The Contribution of Religious Education
to Religious Freedom: A Global Perspective
John
M. Hull
University of Birmingham
As the manner and extent to which religious education is
included in state education varies from country to country,
it is difficult to formulate a global perspective. Nonetheless,
this essay will attempt to provide some general frameworks
and to chart potential ways forward. In reviewing some general
models, we can say that the approach to religious education
in different countries varies in accordance with several factors:
1. The religious affiliation of the society, whether mono-religious
or multi-religious;
2. The relation between the religious and the secular within
each country;
3. The historical tradition of each country; and,
4. Conceptions about the nature and purpose of state school
religious education.
Religious Affiliations:
The religious affiliations of a country are a primary consideration
in determining how a religious education program might look.
Countries such as Greece are considered mono-religious in
that the country is predominately Greek Orthodox and the state
religious education is the same. On the other side of the
spectrum, however, are countries like England where there
has been a pluralistic Christian tradition since 1689 and
a significant multi-religious presence since WWII. While religious
education was initially non-denominational Christian in England,
a multi-faith approach gradually developed and, according
to the 1994 Religious Education Model Syllabuses, six major
world religions are now taught.
Religious and Secular Relationships:
The relationship between the religious and the secular elements
in a society also determines how religious education might
develop. For example, we can compare the United States of
America with France and Turkey. The secularity of the U.S.
Constitution is not historically hostile to religion, but
it represents a separation of church and state in the interests
of securing the freedom of religion from state control. On
the other hand, the secularity of the modern French education
system is influenced by the 1789 revolution, which was hostile
to the church. The result is that religion is not taught in
state schools in France. This anti-religious secularity is
also apparent in Turkey following the founding of the modern
Turkish State by Ataturk in 1923. Although Islamic religious
education is still taught in this predominantly Muslim country,
it has become the focus of the struggle between those who
wish to maintain the secular character of the Turkish state
and those who wish to restore an Islamic one.
Historical Traditions:
The historical experiences of each country are also likely
to modify the factors noted above. Because Roman Catholicism
and Protestantism were more or less equally present in most
of the German provinces, for example, religious education
in the state schools took either a Protestant or Catholic
form. The appearance of large numbers of foreign nationals
in Germany has challenged this system. Additionally, the incorporation
of the former provinces of East Germany, where church traditions
were weakened under the communist government, led to the emergence
of various patterns of multi-faith religious education combined
with education in ethics and values, e.g. the Brandenburg
Syllabus. Another example of the impact of history upon religious
education may be found in several countries of post-colonial
Africa. The 19th century Christian missions saw no value in
the primal religious traditions and religious education in
many sub-Saharan African states after independence was firmly
Christian. However, the recent and more positive evaluation
of primal religion is leading to the introduction of these
traditions into religious education, often accompanied by
an expansion of the Christian curriculum to include other
world religions, e.g. Botswana.
Defining Religious Education:
Finally, we need to look at how a country defines the nature
and purpose of religious education. These perspectives have
been influenced by modern philosophies of education from Rousseau
to Dewey, by new interpretations of human rights including
the rights of children, and by progressive re-interpretations
of religion on the part of theologians and religion scholars.
In addition, the huge impact of modernity upon contemporary
social and intellectual life cannot be overestimated. New
conceptions of human maturity have also undoubtedly influenced
religious education. These include the value of critical thought,
the ethical significance of freedom of choice, and the impact
of scientific rationality. At present, the negative impact
of financial globalisation is encouraging a new interest in
the character of spirituality as a necessary feature of the
lives of individuals and societies.
It is against this enormous variety, and in the light of
the complex ways these many strands inter-weave to form distinctive
national patterns, that we must ask, "What is the contribution
of religious education to religious freedom?" From what
we have said it is clear that there can be no simple answer
to this question. Immediately one is faced with several additional
questions: "What kind of religion? What kind of religious
education? And, what kind of freedom?" Answering these
difficult questions requires a more detailed examination of
how religious education is conceptualised. My colleague Michael
Grimmitt has usefully distinguished between 'learning religion,'
'learning about religion,' and 'learning from religion.'1
We may use these distinctions to describe the main types of
religious education which exist in our worldwide survey.
Learning Religion:
'Learning religion' describes the situation where a single
religious tradition is taught as the religious education curriculum
and is taught from the inside, so to speak. The teachers are
expected to be believers in the religion themselves and the
object of the instruction is to enable pupils to come to believe
in the religion or to strengthen their commitment to it. This
type of religious education may also be described as proceeding
from faith to faith. Typically, a specific religious group
controls the curriculum and the methods of teaching rather
than these being controlled by the education system itself,
which is often perceived as being dominated by humanist norms
and values. In situations where there has been a strong anti-religious
secular movement, one can understand the desire and the need
on the part of a religion to retain control over its own instruction
rather than falling into the hands of an unsympathetic secularity.
This type of religious education tends to be challenged,
however, when religious pluralism appears in the society.
This may be due to immigration of people belonging to another
religious tradition, or it may be that people in a certain
society begin to drift away from their traditional religion.
It may also be, on some occasions, that a more or less unified
and monolithic society begins to respect the hopes and ideals
of its minority faiths.
When plurality in such formerly monolithic societies does
appear, two possible reactions may be observed. First, religious
education may be abandoned altogether and the state education
system may become completely secular. When this takes place,
it is expected that nurture into religious faith will be confined
to the homes of the children or to the religious communities
themselves. The second possible reaction may be described
as a pluralization of learning religion in which students
are offered a system of parallel instruction. In other words,
children from each faith are educated in separate classrooms
and receive instruction from a representative of that faith.
For example, the Muslim children are educated by the Muslim
teachers, the Orthodox children by the Orthodox teachers,
and so on.
The freedom that this kind of religious education offers
is too restricted. It offers freedom to the religion which
is being taught and a freedom of non-competitive transmission,
but it does not enhance the freedom of the student. Why? Because
it does not expand the cognitive horizons of the student,
who is left with a single freedom - whether to respond to
the transmitted religion or not. A variation of the 'learning
religion approach' is 'faith-based' religious education, which
seeks to present various religions, but still from the point
of view of one religion. It is upon faith in that one religion
that this approach is based, although it attempts to be plural
on this basis.
Learning About Religion:
There is, however, another possible reaction to the onset
of pluralism (and this corresponds to Michael Grimmitt's second
distinction) which we may describe as 'learning about religion.'
Instead of religion being taught from the inside, in the situation
that I described as being from faith to faith, religion is
now taught, as it were, from the outside. There are courses
in some American high schools, for example, on the Bible as
literature. The essential point is that the Bible is not taught
as a religious book or as a sacred book of a certain community
of faith, but as literature. That is, from a different, non-religious
perspective. Sometimes this kind of religious education may
be called 'education in comparative religion' and may be based
upon anthropology. Sometimes, indeed, the subject is called
'religious studies,' and often it follows one or more of the
various disciplines evolved by the study of religion such
as the history of religions or (more frequently) the phenomenology
of religions,2 or (more recently) the
ethnography of religions.3
This approach may be called 'learning about religion' because
of its descriptive and historical approach. It tends to appear
as a reaction against the mono-religious 'learning religion'
situation and is often motivated by the desire to create a
purely educational form of religious education, one which
will not be open to the charge of indoctrinating or giving
an unfair advantage to any particular religion. A disadvantage
of this 'learning about religion' approach is that it tends
to focus upon the content of religions and, therefore, the
pupils are often not motivated to study it. Moreover, religious
education of this type tends not to grapple with the life-world
of the pupil, and often makes little or no explicit contribution
to the pupils' search for moral and spiritual values.4
However, this kind of religious education, 'learning about
religion,' has a significant role to play in the prevention
of religious intolerance. Because it empowers the student
with critical skills for interpreting religious phenomena,
it tends to release students from unexamined beliefs and helps
them to break down the stereotypes of other religious traditions.
Unfortunately, some religious traditions have negative images
or beliefs of other religions built into their own self-understanding.
Progressive religious traditions are looking for ways to emancipate
themselves from these features of negativity towards others.
While that process of reform is essentially the responsibility
of the spiritual leadership of each religion, there is no
doubt that learning about religion in the state school curriculum
can make an invaluable contribution.
Providing the example of England and Wales, all school children,
regardless of their faith or lack of it, are taught about
religion in the same classroom by the normal classroom teacher
in both the primary school and by specialist teachers in the
secondary school. Syllabuses are developed at the local level
and consist of studies in the major world faiths, or of themes
arising from them. The philosophy or rationale of the subject
may vary from school to school depending to some extent on
the training of the teacher and the characteristics of the
local syllabus. However, in most parts of England and Wales,
some form of 'learning about religion' is a common element.
Learning From Religion:
Because the approach above does present certain limitations,
a third kind of religious
education has also emerged. This may be called 'learning from
religion.' The difference between 'learning from religion'
and the first option of 'learning religion' is that in the
latter case pupils are expected to participate in the beliefs
and practices of the religion being taught. Alternatively,
in the 'learning from religion' approach, the distance between
the pupils and the religious content, which is typical of
'learning about religion,' is strictly maintained. Yet, at
the same time, the life-world of the pupil, rather than the
internal structure of the of the religion, and the second
kind ('learning about religion') is controlled by the scientific
study of religion, the third kind of religious education ('learning
from religion') becomes a discipline within educational studies.
It is for this reason that 'learning from religion' is receiving
increasing attention and support from professional religious
educators throughout religion, tends to inform the curriculum.5
The question at stake is to what extent, and in what ways,
children and young people can gain educational benefit from
the study of religion. This becomes the kind of religious
education that has as its principal objective the humanisation
of the pupil, that is, making a contribution to the pupils'
moral and spiritual development.
In the first two kinds of religious education, 'learning
religion' and 'learning about religion,' religion is taught
for its own sake, whether as an object of faith to which the
children are summoned, or as an object worthy of critical
study. However, in the third kind, 'learning from religion,'
the central focus switches to the children as learners.6
Whereas the first kind of religious education ('learning religion')
continues to be controlled by the self-understanding the world.
A recent example of 'learning from religion' may be found
in the Gift to the Child project carried out at the
University of Birmingham. Teachers select units of material
from various world religions for study by children, aged 4-11
years. These units might consist of a statue, a picture, or
a passage of Holy Scripture. Of each item, the question is
asked, "What gifts might it offer the children?"
For example, Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity celebrated
in southern Asia, might offer a stimulation to the curiosity
of the children, challenge their values, deepen their distinctive
sense of identity, and impart empathy for others. When this
happens, the children may be said to have learned from religion.7
The Role of Religious Education Today:
The distinctions between various approaches to religious
education that we have been discussing are certainly of great
importance in understanding the nature and purposes of modern
religious education. However, they remain somewhat domestic
in their outlook. In other words, they are the kind of issues
that are discussed by the religious education professionals.
They are concerned with the self-understanding of the subject
as this relates to the self-understanding of religion. They
are concerned with the relationships between religion and
education and relationships between the pupils and the content
of religious education. Important as these issues are, they
are not, in themselves, sufficient to justify the inclusion
of religious education within a publicly funded state education
system.
If we take the first of the three types of religious education
which we discussed, 'learning religion,' then we might well
claim that it is the business of each religion to ensure its
own transmission to the next generation. If the community
at large is going to pay for religious education of this kind
through government revenues, then the public might well ask
why such religious education couldn't take place under the
direct sponsorship of the religious communities themselves.
Why should the school do the work of the mosque or the church?
And what about those children who do not come from a religious
family background at all? Is it right and proper that they
should be affiliated to a religion, possibly without their
parents' approval? In any case, we have seen that the contribution
that this kind of religious education makes to the struggle
against religious intolerance is strictly limited.
As for the second approach 'learning about religion' we could
imagine that, from the point of view of the state, such an
approach would be preferable in that it places religious education
on the same footing as the other subjects of the curriculum
-- making it available to the same norms of critical inquiry
and pedagogical skill as everything else which the school
teaches. Such religious education at least aims to contribute
to the general knowledge of the pupil and, insofar as religions
remain important in the modern world, it could be considered
part of the general education of all young people. Moreover,
we have seen that this kind of religious education makes a
significant, but not a comprehensive, contribution to the
struggle against negative religious stereotypes.
However, this 'learning about religion' approach still leaves
much to be desired from the point of view of the state. The
curriculum is under pressure and, although there is no doubt
that religion is an extremely important aspect of modern living,
it might be argued that education in mathematics and science
is more significant from the point of view of the modern state.
Of course, we have the question of mutual understanding and
toleration between different religions. Religions play a central
part in these inquiries and on the whole question of community
and race relationships. However, as we start to talk about
the contribution of religion to these life-areas, we are already
moving away from religious education as 'learning about religion'
toward our third understanding of the subject, 'learning from
religion.' For young people to become more tolerant of others
through the study of religion is to learn from religion.
Indeed, the great strength of the third approach is that,
in speaking of the benefits which young people and society
may derive from the study of religion, one is moving away
from the domestic concerns of the religious communities, and
the internal questions about the best way to study religion,
into the wider issues with which government and the community
at large are rightly concerned.
A Case Study:
How would the 'learning from religion' approach apply to
an issue of contemporary concern? Let us take the example
of the pressures of financial competition, which influences
every aspect of government policy. Such competition has an
immediate impact upon the workplace and on individuals and
tends to create social and community values that are not those
of the moral and spiritual dimensions of our species. Globally,
the inexorable pressures of financial competition are eroding
the human values of freedom and love, of inter-personal solidarity,
and the living of an ethical life. Perhaps, then, it is not
an exaggeration to say that money and materialism have become
the idolatrous deities of our culture.8
These financial forces are, however, being challenged and
it is in this context that we must interpret the worldwide
interest in spirituality and in an education which will encourage
the genuine humanity of our young people. The dilemma is that
we need to have an education that promotes their spiritual
and moral welfare. But, if we are successful in this attempt,
then we may not be successful in the education of young people
for ultimate advantage in a competitive financial world. The
values can often be incompatible.
But how can education promote moral and spiritual ideals?
It is at this point that the world religions must be recognised
as the principal foci of disciplined and coherent human moral
and spiritual life. This does not mean that the religions
are necessary to ethical life, or that you cannot be good
without religion. Nor does it mean that the religions are
themselves always good. We know that religion today is extremely
ambiguous and that religion can become a promoter and a facilitator
of unjust systems. Nevertheless, the world religions contain
the seeds of human protest. They remain, along with a humanised
art, literature and science, the main resources that we have
for the rehabilitation of human life.
If the religions are to cooperate in such an endeavour, they
must rise above the competition into which they themselves
have been drawn in recent centuries. The religions must no
longer be supremely concerned with their own progress and
with their own advantage vis-à-vis other religions.
Religious competition itself must also be pacified and this
can only be done by the religions themselves as they renew
their inner life and rediscover their true missions.
We see, then, that the contribution of religious education
to religious freedom is highlydiverse. On the one hand, a
narrow, traditional approach may lead to a kind of mental
closure and a failure to make contact with the contemporary
world. At its best, however, 'learning from religion' is a
unique resource for the advancement of human freedom.
END NOTES
1 For his most recent discussion, see M. H. Grimmitt "Contemporary
Pedagogies of Religious Education: What are They?" in
his edited volume Pedagogies of Religious Education; McCrimmons
Publishing, Great Wakering, England, 2000, pp.24-52.
2 The most influential person in this development was Ninian
Smart. See his The Phenomenon of Religion: Macmillan, London,
1973. For the application of this approach to religious education
see his Secular Education and the Logic of Religion; Faber
and Faber, London, 1968.
3 Robert Jackson, Religious Education: an Interpretative Approach;
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1997.
4 In case I should convey a misleading impression of his work,
I should emphasize the fact that, in his interpretative approach,
Robert Jackson fully recognises the contribution to be made
by the study of religion to the lives of children. He describes
this as the edification aspect of religious education.
5 Michael Grimmitt Religious Education and Human Development;
McCrimmon Publishing, Great Wakering, England, 1987.
6 Edwin Cox "Educational Religious Education" in
John M. Hull (ed.) New Directions in Religious Education;
Falmer Press, Lewes, England, 1982, pp.53-57. This article
first appeared in 1971.
7 John M. Hull "Religion in the Service of the Child
Project: The Gift Approach to Religious Education," in
Michael Grimmitt (ed) Pedagogies of Religious Education; McCrimmons
Publishing, Great Wakering, England, 2000, pp. 112-129.
8 John M. Hull, "Christian Education in a Capitalist
Society: Money and God" in David F. Ford and Dennis L.
Stamps Essentials of Christian Community; T & T Clark,
Edinburgh, 1996, pp.241-252. A number of my articles on the
spirituality of money are translated into German in Gott und
Geld; KIK Verlag, Zurich, 2000.
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