ABSTRACT
In this chapter Peter Shea assesses four claims Sharp made in the course of her scholarship about the relationship between the classroom community of inquiry and religious concepts, stories and rituals: (1) Religious topics can reasonably be addressed and acquire fresh meaning in the community of inquiry; (2) Classroom dialogue manifests notions like hope, trust and love that are important in religious contexts; (3) Classroom philosophical inquiry is itself a kind of religious experience; (4) The formation of a community of inquiry creates a work of art. Shea argues that the community of inquiry leaves too little space for serious religious talk among children whose religious experience is diverse and internally complex 1, and concludes that the community of inquiry is one important method for meaning making and autonomy that should be partnered with other pedagogical movements, to gradually realize the potential of education across the full spectrum of human concern.
