Introduction

Few areas of social and political life attract such profound concern and intense attention as the religious education of each successive rising generation. This education is vital for the children themselves as they develop toward maturity and seek to understand the belief systems they have inherited and also the belief systems of others. It is also a matter of deep concern for parents (and those fulfilling parental roles), regardless of the religious (or non-religious) world view that they may hold, because it can have such a deep impact on those they care about most. For these and a variety of additional reasons, religious education is inevitably a major issue for religious and political communities. The way that teaching of and teaching about religion is handled in any particular society often triggers some of the most heated short-run political controversies. In fact, as Juan G. Navarro Floria suggests in his essay on Latin America, religious education has typically been “one of the ‘battlefields’ between religion and certain ideologies or political streams.”1

Current educational systems typically reflect the current equilibrium reached in what are often ongoing struggles concerning the appropriate role of religion in educational settings, and in the public sector more generally. Finding effective and lasting solutions in this area is one of the deepest long-term concerns for any society seeking to endure.