Introducing Critical Religious Education Andrew Wright Professor of Religious and Theological Education UCL Institute of Education London School of Theology

2 overview Philosophy prevailing matrix critical realism Religion seen through the matrix seen through critical realism Education liberal religious education critical religious education

3 philosophy: prevailing matrix Epistemic Question ‘How can I obtain certain knowledge?’  sense experience: empiricism  reason / feeling / desire: idealism, romanticism, post- modernism  fact / value divide  objective facts  subjective opinions

4 philosophy: prevailing matrix  epistemic fallacy: making the world (ontology) conform to our ways of knowing (epistemology)  epistemology: fact / value  ontology: world ‘out-there’ / world ‘in here’  naturalism: nature (not God) bedrock of reality  secular humanism: self-determination (no higher authority)  comprehensive liberalism: freedom / tolerance

5 philosophy: critical realism Ontological Question ‘What must the world be like for us to experience it in the ways we do? inference to the best-possible explanation ontological realism epistemic contingency [epistemic relativism] reflexive discernment [judgemental rationality]

6 philosophy: critical realism Ontology deep (causal mechanisms) stratified dynamic, emergent value-laden Epistemology empirical / actual / real expression / description / explanation abduction / retroduction / iteration attentive (wonder) / reasonable (wisdom) / responsible relational knowledge: truth / truthfulness

7 religion: the matrix objective facts: observable religious phenomena subjective opinion: religious / secular freedom & tolerance acceptable opinion matrix (naturalism, humanism, liberalism) liberal religion: private, relativistic unacceptable opinion religious fundamentalism: public, truth-claiming religious orthodoxy: public, truth-claiming

8 religion: critical realism ontological realism  parts / whole  personal / social / cultural / natural / transcendent (?)  the ultimate order-of-things epistemic contingency  diverse accounts of ultimate reality  religious / secular reflexive discernment  faith seeking understanding  pursuing truth & truthful living

9 liberal religious education [confessional religious education = fundamentalism] ontological realism  learning about religion  religion as an objective cultural reality  learning objective facts epistemic contingency  learning from religion  religion as a contested cultural reality  constructing / expressing subjective opinions reflexive discernment  freedom of opinion  tolerance of the opinions of others

10 critical religious education the cultivation of religious literacy in pursuit of ultimate truth and truthful living sub species aeternitatis ontological realism subject core: ultimate reality (truth), ultimate meaning of life (truthfulness) epistemic contingency  subject mediator: religious / secular worldviews  subject mediator: ways of living sub species aeternitatis  subject mediator: ways of knowing sub species aeternitatis reflexive discernment religious literacy: deeper discernment of truth / truthfulness  via wonder, wisdom and responsibility