The argument of this article assumes that religious literacy is urgently needed in the present geopolitical context. Its urgency increases the more religion is viewed in opposition to criticality, as though religion entails an irrational and inviolable commitment, or leap of faith. This narrow view of religion is reinforced by certain rather…

This article argues that "covenant" ought to serve universally as a framework for education, beyond the exclusive sense of covenant in use in Reformed Christian education. The article begins with covenant as creation's answerable relationship with the Creator, then offers a brief account of language as a form of covenantal exchange, and…

This article explores the implications for Christian religious education of the theory of moral virtues formulated by Thomas Aquinas and developed by the contemporary Neo-Thomists. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part introduces Thomistic virtue theory and presents cardinal virtues crucial for Thomistic ethics: prudence, justice,…

This paper explores some of the documents that provide a foundation for the Church and its ministries to deliver justice and mercy to all, including students with disabilities. First, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) traditions will be presented as the foundation to some of the documents of the American Church. A chronology of the documents of…

This is a response to Michael J. Boyle's "To Act with Justice and Love Tenderly: Exploring the Church's Call for Inclusion." While Janice L. Benton agrees with his suggestions of self-reflection, retreats, and guided explorations of the Church documents, she also recommends gathering the perspectives of individuals with disabilities by…

The Methodist Church of Hong Kong has promoted a life education programme since 2004, and has progressively applied it in all affiliated schools. This article analyses the characteristics of the latest primary school life education curriculum compiled by this Christian school sponsoring body. There are three significant findings: 1) religious…

In 2015, the High Court ruled that the British Government had made 'a false and misleading statement of law' when it claimed a Religious Studies (RS) GCSE syllabus that excluded the systematic teaching of non-religious worldviews like humanism would meet the statutory requirements for teaching Religious Education (RE) at Key Stage 4. This was…

When Jewish Sensibilities were formulated (2003) as a framework, it was not for the purpose of teaching Jews how or why to be Jewish. Rather, Jewish Sensibilities were a way for Jews to reflect on the Jewish content already in their lives; they also allowed practitioners in the field of health care to think about the Jewish patients and families…

Religious education appears in many different models and varies between educational systems and national contexts. Theoretically, religious education is usually divided into confessional and non-confessional models. However, as several researchers have pointed out, the nonconfessional models can be 'marinated' in confessional religion. In most…

This article examines the antecedents of the 'British Values' (democracy, rule of law, equality of opportunity, freedom of speech and the rights of all men and women to live free from persecution) which it is incumbent upon British schools to teach. But it also seeks to move the debate forward by pointing to the 'British Virtues' without which it…

Religious education and intercultural education are seen by some to be in tension with each other, and by others as two sides of the same coin. The explanations for this unsettled relationship may be found in the different histories of the two fields. Intercultural education has become a cross curricular priority, resulting from rather recent…

Social efficiency shaped much of public schooling in the United States during the early twentieth century. Simultaneously, Roman Catholic schools proliferated and became increasingly regulated by state departments of education. This led to increased influence of public education reform movements on Catholic schools. This article examines the…

Charles Gutenson's convicting words motivated me to attempt this essay. He writes: "If we are to engage in serious dialogue about the relationship between Christian faith and our [public] commitments, we must invest more energy in bringing Scripture to bear on them" (2011, p. 9). The common good seems a common conversation these days. To…

The Second Vatican Council introduced a new narrative for Catholic school. Rather than serving a primarily catechetical purpose, Catholic schools were to share in the Church's evangelizing mission by embodying an ideal learning community in a manner rooted in Gospel values. This paper argues that Gospel values are not exported from the Bible and…

Finding Common Ground (FCG) is an inter-belief dialogue program hosted in the Multi Faith Facility of Swinburne University of Technology. FCG is a voluntary program that offers Swinburne students a safe space to discuss their religious faith, or alternative value base, and to learn from those of others. Two iterations of this program were…