ABSTRACT

From the reformation to the twentieth century religion in Britain was mainly a Protestant Christianity which was Bible-based. Most of the time spent on religious instruction was assigned to learning of the contents or to committing to memory the words of the Bible. There is a growing demand that religious education cease to be ‘Bible-centred’ and become ‘child-centred’. The influence of the Bible on the thoughts of Christians as a whole is different from its influence on the theological ideas of scholars. Grading of the Bible material according to the complexity of understanding involved, and a matching of that material to the child’s ability to comprehend it, would seem to be one of the pressing tasks of religious educators, even though many of the time-honoured and famous stories would not be used until a much older age than is customary. The recommendation may have to be faced that very little Biblical material is suitable before Secondary Schooling’.