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.

Provides a comparative analysis of church-state issues in the United States, the Netherlands, Australia, England, and Germany, and argues that the U.S. is unique in the way it resolves religious freedom and religious establishment questions.

In a thoroughly revised and expanded edition that now includes France, this essential text offers a rigorous, systematic comparison of church-state relations in six Western nations: the United States, France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia. As successful and stable political democracies, these countries share a commitment to protecting the religious rights of their citizens. The book demonstrates, however, that each has taken substantially different approaches to resolving basic church-state questions. The authors examine both the historical roots of those differences and more recent conflicts over Islam and other religious minorities, explain how contemporary church-state issues are addressed, and provide a framework for assessing the success of each of the six states in protecting the religious rights of its citizens using a framework based on the ideal of governmental neutrality and evenhandedness toward people of all faiths and of none. Responding to the general confusion about the relationship between church and state in the West, this book offers a much-needed comparative analysis of a topic that is increasingly a source of political conflict. The authors argue that the US conception of church-state separation, with its emphasis on avoiding government establishment of religion, is unique among political democracies and discriminates against religious groups by denying religious organizations access to government services provided to other organizations. The authors persuasively conclude that the United States can learn a great deal from other Western nations in promoting religious neutrality and the free exercise of religion.

This text offers a critical view of approaches to the treatment of different religions in contemporary education, in order to devise approaches to teaching and learning and to formulate policies and procedures that are fair and just to all.

""Long live the red terror!"" This and other political slogans were used by China's communist rulers as leverage for conflict and conflict management during 1949. China's Cultural Revolution movement understandably fueled anger, fear, and terror among Chinese citizens. Currently, contrary to the positive facade that China, under the control of the Communist Chinese Party (CCP), tries to project regarding human rights, a dark reality reveals a brutal authoritarian state with no concern for religious freedom. What guiding philosophy could best help procure, provide, and protect religious freedom for all in a post-communist, Christianized, democratic China? Bob Fu argues that while various Christianity-oriented theories may appear promising, they fail to provide an adequate pluralistic foundation for protecting the religious freedoms of people of all faiths and none. The predominant theory of political liberalism in the West likewise fails to prove sufficiently inclusive for all faiths and worldviews. As an alternative, the author defends Baorong Duoyuan (inclusive pluralism), his own contextualized theory modeled after principled pluralism. This model, he believes, has the potential to help ensure that religious freedom for all becomes a reality.

In this book, scholars around Europe reflect on the changing role of religious education in a time of growing pluralism in Europe and across the world. The various contributions from different European countries (England and Wales, Germany, Netherlands, and Norway) focus on the debate about the existing multicultural and multireligious situation in European societies. Difference and diversity, especially of religion, is seen as a challenge for education in Europe. The chapters mention trends and common challenges for religious education. As a key term of religious education "religious competence" is introduced. It includes the ability to deal with religious pluralism and differences in a constructive way. It is argued that contextual religious education facilitates a new religious competence. The book also contains detailed information about current developments in the field of religious education in some European countries.

This volume brings together a selection of papers presented at the Fifteenth Session of the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values (ISREV), which took place in 2006 in Driebergen, the Netherlands, addressing the theme ‘Religious Education in a World of Religious Diversity’. The authors were invited to combine the concept of diversity with the dimensions of temporality, of time and history in reworking their contributions for this book. This temporal aspect is in a sense inherent in educational thinking. On the one hand education as intergenerational transmission has a conservative aspect: tradition being what is actually and presently transmitted from the past and/or what is considered worthwhile to be passed on. On the other hand, acknowledging the activity of students themselves as a prerequisite for any education to happen, brings the open-endedness and therefore the future into the pedagogical arena in terms of development, learning, reflection, edification, et cetera. So, the question answered in this volume is what does this inherent historicity mean for religious education as well as for (the concept) religion and religious diversity? In answering this question the contributions represent the global character of the concern with religious diversity in relation to religious education, and originate respectively from the following countries: Canada (Bhikkhu, English), United States (Moran), Latvia (Ilishko), Russia (Kozyrev), Germany (Pirner), South Africa (Roux, du Preez, Ferguson), Japan (Omori), Australia (de Souza), Turkey (Selçuk), and the Netherlands (Meijer, Miedema).

While the fierce debate over religion in public schools receives ample media attention, we rarely consider the implications of religious schools on moral education and liberal democracy. In this groundbreaking work, Walter Feinberg opens up a critical new dialogue to offer a complete discussion of the important role religious schools play in the formation of a democratic citizenry. Feinberg, a leading philosopher of education, approaches the subject of religious education with a rare evenhandedness, drawing on examples from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim schools and exploring topics as disparate as sex education and creationism. For Goodness Sake provides a much-needed take on a controversial topic, demonstrating that the relationship between religion and schooling is not simply the exclusive concern of members of a given religious community, but a relevant and vital issue for everyone who cares about education.

This book shares global perspectives on Catholic religious education in schools, chiefly focusing on educational and curriculum issues that take into account the theology and the pedagogy which support learning in connection with Catholic religious education. Further, it offers insights into the distinctive contribution that Catholic religious education makes to religious education and education in general across diverse schooling contexts. Bringing together insights from leading scholars and experts on Catholic religious education around the globe, the book offers an essential reference guide for all those involved in researching, planning and designing curricula for Catholic religious education, as well as developing related theories in the field.

In today’s pluralistic world, many cultures feel a shift in the relationship of people with religious traditions. A corresponding movement is a resurgence of interest in human spirituality. This Handbook presents the views of education scholars who engage these concepts every day, in a collection of essays reflecting the international state of the discipline. Out of these rises a vision for the emergence of a just and peaceful world.