An important, ongoing public conversation in our time concerns the place of religion and religious education in schools. Should religion be taught in schools at all? If so, how and toward what end? In the United States, the conversation often occurs against the backdrop of a peculiar interpretation of constitutional requirements making unlawful the government's sponsorship of any particular religious tradition. This legal framework has been interpreted (incorrectly) as a requirement to exclude all discourse on religion from school contexts. Meanwhile, educators point to the low rates of religious literacy among the American public as a real problem in the present global, political context that necessitates a robust knowledge of the world's religions for engaged citizenship. In European nations such as Great Britain, where some form of religious education is a curricular requirement, the conversation about religion in schools addresses slightly different questions. Educators in these contexts debate whether religious education in the schools is an education about religion, into a particular faith tradition, or an experience of learning from religions toward a reflective, moral perspective by which to live. In South Africa, the “National Policy on Religion and Education” provides for religious education in schools as long as no particular religious tradition is promoted by that education. Several current court cases there challenge the appropriateness of some public schools’ explicit identification as Christian schools. Such cases reveal the contested status of religion's place in public education in a context where historically, intersections of religion and education supported colonial agendas and later, Apartheid. Clearly, debates about the relationship between religion and schools are complex, contextual, and deeply contested in our time.
The articles in this issue of Religious Education take up the topic of religion in schools from different vantage points. Matthew Geiger's ethnography of religious education in three Episcopal high schools highlights the importance of a relational pedagogy, if religious education in schools is to contribute not only toward civic responsibility but also to a sense of identity and personhood that young people can own. Nina Hoel examines women's madrasahs in South Africa through a gender-lens. She sees this religious education actively constructing a gendered religious literacy centered on the formation of women as ideal wives and mothers. Ari Kelman and Zoe Wolford explore Released Time Education in one school through the lens of student perceptions about this form of religious education and its relation to the rest of their school education experience. They suggest that students’ processes of negotiating the relationship between church and state may be ahead of policymakers and educators struggling with this matter. Eric Renkema, André Mulder, and Marcel Barnard consider the interesting situation of Dutch “cooperation schools,” an intentional merger between two types of public schools, the one with an explicit religious identity and the other with a “religiously neutral” identity. Finally, Jon Magne Vestøl compares representations of Christian denominations in Norway's religious education textbooks with the apparent perceptions of these representations by learners. Vestøl takes up the issue of the differences between emic and etic perspectives in religious education in schools.
This issue of Religious Education marks a number of transitions. The most obvious one is the journal's editorial change. After an intentional year of overlapping responsibilities in which Jack Seymour and I have worked together closely, Jack now concludes his eleven-year tenure as editor, and I step into that role. Under Jack's leadership the journal has grown in size and influence. Jack has been a wonderful mentor and friend, both generous and wise in his handing over of the editorial mantle. I am grateful to Jack and the REA Board, which foresaw the value of a transitional year for the well-being of the journal. Thanks also to Lib Caldwell for years of service as book review editor. David White now takes on that role.
The January–February 2016 issue of Religious Education also marks an interesting geographical transition for REA and the journal, as I relocate to New Haven, Connecticut, to join the faculty of Yale Divinity School (YDS). This change of locations means that as of January 1, there is a new e-mail address for correspondence with the editor ([email protected]). It also has some historical significance. Upon hearing about my relocation, religious education historian and REA member B.W. (Barney) Kathan e-mailed me to say, “With the REA executive secretary Lucinda Huffaker on the YDS staff, it will mean that the editor of the journal, Religious Education, and the REA executive secretary will both be at YDS! This has not happened since 1973–1978 when Randy Miller and I were both on the YDS campus.” My own long-term relationship to Religious Education began at YDS when I became a reader of our journal while a student there in the 1980s. As the editor and journal relocate to Yale, however, I am mindful of the place from which I am moving: Over the past year of my work as Editor-elect, the Virginia Theological Seminary and its Dean and President, Ian Markham, honored and valued the work of journal editing in faculty life, and also generously provided me with funds for an assistant, a computer, and technological support for Religious Education. That support has been important especially as we moved the journal's process for receiving and reviewing authors’ submissions to the online platform used by our publisher. I am personally grateful for Dr. Markham's generosity, and our association can be grateful for such institutional support that upholds the scholarly work of our Association.
One final note about transitions: two giants in our field have made their final transitions from this life. I point your attention to the memorial notes in this journal issue as we mark the deaths of John Hull and James W. Fowler.
I look forward to the conversations that lie ahead as Religious Education continues to serve the mission of the REA to promote the practice and scholarship of religious education in faith communities, academic contexts, and in public and global life.
Joyce Ann Mercer, Editor
E-mail: [email protected]