Many children's Bible lessons, even those that are intended to be child-oriented lessons, are consciously or unconsciously designed in ways that serve adult agendas for children rather than serving the interests of children themselves. By engaging the growing movements of childism and childist biblical interpretation, as well as studies in how…

Joseph of Nazareth has a high profile among Catholics globally. His name adorns a multitude of schools, Catholic agencies, cities and towns and he is the patron of numerous causes in the Catholic tradition. This elevated position contrasts markedly with his profile in the Bible, where he is consistently silent when he appears in the narratives,…

The purpose of this article is to review the place of Humanism in religious education in England and Wales and to initiate a debate on the importance currently accorded to it. Our discussion begins with a short account of historical efforts to include the study of Humanism in religious education, followed by an equally short account of more recent…

This paper, which was originally a keynote address, offers an analysis of the crisis in retention, and recruitment of teachers of Religious Education (RE). A reflexive assessment is offered to the political lament 'where have all the RE teachers gone?' The author, drawing on over three decades of experience and involvement with religious education…

Increasingly across sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, schools paired training in behaviour with traditional instruction in reading and writing. Not only did the Council of Trent highlight the importance of training children in Christian comportment, but theological and philosophical tracts argued that the senses, rather than reason,…

In the final season of the Norwegian drama series "Skam" ("Shame") (2015-2017), the protagonist Sana, navigating in a secular, liberal youth culture, is a practicing Muslim wearing the hijab. The series is analysed as an instance of public religious education focusing on the issue of representation. This approach is informed by…

This article argues that the field of religious education can have a clearer sense of identity if religious educators recognize the threads of historical continuity in the field and forge bonds of greater unity in our professional guild by adopting a shared commitment to explore various modes of religious learning as expressions of the universal…

This essay surveys C. S. Lewis's statement and critique of British education as found in "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" (Lewis, 1961) and other works within his oeuvre. In this short story, Lewis elaborates on the state of education in postwar English society through the eyes of his protagonist: a demon. In distilling Lewis's Christian…

Although some have attempted to appropriate elements of Montessori education to select groups of adults (e.g., for learning disabilities, second language acquisition, dementia patients), there have been no comprehensive attempts to validate the adaptation of this approach to the adult learner in general. This exploratory study attempts to provide…

The Adult Religious Education and Faith Development project (AREFD) was launched in 2018 at the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education, DCU. As part of the study, the research team consulted variety of people involved in AREFD across a range of contexts. The purpose of these consultations was to harness their 'lived wisdom', showcasing the wide…

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate surrounding the place of 'worldviews' in Religious Education. We examine the British Commission on Religious Education proposal that the subject be renamed 'Religions and Worldviews' from the perspective of Worldview Theory and Critical Religious Education and make the following suggestions: (a) the…

In England and Wales, diocesan inspectors are charged with assessing the overall quality of Catholic education provided by Catholic schools. As part of this assessment, inspectors are required to give an account of the liturgical life of the school. Often the reports which result from these inspections refer to the degree of students' "active…

This article offers keys of understanding and pedagogical orientations to promote the encounter with beauty in Catholic schools. First, the article presents 'Via Pulchritudinis [The way of beauty]: paths of evangelisation and dialogue,' published by the Pontifical Council for Culture (2006)…

In the face of growing tensions between nations, communities, and individuals, it is necessary to build understanding and dialog between them. Political, economic, and cultural activities are not always sufficient and effective, due to the fact that attitudes toward other people depend less on systemic solutions, laws, and procedures than on what…

We make two interventions in two evolving scholarly literatures. First, we show how fractal metaphors escape a recurring dichotomy in Christian pedagogical scholarship, the either/or of alienation from one's object of study versus union with it in "an act of love." Second, we try to replace recent interdisciplinary work's emphasis on…