ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the implications for the religious education curriculum, and for the way it is handled, of the two facts, first that the subject impinges in a particular way on the values, attitudes and concerns of pupils, and second that collectively suffer from agnosticism concerning the foundations of values. The paradox of the activity known as ‘religious education’ is that it is concerned with knowledge of a kind that impinges most personally upon each individual—and there is no knowledge available. The scope and significance of agnosticism depend on the range of the persons who are trying to work together, and what they are jointly trying to do. Agnosticism becomes paramount in two areas: politics and religion. The very framing of the questions one might ask is controversial. Some may talk of ‘ultimate questions’; others reject the implications of such words.
