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The Purpose of Religious Education
Dr. Andrew Wright
King’s College, London

• Introduction:
  
  • The purpose of R.E. is to guide pupils to grasp an ultimate truth
    
  • This view is UNFASHIONABLE
    
    • intellectually in post-modern society
      
    • anti-liberal re. morality
      
    • unsound educationally
      
      
• The Purpose of Education
  
  • Plato - Education for ultimate truth
    
    • Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition
      
      • pearl of great price
        
      • purity of heart
        
      • Newman’s ‘Idea of a University’
        
      • Paul Hirst: Education is ultimately about truth
        
  • Locke - Education for the Common Good
    
    • Context: Civil War, Protestant-R.C.conflict
      
      • no luxury to think about ultimate truth
        
      • fear of a “collapse into depravity”
        
      • Education to be a responsible citizen
        
      • Fear of liberalism, science
        
      • Needing Society to believe in good, beauty, God
        
    • Locke’s solution:
      
      • Everyone is free to believe whatever they want
        
      • Everyone must tolerate other
        
    • Locke’s view of Education: a pragmatic solution
      
      • training in virtues, responsibilities, freedom, tolerance
        
  • Rousseau -Education for Self-realisation
    
    • Rousseau considered Locke’s model authoritarian
      
    • Rousseau’s view of education
      
      • Progressive: freeing the child to become himself
        
      • ‘watering the seed’ -child-centred education
        
    • Rousseau’s assumptions:
      
      • children are innately good
        
      • society corrupts the child
        
        
• The Development of R.E.
  
  • 1944 Act - the Platonic model
    
    • R.E. was about passing on ultimate truth
      
      • Biblical Truth
        
      • Moral Truth
        
    • Confessionalism
      

      ---

  • “Learning about Religion” - Locke
    
    • Education for the common good
      
      • Context:
        
        • The common good shifted:
          
        • Christian society became multicultural
          
      • Idea of Religious Education
        
        • RE about how to behave in a multicultural society
          
        • RE about tolerance/ respect
          
        • RE to cement society
          
        • RE is the vehicle of toleration
          
  • “Learning from Religion” - Rousseau
    
    • Education for self-realisation
      
      • Idea of Education
        
        • RE about exploring the spiritual dimension of religion
          
        • RE about exploring inner space
          
          
• Prospects for Theological Literacy
  
  • Different ideas of reality
    
    • Exclusive ideas of reality
      
      • There is a reality ‘out there’
        
      • some people are right and some people are wrong
        
      • If Muslims or Christians or Jews are right, everyone else must be wrong.
        
      • How do we resolve rival truth claims?
        
        • Is Jesus prophet, God incarnate or a false prophet?
          
    • Liberal Solution
      
      • All religions are equally valid expressions of one ultimate reality
        
        • Rama Krishna Story of the elephant and the blind men.
          
        • BUT this claims a truth that Christians/Muslims etc. will deny
          
    • Post-Modern Solution
      
      • ‘There is no truth out there’
        
        • BUT this is in itself a truth claim
          
        • Whatever claim you make about the nature of the universe is a truth claim
          
          
    • R.E. Today
      
      • At present:
        
        • we ignore rival truth claims
          
        • we lay aside ultimate questions’
          
        • we train people to be ‘contented pig’
          
      • Rather
        
        • we should train ‘discontented philosophers’
          
        • we should search for truth
          
        • we should explore further
          
        • we should make truth central to R.E.
          
      • Is this not fascist? authoritarian?
        
        • Being educated is not about the teacher advocating something
          
        • Being educated is about learning to be literate about something
          
    • Religious Literacy is about
      
      • skilling children so that they can talk/think about issues
        
      • grasping/searching for ultimate truth
        
    • Religious Literacy in the classroom
      
      • incorporating religious contradiction and ambiguity into our teaching
        
      • like a person looking at an illusion we should get our pupils to question if they are looking at reality rightly/wrongly
        
      • need to show that theists/atheists/agnostics have mutually contradictory stances
        
      • [so we avoid the confusion of Hoddle ‘New Ageism’]
        
      • we should teach children to be intelligent about religious truth
        
        
• Conclusion
  
  • By teaching religious literacy
    
    • we allow pupils to explore the self - Rousseau
      
    • we allow pupils to be be tolerant - Locke
      
  • Without religious literacy:
    
    • the collapse into fundamentalism and intolerance stems from ignorance.
      
      
      

    Notes by M.S.S. without reference to Andrew Wright,
    any errors are due to M.S.S.