Contrasting explanations of Jewish survival form the backdrop to this article. For Jonathan Sacks (1994) the crucial factor has been the role played by Jewish education; indeed, he claims that the demographic threat currently facing Anglo-Jewry is largely the result of the community having neglected the Jewish education of its children over the…

Post-Reformation societies and states that thought they had put religious wars behind them have been caught unawares by the vehemence of religious dissent that has exploded in their midst, sometimes literally, since the 1970s. I maintain that key Enlightenment propositions that established the means for peaceful religious co-existence seriously…

Jim Fay and James Dobson are two of America's most visible, popular, and influential "experts" on the topics of parenting and discipline for children. Dobson is widely known for the "pro-family" political activism of Focus on The Family, the organization he founded and currently directs. He first made a name for himself as a…

Examines various personnel positions in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church (the largest organized religion in Finland), the basic training of Church personnel (cantors, theologians, deacons, youth leaders, financial administrators, preschool teachers), personnel structure of the Church, and training in the Church itself (familiarization…

This article surveys the constitutionality of state aid to private sectarian higher education under the First Amendment. A typology for constitutional aid programs is devised to scrutinize selected state programs for constitutional compliance. (TE)

Cornell University (New York) was among the first to remove normative religious instruction and mandatory religious practice from their previous pervasiveness in higher education. This has removed from the university the responsibility for safeguarding the cultural authority of religion and allowed religion to enter the realm of ideas to be…

The integrity of the college degree is being compromised by the rapid increase in degree mills established and given tax-exempt status as church-related colleges. Ambiguous state legislation is partly to blame. More rigorous state standards and accreditation can help distinguish true religious degrees from those irresponsibly awarded. (MSE)

Canadian public education has become secularized. Although the Charter's language on freedom of conscience and religion prohibits religious indoctrination in schools, it does not proscribe education about religion. Generally, Canadian courts have followed and accepted American developments in this regard but have avoided byzantine judgments on…

The purposes of this article are to: Give a historical perspective on religious diversity in the United States; Develop a rationale for teachers and children to learn about religious pluralism; Provide basic information, resources for teachers, and appropriate children's literature about major religious groups; Explore developmentally appropriate…

Over the past thirty years, independent lines of research in the fields of classroom environment and student attitudes toward Christianity have been conducted. This research brought these two fields together by investigating the relationship between student perceptions of religion classroom environment and their attitudes toward Christianity. A…

Jewish adult women increasingly are taking advantage of unique study opportunities previously closed to them. This article is the result of a survey directed at adult Jewish women in every denomination who came back to the classroom as adults. It aims to assess why they returned, what their educational expectations are, and how those expectations…

The School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, required the Secretary of State to publish an order listing all the foundation and voluntary schools having a religious character and stating "the religion or religious denomination in accordance with whose tenets religious education is, or may be, required to be provided at the school..."…

This paper discusses aspects of Andrew Wright's version of a liberal, critical religious education and his criticisms of some other views of modern religious education. This is attempted not by examining these "other views" as such but by concentrating on the work of John Hick. The reason for this is that Wright, like Cooling (in his…

I reply to L. Philip Barnes' assessment of the contributions of Ninian Smart and phenomenology to religious education. My argument is that Barnes first misconceives and then underestimates Smart's legacy. I sketch Smart's relevance to some current issues in religious education, suggesting that his thought helps us to avoid potentially damaging…

Questions about the relationship between religion and politics are discussed with particular focus on the consequences for religious education. Norway is taken as an example of a country where increasing cultural diversity challenges traditional politics of religion. In the present climate of conflicting views on the role of religion in politics,…