, from the very start of their entering into education. Given this fact, it is a joint educational challenge to question and make sense of the complexities of today’s world. As such, the spaces that are elaborated in this publication are identified as spaces for praxis, by envisioning education as a means to actively improve ourselves and our contexts. The authors of this research compilation belong to the (network of the) combined research group Normative Professionalism / Life Orientation of the Utrecht University and the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. They are all professionals who combine intensive involvement in educational practice with practice-oriented research.