ABSTRACT
It would be wrong to complete such an account without a wider reference to the secularisation of society which (so often either indifferent to religious belief or hostile towards it) is seen to militate against support for religious education which claims to provide distinctive ways of understanding both reality and a form of life shaped by that understanding. Certainly in the last few centuries there has developed a way of understanding reality, and the place of reason within such understanding, which would seem to undermine religious faith. That we need to explore in this chapter, which outlines the different meanings of ‘secular society’, points to the limitations in such conceptions and indicates a possible practical reconciliation (most important for meeting the challenges faced by religious education) in what is now commonly referred to as the ‘post-secular society’.
