The Question of Truth and Religious Education: Towards the Facilitation of 'Truth-events' in RE in a Pluralist Context
Abstract
This paper considers the question of ‘religious knowing’ in a postmodern context. In particular, it engages with the question: “in a pluralist society, how can one speak of ‘religious knowing’ within the context of religious education?” Of particular importance to this overarching question is the following: “how can one speak of real inclusion, diversity, dialogue and pluralism (aspects of society in which ‘religious knowing’ is at the centre) in an epoch where there is a growing separation between reason and tradition, a movement towards the privatisation of religious belief and an emphasis on the use of a rigid and detached mode of reason in the public space. In this way, it is clear that both the discovery and transmission of knowledge are of the utmost importance to the question of truth, particularly in their relation to the advancement of a pluralistic society, as one cannot avoid making a particular value judgement with regard to ‘truth claims’ as part of such an enterprise. From this standpoint, this short paper will attempt to situate the question of ‘religious knowing’ within the new context in which discourse in religious education finds itself in Europe and Ireland in the twenty first century. It will do so by discussing the relationship between society, education and religion within the context of recent developments in education across Europe and Ireland. The discussion will be attentive to the assent and decline of the modern narrative as well as the influential insights of post-modern philosophy on approaches to religious education. It will be argued that, when such insights are considered in light of the writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jean Luc Marion concerning the importance of openness to the other and the relationship between reason and tradition one can make a rich contribution to the development of a hermeneutic of ‘religious knowing’ in religious education in a ‘pluralist’ society.
The Question of Truth and Religious Education: Towards the Facilitation of 'Truth-events' in RE in a Pluralist Context
This paper considers the question of ‘religious knowing’ in a postmodern context. In particular, it engages with the question: “in a pluralist society, how can one speak of ‘religious knowing’ within the context of religious education?” Of particular importance to this overarching question is the following: “how can one speak of real inclusion, diversity, dialogue and pluralism (aspects of society in which ‘religious knowing’ is at the centre) in an epoch where there is a growing separation between reason and tradition, a movement towards the privatisation of religious belief and an emphasis on the use of a rigid and detached mode of reason in the public space. In this way, it is clear that both the discovery and transmission of knowledge are of the utmost importance to the question of truth, particularly in their relation to the advancement of a pluralistic society, as one cannot avoid making a particular value judgement with regard to ‘truth claims’ as part of such an enterprise. From this standpoint, this short paper will attempt to situate the question of ‘religious knowing’ within the new context in which discourse in religious education finds itself in Europe and Ireland in the twenty first century. It will do so by discussing the relationship between society, education and religion within the context of recent developments in education across Europe and Ireland. The discussion will be attentive to the assent and decline of the modern narrative as well as the influential insights of post-modern philosophy on approaches to religious education. It will be argued that, when such insights are considered in light of the writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jean Luc Marion concerning the importance of openness to the other and the relationship between reason and tradition one can make a rich contribution to the development of a hermeneutic of ‘religious knowing’ in religious education in a ‘pluralist’ society.