Religion is taught and learnt inside and outside schools. This book offers a unique attempt at bringing together analyses of religious education across schools and faith communities. While in a sense an obvious task, it is notable that few studies to date have attempted to bridge these two educational settings. A key aspect of this contribution relates to the perspectives of children and young people who are, simultaneously in their everyday lives, part of Religious Education classes in school, while also participating in faith education in their religious communities.
This book offers an opportunity to see both in relation to each other, as well as considering the specifics of the interplay between the two. We adopt an in clusive approach to how “religious education” is interpreted, notably, beyond and across school and non-school settings, where the role of families in reli gious socialization is also acknowledged (Kühle, 2017). Through the various chapters in this book, we seek to navigate and straddle the division between, on the one hand, different models of Religious Education as a school subject, as a birds-eye introduction to world religions and ethics grounded in universal humanity or philosophy, or with a specific religious tradition as the point of departure, and on the other hand, religious education from within religious traditions, with the explicit purpose of religious transmission and religious socialization.
These are different purposes and perspectives, but we suggest that an inclusive approach to the concept of “religious education” enables a consideration of the common focus on religion, despite these clear differences. Furthermore, an inclusive approach to religious education, such as here, also allows for doing justice to the fact that the same children and youth are in volved in both settings.
