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ISREV 2004 - COLLEGIAL PAPER ABSTRACTS

INDEX OF PRESENTERS, in surname order.   Click on a name to go to their abstract.  Or click on ABSTRACTS to go to the first abstract.

Raphael Aaronson - A research model for a historical comparative study of curricular deliberations carried out by Bible curriculum planners within various religious denominations who teach the Bible (Old and New Testaments)Geir Afdal - Social competence as response to moral difference in multicultural educational contextsElisabeth Arweck - Values Based Education and the Value of Peace: The Case of an Educational Programme in British SchoolsJeff Astley - Meta-ethics, education and the moral lifePhilip Barnes - Was the Northern Ireland conflict religious?Joyce Bellous - The Educational Significance of Spirituality in Christian FormationJerome Berryman - Evil and Religious EducationSherry H Blumberg - Educating for Religious Experience: One School’s JourneyReinhold Boschki - Re-reading Martin Buber and Janusz Korczak: Fresh impulses towards a relationship approach to Religious EducationTheodore Brelsford - Religious Education and/as/for the Evolution of Religious ThoughtRoberta Cameron - Searching for meaning; confronting secularismJames Conroy - Cultures of Consumption and the Religious SchoolTrevor Cooling - Adherence to Truth and the Disposition to Violence in Right Doctrine ChristianityDenise Cush - Teenage Witches: empowerment or exploitation?Marian de Souza - Teaching for connectedness and meaning: the role of spirituality in the learning processAstrid Dinter - Adolescence and New MediaKathleen Engebretson - Teenage boys, spirituality and religionJudith Everington - I’ll Teach You Some Respect!: teaching ‘respect for diversity’ from the perspectives of politicians, beginning RE teachers and teacher trainersAnta Filipsone - Integral Philosophy of Ken Wilber and Religious EducationJohn Fisher - Some Christian School students' views on terrorism and religionLeslie Francis - Prayer, purpose in life, personality and social attitudes among non-churchgoing 13- to 15-year-olds in England and WalesLiam Gearon - The War on Terror and the Terror of War: Teaching Human Rights and Genocide through Religious EducationCarsten Gennerich - Intergenerational learning: Results from a project for religious interpretation competence developmentZehavit Gross - The feminist and religious horizons of zionist religious women in israelElisabet Haakedal - Reflecting on Anthropology, Competition and Truth: The Peacemaking Potentiality of Religious Education and Values in Community SchoolsJoanne Hack - Meaningful education: catchcry or call for a paradigm shift?Mark Hillis - Daring to tell, daring to listen: insiders and outsiders in dialogue through storyDzintra Ilisko - The rationale for religious educators as a response to living in a violent worldRobert Jackson - How far can religious education contribute to multicultural/intercultural education?Arto Kallioniemi - Religious Education curricula in comprehensive schools in Scandinavia and FinlandYaacov Katz - Religious-Secular High School Student Workshops Designed to Achieve a Reduction in Inter-Group TensionsRecep Kaymakcan - A Shift From Confessional RE Towards the Pluralistic RE in Turkey : Presentation of Christianity in RE TextbooksValentin Kozhuharov - Education in Religion and Values: degrees of understanding (an Orthodox Christian perspective)Fedor Kozyrev - Religious culture as a school subjectBernd Krupka - New approaches to Christian education for all – public religion rediscovered?Manfred Kwiran - The real roots of violence. Religious and political violence and social injustice.David Lankshear - Why teach then? - Why teach now?Alma Lanser van der Velde - Through the eyes of anotherRune Larsson - Homecoming in diversity - faith based schools as a way to understanding and shared responsibilityTerence J. Lovat - Seeing ourselves in Islam: the imperative of the age for religious and values educationPatricia Malone - The internet’s role in education in our contemporary worldRoseanne McDougall - Enlightenment Values and Religion and Education in Revolutionary Era Philadelphia: Breeding Grounds for Seeds of Violence?

Eugene McElhinney - Mimetic theory and the concept of original sin as understood by groups of adolescents aged 12 18 inclusiveStephen McKinney - Conflict in Education: Roman Catholic Schooling in ScotlandPaul McQuillan - Religious schools and values formation: The spiritual sensitivity and values of some senior high school studentsWilna Meijer - Book and teacher: their comparative roles in traditional Islamic and modern western educationKarlo Meyer - The global religious horizon in German Protestant Church educationReinhold Mokrosch - In Mission Divine! Why Christians, such as George W. Bush, want to save the world by war. Did Religious Education fail?Mary Moore - In the face of violence: imagining, advocating, and enacting peaceGabriel Moran - Power, force and violenceBernadette Eyewan Okure - Theological formation and empowerment of lay women in Nigeria for mission: the empowerment cycleHeon-Wook Park - The Multi-religious land ‘Japan’ and today’s AdolescentMary Peterson - In the land of the haka can there be a dance of peace? And is there any learning for the rest of the world?Annebelle Pithan - Gender and Religious EducationMandy Robbins - Purpose in life and prayer among Catholic and Protestant adolescents in Northern Ireland: a study in religion and genderCornelia Roux - Religion and peace: the role of religious education and values – a South African perspectiveRichard Rymarz - Core Catholic youth religious education and Catholic schoolsSturla Sagberg - Wonder and the question of truth in REPeter Schreiner - Towards a holistic perspective in education: challenges for religious education and valuesUlrich Schwab - Youth churches: a new approach to youth work in GermanyFriedrich Schweitzer - Children’s right to religon and spiritualityMualla Selçuk - A Qur’anic approach to the concept of living together: ta’arufEmma Shackle - Religious Sagas and Theological Thrillers: The Contribution of Didactic Novels to Healthy and Unhealthy ReligionGeir Skeie - Religious education and the politics of religionFred Smith - The Challenge of Prophetic Religious Education: Internalized Oppression, Violence, and Religious Conversions and the Souls of Black BoysNam Soon Song - Self-cultivation as a way of Christian education: exploring Jesus as a learnerKarin Sporre - A relativist? Why not – or rather, why!Heinz Streib - Trajectories of deconverts: results from cross-cultural research and their implications for religious educationHoward Summers - What can we learn about values from South Africa’s transition to a democratic state?Geoff Teece - John Hick and Religious Education, confounding the critics; an appraisal of Trevor Cooling and Andrew WrightIna ter Avest - Children and God, narrated in stories, presentation of the process and the results of a longitudinal research project on the development of the God concept of Dutch and migrant children in an interreligious context, with a discussion of the possible implications of the findings.Kirsi Tirri - Preadolescents Moral, Spiritual and Religious Questions After September 11th 2001 Terrorist AttackPille Valk - Is there something more than crusades, incvisition and opium of people?Leo van der Tuin - Religious Xenophobia amongst pupils in a traditionally tolerant society: The NetherlandsAndy Wright - Hospitality and the Voice of the Other: Confronting the Economy of Violence through Religious EducationYaacov Yablon - Values education and reduction of school violenceHans-Georg Ziebertz - Life perspectives, values and political interest of adolescents in Germany

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COLLEGIAL ABSTRACTS, in Presenter's surname order.   Click on Top after any abstract to go back to the INDEX OF PRESENTERS.

Raphael Z Aaronson - A research model for a historical comparative study of curricular deliberations carried out by Bible curriculum planners within various religious denominations who teach the Bible (Old and New Testaments)

The planning of a Bible curriculum for school instruction is involved with many Practical Deliberations’ about-if to use Tylers’ Rationale-the Needs of the Learner, the Needs of Society and the Needs of Knowledge. Deliberations are incorporated also in the process of planning other parts of the curriculum such as defining objectives, designing learning experiences and preparing evaluation practices.

After many attempts to investigate and document this facet of curriculum planning within various Christian denominations I was told by some senior researchers of ISCHE and in the Pontificial School of Biblical Studies in the Vatican that I was looking for something that does not exist.

As a curriculum planner of the Bible for the state religious schools in Israel I insist that where ever the Bible is being taught there is a rational behind such teaching and that rationale is a product of a process that incorporated Practical Deliberations.

In my paper I plan to introduce a model for the above mentioned needed research, and to suggest possible sources of inquiry. Top

Geir Afdal - Social competence as response to moral difference in multicultural educational contexts

Multiculturalism implies perspectives of particularism and pluralism. Particular cultures and cultural patterns and processes are studied in particular contexts in order to understand them as historically and geographically conditioned entities and processes. As the name indicates, cultures are understood in plural. In not searching for universal cultural processes or phenomena, the multitude of and difference between cultures is a condition for doing multicultural research.

On the other hand the resources often turned to in issues of discussing and determining the right or the good is human rights. The problem is that the project of human rights is universal and uniform. There is an inherent gap or gulf between the particularism/pluralism of perspective and universalism/uniformism of want in multiculturalism.

This gap needs to be addressed, not at least in the context of multicultural education. One contemporary approach is to frame the ethical issues of multiculturalism in the form of social competence. This paper discusses both the dilemma sketched above, and to what degree social competence has practical and theoretical potential to bridge the gap. Top

Elisabeth Arweck - Values Based Education and the Value of Peace: The Case of an Educational Programme in British Schools

The paper will report on an ethnographic study (January December 2003) in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) at the University of Warwick of an educational programme which is based on a set of five core values, one of which is peace. This programme, the Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV) programme, seeks to promote 'human values¹ in British schools, also with regard to educating pupils from different social, cultural or ethnic backgrounds towards greater tolerance and understanding. The programme aims to achieve this as part of the statutory provision of physical, social and health (PSHE) education and citizenship education as well the provision for the social, moral, cultural and spiritual (SMCS) development of pupils in mainstream schools. The focus on values, including peace, is to enable pupils to become emotionally literate and more aware of the consequences of their actions, a learning process which also promises to benefit teachers and the school in general by creating a calmer atmosphere overall. Based on empirical research, the paper will explore the contents of the programme, its application in the classroom, and the extent to which it reaches its ambition to enhance peace within and without. Top

Jeff Astley - Meta-ethics, education and the moral life

I have argued before that adopting certain meta-ethical perspectives might have practical consequences within education, since they carry implications about how morality is to be discovered and therefore how it is best learned. Thus rationalistic accounts of the logic of the moral life will lay the greatest stress on some form of cognitive moral education, in particular the development of certain skills of moral reasoning; whereas a divine command theory of ethics is more likely to encourage the pupils’ learning of a past revelation, or their becoming more open to what their teachers’ regard as a contemporary revelation of God’s current will. In this paper I shall concentrate in particular on the similarities and differences within educational practice between such forms of moral realism or moral rationalism and non-cognitive accounts

of moral language. I shall argue that current sophisticated forms of expressivism, which acknowledge that any serious account of the logic of the moral life must allow for some species of ‘objectivity’ and ‘cognitivity’, are able to accommodate traditional versions of moral formation by radically reinterpreting the notion of moral truth. The paper will also analyse (a) the notion of ‘moral vision’ or ‘perception’ (recognising, with David Hamlyn, that ‘the issues over learning to have a certain attitude or emotion towards something turn on analogous issues over learning to see things in certain ways’); and (b) the important role that is played in the learning context by a person’s listening to and learning to speak the language of morality. Top

Philip Barnes - Was the Northern Ireland conflict religious?

The claim that the NI Conflict was religious is widely canvassed. Those of a non-religious cast of mind frequently point to the Northern Irish situation as illustrative of the baleful effects of religion on society. In this paper such claims are subjected to careful analysis and assessment. Much depends on what is meant by religion, and this in turn has wider implications for our understanding of the nature of religion in relation to other realms of meaning. Top

Joyce Bellous - The Educational Significance of Spirituality in Christian Formation

I will distinguish the relationship between spirituality and religion to show that spirituality is a dimension of human experience whether or not people express spirituality in religious terms. The discourse on spirituality can be divided into those who make this distinction between religion and spirituality and those who see spirituality and religion as synonymous terms. While I do not propose antagonism between religion and spirituality, my primary assumption (that everyone is spiritual whether or not they are religious) leads to the assertion that every human being has a concept of God constructed during childhood which lasts a lifetime, although it may be repressed or revised.

A second assertion follows: if everyone is spiritual, each person has spiritual needs that can be identified, and further, that human satisfaction is realized fully only when spiritual needs are acknowledged and addressed.

I will argue that an adequate Christian education collaborates with human spirituality (both with its common human elements as well as with what is unique to each person) so that Christian faith is appropriately transmitted and effectively transforms initial God concepts into mature concepts grounded on scripture and in relation to God as Wholly Other.

Without this collaborative effort, God concepts formed in childhood pose as idols internal to an individual. Christian tradition does not gain access to the fortress where these idols are kept unless it is in dialogue with them. Through the dynamics of spiritually-grounded educational conversation, it becomes possible (and desirable) for personal God concepts to be revised along the lines of formal religion. Top

Jerome Berryman - Evil and Religious Education

Charles Kimball’s When Religion Becomes Evil describes five ways this happens: Absolute Truth Claims, Blind Obedience, Establishing the ‘Ideal’ time, The End Justifies Any Means, and Declaring Holy War. The problem with this analysis, however, is that there is no clear statement of what evil actually is.

We often think of evil as a religious category, but Susan Neiman in Evil in Modern Thought has argued otherwise. Getting rid of God does not get rid of evil, she argues. The main philosophical question since the 17th century has not been ‘What can we know for certain.’ It has been ‘Can we make sense of evil.’

Is evil a category, then, that can be used to bridge not only different religions but also the gap between religion and non-religion to guide religious education and give it universal coherence? Is the opposite of evil’s destruction the constructive creating of humankind? Is this the value that ought to guide all religious education?

The goal of religious education argued for in this presentation is one that is deeply integrated with the whole of the creative process, both its opening and closing aspects. This allows one to teach for ‘playful orthodoxy’, which sounds at first like an oxymoron, yet it combines religious identity and openness so that evil can be overcome by out-creating the destruction it creates. Top

Sherry H Blumberg - Educating for Religious Experience: One School’s Journey

This paper is a report of the planning and early implementation phase of a curriculum developed to educate for religious experience in a Jewish context. From the initial research (presented to ISREV in New York in 1988) to the actual implementation in the Hebrew School grades and lower grades of one Jewish supplementary Religious School, several critical steps were taken (based on the research on Educational Change). These included:(1) Creating the need for the change from a standard content oriented model to a "religious journey model",(2) creating a religious and spiritual learning community whose members recognized their own religious journeys,(3) educating the constituents (school committee, teachers, Rabbi, and parents) to a new way of spiritual and educational thinking,(4) involving the teachers in selecting or creating materials, and (5) creating a total environment that would nourish and sustain a religious journey model of curriculum development.Each step has been documented and evaluated. The paper will report on successes and failures of these initial steps and connect the evaluation to the model of curriculum development itself. Top

Reinhold Boschki - Re-reading Martin Buber and Janusz Korczak: Fresh impulses towards a relationship approach to Religious Education

With the help of a relationship approach to education in general, the paper works out the possibilities and chances of a relationship approach to religious education in particular. It argues that such an approach can make an important contribution to religious education in a pluralistic world. In education theory the relationship approach is associated above all with the work of Martin Buber (1878-1965). Re-reading his educational writings in the light of today’s world and especially of the "life-world" (Edmund Husserl, Alfred Schütz) of today’s young people helps towards identifying the principles of a relational understanding of religious education.

Whereas Martin Buber comes from a philosophical background, another Jewish author begins his educational reflections with detailed observations of children and young people themselves: Janusz Korczak (1875-1942). In his writings he is clear about a fundamental point that could be misunderstood in Buber’s position: Education is not instruction from above, but a relationship on the same level. For him the educational process is strictly based on symmetry and mutuality.

The same is true for religious education. The work of both, Buber and Korczak, gives a major impulse towards an understanding of religious education that focuses on at least five dimensions of relationship: with oneself, with others, with the world, with God, and with time. All these dimensions are intertwined and must be taken into account in making a reality of a modern form of religious education that tackles the problems of a pluralistic world. Top

Theodore Brelsford - Religious Education and/as/for the Evolution of Religious Thought

Much contemporary (postmodern) scholarship in a wide range of fields is marked by recognition (and subsequent deconstruction) of the fundamentally constructed nature of knowledge and meaning, both social and individual. Recent work in the cognitive sciences, especially evolutionary psychology provides a biological basis for understanding the construction of knowledge and the capacity for imagination in the human mind. Knowledge does not pass directly the object of knowing to the knower, nor from knower to knower. Rather, each knower (re)creates knowledge in accordance with evolved biological patterns and structures of the human brain and in relational response to the world of images, ideas, and experiences populating his/her past and present environment. That is, knowledge develops and is passed on via processes resembling organic evolution and reflecting human evolution. Imagination may be understood as the constructive/generative dimension of the reproduction/procreation of images and ideas constituting knowledge.

This paper seeks to play out theological and pedagogical implications of taking seriously the reproductive and procreative role of imagination in the production, reception, and perpetuation of religious images/ideas/knowledge in the form of individual and collective beliefs and values. Finally, it is proposed that faith communities engage religious education in ways that seek both to bring persons into identity with the community’s core beliefs and values and to honor and nurture learners’ procreative participation in the

ongoing individual and communal reproduction (and evolutionary development) of those beliefs and values. Top

Roberta Cameron - Searching for meaning; confronting secularism

We are confronted today, student or teacher, by a massive overload of instantaneous, ubiquitous, largely unmonitored information which, more often than not, objectivizes humans and human values and which elevates the contingent to a new level of importance.

The challenge to religious education involves discovering, in the confrontation between the contingent and non-contingent, an avenue to the Holy. It has been suggested that theology needs a common language arising from experiential concrete reality rather than from abstract theory. Also needed is a methodology that encompasses person and experience while addressing the possibility of transformation.

This paper will explore the dynamics of interrelationship and interconnectedness between the faith of the living person and the empirical manifestations of religious traditions which span centuries and comprise temples, rituals, creeds, heroes, and on, mediated by symbolization. Here, a religious symbol is seen to shimmer with a meaning of the universe in relation to humankind (W. C. Smith). To be considered, then, are some of the ways in which symbolization, so conceived, contributes to a dynamic, ongoing process of interrelatedness between persons, groups and, possibly, ideally, humankind.

It will be claimed that disclosure of the transcendent or non-contingent or Holy takes place in this encounter between faith, tradition and symbol. Moreover, such encounter provides for the possibility of the emergence of personhood and identity. Top

James Conroy - Cultures of Consumption and the Religious School

The general drift of philosophical and political discussions about the relationship between the liberal state and church schooling has been permissive and rights based. And, as the state assumes an increasing role in deliberations about the conduct of schooling it becomes clear that the demands which it places on religiously denominated schools is that they conform to the general practices and outlooks of the state itself. However, this is not the role which the religiously denominated school needs to play. Instead I wish to suggest that the religiously denominated school represents a necessary alternative, and liminal, space which promotes a different but constructive ontology and set of relationships to the earth than that offered by a state which itself increasingly turns to the markets to validate its account of human flourishing. In the case of the Christian school I wish to argue that an alternative account of human flourishing may be offered through an account of Augustine’s distinction between cupiditas and caritas where the former denotes an attachment to the things of the world and the latter a relationship with the world because there is a relationship with the creator of the world. This concern with cupiditas and caritas finds resonances in the works of both historic and contemporary figures including from Augustine through Jefferson to Aung San Sui. Top

Trevor Cooling - Adherence to Truth and the Disposition to Violence in Right Doctrine Christianity

Violence and fundamentalism are often linked in the public mind. In Christianity, fundamentalism is associated with what might be called right doctrine Christianity, with its emphasis on the idea of absolute and propositional truth and on the literal reading of the Bible. John Hull has identified the inability to learn as the particularly problematic feature of this form of Christianity.

This paper will examine the position taken by Hull and others and, in particular, the argument that the naive realism of the fundamentalists use of the Bible has to be replaced by a non realist approach. In this non realist approach, meaning is constructed and implanted rather than discovered and transplanted. The treatment for learning sickness is, Hull argues, an anti religionist approach to Religious Education that deconstructs its naive realism and promotes non realism in reading the Bible.

The soundness of the diagnosis of this learning sickness and the accuracy of the description of its symptoms will be accepted. However the paper will challenge the prescription for a cure.

As an alternative the paper will explore the critical realist hermeneutics now being developed by a number of scholars who would regard themselves as right doctrine Christians. It will be argues that the insights that

they have developed provide fertile territory for promoting learning that reduces the disposition to violence. Top

Denise Cush - Teenage Witches: empowerment or exploitation?

An increasing number of young girls and women identify themselves as witches, and take an interest in Wicca, witchcraft and other forms of contemporary Paganism and/or ‘New Age’ phenomena. This interest is reflected in (and/or encouraged by) commercially produced magazines and books aimed at young teenage girls, and facilitated by information available on the internet. This paper examines such material, reactions from adult Pagans, Christians and other groups, and reports the findings of interviews with young witches which is part of research in progress. This work will be set in the larger context of research into connections between teenage religion and self-esteem. Some preliminary conclusions about the attractions and meaning of witchcraft for young women will be suggested, examining whether this interest is a healthy form of empowerment or commercial exploitation of vulnerable young people. Top

Marian de Souza - Teaching for connectedness and meaning: the role of spirituality in the learning process

The frequency of contemporary media reports that hightlight the growing number of young people who suffer from depression and other illnesses related to mental health, alienation and marginalization have reached alarming proportions and an emerging factor in discussions that seek to promote the wellbeing of young people is the recognition of the need to develop amongst them the qualities of resilience, belonging, and connectedness (Commission for Children at Risk 2003; Department of Education and Training, Victoria 2003).

It is possible that the problems afflicting so many young people could be a reflection of a society whose members have become quite disconnected from ‘the Other’ in their communities. It is this disconnectedness that perhaps implies a flawed spirituality or, indeed, a spiritual immaturity where an individual becomes absorbed, or even obsessed with the intersests an desires of self and remains detached from the interests and desires of others except when they may have some relevance to or meaning for the self.

This paper will explore young people’s expressions of spirituality in terms of their connectiedness to Self, the Social Other (in community), the Physical Other (in Creation) and a Transcendant Other. Further, it will discuss the implications such an understanding of spirituality may have for the development of educational programs and school environments which will raise their potential to promote connectedness and meaning for school communities. Top

Astrid Dinter - Adolescence and New Media

New computer-based media are gaining importance in modern everyday-life. These forms of media are also significant for processes of identity-formation and basic individual sense construction. People are now able to play around with anonymous virtual identities within special chat-areas and within the artificial worlds of Multi-User Dungeons. Therefore new media become "identity-machines". That fact is of special importance for youth culture and adolescence. Media usage is now a significant part it. Because this media usage - especially in the field of new media - is more than the simple ability of using technical items and brings with it basic forms of identity-formation and sense construction, these phenomena are of interest for the discussion about the so-called "media religion" and therefore for research within the field of religious education. "Media religion" does not mean the presentation of substantial religious notions but focuses on the fact that individual self-construction - which is related to media - is not necessarily bound to specific forms of content under a semantic perspective. To get to know more details about the complex relationship between adolescents and computers field research is necessary. Therefore triangulated qualitative methods of field-research are used to analyse phenomena of "media religion" and identity-construction related to youth culture and its approach to computer-based new media (expert interviews, participating observation, ethnographic interviews, individual problem-centered interviews, web-side-analysis). A first overview of the results of this research-process shall be given. Top

Kathleen Engebretson - Teenage boys, spirituality and religion

It is generally accepted that risk taking, violent behaviour and depression among adolescents are linked with the tasks of identity, meaning and purpose. Research in Australia and beyond has shown that belief in moral values, and a spiritual and/or religious dimension in life are protective factors for adolescents. While

there is no Australian research on teenage boys, spirituality and religion, evidence from the United Kingdom (Francis and Kay, 1996) shows that the discourse about religion tends to centre on concepts usually associated with the feminine, and so those who value the feminine side of their personality, whether male or female, are more likely to be attracted to exploring religion and spirituality as a source of meaning in their lives. In this "feminisation" of the discourse of religion, most adolescent boys are left out. The research reported in this paper seeks to discover an effective "language" by which adolescent boys might be enabled to enter into discussion about issues of meaning, values and spirituality. It has been conducted with 1500 boys in four large Catholic schools in Melbourne and has focused on: a) experience of the "sacred",b) experience of connectedness within self, with others and with the world,c) expression of spirituality in prayer and rituals, values, service, or other means, and d) the naming of spirituality through religious or other traditions or through self-constructed systems of spirituality. Top

Judith Everington - I’ll Teach You Some Respect!: teaching ‘respect for diversity’ from the perspectives of politicians, beginning RE teachers and teacher trainers

‘Respect for all’ is a new UK government web-site and one of many that promote the teaching of respect in schools. Respect (for elders, social superiors, religious leaders and the Law) is viewed by many Britons as a golden rule of bygone years which, when ‘taught’ through the threat of violence or exclusion, ensured social stability and individual security. Today, government policies focus on respect for those ‘good qualities’, values and aspirations that are common to all human beings but also and crucially, for the different ways in which these are interpreted and expressed by different people and communities. Respect is to be encouraged through knowledge, understanding, an attitude of ‘openness’ and the experience of being respected. Teachers of RE and Citizenship, especially those new to the profession, are viewed as ‘missionaries’ of the government’s vision. However, a study of trainees’ understandings of respect/teaching respect indicate that these reflect individual life histories and a wide range of beliefs and values. During training, these understandings are drawn out and set against those of politicians, peers and trainers, revealing differences and conflicts that require resolution. This paper explores issues raised by the process of learning to ‘teach respect’ and concludes with a number of recommendations for learners, teachers and promoters. Top

Anta Filipsone - Integral Philosophy of Ken Wilber and Religious Education

This paper will explore some implications of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber for contemporary religious education. Firstly, a short description will be provided of what constitutes the heart of Wilber’s theory--the evolutionary, four quadrant model of reality and all-quadrant, all-level approach to working on both theoretical and practical problems in life. Secondly, the attempt will be made to show how the four quadrant model when applied to religious education could help to ensure a more holistic approach to human person, to religions and worldviews and to the educational process. This will be done using as the main partner of conversation the model of critical spiritual pedagogy developed by Andrew Wright. Top

John W Fisher - Some Christian School students' views on terrorism and religion

Following ‘September 11,’ the Bali bombings, the US and allies invading Iraq, many Ballarat Christian College students were concerned about possible escalating conflict, with potential religious basis, so a survey was taken to gauge their views on issues related to religion and terrorism. Twenty-five provocative statements were presented, together with a spiritual well-being questionnaire. 76 of the 84 secondary school students responded. Significant correlations were found between frequency of the students’ religious activities in churches, reading the Bible and relationship with God. The students’ strong agreement that ‘all people should try to live at peace with others, no matter what their beliefs or religion’ and ‘all people are of equal value to God, no matter what their beliefs’ were not related to their religious activities, Bible reading or relation with God, whereas ‘God loves all people no matter what religion they are’ was. Relatively strong agreement was expressed that ‘people have the right to freely practice their religious beliefs’ (based on religious activities) and that ‘all people found guilty of terrorism should at least be jailed for life’ but not that ‘the best way to stop terrorists is to kill them.’ The relatively strong view that ‘terrorists have too much influence on what is happening in the world’ correlated with relation to God. Regression analysis revealed the extent to which these and other views were being influenced by the churches and the school, providing valuable insight for further religious education. Top

Leslie J Francis - Prayer, purpose in life, personality and social attitudes among non-churchgoing 13- to 15-year-olds in England and Wales

Data are provided from a sample of 12,717 13- to 15-year-olds who never attend church concerning frequency of personal prayer, perceived purpose in life, personality (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism) and social attitudes (school, law and order, and substances). These data demonstrate a significant positive relationship among non-churchgoers between frequency of personal prayer, purpose in life, and prosocial attitudes, after controlling for sex, age and personality. Multivariate modelling suggests that the influence of personal prayer on prosocial attitudes is partly, but not wholly, mediated via purpose in life. Top

Liam Gearon - The War on Terror and the Terror of War: Teaching Human Rights and Genocide through Religious Education

This paper explores new educational territory. This paper for the first time sets the modern twenty first century phenomenon of the ‘war on terror’ in the context of the twentieth century history of ‘terror of war’, especially genocide, as part of a wider justification for the teaching of human rights through religious education. Taking the phenomenon of genocidal horror from the twentieth century as a guide to principles for religious education in the twenty first, the paper traces the historical path that led to the signing of the UN’s 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Examining evident failures in the international community to prevent further instances of genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in subsequent decades, these challenges for religious education (the ‘terror of war’) are set against the new facets of global and inter cultural conflict, Huntington’s (1989) ‘clash of civilizations’ renamed as the ‘war on terror’. Top

Carsten Gennerich - Intergenerational learning: Results from a project for religious interpretation competence development

Results from a RE project at a nursing school in eastern Germany are reported. The participants – the majority of whom is without religious background – were asked to conduct a narrative interview with a person of 60 years and older focussing on experiences with a religious text which has been important to that person. The participants were asked to review the interview and reflect on their learning experience. The 83 interviews have been analysed by asking two questions:1) What have the participants learned based on there reflections?2) What further learning processes can be expected from using the narrative interview method?The results will be illustrated with case studies which demonstrate the impact of shared religious experiences on the non-religious younger interviewers. The interviewers, for example, have been able to change their stereotyped views of faith and realize the healing effect of religious interpretations in regard to traumatic life experiences.

The results are a contribution to the discussion of the literal vs. symbolic interpretation of biblical texts in situations in which the question of coping with life events is at stake. Further, these results indicate the effectiveness of a narrative approach for stimulation of faith development. Top

Zehavit Gross - The feminist and religious horizons of zionist religious women in israel

The aim of this research is to investigate the nature and character of the religio and socio-educational rhetoric and practice which religious Zionist girls in Israel are exposed to in the socialization process at school and to what extent it is perceived and contributes to the molding of their socio-religious outlook.

From a theoretical point of view this research relates to the Weberian concept of "charisma" (Weber, 1930) as developed by Shils (1975) and Eisenstadt and the concept of rationalization as it appears in Parsons’ theory (1964).

The main concern of this research is the examination of the question of whether and how the education system according to the perception of female graduates of state religious education in Israel, is able to educate towards the preservation of traditional socio-cultural and religious continuity, while simultaneously preparing them to adapt to the values and norms which are part of the modern society in which they live.

The Population Sample: The sample research population comprises 40 female graduates of the state religious education system who are presently doing military and civilian national service.

Instruments: This research employs three main tools: a free essay written by the examinees, a closed questionnaire and a semi structured interview which is designed to validate the two former stages of the research.

The research methods are mainly qualitative but are also quantitative according to Berelson (1952) and Eisner (1981, 1990).

Main Findings1) The state religious school rhetoric and its practice as expressed by the examinees is of a "charismatic" rather than a "rationalistic" nature (according to Weber).2) The education discourse, according to the perception of the examinees relates principally to the development of religious identity and less to that of national and civil identity. The school hardly relates to the students gender identity.3) The four forms of identity mentioned above are perceived by the examinees as related and not isolated and the connection between them is hierarchical. Religious identity is perceived as dominant, controlling and including within the other identities.4) The perception of the examinees is in accordance with the inconsequential position of gender identity in the formal school curriculum policy and achieved a relatively low scale by the examinees personal range.

Conclusions and ImplicationsThe religious education given in Israel by the Religious Zionist school system at the time of ushering in the new millenium has more of a traditional religious nuance than a modern autonomic one. One of the main features of that education is the allocation of woman in the central spot in the domestic sphere while excluding her from the public arena. As a result the development of the gender identity of young women and their personal awareness to their unique needs as women in the open modern world, are both postponed to a later stage in their lives.

According to testimony of the examinees, the development of their gender identity is postponed from the age of "identity" to the age of "intimacy", where they are released from the social control of school and face autonomously the demands of viewing their femininity, vis-a-vis the man with whom they aare about to establish their new family. The effort to form this type of autonomic gender identity without preliminary socialization readiness may result in an identity crisis within the woman which can damage both the coherence of her general ego identity and its religious component specifically.

Education of religious girls in our modern society at the beginning of the third millenium must take into consideration the enormous challenges modernity poses upon religious women. Failure to do so will put the young women at great risk by undergoing a difficult identity crisis at the most vulnerable stage of their lives. That crisis may involve both their gender identity as well as their unique existential religious being. Taking a hard look at gender socialization early on may hopefully prevent all this. Top

Elisabet Haakedal - Reflecting on Anthropology, Competition and Truth: The Peacemaking Potentiality of Religious Education and Values in Community Schools

In this paper I will draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and general theory of action in order to discuss some basic issues – concerning anthropology, competition and truth – relevant both for the sociology of education and for the theory and practice of religious education. Bourdieu may be called an epistemological materialist with a focus on the symbolic economy of culture and society. To him human beings are creatures of barter and competition. Political and economical enterprise, however, is not about everybody individually fighting each other. How human beings behave, he maintains, must be understood relationally, in accordance with their positions in the total social field. Also, as existentially vulnerable and struggling creatures, human beings have an interest in universalising social norms. Despite his polemics against the philosophical academic field, Bourdieu seems to end up with a type of result-oriented moral thinking where each individual struggles for social acknowledgement in his or her field. Because of Bourdieu’s basic epistemological position, he seems to have quite a crude and taken for granted conception of religion, thus making a dialogue about anthropology difficult. However, a moral philosophical understanding of the concept of truth may provide a pragmatic bridge between a materialistic and a non-materialistic position. Such a concept of truth also seems necessary with regard to the discussion of community schools versus private competitive schools. Likewise a moral understanding of competition and truth will underpin the type of religious education suitable for community schools in pluralistic societies. Top

Joanne Hack - Meaningful education: catchcry or call for a paradigm shift?

As the international political situation becomes more complex and interdependent there are calls for education to help young people analyse and make meaning of the world they live in. Recent publications in education and religious education have started to use the term "meaningful education". It has become a recurring call to justify a change in pedagogical methods or teaching practices. It can however become a powerful call for true change.

This paper analyses the contemporary discourses of educational theory on the purpose of twenty-first century schooling, youth spirituality and religious education and develops the themes that are common to these discourses. Finally the paper considers whether the themes of these overlapping discourses point towards a paradigm shift in the nature and purpose of schooling and examines the relevance and challenges of these issues to contemporary curriculum development and practice in religious education. Top

Mark Keith Hillis - Daring to tell, daring to listen: insiders and outsiders in dialogue through story

Narrative is one arena where the tension between particularity and universality in religious education is played out. Religious educators are in a position to encounter the stories of their own and others’ traditions in the company of those who may have different levels of experience with religious stories.

Is it possible for people of varied experience and none to explore horizons of meaning through religious narratives? Is it possible for people of different faiths to be in dialogue and achieve mutual understanding on the concrete ground of narrative, despite the strangeness and ‘otherness’ of those narratives?

This paper will grapple with questions about and the implication of roles of narrative in religious education, and the roles of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ who dare to read, listen and tell together. Could it be that a rational exploration of strangeness and difference is in fact more likely to take place when narrative becomes the ground of discourse? Top

Dzintra Ilisko - The rationale for religious educators as a response to living in a violent world

Our world has entered a new post –Cold era that alienates people from community and politics, substitutes therapeutic services for social justice, but at the same time poses an agenda for justice- for an urgent responsibility of every citizen to overcome social evil while preserving ecological integrity. In this article I intend to define the causes of violence in families and in a wider social environment. By drawing on a recent research I will address the issue of war mentality in our culture with all its manifestations in our families, ways of acting, thinking and living. Furthermore, I shall pose an agenda of eco-justice which starts with the capacity of religious educator to raise one’s critical awareness about ones situation which leads to a social analysis and a responsible action. Our faith calls us to work for justice, to serve those who are in need, to pursue peace, and to defend the live, dignity of all peoples. This is the call of Jesus, the urging of his spirit and the challenge of prophets. This I will discuss the role of religious educator in nurturing in young people a social consciousness and a commitment to a life of justice and service rooted in the Scriptures; in empowering young people to work for justice by concrete efforts in addressing the causes of human suffering; and infusing the concepts of justice, peace, and human dignity. I’ll discuss the ways of engaging young people in discovering the call to justice, and addressing the causes of evil, as well as encouraging them to make a difference in the world by responding to injustice through direct service or actions. Top

Robert Jackson - How far can religious education contribute to multicultural/intercultural education?

Some developments in the history of the uneasy relationship between multicultural and antiracist education in Britain up to the early 1990s are discussed, and attention is given to the arguments used by antiracists in their critique of multicultural education, of which ‘multifaith’ RE was seen as a subset. In the early 1990s, new approaches to multicultural education that incorporated elements of antiracist thinking appeared, variously called ‘muticultural antiracism’, ‘critical multiculturalism’ and ‘reflexive multiculturalism’. These had a much more sophisticated view of cultural analysis than earlier conceptions of multicultural education and attempted to heal the rift between the two fields. Also, discussions by social researchers, such as Gerd Baumann, have brought insights from fieldwork to the debate about multiculturalism, especially in analysing cultural discourse and rethinking the relationship between religious national, ethnic and religious identities. The paper argues that interpretive and dialogical pedagogies of religious education, which share similar analytic stances towards ‘culture’ and ‘religion’ and similar critical and reflexive methodologies to recent approaches to multicultural education, make a direct contribution to an intercultural education working to

promote social justice and social cohesion. There are also opportunities for fruitful collaboration between specialists in the RE and intercultural fields. Top

Arto Kallioniemi - Religious Education curricula in comprehensive schools in Scandinavia and Finland

The main focus of my paper is an investigation of the curricula of religious education in comprehensive schools in Scandinavia and Finland. The main purpose is to study which kinds of elements make up the present religious education curricula in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. The research method is content analysis. There is a lack of comparative research in religious education research. There are only a few studies in which different national systems of religious education have been compared by their contents.

Although the Scandinavian countries and Finland have a lot of common features, e.g. the religious landscapes are similar in these countries. However, their systems of religious education and the history of the subject are a little bit different. In addition the approach to religious education is different in these countries. For example, in Norway a non-confessional subject was established up in 1997, in Denmark religious education became a non-confessional subject in 1975 and in Sweden religious education has been non-confessional since 1962. In Finland religious education is a denominational subject. The main idea is to investigate how the three elements (1. living faith systems, 2. shared human experience and 3 ultimate questions) which Schreiner has shown are represented in the curricula of these countries. Furthermore it is also investigated how the definitions ‘learning religion’, ‘learning about religion’ and ‘learning from religion’ is constructed are these curricula. Top

Yaacov J Katz - Religious-Secular High School Student Workshops Designed to Achieve a Reduction in Inter-Group Tensions

There are five significant cleavages that characterize Israeli society: the political cleavage; the socio-economic cleavage; the ethnic cleavage; the cleavage regarding nationality; and the cleavage between religious and secular. This study concentrates on the religious-secular cleavage which has caused serious rifts and tensions within Israeli society and from time to times threatens to upset political stability in the country.

The tensions between religious and secular sectors of the population have always existed in Israeli society but in latter years there has been deterioration in religious-secular relations because of the increased political power wielded by religious as well as anti-religious political parties. The demographic changes in Israeli society have also aggravated religious-secular tensions and the "status-quo" which was accepted by both religious and secular sectors as a basis for a modus vivendi, has all but disappeared.

A review of the literature that focuses on inter-group tensions indicates that a majority of research studies on the topic emphasize the bases of conflict and only a minority suggest ways and means of reducing conflict and tensions. In addition, since the publication of the classical theories that suggest that inter-group workshops and cooperation be utilized to reduce conflict and tensions, very little has been done to expand the theories and suggest new approaches that promote inter-group coexistence and tolerance.

In the present research the influence of a series workshops in which religious and secular high school students met is examined with the emphasis on three areas in which the inter-group workshops were designed bring about a positive change, namely the cognitive, emotional and behavioral domains. Initial results of this examination indicate that the changes brought about in the workshops between religious and secular students were not uniform in the two groups and in some cases the changes were surprisingly negative.

Initial conclusions indicate the importance of examining the three areas of change as well as the value of designing the workshops to expressly bring about desired positive change in each area of activity so as to achieve reduced inter-group tension and increased coexistence and tolerance. Top

Recep Kaymakcan - A Shift From Confessional RE Towards the Pluralistic RE in Turkey : Presentation of Christianity in RE Textbooks

In the creation of peaceful and harmonious society and world, the understanding of others has a fundemantal importance. In this context, we can ask: what contribution can religion and religious education

make the realization of this ideal? To be sure, the role of the positive and emphatical approaches to teaching of other religions or beliefs are undeniable. From this perspective, one should take the methodology and content of other religions into account in a given country to contribute mutual understanding. This paper aims to present how Christianity is being thought in secondary RE and Imam Hatip High School’s (Religiously oriented high school) lesson entitled with ‘History of Religion’ in terms of the textbooks in Turkey whose 98 percent of population is Muslim. In this regard, we concentrate on three main points in this paper. Firstly, it is observed that there is a great similarity on teaching of Christianity between secondary school and Faculty of Theolgy in Turkey. Secondly, the traces of classical Islamic notion of ahl al-kitab (people of book) is seen in the presentation of Christianity in the textbooks. Thirdly, these books deal with Christianity from the historical perspective rather than living Christianity in modern world. Nonetheless, there is a change in the teaching of Christianity in secondary schools. In line with this, we can mention recently published RE textbooks and new curriculum. In these new textbooks, Christianity is presented non-confessionally and more emphatically than the previous textbooks. Instead of focussing on polemics between Muslim and Christian beliefs, it displays common points and ethical themes. Top

Valentin Kozhuharov - Education in Religion and Values: degrees of understanding (an Orthodox Christian perspective)

Education in religion and in values have their coinciding fields but they also differ in applying the skills acquired by the learners. To what extent the two subjects – teaching religion and teaching values – can influence people’s behaviour or life. Are there definite levels (degrees) of understanding the ultimate goal of education in religion and values?

Nowadays world’s situation to a great extent requires consolidation and standardization of perceiving the values and norms common to all humankind. We can observe influential processes of unification and integration throughout the world. Nevertheless, another not less influential processes take place in the world, too: division and separation, misunderstanding and withdrawal. Religious communities unite and adopt common platforms, at the same time such communities divide and become more hostile.

To what extent can education in religion and values contribute to overcoming war, terror and merely human disagreement and hostility? How do we understand moral and religious education nowadays in preparing the young people for the future in a world without tensions and threats? In some religious teachings and practices living within the society and within the religious community requires different approach and behaviour on the part of the believers. Is this attitude possible in future? What is the evidence of the Scriptures, what is the human response to them and to God, and what is our understanding of being a member of a religion and of a society. Top

Fedor Kozyrev - Religious culture as a school subject

A concentric religious culture model with cultural component at its periphery and direct religious experience, or numenous entity (C.G. Jung) in its center is presented. Originated from Durkheim and Eliade a widespread scientific way of describing religion through the contraposition of sacre and profane is contested. Alternative way is to emphasize internal dialectical contradictions of religious life and dynamic tension between tradition and charisma being the cause of origin and development of religious traditions.

As secularity spreads, the problem of distinguishing between secular (lay) and religious culture becomes more vital. Attempts were undertaken in Russia within last decade to combine secular and confessional approaches for studying humanities and teaching values at school. They revealed an intricacy of the problem and perils of contraposition of the two types of culture.

The option to teach from inside or from outside of a confessional tradition concerns to all aspects of culture not only religious one. Nonconfessional approach to education does not demand of a teacher and students to be outside religious life and experience. It also does not expect paying attention only to peripheral sides of religious phenomenon. Passing through the different levels of the presented model from cultural aspects to confessional standpoints and then to existential plan (or vice versa) can provide students with a constructive idea of multidimensional nature of religious culture. Essential for nonconfessional approach is a right (but not duty) of students not to identify themselves with certain confessional tradition and not to refer to it as to the only reference system. Top

Bernd Krupka - New approaches to Christian education for all – public religion rediscovered?

The lutheran Church of Norway, a state church, is about to embark on a major reform of its christian education. The Norwegian parliament has passed a resolution initiating a church-wide project for a period of five years to develop new ways and concepts for ‘faith education’. The resolution takes a grassroot-approach where almost all resources are to be channelled to parish level. Academic training institutions are to be involved as resource centres supplying services to ordained and non-ordained staff in the parishes. One of the goals of the reform is to achieve a coverage of appr. 70% of the age groups concerned, i.e. 0-18 years.

The paper will present first results from the work of a project group of ministers and others established this year to develop faith education concepts round five main objectives: to introduce children to the symbolic universe of liturgy and ecclesial art (1) in ways that room physical, sensual and motional experience (2), that take a dialogical approach (3) to childrens own spirituality and faith (4), that involve local, contextual traditions (e.g. pilgrimage traditions) and cooperation with schools and the local cultural scene (5). The group will follow two goals: to develop faith education material based on local projects in the respective parishes, and to develop an approach to religious education around the main objectives. The group will use methods developed in action research. Due to the coverage aimed at and the various forms of cooperation with public institutions and traditions, the issue of public religion will play an important role. As such, the project is relevant to the overall topic of the conference. Top

Manfred Kwiran - The real roots of violence. Religious and political violence and social injustice.

Analysis of present day violence does have to investigate not just the actions of violence in a superficial and surface way, but needs to look critically at the roots of violence. If it is violence within the family, on the school yards, within youth cultures and society or terrorism and consequent actions. Open police or military actions are indications of the failure to deal with violent situation and terrorism in a diplomatic and peaceful way. It is always the poorest options available and hopefully an ultima ratio decision having tried all else and taken into consideration the consequences of the decision. But searching for the real roots of violence does investigate the social situations of a given violence. Most often social injustice is the basic situation out of which violence arises. Different school projects in Germany have shown how children and pupils can be made aware of non violent reactions against open violence. The weakness of all of these is the lack of also looking at the roots and reasons for such actions. Only be economic reforms in the homes of the children and more social justice in society can violence realistically and ustainably be dealt with. That this perspective would also be helpful on an international level, even in dealing with terrorism and its violent actions could be a possible vision as well. Top

David W Lankshear - Why teach then? - Why teach now?

Attention has been focused on the Christian vocation to teach by the Church of England Report The Way Ahead (Dearing 2001) and on teacher motivation by a number of reports to government including The Hay Group, 2000. A challenge that derives from this work is to understand more accurately what motivates young people to chose teaching in the first instance and then what encourages them to stay in teaching as they develop professional skills and experience, but perhaps lose their first enthusiasms.

This paper will present the findings of a pilot study carried out during 2003/4 on the reasons that teachers in England and Wales entered the profession and their reasons for staying within the profession once they have begun their work. Unusually in the British context the survey instrument permitted teachers to include issues related to their personal faith position within their responses, thus enabling the extent of the existence of a Christian vocation to teach to be tested amongst the respondents.

The study was intended to be a pilot for a larger piece of work to be carried out in 2004/6, funding permitting. This larger scale study will seek not only to develop more fully the ideas explored in the pilot but also develop strategies to enhance teacher motivation and commitment and to develop a better understanding of the Christian vocation to teach.

The pilot study raises a variety of issues which are of significance and the purpose of the paper that will be presented is to air these issues in the hope of stimulating interest and discussion in the wider arena beyond the confines of England and Wales.

ReferencesDearing, R (ch) (2001) The Way ahead, London, Church House Publishing

The Hay Group (2000) Raising Achievement in our school: Model of Effective Teaching, London, The Hay Group. Top

Alma Lanser van der Velde - Through the eyes of another

The project Through the Eyes of Another (www.bible4all.org) is an initiative of the Contextual Theology Professional Group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the United Churches of the Netherlands.

In this project 130 grassroot reading groups from 40 different countries all over the world read the same Bible text (Joh. 4) . Each group is linked with a partner group and they exchange their reading experiences. For example a well educated midddle class protestant group from The Netherlands is linked with a group of non-christian marginalised transsexual men in Madras, India. Both groups examen the reading of the partner group. What are the similarity’s, what are the differences. Is it possible to change places? Does it change the perspective? What can be learned from it? Each group receives the partner group’s reaction and entertains the question of whether further contact is derirable.

This project has two perspectives. The first is to improve the intercultural discussion about Bible stories on the level of ordinary readers. Secondly, the scientific objective is focussed on two questions, namely that of the interaction of the scientific or professional readings and the ordinary readings of the Bible, and that of the intercultural reading of the Bible. A team of scholars from the First, Second and the Third World worked together to develop the project and to research the hermeneutical and intercultural questions that arise in the project.

Because it is a project of Bible reading in groups there is a perspective of group dynamics and agogics in the reading reports. It is my task to make an elaboration of the influence of group dynamics on the hermeneutical process. The results of a qualitative analysis of more than two hundred reading reports on the dimension of growing together will be presented at the 14th ISREV. Top

Rune Larsson - Homecoming in diversity - faith based schools as a way to understanding and shared responsibility

Are faith based schools a way to segregation or a way to strengthen a process for a deeper understanding? Growing segregation of a society into groups, divided from each other in values, welfare resources, traditions, culture, and religion are mostly seen as a threat against the democracy and peace. Individuals and groups, they could be immigrants or refugees, living as outsiders and at the borders of the majority society, not seldom have lost the self-evident identity of belonging they once had in the context they left, and have still not got a new feeling of being at home in the new culture. What does this mean for the school structure and RE? There are two ways discussed out of this dilemma. The first and the main road in the Swedish tradition is "one school for all". The most common arguments for this solution are: You have to live and learn together. The second way take a step backwards and says: First you must come home to yourself, find your own identity. Than you are able to be a learning partner in dialogue with others.

My paper try to pick up the arguments, mostly used in connection to this second way of "homecoming in diversity". The background is the discussion for and against faith based schools in Sweden. One of the very hot questions is, if the faith based schools really are able to educate for understanding and shared responsibility or if they only consolidate the otherness. Top

Terence J. Lovat - Seeing ourselves in Islam: the imperative of the age for religious and values education

The paper will argue that the emergence of the era of terrorism, fuelled in part by a form of jihadic Islam, impels a religious and values education imperative of improving understanding about Islam and, especially, enhancing literacy about the historical roots of the conflict broadly titled ‘Islam versus the West’. In this sense, from a Western perspective, the task is to ‘see ourselves in Islam’. On the basis that true learning about the other can only come from intense listening to the other, the paper will propose a methodology that first challenges Jews and Christians to seriously consider Islamic claims about their common history and contemporary relationship. The paper will have both a conceptual and pedagogical dimension.

On the conceptual side, consideration will be given firstly to a raft of Muslim scholarship that focusses on the historical and current relationships of Judaism and Christianity with Islam. On the pedagogical side, the challenge will be to construct a way of dealing with this content that places Jews and Christians (assuming

a Western context) in a listening relationship with the Muslim perspective(s). The desired outcomes, as well as the theoretical and educational significance, will be couched in terms of the capacity of a curriculum to enhance student understanding about crucial world events and the potential to re-conceive and re-position from closed and ethnocentric to open and inclusive approaches to these world events. It will also make use of current pedagogical research that identifies the potential for self-reflective knowing to emanate from technical and interpretive knowing.

The paper arises largely from the author’s long-term work in cross-religious movement and dialogue and their implications for religious and values education. It springs particularly from two recent study visits at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies where many of the themes taken up are the subject of intense research. Top

Patricia Malone - The internet’s role in education in our contemporary world

This paper explores the potential of the web as an important contemporary influence in the formation of values and attitudes. The internet provides a medium and a place for individual and group learning processes that can respond to individual needs and changing circumstances. The internet user is able to gain access to a range of information and perspectives about issues of conflict and to form associations and lobby Governments and agencies. The implications of the range of sites and the values from which they operate will be considered.

This paper explores in particular some spiritual sites and the forms of ministry these provide and the structure and educational assumptions that seem to underpin them. It particularly examines sites that consider contemporary issues of violence, peace and meaning from a religious perspective. It will consider the comments made by users of these sites as a source of data to evaluate their contributions to the process of ongoing personal development.

This paper is concerned with developing a vision, an understanding of the learning process which draws on the availability of information online but is concerned with the use of information to develop knowledge and ultimately understanding. It examines some of the general research into the educative role of the web and consider in particular its place in lifelong religious education. Top

Roseanne McDougall - Enlightenment Values and Religion and Education in Revolutionary Era Philadelphia: Breeding Grounds for Seeds of Violence?

The presence of Enlightenment values and religious toleration among the citizens of Philadelphia around the time of the Revolutionary War were ôin the airö as independence was gained. The hope of the European Enlightenment was, at least partially, realized in this ethos. One wonders if seeds of potential violence were also sown within this same cultural and religious setting.

Revolutionary era Philadelphia, where both Enlightenment values and religious toleration flourished, serves as the geographical focus because it was the nation’ largest city, the religious, cultural and financial center of the United States at the time, and the intellectual center from which the American Enlightenment radiated.

This paper explores the role of Enlightenment values and religion and education in a defining moment in the history of the United States; it is about an eighteenth century convergence of philosophical, religious and educational values in the very geographical setting in which ISREV is convening. The paper aims to probe connections with violence; in the process, an attempt will be made to uncover the thought of revolutionary era women, whose voices appear silent in the initial research Top

Eugene P. McElhinney - Mimetic theory and the concept of original sin as understood by groups of adolescents aged 12 18 inclusive

Drawing on the writings of Rene Girard and James Alison this piece of research sets out to explore the extent to which the emerging adolescent develops and understanding of the mythic nature of the story of The Fall in Genesis Ch.3 and how they respond to an alternative account rooted in an anthropological model. Seven groups of students representing years 8 14 inclusive in a Catholic Grammar School in Northern Ireland were given two accounts of the The Fall adapted from an anthropological model advanced by James Alison (1998) and based on Rene Girard questions designed to test the levels of understanding

shown across the age range. Students in years 8 account more or less literally with older pupils gradually recognising its mythic nature. However there was considerable confusion displayed across the entire age range. Interpreting the alternative anthropological model proved difficult even for some of the older students. What was of particular interest was the readiness of a number students of whatever age to accept the anthropological account as being an acceptable theory explaining human origins and original sin, and one that can be understood in a religious sense. Top

Stephen McKinney - Conflict in Education: Roman Catholic Schooling in Scotland

Roman Catholic schooling in Scotland has a unique and often contested position. The roots of this lie in the historically contested role of Roman Catholics. The impact of large scale Irish Roman Catholic immigration in the mid nineteenth century resulted in religious, social, employment and political conflicts, some typical of immigration typology (Boneva and Frieze, 2001, Esses et al, 2001) and some more localised (Devine, 1999).

The growth and persistence of voluntary, self funding Catholic schooling up to 1918, despite enormous financial difficulties for an impoverished community, suggests a community that perceived itself as an ‘outsider’ presence. From 1918 onwards the Government began to fund Catholic schooling.

Increased opportunities in employment and in higher education over the last fifty years have helped many Catholics become socially mobile (Brown, 1997), although the Catholic community may now be divided by social distinctions (Boyle and Lynch, 1998, Fitzpatrick, 1999). There has also been a fall in practice since the 1980s and evidence of fairly high mixed marriage (Brown, 1998).

However, despite some success and prosperity and the increasingly disparate nature of the Catholic community, some Catholics still perceive themselves as outsiders (Bradley, 1995, Conroy, 2001). Has the contemporary conception and preservation of Catholic schooling evolved as a major source of identity for Catholics in Scotland, confirming them in their outsider role, and has this become a focus for the contestedness of their presence in Scottish society? Top

Paul McQuillan - Religious schools and values formation: The spiritual sensitivity and values of some senior high school students

This paper is based on research conducted among groups of senior high school students in Australian schools. The research collected data on the values and attitudes of the students and their recognition of "limit" experience in their lives, a type of experience to which some might give a religious interpretation.

Among all schools surveyed the recognition of these types of experiences among students was remarkably high (between 76% and 88%). The importance of spirituality in their lives was given further witness by the large number of written accounts of experience provided.

The paper will use a framework of spiritual sensitivity proposed by Hay and Nye (1998) to examine the relationship between the expressed values of the students and the different strands of limit experience recognised among the groups. Comparison will be made between the results of surveys taken both before and after the events of September 11.

Various links were found between the values and attitudes of students and the recognition of limit experience in their lives. The differing approaches of the schools surveyed to the religious education program in the school will be examined in the light of their survey results. Top

Wilna Meijer - Book and teacher: their comparative roles in traditional Islamic and modern western education

The preference for personal instruction as opposed to private reading and study, and the belief that only oral transmission is legitimate, lies deeply embedded in the Islamic educational system’, says Berkey in his social history of Islamic education in medieval Cairo (1992, 24). Every educated, literate individual is a link in a chain of transmission. Intellectual biographies are made up in terms of isnad, the chain of oran transmission. X studied a certain work with this or that teacher, who in turn had studies that work with his former teacher and was authorised by that teacher to further oral transmission of that particular work, and so on. The chain is going back through generations of teachers to the original author.

Books and reading did have a certain role to play, but that seems to be underplayed in Muslim pedagogoical discourse. In what ways differ the understanding of education and the understanding of literacy and learning, in the ‘Manuscript age’ (Rosenthal) of medieval Islam, from the ‘modern western’ understanding of education, product of the age of the printing press? What are the comparative roles of teachers and books in the eudcational process? Top

Karlo Meyer - The global religious horizon in German Protestant Church education

As there are already regular Religious Education lessons in German State Schools, Protestant Churches provide religious instructions for youngsters only in "children-services", confirmation classes (for 1½ years) and youth groups.

Even though the time is limited, the global horizon of religious matters should be taken into account. This paper takes up the limited number of publications on this field and suggests a systematic frame considering the special circumstances of church education.

Two major themes should be taught in the church: the world wide Christianity and the other religions. The church has limited time but in opposite to state schools, the opportunity to practise religion: in the fields of liturgy (leiturgia), social and diaconal work (diaconia) and the experience of community (koinonia). Global religions can be taught in these fields to gain a wider understanding of their own religious identity. The first part of the paper gives some general introduction to church Education in Germany. In the second part global Christianity is taken up and the theme of the third part is the other religions. Theoretical discussions and practical suggestions of this paper give an idea of the options for church education teaching in a global horizon in Germany. Top

Reinhold Mokrosch - In Mission Divine! Why Christians, such as George W. Bush, want to save the world by war. Did Religious Education fail?

Since the 11th September 2001 the US strategy claims "revenge instead of reconciliation" and not "reconciliation instead of revenge". Politics are governed by a fundamental duality, with good Christians on one side, and demonic terrorists on the other. Who is not for us, is against us. Politics are justified by religion, and religion is justified by politics. An ethno national, messianic spirit and an apocalyptical dualism are spreading. We are on God’s side, the others are on that of the devil.

Such a doomsday atmosphere, which Christians often imagined, calls for war action. Jesus himself called for war against the evil. The Sermon on the Mount no longer holds true. The own nation should become invulnerable and remain to be so. This is why revenge instead of reconciliation is on the agenda.

Do these key words fully characterize the attitude of Bush’s followers in America and Europe. The results of opinion polls do confirm this. For this reason, the following questions arise, "How is it possible to abuse Christianity for such purposes?" And: Who is responsible for this abuse – are ecumenical powers to be blamed for this or the evil nature of humankind? Are we living in times undergoing a "clash of cultures" of a "clash of fundamentalists"?

What can Religious Education do against this? At American and also at European schools, children and young adults are mobilised for anti terrorist attitudes and action. Will religious education be able to ward off these tendencies? Which role does religious education play under the aspect of being a counter part of Bush’s fundamentalism? This collegial paper presents results of opinion polls and theses for discussion. Top

Mary Elizabeth Moore - In the face of violence: imagining, advocating, and enacting peace

Standing on a busy street corner, I held a sign reading "IMAGINE PEACE." I could have chosen a sign that read "War is Not the Answer," or "Honk if You Want Peace," but an appeal to imagination seemed urgent in those days when the United States was creeping ever closer to war with Iraq. The question that played in my mind as I held that sign is the question that underlies this paper: How can people engage in peacemaking if they (we) cannot imagine a peaceful world? Other questions followed upon that one: How can people educate for peace without the multiple dimensions of imagination, advocacy, and enactment? How can people hope for peace without simultaneously focusing on daily life, institutional life, national politics, and global relationships?

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to explore these interlocking questions, more specifically: to explore the face of violence epistemologically, to develop philosophical constructs for reconstructing epistemology, and to propose directions for reconstructed education.

Methodology. The essay is an epistemological study, analyzing epistemologies in popular culture through social analysis and interviews, and constructing alternatives. Primary sources are published analyses of religion and violence, theories of educational reform, interviews with youth regarding violence and peace, and process philosophy. All of these will be placed in dialogue with seemingly intractable conflicts in the present world. The combination of social, empirical, and philosophical educational analysis promises to be fruitful, generating images and resources for peacemaking and forging educational pathways by which people might travel toward the peace they imagine.

Existential Issues. One of the tensions that plagues efforts at peacemaking is the lack of imagination about alternatives to violent existence. Another tension is the tendency to advocate in adversarial ways, thereby advocating for peace while making "war." Still another tension is the temptation to focus on peacemaking in one aspect of life - often one close to people, such as family or workplace - while making war in another. Because of these tensions, the essay moves: from an analysis of seemingly intractable conflicts; to analysis of five kinds of knowing that are important for peacemaking; to analysis of the powers of imagination, advocacy and enactment; to constructive alternatives to violence in diverse settings; to projections for educational practice. Top

Gabriel Moran - Power, force and violence

This paper is an historical, philosophical and religious inquiry into some of the roots of violence. In international discussions, the term "force" is used as a euphemism for war. This peculiar usage is an obstacle to considering how force of varying kinds and to varying degrees might be used for international restraints on violence.

At a second level, force is itself confused with power. Power, not surprisingly is then identified primarily with military hardware and secondarily with economic clout. Power understood only as force is assumed to be an agent’s domination of others.

Anyone with a religious understanding should protest that power begins as openness and receptiveness. Power is a capacity that needs to be actualized in exchanges with others. Force is a primitive form of power which is always dangerous though sometimes needed to restrain a dangerous intrusion or accomplish a physical end. But the human form of power is found in cooperation that makes possible action free of violence. The temptation to express power in violent ways needs the rituals of a community to channel aggressiveness in benign forms.

Daniel Berrigan, who has fought the U.S. war machine for forty years, used the motto: "Don’t just do something, stand there." Against overwhelming war power, the futile reaction is terrorist or suicidal violence that only adds to destruction. Non-violent forms of resistance are not a form of weakness but of human strength because they spring from an understanding of power as receptiveness and reconciliation. Top

Bernadette Eyewan Okure - Theological formation and empowerment of lay women in Nigeria for mission: the empowerment cycle

Theological formation and empowerment of laywomen in Nigeria proposes a theological Empowerment Cycle for creatively responding to the crucial necessity for the faith formation, character development and empowerment of laywomen in Nigeria. Women form well over 60% of the church in Nigeria and could be said to be responsible for over 90% of the church’s missionary activities. Their empowerment and faith maturity is the empowerment and maturity of the Nigerian church as a whole. Their disempowerment and neglect is the disempowerment and neglect of the vital root of the Nigerian Church.

Women’s empowerment is to be invitational, cyclical, organic, pastoral, self-generating, multicultural, experiential and interdisciplinary. The organic, effects-multiplier, self-generating empowerment cycle, having for its roadmap the commitments of the African Synod, inspired by African historical experiences and the Vatican Council II commitments, is rooted in the Scripture with a particular attention paid to Jesus’ relationship with women, his methodologies of empowering women for mission.

The strength of this proposed organic theological empowerment cycle lies not sorely on its theory but on its African-oriented pastoral pedagogy. The growth-producing cycle is marked by distinct moments: invitation, response, experience, critical reflection and evaluation, recommendations, new invitation, new response, new experience etc. Each moment of the empowerment cycle is also cyclical. This is the second stage of the whole process. The first stage begins with hearing and entering into the gospel story. Active hearing! Top

Heon-Wook Park - The Multi-religious land ‘Japan’ and today’s Adolescent

Since rapidly accepting the Christian religion and the western culture in the Meiji-era from 1868, Japan made efforts toward building a modern State-regime among Asian countries and almost achieved that end. Today Japan is a multi-religious land composed of Shintoism, Buddhism including many denominations, Christianity,and other new religions.These Religions have also socially played some roles as civil spiritual props. But in the process of quick economic development, and by changing to a rationalistic life-/thought-way, the traditional culture and norms were greatly shaken since the nineteen-sixties, the past family-form is breaking down and a Confucian moral is no longer functional and collapsing after student-revolts occured since the end of the nineteen-sixties.

Faced by a economic recession today, the people are aware of the necessity of human religiosity and its education again, which could create basic morals and values. Therefore, pursuing a change of the religious/moral consciousness of the young generation, and introducing the practice of religious education being allowed in private schools, but not in public schools, I will try to propose a new meaning and orientation for the multi- and Christian- religious pedagogy of today’s Adolescent. Top

Mary Peterson - In the land of the haka can there be a dance of peace? And is there any learning for the rest of the world?

An examination of some of the ways in which religious groups and other community organisations in New Zealand are addressing issues of violence in schools and the community. Examples of particular situations will be explained. Particular ideas and programmes will be explored in terms of how they contribute to education in values and attempt to offer alternatives to violent behaviour: eg The Incredible Journey – a game produced by the Conference of Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand as a contribution to the Decade to Overcome Violence (one sample given to every school in New Zealand); ‘Cool Schools;; Peer Mediation; anti-bullying programmes; ‘blue-ligh discos’; the Life Education Trust; the hikoi of hope; the Virtues project; Investigating Common Values, thaa Maori and spiritual well-being; chaplaincy in state schools. Attention will also be given to the ways in which particular religious groups have attempted to understand each other, work co-operatively and take steps to avoid violent confrontation on an individual, local and national level.

Some analysis will be provided of the impact and success of the various programmes. Encouragement will be given to identify potential international learnings. Top

Annebelle Pithan - Gender and Religious Education

My paper argues for gender as an important category of religious education in theory and practice. It explores the topic in three parts.

In the first part I want to discuss the understanding of key terms like gender, male and female, feministic in order to gain orientation in the existing variety of different approaches, concepts and contexts. This is based on the perception of a situation where the dominant concept of feminism - at least in the German speaking countries of Europe - is no longer accepted by many younger women. Because there is still a need of gender equality and gender bias, I will focus on difference and justice as key concepts for further research.

In the second part I will give some insights about the German speaking research on religious education and gender in the European context.

The paper concludes with some future tasks and perspectives. I am interested to share the idea of a common symposium on gender and religious education in order to exchange research, good practice and opinions about this perspective on education. Top

Mandy Robbins - Purpose in life and prayer among Catholic and Protestant adolescents in Northern Ireland: a study in religion and gender

Data are provided from a sample of 2,670 young people aged between 13- to 15-years-old from Northern Ireland. The data are divided into two subgroups. The first subgroup comprises the 1,206 young people who were identified as attending a Catholic school. The second subgroup comprises the 1,464 young people who were identified as attending a Protestant school. The data examine the relationship between frequency of personal prayer, perceived purpose in life, sex, age, church attendance, and personality (extraversion, neuroticism, and Psychoticism).

These data demonstrate a clear relationship between frequency of prayer and perceived purpose in life. The relationship holds good both among young people from the Catholic community in Northern Ireland and among the young people from the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. Top

Cornelia Roux - Religion and peace: the role of religious education and values – a South African perspective

In order to address the theme of this conference I would like to introduce my topic as Religion and Peace: the role of Religious Education and Values. The original theme is contradictory to what I think religion and values should represent in any society. Religious education and values should be the bearer of peace and the understanding of basic democratic values in any society.

Religion in education is in South Africa to many people an emotive topic. In September 2003 a new policy on religion in education was announced and will be introduced in the school system in January 2004. This announcement and policy put an end to the emotive media reports and comments on the draft policy documents. However, the negative responses clearly indicated a lack of understanding and respect for diversity, especially in our democratic multicultural and multireligious society. Although there was no physical violence involve, the comments, language and arguments used in the media reports represented a violent undertone.

Since religion in education is an emotive area, I will attempt to argue in this paper that the introduction of democratic values as outlined in the Manifesto on Values in Education (Department of Education, South Africa), in religious education, in in-service teacher training programmes accompanied by appropriate empirical research methods can counter the negative assumptions and misconceptions promoted by various educators, religious leaders and especially the media. Top

Richard Rymarz - Core Catholic youth religious education and Catholic schools

Most students in Catholic secondary schools in Australia are not active members of parish worshipping communities. Dixon (2003) drawing on data from the Australian National Church Life Survey reports low and diminishing Mass attendance levels amongst Catholic cohorts of adolescents and young adults. As Flynn and Mok (2002) point out, in extensive longitudinal studies of senior students in Catholic secondary schools, students and their parents value Catholic education but do not place a high priority on religious goals when compared to other aspects such as personal development, academic expectations, preparation for employment and social development. This paper will report on research that focuses on the attitudes of a differentiated sample of students to Catholic schools in general and religious education in particular. Core catholic youth are described, following Futon et al (2000), as individuals who have an existing connection with the parish community. Some results that emerge from 58 in-depth interviews with 14 and 15 year old core Catholics is that they value their time in Catholic schools, feel that they are in a safe environment and are not well networked with others of a similar background. Attitudes to religious education by core catholic youth are described as weak positive. Religious education is not unpopular but is not seen as a discipline that helps resolve some of the difficulties that they experience as young Catholics. These difficulties relate to trying to reconcile what they see as the conflict between the scientific and religious view of creation and many supernatural religious claims. Top

Sturla Sagberg - Wonder and the question of truth in RE

Wonder is the beginning of philosophy and faith and aesthetics. The concept has consequently proved useful in education, even in religious education (RE). A philosophical framework has, however, some consequences as to the notion of truth. Truth is for philosophers an "unattainable ideal". Yet, truth is a "useful notion, just as mariners who know they will never reach the North Star continue to guide themselves

by it in their navigation" (Lipman, Matthew et al. 1980. Philosophy in the Classroom. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, p.198).

Philosophy begins in wonder, and wonder has to do with each person trying to find meaning in life (ibid.:31f). Meaning in life links wonder to truth. Children are preoccupied with both. There is, however, a moment of awkwardness in RE as to the question of truth. This should be a matter of concern both to educational theory, philosophy, theology and science of religion. The fact of terror and anti-terror in the name of truth makes this concern even more urgent. What kind of truth is taught to our children, to shape future relations among people and peoples? Does the concept of wonder carry RE to some understanding of truth which neither undermines religious truth nor underpins notions of truth which function destructively?

My contribution is a study of the concept of wonder as a theologically potent concept in understanding truth, and as such, an integral part of a theology of religions. I argue that understanding wonder has in store theological humility and educational confidence. Top

Peter Schreiner - Towards a holistic perspective in education: challenges for religious education and values

My paper argues for a critical view on holistic education. Increasingly the dominant philosophy of education, based on principles of Enlightenment and an epistemology that is shaped by the dichotomy of subject and object (Descartes) is seen in a critical way. Those in favour of a holistic approach are more and more convinced that a "mechanistic" paradigm in education cannot deal properly with current challenges of mankind and is not sufficient for sustainable development. An example is a project of the education department of the World Council of Churches, where the participants agreed on the following understanding: Committed to life affirming ways of living and acting, Holistic education embraces the quest for meaning and knowledge, rooted in the values of wholeness and healing. Holistic education strives to make a critique of the dominant world views and praxis, while simultaneously learning to dream and work towards an alternative paradigm. Holistic education affirms individuals as persons in the context of community and communities as a whole. Holistic education from an ecumenical perspective draws from a variety of traditions while affirming the centrality and unity of all creation in God. In my paper I will discuss some of the arguments and developments on which holistic education is based upon as well as selected approaches. Key terms like ‘connectedness’, ‘spiritual quest’, and ‘transformation’ will be introduced. The argument will be presented that the search for alternative holistic approaches in education should not neglect the task of developing critical thinking. As a result of this analysis it will be asked how Religious Education can benefit from the movement towards a holistic perspective in education. Top

Ulrich Schwab - Youth churches: a new approach to youth work in Germany

Youth churches are one of the latest experiments in German youth work. Considering that young people would like to be in peers and often could not be integrated in normal parishes the protestant church of Wurttemberg started a project to offer young people a separate parish just for the young ones. The project started in four places in the summer of 2003 and is accompanied by the University of Munuch. The paper gives an overview about the theory of youth churches and furthermore there will be details about the latest development of the project.

It is important that youth churches should not be seen as a new separate church but as part of the program of the Protestant church of Wurttemberg. On the other side it is not the aim to integrate young people in the parishes but to give them the opportunity to organise their own system of living together in the name of Jesus Christ. So we have to discuss what does it mean to be ‘church’ and how should it be organised so that the young ones accept it as something near to their way of life. We want to find out what kind of young ones are attracted by such youth churches and what is their main interest in participating in the project. Top

Friedrich Schweitzer - Children’s right to religon and spirituality

The attempt to establish children’s rights can be called one of the major twentiety century projects, with the 1989 United Nations Declaration on Children’s Rights as its final results. Yet while the issue of spiritual development has played a clear role in the struggle for children’s rights ever since the Geneva Declaration of the 1920s, the 1989 declaration does not include a clear reference to children’s right to religion or spirituality (the terminology is a difficult topic in itself). The aim of the present paper is to investigage the possibilities for establishing such a right not only in legal terms but on pedagogical grounds and in terms of religious education. For this purpose, children’s ways of dealing with death and dying are taken as an

example. How can children’s needs be taken seriously in this respect? How does a children’s rights perspective affect the understanding of religious education? What could a more formally established right to religion and spirituality really mean for the child as well as for educational institutitons working with different age groups? In answering such questions, the paper will draw on educational authors like Janusz Korczak, the pioneer of ‘children’s right to respect’, as well as on psychological theories of individual and social development. Top

Mualla Selçuk - A Qur’anic approach to the concept of living together: ta’aruf

This paper intends to propose a possible contribution to our experiences of living together through certain methods of Islamic education. Today, there is an increasing need for new methods of inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue in pluralistic societies. Works dealing with the possibilities and limits of pluralism in Islam show that there is ground in Islam for and against pluralism. The present paper will initially present an analysis of pluralism both in the Qur’an and in practice of Islam, and it will put emphasis upon the interpretation of the verse 49 of the chapter fo Hujurat of the Qur’an which proposes a concept of pluralism in society. An indepth analysis of this Qur’anic verse based upon different commentaries of the Qur’an will be discussed from religious education’s point of view. Positive educational aspects of the Qur’anic recommendation of ‘knowing one another’ will be elaborated. The paper will put forward certain approaches in religious education in the light of the aforementioned Quar’anic verse which may contribute to social peace and co-existence between different religious cultures and traditions. Top

Emma Shackle - Religious Sagas and Theological Thrillers: The Contribution of Didactic Novels to Healthy and Unhealthy Religion

Just as there have been theological thrillers, notably the novels of Charles Williams and the contemporary fundamentalist ‘Left Behind’ series by Jim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, so, at last, there are English language sagas reflecting the social science approach to religion.

Two twentieth century Christian best selling didactic religious novelists, Susan Howatch and Andrew Greeley, have used their knowledge of psychology and sociology to inform their novels about the Church of England and the Church of Rome (the Chicago Diocese) respectively.

James Michael Lee and Timothy Arthur Lines have been the main theorists of the social science approach to religious education. Lines developed the social science approach using systems theory. His particular interest was in the nature of healthy religion.

We can contrast the social science approach to religious education with the theological approach. When novelists package ‘theology’, the theology so packaged tends to be apocalyptic in character. Williams dealt with the perennial conflict between Gnosticism and Orthodox Christianity while LaHaye creates visions of eschatological end time using American dispensationalist theology.

Howatch and Greeley create believable characters in real life settings: they provide knowledge of religious living gained through the social sciences as well as theology. Readers can identify with and model themselves on these characters while also learning something about religion in the flesh. By contrast, the apocalyptic novel operates more like a sermon providing interpretations of the Book of Revelation that are applicable to contemporary politics.

The paper will explore some of the educational issues raised by these two types of novel. Top

Geir Skeie - Religious education and the politics of religion

Christianity has played a central role as stabilizing factor in both in European history an in the US. The close connections between religion and political establishment have been loosened up since modern constitutions appeared. Still, it seems that religion from time to time has been activated in times of crisis or rapid change and that Religious Education has been affected by this. The paper investigates some examples particularly taken from Norwegian history. Religious Education played an important stabilising political role in early parts of modernity, primarily dealing with social conflict in the form of class struggle. After that RE went into a long period in the political shadows. In late modern society there are signs of increasing political demands on RE, again to stabilise a disturbed political order. This time the reasons are not seen as class conflicts, but rather cultural conflicts. Religious education is called upon to improve

relations between religious or cultural groups in society by increasing knowledge about each other. The paper discusses the possibilities of a self-critical Religious Education within the framework of a public school in late modern western society. It also discusses if and how RE can contribute to reduction of culture-based violence without harmonising Top

Fred Smith - The Challenge of Prophetic Religious Education: Internalized Oppression, Violence, and Religious Conversions and the Souls of Black Boys

The challenge to a prophetic religious education is the souls of black boys that have been marginalized until they become mere objects of history. Using the theoretical pathogenetic framework of the self and environment, I will critique the autobiographies of Frederick Douglas and Richard Wright to describe the struggles of black boys to become subjects of history. This paper is a descriptive functional theological depiction of the conversion from marginalization to transcendence of souls of black boys (African American male youth). The key to this transformation is through a change of perception (vision). This change of perception or vision is accomplished by means of root metaphors.

The root metaphor analysis of the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright describes the various metaphorical visions that embodied their spiritual struggle for a sense of coherence in the face of oppressive pathogenetic environment. Richard Wright recounts his development from a dangerous character to trickster to escape the Jim Crow South. For Douglass’s prophetic religious education at the hands of prophetic religious educators Father Lawson and Rev. Hansen provided religious metaphors that converted him from ‘a slave for life’ to ‘a child of God.’ Each is an example of how a sense of coherence was achieved through the development of a sense of transcendence. This is the challenge of prophetic religious education. Top

Nam Soon Song - Self-cultivation as a way of Christian education: exploring Jesus as a learner

This paper attempts to search for an approach to Christian education through the eyes of Eastern thought, mainly the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu. One of the most influential thoughts to Eastern people is Taoist thought which is based on the thought of Lao Tzu. The most important work of Lao Tze appeared in the Tao Te Ching. The most important word for education that I find in the Tao Te Ching is the word ‘cultivate’. In the Tao Te Ching, eduation is cultivation of Tao in oneself. Education does not come from outside, rather I comes from inside person. It is disciplining oneself in Tao every day.

Applying the idea of education as self-cultivation by Tao Te Ching, the author will explore how Jesus as a learner appeared in the synoptic Gospel. In Christian education so far we have talked very much about Jesus as a teacher, not Jesus as a learner. As we generally understand, Jesus did not receive any formal education. Then, the question is how he became who he was, even the teacher who had authority. In order to answer it I would like to explore how Jesus as a learner appeared in the Gospel, looking at Jesus through the eyes of Tao Te Ching. Eventually, this research gives a partial answer to the original questions, ‘What would Christian education look like, if it were explored through the eyes of Eastern thought?’ I hope to claim self-cultivation as a way of Christian education. Top

Karin Sporre - A relativist? Why not – or rather, why!

Within feminist theory a characteristic trend in epistemological discussions during the 1980:ies and 1990:ies have been to view knowledge as being situated, contextual and dialogical. This as a contrast to view it being independent of localisation, universal and, one could say, monological. In these discussions, however, there has been a tendency to fear entering the arena of discussing relativism, for a number of reasons, more or less evident.

In a chapter of the book Rhetorical spaces. Essays on gendered locations, (Routledge, 1995) the Canadian philosopher Lorraine Code critically discusses the often clear stand taken against relativism, among feminists and others. Code’s critical discussion opens up the discussion on relativism in an interesting way.

I find this interesting and in line with a way of viewing knowledge that opens up for possibilities of different views to be expressed and negotiated in an open way. Situations of encounters where differences of opinions are present may ask for this kind of epistemological discussions as a background. What weaknesses and strengths can be seen in Code’s discussion?

In a research project Shared values? with Swedish colleagues in pedagogy, social anthropology and ethics I deal with questions of knowledge enlightened by feminist theory. This paper articulates some of the questions I interested in within this research project of mine. Top

Heinz Streib - Trajectories of deconverts: results from cross-cultural research and their implications for religious education

The paper presents qualitative and quantatitive results from our research project ‘Deconverts from Fundamentalist New Religious Groups in the Federal Republic of Germand and the United States of America: biographical trajectories, transformation processes and the need for intervention’ which is concluded in spring 2004. Special attention is paid to the comparision of deconversion trajectories in Germany and the USA over against the background of the religious groups from which the have deconverted. Thereby, expecially the measures of faith development, religoius vs. spiritual self-attribution, personality traits, and psychological well-being and growth supplement the biographical-reconstructive analysis. The results of the project allow conclusions not only for the assessment of the need for intervention, but also for determinging necessary responses and reactions in religiou educaiton. From our results, it should be possible to formulate a well-informed answer to the quetsion whether and in which cases religious education should encourage deconversion and how this could be achieved. Top

Howard Summers - What can we learn about values from South Africa’s transition to a democratic state?

Prior to the new political dispensation in 1994, South Africa seemed set for a civil war. The exiled African National Congress (ANC) had resorted to an armed struggle to bring about political liberation, while the ruling nationalist government was prepared to crush any revolution through military might. In broad terms, it was black versus white yet both segments of the population were comprised primarily of Christians. Liberation theology held out hope for the oppressed masses, while for the oppressors the just war theory backed up by Calvin's insistence on law and order prevailed. There were also hints of Calvin's ultima ratio - war as the last resort if the ANC gained control of the country. The stage seemed set for a tragic clash of Christian against Christian.

Yet, when the new ANC government took over, life carried on as usual. There was no armed uprising by the defeated white minority, no revenge taken by the previously oppressed. A clear link between religion and violence suddenly and miraculously changed into what appeared to be a link between religion and peace. This paper attempts to analyse the reasons for this sudden and unexpected change in events. In doing so, it looks at the values that underpinned the political negotiations which brought about the transition to democracy and also attempts to provide guidelines for education in peace studies which can be incorporated into the current school curriculum. Hopefully, this will lead to the realisation that violence is not the way to solve problems as well as ensure that South Africa never again faces the prospect of civil war. Top

Geoff Teece - John Hick and Religious Education, confounding the critics; an appraisal of Trevor Cooling and Andrew Wright

Despite his worldwide reputation and influence as a philosopher of religion and theologian, references to John Hick’s work in the RE literature are few.

However some religious educators believe that Hick has been influential on theories of RE. Two such writers are Trevor Cooling and Andrew Wright. Both write critically of Hick concentrating on his later writings; at least since the proposal of his pluralist hypothesis (God and the Universe of Faiths 1973). Thus Hick is seen as an apologist for the aim of RE that seeks to develop positive attitudes towards the plurality of faiths. Furthermore, according to Cooling and Wright, Hick's pluralist hypothesis radically distorts religious belief as understood 'traditionally', by imposing a post enlightenment liberalism on religion, and this leads to a paternalistic, critically vacuous form of religious education.

These are significant claims but it will be argued in this paper that they are wrong. Both these writers misrepresent Hick as an ideological liberal, as a relativist, as a product of Romanticism and, recently in the case of Cooling, as a non-realist. It will be argued, firstly that any assessment of the potential for RE of Hick’s work must take the whole of his output into consideration and secondly that Cooling and Wright not only don’t do this but misread him and in so doing render any consideration of the potential of his work for religious education to be a closed question in as much as it has already been analysed and found wanting. Top

Ina ter Avest - Children and God, narrated in stories, presentation of the process and the results of a longitudinal research project on the development of the God concept of Dutch and migrant children in an interreligious context, with a discussion of the possible implications of the findings.

In the Netherlands there is a long tradition of immigration. After the second World War (1939-1945) immigration has been dominated by ‘guest workers’. Mainly from Turkey and Morocco, young men came to Western Europe to join the labour force working for the rehabilitation of the various countries. As it turned out the ‘guest workers’ stayed far longer in the Netherlands than would have been expected. Their stay brought about a change in the Dutch population, which meant also a change in the population of pupils in the schools.

The change in the composition of the Dutch population and the development of what is called ‘ideological border-contacts’ lead to the definition of the theme of the longitudinal research project: Does interreligious education create the necessary conditions for mental processes that favour religious development and more specifically the development of the God concept for indigenous and immigrant pupils?

This research question is answered by means of a qualitative study amongst the pupils of two primary schools: one Christian primary school and one Christian-Islamic primary school. In various ways we observed what children narrated about God, directly from their own experience and as a reaction to stories told about God. Over the years a difference between Christian and Muslim raised children emerges from the difference in the way God is referred to.

The results of the study give cause for a cautious optimism about inter-religious education. In the context of the multicultural society this system of education stimulates the development of values like ‘respect’ and ‘tolerance’ in relation to the diversity of the (religious and non-religious) philosophies of life children are socialized in. Top

Kirsi Tirri - Preadolescents Moral, Spiritual and Religious Questions After September 11th 2001 Terrorist Attack

The objectives of this study were to investigate whether there were differences across countries in the amount and nature of preadolescents moral, spiritual and religious questions after September 11th 2001 Terrorist Attack. In addition to culture, we investigated the effects of gender and academic achievement to the nature of moral, spiritual and religious questions asked by preadolescents. The participants (N=975) were Finnish (N=367), American (N=164), Hong Kong (N=169) and Bahrain (N=275) elementary school students from different schools. All the students were asked to write 20 questions they would like to ask someone about the future. The same questions have been earlier used by Tallent Runnels & Yarborough (1992). Students were asked to answer the questions by their teachers during class time in May 2002. They were given approx. 40 minutes to complete the task. The data was analyzed with both quantitative and qualitative content analysis Students questions were coded into five main categories. These categories were: scientific concerns, everyday life concerns, moral concerns, spiritual concerns and religious concerns. The differences in the questions asked by students from each country were explored. Furthermore, differences between boys and girls and the academically gifted students and average students were examined. T test and the ANOVA statistic were used to test the significance of differences found. The most frequently asked questions in each coding category were presented to explore the qualitative nature of students questions. The results revealed that spiritual and religious questions were more culture dependent than scientific, everyday life or moral questions asked by preadolescents. Top

Pille Valk - Is there something more than crusades, incvisition and opium of people?

Question of teaching RE in municipal schools has been one of the most debated issues in Estonian media during the last year (2003). Many participants of the discussions pointed out the problem about the connections between Religion and violence in history and in today’s world. It was strongly argued that these negative experiences serve as a sufficient ground to exclude any RE from school curricula. Deeper survey of the arguments brings out quite one-sided point of view on the impact of Religions in human life and raises several questions, that could be grouped into following blocks:

1) What is the background of these attitudes? 2) What are the implications of these problems to RE and how can RE contribute to the more balanced view about the role of Religions in human life?

Paper will draw upon outcomes of several researches to answer posted questions:1) Analyses of the critical arguments presented in the debates.2) Analyses of the school textbooks, paying especial attention to the question – How Religions are presented there?3) Attitudes towards Christianity among the first year students of Humanities in Tartu Univeristy.4) Attitudes towards and expectation for Religion and RE among Estonian pupils.

After mapping the problem’s landscape, some recommendations for developing RE will be presented. Top

Leo van der Tuin - Religious Xenophobia amongst pupils in a traditionally tolerant society: The Netherlands

The Netherlands traditionally prides itself on being a very tolerant society. People from all cultures and religions have been welcome and accepted for ages. Religious diversity and tolerance are indeed great. Since the ‘war on terror’, the last Dutch parliamentary elections and what happened before in the year 2002, and the assassination of a right-wing populist candidate things have been changing radically. Fear of terrorism appears to be changing into fear of strangers, more particularly of Muslims. Regularly surveys on right-wing extremism are held amongst Dutch younger people. These surveys involve consistency between socio-cultural prejudices and political preferences. No connection is made in these surveys between social-cultural and political preferences and especially religious attitudes. An assumption in these surveys is that young people may bee regarded as seismometers for future developments in society. This assumption concerns especially the well educated young people from higher social class. In this survey the question is: to what extent do xenophobia and the religious and cultural background of pupils between the ages of 15-18 connect. The aim of the survey is to get insight into the possibilities for religious education to bridge the gap between Christianity and other religions in Dutch schools, which are coming to grips with the fact that in religious education classes at these Christian schools Muslims, Christians and pupils of other religions are all taught together. Data of this survey are derived from the ‘European Religiousness and attitudes to life project’ from the University of Würzburg Germany, which was also held among 1000 pupils in the Netherlands. Top

Andy Wright - Hospitality and the Voice of the Other: Confronting the Economy of Violence through Religious Education

Religious education has a responsibility to seek to promote the avoidance of intellectual, moral, spiritual and physical violence between contrasting religious and secular traditions. This task is frequently approached through an economy of sameness, identity and solidarity, in which pupils are encouraged to identify the commonalities that exist between different faith traditions. Such an approach runs the risk of distorting the self understanding of such traditions by forcing them into a common framework in a manner that threatens to be colonial and imperialistic. The philosophy of Levinas provides the basis of an alternative economy of alterity and difference in which tensions between contrasting groups are welcomed, acknowledged and celebrated. This alternative approach avoids the dangers of cultural imperialism by treating the space between ourselves and the ‘Other’ as a sacred space that demands an attitude of humility in which difference is respected and acknowledged. By giving the identification of difference priority over the assertion of sameness we can we hope to establish mutual respect and thereby enhance the possibility of a move towards the cessation of violence. A ‘host guest model’ of religious education is proposed as a means of overcoming the limitations of the dominant ‘identity sameness’ model. Top

Yaacov B Yablon - Values education and reduction of school violence

Violence has become the most serious "social epidemic" of the modern world. It is problem that confronts all levels of the society manly because tragic violent events affect not only those individuals directly involved, but also many others in society and neighborhoods where violence occurs.

Violent behavior includes "school violence". For many years school violence was regarded as a problem affecting urban, and most especially, especially inner city schools. However in the last decade the perception that school violence is largely limited to urban settings has changed. Multiple-victim school violence has occurred in small towns schools as well as in affluent communities, in middle and elementary schools, further challenging the notion that school violence is a phenomenon that affects only certain schools, while leaving other schools untouched. With the increasing proliferation of school violence and the rise in the number of victims, public attention focuses on the search for ways and means that can lead to effective prevention and intervention.

Despite public awareness of the phenomenon, research studies have indicated that many students who are victims of school violence do not report their anguish or seek help. The reluctance to approach others for assistance contributes to the ignorance or helplessness in the face of school violence and militates against help being offered.

In the present study we examined the factors that either promote or inhibit the willingness of students to seek help in the event of them suffering school violence. The examination of these factors focused on four specific areas: the victim of violence, the violent situation, the potential helper and the classroom. Special emphasis was placed on values education as a factor that influences the victim of school violence to seek help.

Results of the study indicate that values based prevention programs can be designed to enhance the victim’s willingness to seek help, thereby contributing to a reduction in the occurrence of school based violent events. Top

Hans-Georg Ziebertz - Life perspectives, values and political interest of adolescents in Germany

In a survey with N=2000 adolescents in Germany we asked questions about life perspectives, individual values, political interest und political action. The questionnaire is used in several European countries and Israel and is part of a international comparative study. Some of the scales are taken from periodical national surveys in Germany which are supported by the Shell Foundation. The goal of the project is to analyse the relation between religious attitudes and practise and perspectives on life of 16-18 years old adolescents. In my paper I will spend attention to the non-religious scales which are mentioned above. At this moment the data are in process of analysis. The paper will explore patterns of attitudes towards individual, social and political life. The data will be placed in the frame of current theories of youth culture and social change. Top

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