International Symposium on Religion Spirituality and Education for Human Flourishing.
24-26 FEBRUARY 2012, Marrakech, Morocco.
Co-Convened by Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace and UN Alliance of Civilizations ‘Education about Religions and Beliefs’ Project.
Re-defining religious education: Spirituality for Human Flourishing
An edited book of papers, ISBN 978-1-137-37389-2 is published by Palgrave Macmillan.
This book is a unique collection of interdisciplinary articles that argue for religious education to be directed primarily towards the spiritual insofar as it is part of a flourishing human life. The articles address this issue from the perspectives of theory, different religious traditions and innovative teaching and learning practices.
For a large proportion of the people in the world, spirituality is an important part of being human and often thought to be an essential element of a flourishing life. Today’s world is facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities, and so there is a pressing need to educate in order to develop a deeper awareness of the spiritual dimensions of our lives. In this context, we are interested specifically in exploring the part that religious education can play in cultivating human virtues and spirituality. Under various names, such as ‘education about religion’, ‘faith education,’ ‘religious studies,’ and ‘religious education,’ the teaching of religious beliefs has already been integrated into the national curricula of many countries.
However, the focus of religious education is generally to impart knowledge about religions, and perhaps gesture towards some inter-religious understanding. This way of approaching religious education tends to regard religion as an academic subject, and because such education is at arms-length, the spiritual and experiential aspects of religion are not made directly available to students.
The Symposium aimed to go beyond the current knowledge-centred approaches to religious education and offered a space to discuss and debate the following questions:
In what ways can education of/from religions better contribute to young people’s spirituality and to the flourishing of their lives?
How can these contributions of religions be better integrated in schooling?
The objectives of the Symposium were:
- To establish a common platform or framework for understanding the positive contributions of religions towards spirituality;
- To identify the ways in which educational systems can facilitate or nurture such spirituality;
- To examine the pedagogical implications and challenges of such educational programmes;
- To identify a set of good questions for further inquiries and possible research.
Prior to the Symposium, each of the participants wrote a scholarly paper to address some aspect of the main questions that the Symposium aims to explore. These papers were circulated to all the participants before the event and served as resources for the discussions and conversations during the event. The Symposium lasted three days. Each day, there were plenary sessions, group discussions, and optional sessions of religious and spiritual practices offered by the participants from their own traditions.