ABSTRACT
This penultimate chapter, following earlier chapters on the reasonableness of religious belief, identifies consequent challenges for religious education and formation in schools, both those not formally connected to a religious faith and those which are. First, how might religious education, though in no way intending to lead to religious formation, lead to understanding the truth claims and reasonableness of so believing? Second, how, on the other hand, might the reasonableness of religious faith be such that it provides a basis and justification for ‘religious formation’ through the acquisition of religious faith? Therefore, the challenges are shown to be somewhat different in Faith Schools from those in Community Schools which cater to pupils from several faiths or none. The challenges identified are as follows:
For non-religiously affiliated schools:
understanding and appreciating ‘the numinous and the sacred’ which inspire the religious outlook (with particular reference to Chapter 2);
philosophical engagement with the meaning of such understanding and appreciation (with particular reference to Chapters 3 and 4);
learning from different faiths within the community (with particular reference to Chapters 2 and 4);
appreciating the moral dimension to life and the formation of conscience (with particular reference to Chapters 5 and 6);
responding to the secular ethos, that is the ‘horizons of significance’ within society (with particular reference to Chapter 8);
finding the teachers!
For religiously affiliated (Faith) schools: (i) to (vi) above, plus:
appreciating and responding to an ‘ideal’ which shapes religious formation (with reference to Chapters 2, 5 and 6);
102formation of social consciousness, shaped by the ideal (see Chapters 5 and 6);
developing ‘religious literacy’ – i.e. understanding key concepts and texts within respective religious traditions (see Chapters 3, 4 and 6);
developing understanding of, and formation within, a spiritual life (with particular reference to Chapter 6);
appreciating the relation between reason and faith and thus ‘the reasonableness’ of having and living a faith (see Chapters 3, 4 and 5).
