The Road to Religious Tolerance in Education in South Africa (and Elsewhere): a Possible ‘Martian Perspective’

Abstract

Combining Dennett's notion of detached curiosity with Alexander's notion of transcendental pragmatism, we propose in this paper, from a ‘Martian perspective’, that religious understanding and tolerance in education may be pursued from at least two different angles: (a) via the spiritual substrata of religions or via confessional pluralism or (b) via a combination of both. On the basis of a hermeneutic reconstructive interpretation of (a), we subsequently argue that current South African policy on education and religion has effectively placed a ban on confessional pluralism by relegating religious education to parental homes and religious institutions such as churches, temples and mosques. We conclude that it provides no opportunities for helping learners to understand the religious differences that they will have to engage with in future as adults. We suggest that it effectively engineers a pedagogy of religious essentialism and the subsequent reemergence (of an almost Bourdieuian model) of cultural and spiritual intolerance.

Notes

1 Patterns vary widely, as the following sample shows. (Countries are listed alphabetically; all the figures are percentages.) Afghanistan: Muslim, but differentiated into Sunni (80), Shiite (19) and others (1). Albania: majority Muslim (70), Albanian Orthodox (20), Roman Catholic (10). Angola: indigenous beliefs (47), Roman Catholic (38), Protestant (approximately 15). Austria: Roman Catholic (73), Protestant (5), Muslim (4), other religions (0.1), unaffiliated/no religion (more than 17). Germany: Protestant (34), Roman Catholic (34), Muslim (3.7), unaffiliated/other (28). The Netherlands: Roman Catholic (31), Protestant (21), Muslim (4), other (4), unaffiliated (40). South Korea: no affiliation (46), Christian (26), Buddhist (26), Confucian (1), other (1).The UK: Christian (approximately 80), Muslim (3), Sikh (1), Hindu (1). The USA: Protestant (52), Roman Catholic (24), Mormon (2), Jewish (1), Muslim (1), other religions (10), no affiliation (10) (statistics from Tellinger, 2005, pp. 249–59; see also Vermeer and Van der Ven, 2004, pp. 36–37 for details about Dutch religious plurality and diversity).

2 Private or independent schools have the right to determine their own religion and education policy. Only a small minority of South Africans attend private schools, however.

3 When governments begin ordering the lives of citizens, they tend to eradicate pluralism in favour of coordinated systems that would, in their opinion, preempt strife and conflict. A case in point would be the ‘legal pluralism’ that ruled in Europe until Roman law was rediscovered in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and all currents of law were gradually brought into one coordinated system (De Soto, 2000, p. 186).

4 In somewhat poetic terms, Wilber (2001, pp. 5, 13, 15) describes the mystical experience of the spiritual as follows: ‘… in the mystical consciousness, Reality is apprehended directly and immediately, meaning without meditation, any symbolic elaboration, any conceptualization, or any abstractions; subject and object become one in a timeless and spaceless act that is beyond any and all forms of meditation. … In the realm of spirit … the soul becomes Being in a nondual state of radical intuition and supreme identity variously known as gnosis, nirvikalpa, samadhi, satori, kensho, jnana, etc. … in the spirit realm, both soul and God unite in Godhead, or absolute spirit, itself without exclusive boundaries anywhere. … [Spirit is] the Ground or Being of all realms, the pure That of which all manifestations is but a play or modification.’

5 ‘Spirituality’ as used here does not primarily refer to the currently growing emphasis on a ‘vulgar’ form of hedonism that tends to end up in an entertainment economy. The importance of this form of spirituality should not be underestimated, however. Because of an apparent loss of plausibility in the master narratives of the mainstream religions, there is a tendency to divorce spirituality from traditional religious or cult meanings. This leads to the conviction that human behaviour can be perfected through certain types of spiritual acts. Growth in behaviour patterns seems to become more important than growth in religious belief (see: Fry, 1997; Cobb and Robshaw, 1998; Louw, 1998, pp. 233–42; Alexander, 2003, pp. 471–93; Edwards and Titchen, 2003, pp. 450–60; Bathgate, 2003, pp. 277–85; Takyi and Addai, 2002, pp. 177–93; Northcut, 2004, pp. 349–58; Hodge, 2005, p. 37; Heelas and Woodgate, 2005). Dennett (2007, pp. 302–07) points out that ‘spirituality’ should not be seen as the opposite of ‘materialistic’. Materialists can also have regard for the spiritual aspects of life. Other forms of spirituality that do not figure in this article are forms of non-religious spirituality, such as those of art, historical, traditional and indigenous contexts, the environment, language, literature, music and science, all of which are also connected with whole-person wellness (Roux, 2006a, p. 156). Another aspect of spirituality that does not receive attention in this article is that which has become the focus point of the caring professions such as psychiatry, nursing practice/health care, social care, criminology and education. An emerging approach in spirituality studies understands care, education and spiritual practices to be relational and enacted through discursive exchanges among participants within any shared context. Thus practitioners are understood to be involved in complex discursive practices which involve – among others – polyphonic speaking about spirit. This interdisciplinary approach explores the influence of society, ideology, culture, rationality and different epistemological paradigms on the notions of ‘spirituality’ and ‘spiritual care’. Rather than seeking to determine the meaning of spirituality or spiritual care, it aims at fostering discourses about spiritual care and spiritual formation. This interdisciplinary approach was first pioneered by members of the Centre for Spirituality Studies (http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/isg/) at the University of Hull, UK (see also: Frid et al., 2000, pp. 695–703; McSherry, 2000, passim; McCance et al., 2001, pp. 350–56; Hardin, 2001, pp. 11–18; Carson and Fairbairn, 2002, p. 15; Flick, 2002, pp. 5–24).

6 The Martians understand the present government's reasons for relegating confessional religious education or instruction to the parents and to church communities: the ideal of nation-building demands the avoidance of potential conflict in public institutions. (See also note 2.)

7 To help their learners become acquainted with the spiritual dimensions of the various religions would mean, according to a distinction made by Roux (2006b, p. 1295), that teachers would have to follow an interreligious and not a multireligious approach. The latter amounts to learning about the different religions and their traditions, whereas the former ‘is an integrated dimension where the student's perceptions, experiences and reflections form part of the discussions, and the teacher's methodologies and approaches in the classroom need to reflect the integration of these different variables'.