Religious Education for Everyone: A Proposal

Religious Education for Everyone argues for a public-democratic approach to religious education that gives access to what a religious way of life has to offer to all. Hannam and Biesta propose a new approach to religious education centred on a responsibility to introduce children and young people to what a religious way of being 'in' and 'with' the world may have to offer for them, individually and collectively. Their approach is an existential approach to religious education, one focussed on ways of leading one's life, as opposed to more common confessional, anthropological, knowledge-focused or literacy approaches. They argue that since the religious way of life is an option open to everyone, education has the task to provide the new generation with opportunities to explore this option as an 'existential possibility' and an opportunity to discern its value in their life and for the world. The book opens a new dialogue on religious education in schools and on a societal level as something that can enable children and young people to share and develop their own thinking around issues including war, inequality and the climate crisis, as well as deepened understandings of the beauty of human life.