ABSTRACT
A much smaller number of voluntary aided schools, with a religious character, were mainly funded by the state, but received some funding from religious bodies, and they were allowed to teach their own form of religious education. However, changes in the academic study of religion in universities and the increasing ethnic and religious diversity of urban areas were also influential. A key driver of change was secularisation, characterised by a decline in religious belief and practice within Western societies. A second influence for change is pluralisation, through the migration to European states of people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds. A third influence is globalisation, connecting aspects of life in particular countries with events in other parts of the world. There are various approaches to faith-based religious education, which might be placed in two broad categories, one seeing inclusive forms of religious education as a threat, the other seeing some forms of inclusive religious education as complementary to faith-based education.
