ABSTRACT
The global market is ruled by the law of supply and demand which states that economic stability can only be reached if those two factors are in approximate balance. The pressures on global economic survival help enforce a rigid discipline of working and a harsh spirit of achievement with repercussions felt in families and in children's lives from an early age. This chapter argues that a new-style globalized market needs a stronger new-style democracy which is less vulnerable to external economic and financial pressures and can become a civil society capable of internally catalysing ideas on 'good governance' for the sake of humanity. A major factor in this context is a new-style 'educational society' following the concept of critical education as the core of the German idea of Bildung. The original idea of education as Bildung was based upon a philosophy of humanity. The chapter explores the topical approach in religious education.
