The Case for Shared Religious Education

Abstract

This paper conceptualises ‘shared religious education’ as a way for religious educators to reflect on how their subject might respond to a global need for cooperation and mutual understanding. In the context of migration, climate crisis and violent conflict, European societies are increasingly plural, yet subject to processes of individualization and competition which undermine people’s ability to cooperate and share across their respective cultural and ideological differences. We argue that there is an imperative for sharing and collaboration in response to the dangers we see in our increasingly fractured social worlds; and that education can play a key role in responding to this urgent need. Religious education, however, is subject to the sociological reality that it can separate as well as unite people. Through a critical discussion of the ‘shared education’ model, we make a case for shared religious education, identifying four core aims for those working in the fields of religious and worldviews education. Drawing on literature from religious education, we offer ideas and insights for how those working in the fields of religious and worldviews education may pursue these aims and so respond to the imperative for sharing.