ABSTRACT
The report from the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE 2018) was published following 2 years of research and conversation with teachers, children and young people, advisers, academics and others with an interested position in relation to religion in education. It sought to address perceived problems facing religious education revealed in preceding reports (see, for example, Clarke and Woodhead 2015; Butler-Sloss Report 2015). That there is a need for change has been well argued; written within the context of religious education in England and Wales, CoRE resonates with similar discussions taking place in many other countries world-wide and in this regard the ideas put forward in the report have potential for wider influence. One of the most striking aspect of the report is the proposal to rename ‘Religious Education’ as ‘Religion and Worldviews.’ This chapter identifies philosophical, theological and educational questions that this shift to ‘worldviews’ raises. These relate to the fact that a change to worldviews entails a particular approach to religion as being a worldview amongst other worldviews as well as implying a particular approach to religious education educationally. An alternative proposal is offered here which seeks to take religion seriously in relation to itself and begins with addressing education questions.
