ABSTRACT
Every school subject is an expression of an intention on the part of the educating society. School subjects also differ in the extent to which they feel themselves required to be open and susceptible to changes and ambiguities in the social intention. The 1975 Birmingham Agreed Syllabus provides for a critical and descriptive education in a variety of world religions and secular ways of life. The most striking change which has taken place in the adaptation of religious education to the social environment is the shift in content from Christian Studies to the study of world religions. Daniel Hardy criticizes one of the most common responses which religious education teachers make when confronted with this dilemma. Hardy suggests that the religions and the non-religions must be presented in open communication, as participants in truth, which is thus with the pupil and the teacher in the classroom.
