ABSTRACT

Soren Kierkegaard's existential philosophy points towards the potential compatibility of ethics and religion, while simultaneously foregrounding some of the very significant tensions between these two spheres of life. This chapter suggests that an educational curriculum which might do justice to either of the former or latter's thought must avoid one-sided arguments pro or contra a specific dimension of life, while grappling with the significant force of both ethical and religious demands. Kierkegaard's conception of religion is hardly orthodox, but clearly a polemically heterodox form. Goodness Me! Goodness You! (GMGY) is a primary school curriculum in ethics and religion which has been developing specifically for the new state multi-denominational sector, the Community National Schools (CNS). One of the most significant connections of GMGY back to the Jean-Paul Sartre-Kierkegaard debate is that the curriculum posits an equality of humanism and religion. It also posits the ethical and religious spheres as distinct but compatible.