ABSTRACT
A democratic education is presented as opposed to compulsory universal schooling and centralised power in education. Positively, transformative religious education will spread the 'good news' of their version of democracy and banish free-market capitalism. Chater and Erricker want a new political form of religious education that will change the world, establish democracy, and banish capitalism. The trajectory of post-confessional religious education in England, in part directed by the Religious Education Council, must be unquestioned and unchallenged; otherwise, the professional credibility and political status of the council will be undermined. One noteworthy feature of Chater and Erricker's account of contemporary religious education is the importance they attach to 'the global context of religion and belief' and to economic and geo-political movements in particular. Most of their attention is focused on the role of religions as ideological forces that seek to further their own 'specific and exclusive aims'.
