ABSTRACT
Religious education is once more on the radar of contemporary educa-tional theory. In an increasingly interconnected world of multiethnic and multireligious societies, in which various forms of racism—anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia—are on the rise in new and disturbing ways, pro-fessional journals and the popular press abound with articles that address the pros and cons of faith schooling in liberal democratic societies, with particular attention to the dangers of mixing religious fundamentalism with political extremism in the classroom. These articles relate to at least four sorts of concerns around which this book is organized: (1) the case for or against religious education in open, pluralistic, liberal democratic societies; (2) the role of religious education in negotiating the tensions between unity and diversity those societies; (3) the relation between religious education and the increasing interest in spirituality and the moral life in those socie-ties; and (4) the challenges of opening up education in particular faith tradi-tions to the demands of citizenship in those societies. These concerns were addressed at a 2007 conference funded by the John Templeton Foundation, organized by the Von Hugel Institute of St. Edmunds College, Cambridge, and the Center for Jewish Education, University of Haifa. The conference was held at St. Edmunds College in memory of the late Professor Terence McLaughlin, a long-time fellow of the college and professor of philosophy of education at the Institute of Education, University of London. Most of the chapters in this book were prepared for that conference.
