1. Introducing Critical Religious Education Andrew Wright Professor of Religious and Theological Education UCL Institute of Education London School of Theology andrew.wright@lst.ac.uk

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

3. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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