ABSTRACT
There is no easy way to paint a picture of the importance and significance of Religious Education across the world. It means so many different things. Approaches differ within a European context and even within the British Isles, in fact, between Scotland and England. However, over the last thirty years John Bowker has been drawing attention to one highly pragmatic reason why RE matters so much: most of the long-running and intransigent disputes in the world have deep religious roots. Think only of Northern Ireland, the Middle East, the Balkans, Cyprus, the Sudan, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, with others, like Nigeria, not far away. It is not that religions cause these conflicts, but religious beliefs certainly contribute to them. From Licensed Insanities: Religions and Belief in God in the Contemporary World (1987) to Is God a Virus? Genes, Culture and Religion (1995) and the article on Religion in The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1999) he has been warning that conflicts once conducted with swords and clubs will inevitably be conducted in the future with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The process has already begun.
