The Challenge of Passionate Religious Commitment for School Education in a World of Religious Diversity: Reflections on Evangelical Christianity and Humanism

Abstract

PASSIONATE RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT is often viewed as a problem in education because believers are thought to impose their views on others in the belief that they are public truth. This article examines two case studies and concludes that this concern is real. An influential response is to argue that religious commitment should therefore be a private matter. However, using ideas from a significant English report on Citizenship Education, I argue that if teachers can make the distinction between secured public truth and controversial public truth, this difficulty with passionate religious commitment is overcome.