Extract

Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2007. Pp.xii+256.Hbk. £65, $85.

Andrew Wright has undertaken a theoretical study that ‘focuses on the teaching of religion in community schools in England and Wales’ (p. 3). It is first of all relevant to present and future teachers in the secondary school, but its argumentation against what is called ‘comprehensive liberalism’ has general interest in the debate about religions and worldviews in all societies that want to be liberal and democratic.

The first part of the book outlines the task of religious education as empowering pupils to search for truth and to live a truthful life based on the-ultimate-order-of-things. The teaching should ‘empower pupils to pursue truth in an informed and critical manner’ (p. 7), and ‘enable pupils to grapple with disputed claims about the ultimate order-of-things and orientate their lives appropriately in response to their emergent understanding’ (p. 200). As we live in a plural society, the best framework for this search seems to be a kind of political liberalism where the state should make it possible for all citizens to ‘live rational lives and pursue the good life’ (p. 45).

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