Barabbas has a small role in the Gospels, but his presence influences the way the Christian story has been told and received over the centuries. While he is mentioned in all four Gospels during the account of Jesus' Roman trial, he never appears "on-stage" in the Gospels. His main purpose is to exculpate the Romans of responsibility for…

The Jewish Passover seder meal is one of the central celebrations for Jews. The commemoration of the Exodus annually celebrated in this ritual meal has attracted the attention of Christians in recent years who seek to replicate the experience of Jesus of Nazareth in his Last Supper in Jerusalem. However, the practice of a "Christian…

This article discusses whether there is a contradiction in prescribing a religious, more specifically a Christian, tradition as the ethical basis for a teaching that is prescribed to be non-denominational. In the Swedish curriculum, the ethics borne by a Christian tradition and Western humanism are used as a platform for the school's teaching at…

This article approaches questions regarding religious pluralism from the perspective of a religious educator. It argues for the importance of educating both in the particularity of one's home tradition and for a religiously pluralistic world: It concludes with some recommendations for educating Christians in such a way that the religious…

This article argues that the teaching about Jesus in English primary schools urgently needs to include scholarship in Religious Education (RE) about teaching religion through the principles of Religion and Worldviews research and scholarship in Religious, Biblical and Theological Studies about decolonising the curriculum. RE teachers from the…

England and Wales are now amongst the least religious countries in the world. According to Census data between 2011 and 2021, the number of people identifying as having 'No Religion' jumped by over 8 million, from 25% to 37%. Further, although there was a small upward shift in those identifying with minority religions, during the same period, the…

Mystagogy has long been known as a catechesis to help the newly initiated deepen their understanding of sacramental experiences. In the ancient world, mystagogy was the way in which elders, that is mystagogues, helped candidates to identify and reflect on the hidden mysteries within their experience and the practices of their community.…

This article introduces us to the benefits of contemplative practices integrated to the RE classroom. The author promotes contemplative practices in religious education, investigating how these can be integrated to the curriculum and the multiple modes of inquiry already present. After accounting for contemplation in the West, and especially in…

Judas Iscariot has a pivotal role in the story of Jesus of Nazareth, particularly in the events in the last days of his life. But information about Judas provided in the New Testament is scant. Many details about his life, career and motivations for acting in the events of Jesus' final days have been amplified by those outside the biblical…

Tensions across religious and LGBTQ concerns have played out in education for some time. In this paper, I make efforts to respond productively to this context by theorising what it might mean for young people in religious schools to dissent from the heteronormativity of religion in religious education (RE). To do this, I survey perspectives across…

James Michael Lee (in Forging a better religious education in the third millennium, Religious Education Press, Birmingham, AL, 2000, p. 3) suggests that "religious education visions a broad sweeping future and then makes that future happen earlier than it would have happened if religious education were not there." Religious Education…

In contemporary theological research on childhood, there is considerable interest on the social agency of children. This interest is situated within a global concern for the dignity of children as complex human beings, propelled by the articulation of their participatory rights in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This turn to…

The paper notices that faith-practitioners' involvement, as visiting speakers or study-visit hosts, is a recommended teaching strategy in secular RE. It examines problems of authentic representation of religious traditions in secular RE and evaluates the extent to which faith-practitioners' involvement as a learning strategy can address authentic…

A hermeneutic-communicative model of religious education is proposed which is grounded in a Christian anthropology. The human person is presented as a 'fragile hermeneutical space'--consisting of a radical openness to reality, an essential indeterminateness and an ability to transcend his or her own reality. This means that people have an inbuilt…

The inclusion of thinking skills in Religious Education as an intentional pedagogical emphasis encourages depth of understanding as students explore theological concepts in the curriculum. The aim of this research was to investigate the ways in which teachers of Years 4-6 incorporate a pedagogy of thinking skills into Christian Studies lessons,…