In the Netherlands, the relation between Catholic schools and the Catholic Church was apparent during the pillarized educational system and culture of the first decades of the 20th century. In the post-pillarized decennia afterward, their connection transformed and became less recognizable. At first glance, their contemporary relation sometimes seems only superficial. This article argues that Catholic schools are connected with the Catholic religious tradition in an embodied way and in their orientation toward the common good. Furthermore, the embodied religiosity expressed in daily school life is more than both schools and church realize, intertwined with ecclesiastical reflections on Catholic education.During pillarization, Catholic schools were exclusively intended for Roman Catholic children. Together with parents and parish they formed a Catholic educational triangle (Maas and Ziebertz 1997), teaching pupils into the Catholic faith and Church and leading them towards a recognizable Catholic way of life. In post-pillarized times the recognizability of Catholic schools has declined.The former school catechesis developed into religious education lessons informing about several religions. Another change concerns the religious background of the present school population, which began to reflect the religious diversity in society. Furthermore, the present relation to the Catholic Church can be characterized by an unmistakable distance, not only at the formal and administrational level but also in the experience of estrangement between schools and church. Both school life and church presume a decrease in their mutual engagement and question whether these schools can be regarded as Catholic schools (Van der Donk and Kimman 2010).This article provides another perspective. It explores the relevance of two of the distinctiveness of catholic lived religiosity, discovered in
Religious Education
Religious education (RE) in secondary schools in the Netherlands is challenged to redefine the educational aims. Concerning this debate, the preference for a cognitive approach is remarkably dominant, not only among scholars but among RE teachers as well. This appeal for a cognitive turn is based upon two hypotheses: first on the presumption of religious blankness among religiously unaffiliated pupils and second on a specific view on the way religious affiliation, religious reflectivity and religious tolerance are intertwined. The current article elaborates on a empirical research that questions both hypotheses. It first discovered the ongoing connection religiously unaffiliated pupils have with a former and conventional type of Catholicism, which impedes the development of their reflective personal religiosity as well as that of their interreligious openness. Second, this investigation revealed that personal connectedness with contemporary Catholic faith encourages these two developments. As such, this research contributes to a nuanced perspective on the chances and bottlenecks within religious learning by religiously unaffiliated and affiliated pupils. Concerning the redefinition of religious educational aims, it provides empirical arguments for a balanced combination of cognitive, attitudinal and experiential aims and advocates a preference for experiential and attitudinal aspects as a didactical starting point.
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