ABSTRACT
A secularist outlook has privileged in schools resulting in a form of confessionalism as controversial as more well-recognised religious forms. The educational vision of delivering a fair and balanced curriculum calls for a twofold approach: firstly, to articulate an alternative basis for the curriculum as a whole, which acknowledges the possible validity of both religion and secularism; secondly, to establish a Religious Education (RE) which is truth-focused and capable of challenging the assumptions of a deeply secularised society. The view of religion as basically cultural or purely personal is a possible way of looking at religion because of the longevity of religions and their incorporation within societies. Burwood defends the status quo on the grounds that it is not just the responsibility of schools to teach understanding of religion: the home and religious institutions are crucial. Religious people have often unknowingly supported this false dichotomy by under-playing the cognitive element in faith and over-playing the emotional.
