Worldview Religious Studies brings the study of religion, spirituality, secularism, and other mixed attitudes of life under the overarching scheme of worldview studies. This book introduces and defines worldviews more generally before establishing a framework specific to religious studies. The drive for meaning-making is explored through ritual-symbolic activities, ideas of ‘play’, and the power of emotions to transform simple ideas into values and beliefs that frame identity and signpost destiny. Identity and its sacralisation are discussed alongside gift/reciprocity theory in their relation to ideas of merit, karma, and salvation in Eastern and Western traditions. This theoretical background is used to introduce a new classification of worldviews - natural, scientific, ancestral, karmic, prophetic-sectarian, mystical, and ideological. Organised thematically by chapter, this book brings together familiar and unfamiliar authors, theories, and sources to challenge students and teachers of Religious Studies, Theology, and Ethics. It introduces worldview religious studies as a framework through which to re-think human endeavours to identify, cope and even transcend life’s flaws and perils.

"This [text] strives to be as inclusive as possible. It attempts to give voice to as wide a range as possible of the diverse sources of contemporary worldviews throughout the globe, Western and Eastern, Northern and Southern, women's and men's." -- Preface.

Why do worldviews matter? What characterizes a Christian worldview? Part of being a thoughtful Christian means being able to understand and express the Christian worldview as well as developing an awareness of the variety of worldviews. Well organized, clearly written, and featuring aids for learning, this is the essential text for either the classroom or for self-study.

Religion and Worldviews: The Triumph of the Secular in Religious Education provides the first serious analysis and review of the Commission on Religious Education’s proposed worldviews framework for the subject. It argues that religious education has an important contribution to make to the aims of liberal education and examines whether the shift to a worldview framework is capable of overcoming current weaknesses and initiating a new positive direction for the future. Chapters explore the role of worldviews in Religious Education, covering key debates including: Whether there is need for new legislation on RE The nature of professionalism and the role of ‘experts’ The extent to which there is educational value in study of the personal worldviews of students The role of the religious voice in RE The relation of religions to religious worldviews The aims of RE The relationship between the state and religion Consideration of the nature of a worldview The personal reflections of a member of the Commission on its proposals The chapters provide all that is necessary to understand and to evaluate the current debate on the appropriateness of a worldviews approach to RE. Bringing together leading names in the field, this is essential reading for trainee and practising teachers of Religious Education, RE advisers and schools’ leaders responsible for curriculum development.

This timely book offers a critically important contribution to debates around the meeting place of religious and secular worldviews in education. Edited by five leading figures in the field, and drawing on expert international scholarship and research, the book provides cutting-edge analysis that bridges the religious and secular in global educational contexts. Considering the role of the United Nations, UNESCO, OECD and PISA in varied international contexts, the book draws on critical analysis of primary empirical research and secondary critique to offer a coherent blend of theoretically complex yet practical analysis of policy implementation. Throughout this accessible and logically structured volume, the authors assert that the meeting place of religious and secular worldviews is one of the most important and pressing issues for religion in education. As a field-defining work of research into education, religion and worldviews, the book will be essential reading for scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of religious education, religious studies, philosophy of education and international education.

This timely volume addresses current debates surrounding the transition from the teaching of religious education (RE) to the more holistic subject of Religion and Worldviews (R&W) in England, and posits criteria for best practice among educators in varied settings and in a broader international context. By examining empirical sources, governmental reports, and in particular the 2018 final report from the Commission on Religious Education (CORE), the volume suggests key principles needed to guide the transition and ensure that R&W is effectively integrated into curricula, pedagogy, and teaching resources to meet the needs of all student groups. By effectively conceptualising R&W, the volume gives particular attention to the intersections of the subject with democratic citizenship education, intercultural competence, and religious literacy. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in religious education and teacher education as well as the philosophy and sociology of education more broadly. Those interested in education policy and politics, as well as citizenship and schooling in the UK, will also benefit from this volume.

This volume presents the findings of a number of empirical and theoretical studies on education about religions and worldviews (ERW) conducted in the Western societies of Britain, Ireland, Canada, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Educational programmes about diverse religions and worldviews began to be investigated and implemented as strategies to encourage interreligious understanding and social cohesion, particularly following the 2005 London bombings when a fear of youth radicalisation and home-grown terrorism became prevalent. In addition, as a growing number of people in Western societies, and young people especially, declare themselves to have no religious affiliation, state actors are currently grappling with the reality that we are living in increasingly multifaith and non-religious societies and government education systems have become places of contestation as a result of these changes. This volume examines ERW research and policies in a number of diverse places in the hope of identifying common themes, overlapping insights and best practices that can inform research and policy for religious literacy and interreligious understanding in other contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies.