religious studies in schools - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Sun, 29 Apr 2012 03:07:28 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg religious studies in schools - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 Students punished for opting out of religious studies https://cathnews.co.nz/2012/04/29/students-punished-for-opting-out-of-religious-studies/ Sun, 29 Apr 2012 03:07:28 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=24190 Parents of public school students say their children are effectively being punished for not attending religious studies. Schools are legally obliged to be secular, but under the Education Act they are allowed to close for an hour a week for religious instruction, as long as children can opt out. Peter Harrison, the founder of Facebook Read more

Students punished for opting out of religious studies... Read more]]> Parents of public school students say their children are effectively being punished for not attending religious studies.

Schools are legally obliged to be secular, but under the Education Act they are allowed to close for an hour a week for religious instruction, as long as children can opt out.

Peter Harrison, the founder of Facebook group Keep Religion Out of Schools, says children that opt out of religious studies often feel isolated and are left with nothing to do.

"They are effectively treated the same as in detention," Harrison says.

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Students punished for opting out of religious studies]]> 24190 Teaching religious studies in schools https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/12/06/teaching-religious-studies-in-schools/ Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:30:48 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=17535

Religious Studies is a vitally important, though neglected area of education. Religions underpin the cultural and philosophical heritages which shape our current worldviews. If we are to understand the various cultures of today's world, we need to know something of the worldviews and values that underlie them. In addition, an understanding of ways in which Read more

Teaching religious studies in schools... Read more]]> Religious Studies is a vitally important, though neglected area of education. Religions underpin the cultural and philosophical heritages which shape our current worldviews. If we are to understand the various cultures of today's world, we need to know something of the worldviews and values that underlie them. In addition, an understanding of ways in which other peoples and cultures have approached the timeless questions in life can help us to reach our own beliefs and values.

Traditionally, in western society, Religious Studies has been taught doctrinally. Indeed, what has passed as Religious Studies has frequently been ‘Christian Education' and then often with a narrow, dogmatic idea of what constitutes Christianity. Moreover, even comparative religions have been taught from a doctrinal perspective, failing to recognise religions (or aspects of religions) that do not fit the doctrinal mould. As a result, false distinctions have been constructed and a multitude of religious experiences and practices have been trivialised, ignored, or remained simply invisible to western scholarship.

Ninian Smart's approach to the teaching of religions is to look at different aspects or ‘dimensions' of religion in each religious tradition. Thus he looks at the practical and ritual dimension; the experiential and emotional dimension; the narrative or mythical dimension; the doctrinal and philosophical dimension; the ethical and legal dimension; the social and institutional dimension and the material dimension of the different religions. By taking such an approach, Smart avoids the difficulties of trying to define religion while providing a framework within which religions can be compared with each other and with secular ideologies.

Smart's progressive, even Hegelian, view of religions is one commonly adopted in the teaching of Religious Studies. Lloyd Geering , the father of Religious Studies in New Zealand takes a similarly progressive view, strongly reminiscent of Sigmund Freud's Future of an Illusion. It is a view that lends itself particularly well to the ideology of globalisation. But this is by no means the only approach.

 

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