New Perspectives on Religious and Spiritual Education

Book excerpt: Society is a complex phenomenon, characterized by constant change, often entailing conflict. This is seen in our own times where philosophies and movements of individualism, pluralism and globalization intersect and often collide. Still, even in this fast-moving and highly materialist world, religion and spirituality remain crucial aspects of human and social living, and therefore must be among the many focusses of the modern school. Teachers of Religious and Spiritual Education (RSE) are therefore expected to support students’ religious and spiritual understanding as well as their overall development. How can they best meet this challenge? This book is comprised of various interdisciplinary research findings drawn from international scholarship. The findings are of a different order from each other but all have in common an element of surprise, sufficient to impel reflection and re-thinking of many of the assumptions that normally underpin RSE. The book therefore constitutes a contribution to ongoing understanding of the role played by religious and spiritual education and of the proper interface between RSE and the modern school, contemporary curricula and the teacher of today. Contributions by Robert Crotty, Ola Erik Domaas, Michael Fricke, Liam Gearon, Adrian-Mario Gellel, Eija Hanhimaki, Laura Hirsto, Tapani Innanen, Terence Lovat, Klaas Macha, Emanuel P. Magro, Adil Mamodaly, Fritz Oser, Ulrich Riegel, Inkeri Rissanen, Sturla Sagberg, Kirsi Tirri, Theo van der Zee, Karen Wenell