ABSTRACT
In the last chapter we considered some of the complexities evoked by the discourse of the post-secular. These complexities are derived, at least in part, from differing conceptions of what it means to be religious in the present age. We saw how the ‘return of religion’ shows some views of the relation between religion and education to be inadequate: religion is not just a temporary condition to be accounted for, a stage on the way of human progress towards secular rational enlightenment, but is an enriching feature of our world. This theme will be developed in the present chapter through an exploration of views of religion and belief that challenge the reduction of religion to doctrines and truth claims. I hope to show that the ‘problem’ of religion and education is not best understood as one of competing and irreconcilable worldviews. The post-secular announces a shift in the debates within religion and education away from questions around, for example, indoctrination versus autonomy, or relativism versus realism. The post-secular presents a fresh opportunity to reflect on the formative possibilities of education. So my aim could be considered as broadly postmodern: I will draw attention to multiple modernities and narratives that throw the story of Western emancipation and enlightenment into sharp relief. But my interests are specifically post-secular insofar as our Western parochialism arises out of an untenable secularization narrative. The educational significance of this secular perspective arises through a particularly problematic alignment of education with ‘critique’ and the assumptions of progress in which triumphalist reason displaces the premodern.
