The Blog of Bob Bowie

At Education, Formation and The Church III: Raising New Generations in a Post Traditional Society. 31st October – 1st November 2024, Utrecht Theological University, Utrecht, Netherlands.

I am talking today about Christian tradition schools in England which is a detraditionalized society. Part 1 is about detraditionalization in England. I will give a little definition to the social and political context that Tradition schools operate in. Part 2 is about tradition schools, and the relationship between school, religion and the state in England. The legal constraints the schools find themselves in and the controversy around them. Part 3 is about a theological orientation towards that context for Christians, Christian communities and tradition schools. I will draw on two powerful metaphors, from two writers interpreting the Bible. One, that proposes we think of Christians, and perhaps tradition schools as embassies in exile. Two, that we can think of the work of tradition schools as speaking and teaching bilingualism, so learning the language of tradition and a universal language.

At Network for Researchers in Catholic Education, Annual Conference 2024, Glasgow University 24th-25th October, 2024

This informal paper explores the idea of synodal conversation and asks whether this is an exclusively internal tradition conversation, or one that also speaks with the wider world. Reflecting on the negotiation at the wall from II Kings, and Bible Society CEO Paul Williams’ suggestion that for Christians to thrive in a post Christian world, they might think of Churches or Parishes as embassies in exile. It argues that schools of a Christian character can also be thought of in this way. To do this they must avoid the dangers of Scylla and Charybdis: The call to close themselves off from the world entirely, forsaking the mission to the whole of creation, and the call to so depart from tradition that they are indistinguishable with “the latest thing” leaving the city in ruins. What is required is a hermeneutic that both appreciates the gift of revelation and perceives it in the incarnate presence in the world, with a competency around tradition language and universal language to be bilingual communicators ‘at the city wall’ and not just conversationalists behind the wall. Educators in the classroom and the catechetical space are a profound resource for this purpose.

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I am linked to the AfterRE project, a research project funded by Culham St Gabriel’s which is asking questions and exploring possibilities about the next stage in development of the subject, Religious Education. This is a think piece that is linked to that project.

How the world thinks

In his conclusion to the first section of his book How the World Thinks, Julian Baggini suggests that philosophy is differently conceived across the world. One objective that seeks to pin down reality (he says the world) as a truth-seeker, fixed on getting an understanding of things right, with conceptual clarity. Another objective is the concern of a way-seeker, attempting to navigate life, how to live and act while engaged in the world.

“Philosophy in the West has always aspired to be more of a science: rigorous, precise, describing reality as it is. In the East it is more of an art of living.”

Baggini, Julian. How the World Thinks (p. 143). Granta Publications. Kindle Edition.

Baggini contends that philosophy needs both.

“These two projects are related, of course. You understand the world at least in part to get around it, and you can’t have an interest in getting around it without also knowing something about the way it is.”

Baggini, Julian. How the World Thinks (pp. 143-144). Granta Publications. Kindle Edition.

What might RE learn from Baginni’s reflection on Philosophy?

Baggini’s thinking about philosophy could be applied to current discussions about the future of the subject of Religious Education (RE) (See here, here and here for example) which has been framed under a new phrase Religion and Worldviews. Historically the subject of RE has probably often contained a balance between these two strands. On the one hand a focus on asking ultimate questions of existential importance about the fundamental nature of truth – truth-seeking as found in the scholarship of Divinity, theologies, and philosophies, seeking to answer questions of the meaning of life. On the other, the study of ‘way-seeking’ – the more embodied search for meaning in life as enacted and practiced through traditions and communities of way seeking.

The current debate in RE can seem quite focussed on definitions of Worldviews. However the focus could on both Religion and Worldviews, treating it as a compound concept, a constructed concept of multiple parts. Religious Education is a compound concept with a particular sense of religious and education brought into a particular relationship. Failure in understanding those sense and that relationship is one reason for the subject being conflated with faith development.

Treating Religion and Worldviews as a particular compound concept in the context of school education in England, could allow a subject that combines both truth-seeking and way-seeking; the meaning of life and meaning in life.