Religious Understanding: An Obsolete Concept in the Public School Context?

Summary

In the last fifteen years or so a new model of religious education has slowly emerged in the pluralistic context of some Western countries. One can distinguish a phenomenological, an ethno‐sociological and a critical component in this new model. After a brief description of those three components, some traditional concepts like religious understanding and religious commitment will be examined in the light of this emerging model.

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Notes on contributors

Fernand Ouellet

Professor Fernand Ouellet teaches philosophy and sociology of religions at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Sher‐brooke. He is the director of a programme de Maitrise en sciences humaines des religions providing teachers with in‐service training for a sociological exploration of the main religious traditions of mankind. Professor Ouellet's main field of interest centres on the culture and religious traditions of India. He is working on a book analysing the main attempts made in the last fifteen years to introduce the study of religions in the schools of the United States, Canada and England.