ABSTRACT
Discussions for the 1975 Birmingham agreed syllabus for religious education began in 1970 and involved a referral to the courts. The necessity for developing an agreed syllabus locally has two very valuable consequences. Firstly, the complex process of agreement directly addresses the crisis of authority from which teachers generally and religious education (RE) teachers in particular suffer in the postmodern world. Secondly, the process of agreement creates a social context of dialogue. Education law in England and Wales is helpful in a practical way of resolving the dilemmas facing RE. The growth of religious pluralism in society due to immigration and globalisation simply served to exacerbate the incipient relativism of postmodernism. Naturally as children grow in maturity they will be expected to take a greater and greater degree of responsibility for their judgements in religious matters, for choosing to what they will attend and for their creative contributions to the life of faith.
