European Religious Education And European Civil Religion

Abstract

This paper challenges a foundational conjecture of the Religion in Education Dialogue or Conflict (REDCo) project, that increased interest in religion in public and political life as manifested particularly in education is evidence of counter-secularisation. The paper argues that rather than representing counter-secularisation, such developments represent an emergent and secularising European civil religion facilitated through European religious education.

The Politicisation and Securitisation of Religious Education? A Rejoinder

“…Gearon devotes most of an article (Gearon, 2012a) to criticizing what he sees as the REDCo project's assumptions about 'counter-secularisation' and 'civil religion'. REDCo researchers see religious education 'in terms of counter-secularisation (Weisse, 2011), even a new "civil religion" (Jackson and O'Grady, 2007)' (Gearon, 2013b, p. 130).…”

“…Thus they 'politicise' religious education. Gearon identifies REDCo, a research project funded by the European Commission Framework 6 Programme, specifically with this view (Gearon, 2012a;2013a and b;2014). Furthermore, governments' interest in social cohesion goes further than promoting tolerance of diversity, extending into the murky field of security (Gearon, 2012a, b;2013a, b;2014).…”

“…In various publications, Liam Gearon has criticised the REDCo project vigorously (Gearon, 2012a;2013a and b;2014). Interestingly, Gearon refers directly to the project's scene-setting book , and to the 2011 special issue of the British Journal of Religious Education, giving an overview of the project, and there are occasional references to material posted on the REDCo project website at the University of Hamburg.…”

The counter-terrorist campus: Securitisation theory and university securitisation – Three Models

“…The article addressed some pertinent issues around the intensified political and security themes in religious education classrooms. From this article and other publications (Gearon 2012a(Gearon , 2013a(Gearon , 2015a(Gearon , 2015b, I have contributed two conceptual frames to the broad field at the intersection of religion in education, 'the politicisation of religion in education' and 'the securitisation of religion in education'. My basic argument, drawing on historical and contemporary analyses of the relationship between religion, politics, and pedagogy (Gearon 2008;also Gearon 2002aalso Gearon , 2002balso Gearon , 2003cf.…”

The Counter Terrorist Classroom: Religion, Education, and Security

“…In recent decades religion was certainly a powerful aspect of the Cold War lexicon of political conflict (Stevens 2010). Casanova (1994) provided 130 THE COUNTER TERRORIST CLASSROOM defining pre-9/11 evidence that religion's continued influence countered the expectations of its decline made by classical secularization thesis (see Gearon 2012).…”