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In 2012 a Review of RE in England was initiated by the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, in response to a perceived sense of crisis among the religious education (RE) community. Its recommendations, which include a new National Curriculum Framework for RE, were published in October, 2013. The fact that the proposed National Curriculum Framework for RE aspires to provide a curriculum model of excellence that all schools should follow, naturally invites careful study and scrutiny. This article considers the question whether the Review’s conclusions provides a democratically mandated, legally compliant, educationally convincing and socially appropriate future direction for RE in England. It is concluded that there are serious weaknesses in the proposals and that the Review process was a missed opportunity for the emergence and articulation of a model of religious education that is appropriate to the aims of liberal education in a democratic, increasingly diverse English society.

On 14 November 2016, northeastern South Island of New Zealand was struck by a major moment magnitude (

British Religious Education has misrepresented the nature of religion in efforts to commend itself as contributing to the social aims of education, as these are typically framed in liberal democratic societies. In September 2005 the Religious Education Council for England and Wales complained about 'the prevailing liberal/secularist assumptions' that undermine the significance of Religious Education (RE) and noted that many faith community members are concerned about how their faith is portrayed and treated in schools. The intellectual roots of the phenomenology of religion proper can be traced to Liberal Protestant attempts in the late nineteenth century to develop a methodology for the study of religion that was descriptive, broad ranging and objective. The modern British RE has misrepresented the nature of religion and that this misrepresentation has actually worked to thwart efforts to realize the legitimate moral and social aims of education does not mean that it has not made some contribution to challenging religious intolerance and racism.

Modern philosophical interest in virtue ethics is usually traced to Elizabeth Anscombe’s (1958) article, ‘Modern moral philosophy,’ in which she suggested that virtue ethics, with its ancient linea...

The aim of this paper is to provide a positive case for increasing the role and importance of religious morality within the subject of religious education in British schools. The argument is structured in the following way. First, attention is given to the diminished role accorded to moral education within religious education that followed the transition from confessional to non-confessional, phenomenological religious education and the reasons for this. Secondly, a genealogical/historical account is constructed that identifies the different ways in which the contribution of religious education to moral education has been conceptualised and practised in post-confessional religious education. Thirdly, the notion that morality and religion are discrete domains of human experience, which has provided the intellectual framework for diminishing the moral content and ambitions of religious education, is criticised as controversial philosophically and as contrasting with the way many religious believers construe...

The purpose of this paper is to articulate a Christian model of social and political engagement and to illustrate its appropriateness and fruitfulness through its application to the post-conflict situation in Northern Ireland. The argument is structured around three propositions, the implications of which are explored in a final fourth section: (1) that political forgiveness is an inappropriate model of Christian social and political engagement; (2) that Christians should seek justice/ righteousness in the public realm; (3) that Christian commitment and practice are contextual, and, consequently, the practice of righteousness in Northern Ireland must take account of and relate to the particular history of Northern Ireland; and finally (4) an account is provided of the form Christian righteousness could take in post-conflict Northern Ireland.

The aim of this article is to provide a provisional review and evaluation of recent Christian endorsements of the notion of political forgiveness. Attention is given to the doctrine of forgiveness in the New Testament and to its distinctive theological grammar. The chief theological features of Christian accounts of political forgiveness are outlined, before a number of weaknesses in the literature are identified and discussed. The implication of our discussion is that Christian love is expressed in two different ways, that of forgiveness upon repentance within the church and that of justice tempered by mercy in the socio-political realm.

This paper challenges the overly positive image of the contribution made by religious education in England and Wales to the attainment of liberal educational aims that was recently presented in this journal, in the context of a review symposium on a festschrift celebrating the work and achievements of the influential British religious educator, Professor John Hull. An alternative reading is pursued that provides a more accurate and fair interpretation of the evidence. There is a discussion of the ideological character of British religious education and a consideration of the reasons why assertions of its ‘success’ by religious educators are currently so vocal. Critical attention is focused on two particular issues over which the influence of Hull on contemporary policy and practice is acknowledged: that of his dismissal of the accusation that multi‐faith religious education confuses pupils, and that of current strategies in religious education to promote inter‐religious and intercultural understanding.

Its relevance for education is that the school, College or university is also a system with embedded power relationships, which can go sour. There will be bullies, power freaks, managing by sarcasm; the system needs to control such behaviour as unacceptable and to advocate positive and empowering management strategies. Pupils and students should be encouraged to be self-validating and contributing unique individuals (called individuation as opposed the the dehumanising de-individuation (p.242). They need to consider how to cope with peer and power pressure and be able to retain their inner individuality, their sense of meaning an worth, even in dehumanising systems and circumstances. This will be a challenging piece of curriculum development. The final chapter is a good starting-point – ‘Resisting Situational Influences and Celebrating Heroism’: “Heroism supports the ideals of a community and serves as an extraordinary guide, and it provides and exemplary role model for prosocial behaviour. The banality of heroism means that we are all heroes in waiting. It is a choice we may all be called upon to make at some point in time.” (p.488). This is heroism in everyday life, as a natural moral response to the unacceptable, not the unreachable elite heroes of fiction.

Conversion disorder ('hysteria') was largely considered to be a neurological problem in the 19th century, but without a neuropathological explanation it was commonly assimilated with malingering. The theories of Janet and Freud transformed hysteria into a psychiatric condition, but as such models decline in popularity and a neurobiology of conversion has yet to be found, today's neurologists once again face a disorder without an accepted model. This article explores how today's neurologists understand conversion through in-depth interviews with 22 neurology consultants. The neurologists endorsed psychological models but did not understand their patients in such terms. Rather, they distinguished conversion from other unexplained conditions clinically by its severity and inconsistency. While many did not see this as clearly distinct from feigning, they did not feel that this was their problem to resolve. They saw themselves as 'agnostic' regarding non-neuropathological explanations. However, since neurologists are in some ways more expert in conversion than psychiatrists, their continuing support for the deception model is important, and begs an explanation. One reason for the model's persistence may be that it is employed as a diagnostic device, used to differentiate between those unexplained symptoms that could, in principle, have a medical explanation and those that could not.

I am grateful to Kevin O’Grady for wishing to continue the dialogue between us on the proper interpretation and estimate of the significance of the thought of Ninian Smart for religious education, ...

The aim of this article is to introduce and summarise the main feature of the new Birmingham City Council Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (2007), consider the relevance of its commitments and conclusions to ongoing debates within British religious education, and, finally, offer some kind of provisional assessment of its strengths and worth. By way of introduction, attention is given both to the mounting controversy that currently attends British religious education, which has given rise to conflicting opinions and estimates of its achievements and value, and to the historical role and legal status of agreed syllabuses within English and Welsh education.

The central aim of this paper is to analyse and illuminate the role of human rights in religious education and to consider the relevance of human rights to education in liberal democratic societies that are characterised by diversity, particularly ethnic, moral and religious diversity. Attention is given both to the immediate political and social context within which human rights have come to prominence in British education and to the wider philosophical context of political liberalism. It is argued that current pre-occupations with citizenship and human rights reveal the extent to which our contemporary moral situation, political practice and education system illustrate and express ongoing tensions within political liberalism. Despite this, a case will be made for the importance and relevance of human rights and citizenship to religious education. It is argued that religious convictions, or more particularly Christian convictions, provide a justification for human rights and that a consideration of human rights can make a valuable contribution to a more extensive programme of moral, social and religious education.

Background Northern Ireland is a province that remains deeply divided between Protestants and Catholics and maintains a segregated system of schools. Purpose The research builds on a series of studies conducted in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to monitor the attitude toward Christianity of males and females educated in Protestant and Catholic schools. Sample A sample of 2359 16- to 18-year-old pupils attending Catholic and Protestant schools in Northern Ireland. Design and methods A random sample of seven Protestant and nine Catholic schools invited all pupils attending their lower and upper sixth-form classes to participate in the survey and to complete the Francis scale of attitude toward Christianity. Results The data demonstrate that, while males attending Catholic schools maintained a more positive attitude towards Christianity than males attending Protestant schools, females attending Catholic schools reported a less positive attitude toward Christianity than females attending Protestant schools. These...

Northern Ireland remains both one of the more religiously active and also one of the most religiously divided countries in Europe. In this context 1,093 sixth-form pupils attending Protestant schools and 1,266 sixth-form pupils attending Catholic schools (aged between 16 and 19 years) completed the abbreviated Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (EPQR-A), as a measure of psychological health, alongside the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christainity (FSAC). The findings demonstrated that a positive attitude toward Christianity was associated with neither higher nor lower neuroticism scores, but was associated in both religious communities with lower psychoticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to associate a positive view of Christianity with poorer levels of psychological health among adolescents in Northern Ireland, and some evidence to associate a positive view of Christianity with better levels of psychological health.

The aim of this paper is to articulate a new ‘post‐liberal’ paradigm for religious education in Britain. As criticisms of British religious education have mounted over the last few decades, it is becoming increasingly obvious that familiar inherited ways of conceptualising the nature and practice of religious education in schools are inappropriate to contemporary educational needs. A new model is required to structure, justify and direct learning and teaching in religious education. This paper reviews the commitments, assumptions and beliefs that together constitute the current ruling ‘liberal’ paradigm, identifies and exposes its weakness and concludes by providing a tentative first draft of a new ‘post‐liberal’ paradigm for religious education, which holds more promise of realising socially positive educational aims than the current paradigm.

The aim of this article is to respond to Kevin O’Grady’s critique (in BJRE, 27, 2005, pp. 227–37) of my interpretation and assessment of Ninian Smart’s contribution to religious education. I begin by dealing with a range of issues that lend themselves to fairly summary discussion and then address two further aspects of his critique in more detail. First, the nature of the influence of the phenomenology of religion over phenomenological religious education is considered within the context of recent critical discussions of the fundamental assumptions of religious phenomenology. Secondly, O’Grady’s positive account of the continuing relevance of Smart’s thought to the issue of hermeneutics in religious education is both qualified by attention to its limitations and complemented by reference to the work of the French hermeneutical philosopher, Paul Ricoeur.

The purpose of this paper is to articulate a new perspective on British multi-faith religious education that both complements and, in part, subsumes existing critiques. My argument, while controversial, is straightforward: it is that British religious education has misrepresented the nature of religion in efforts to commend itself as contributing to the social aims of education, as these are typically framed in liberal democratic societies. Contemporary multi-faith religious education is placed in context and its underlying theological and philosophical commitments identified and criticised. It is concluded that current representations of religion in British religious education are limited in their capacity to challenge racism and religious intolerance, chiefly because they are conceptually ill equipped to develop respect for difference.

Geoff Teece has recently (in BJRE, 27, 2005, pp. 29–40) come to the defence of modern religious education and contended that many of the criticisms brought against it are based on mistaken interpretations. More particularly, Teece accuses Andrew Wright of misinterpreting the position of Professor John Hick and of failing to appreciate the intellectual resources that Hick provides for the construction of a critical form of religious education. He attempts to correct Wright’s interpretation of Hick, and by extension to undermine Wright’s indictment of the influence of modernity on religious education; and he attempts to illustrate how Hick’s religious pluralism can make a contribution to discussions about critical religious education. The aim of this paper is to advance the case for critical religious education and to outline something of the form and nature it should take. It begins with a short discussion of the nature and commitments of modern religious education, indicating the sense in which they are d...

The aim of the present study was to build on John Greer’s systematic set of studies concerned with teenage beliefs and values conducted among samples of sixth form students attending County and Protestant voluntary schools in Northern Ireland in 1968, 1978 and 1988. The present study replicated the earlier surveys for a further time in 1998. The results provide a unique snapshot of the persistence of religious affiliation, belief and practice across the latter part of the twentieth century in a nation which has continued to resist the secularisation process so eroding the place of religion in the neighbouring nations of England, Wales and Scotland.

The aim of this article is to re‐evaluate and reaffirm the contribution of the churches and of Christianity to the realization in Northern Ireland schools of legitimate and progressive educational values such as the cultivation of tolerance, moral integrity and civic virtue. Implicit in this is a critique of educational initiatives that seek to undermine the influence of Christianity in schools. There is also discussion of the reasons why the increasing secularization of education in Northern Ireland should be resisted. The paper begins with a brief historical overview of the ongoing tension between religious and secular influences in education and notes the ways in which developments in education have tended to marginalize religion and to denude public education of Christian religious content and influence. Critical attention is then given to the role of religion in the Northern Ireland conflict, for it is the conviction that the conflict is religious that provides much of the stimulus for efforts to sec...

The aim of this article is to respond to Professor English, Professor D'Souza, and Dr. Chartrand's comparative review of research in the British Journal of Religious Education and Religious Education over the ten-year period from 1992–2002. Their analysis is for the most part extended and complemented, although critical questions are also raised and pursued. The article concludes with the identification of research trajectories in religious education and some personal comments on the direction future research should take.

This article considers the claim that the conflict in Northern Ireland was irreducibly religious. After a brief account of the history of the Northern Ireland conflict, the different arguments and counter arguments that bear on the role of religion in causing and sustaining the conflict are considered. An examination of the relationship of Islam to terrorism and the events of 9/11 provides a comparative perspective that is used both to identify similarities and differences between the situation in Ireland and elsewhere and to distinguish and discriminate between different ways in which religious sanction is given to violence. The implications of our findings are then explored with regard to our understanding of the Northern Ireland conflict and with regard to our understanding of the nature of religion more generally.

Regenerative electric flight is studied with focus on the performance and integration of the dual-role machines, namely the propeller-turbine or “windprop,” motor-generator, and power electronics. We review the advantages of adding the regeneration feature to an electric aircraft, highlighting the importance of high efficiency for both aerodynamics and the powertrain. We conduct a multi-disciplinary study of air-vehicle performance, windprop aerodynamics, motor-generator characteristics, and semiconductor bi-directional power conditioning, borrowing from contemporary ground electric-vehicle regenerative braking architecture to enable a “regen” aircraft to extract energy from the atmosphere in updrafts, descent, or parked on the field pointed upwind.

Patricia White has recently attempted to construct an ethically valid notion of forgiveness that will serve educational purposes and contribute to the moral development of pupils in schools. She distinguishes between a strict view that requires repentance before forgiveness, which she rejects, and a relaxed view that does not require repentance, which she endorses. In this reply I defend the strict view of forgiveness against her criticism and challenge the ethical propriety of the relaxed view. I shall argue that her support for the relaxed view both runs counter to our deepest moral intuitions and serves to undermine the moral law and moral endeavour.

Over the past few decades universities in the United Kingdom have undergone fundamental and accelerating change with the resultant outcome of a radical move from what can be described as an elitist model of education to a popular or "populist" model. Entrance routes to higher education courses of study have diversified, and as a consequence the student population has also diversified in terms of age, gender, ethno-religious background and socio-economic profile. This paper describes one author's response to these changes and assesses his implementation of a technologically rich approach to introducing the principles of business marketing to under-graduate students. The political, intellectual and institutional contexts which generated the desire to make increased use of technology in the classroom are considered as well as student feedback. The paper concludes with some recommendations for possible areas of development in the use of computer technology as a means of improving the quality of learning and teaching.

The aim of this article is to assess the arguments for and against the inclusion of a study of world religions within the religious education provision of schools in Northern Ireland. The point of departure for our discussion is the Inter-Faith Forum's recent claim that exclusively Christian content may be in breach of equality and human rights legislation. It is concluded that there should be teaching about world religions but that multi-faith religious education of the form espoused in England and Wales, whereby a wide range of religions is covered, is inappropriate to the Northern Irish educational and cultural context.

This essay evaluates the recent, important response of Professor John M. Hull, of the University of Birmingham, to the question of what schools should do to foster harmonious relations between the disparate religious and non-religious groupings that constitute the population in most of our liberal, democratic Western nations. In a series of influential articles, Hull has articulated both an interpretation of the nature of religious intolerance and a proposed strategy for challenging intolerance in schools. In this paper Hull's position is carefully set out and then critically assessed. In the light of weaknesses in his account, a different understanding of the nature of religious intolerance is pursued along with a brief outline of a different educational strategy for responding to religious and cultural differences in schools.

We investigated the distinctiveness of gene regulatory networks in CA1 associated with the extinction of contextual fear memory (CFM) after recall using Affymetrix GeneChip Rat Genome 230 2.0 Arrays. These data were compared to previously published retrieval and reconsolidation-attributed, and consolidation datasets. A stringent dual normalization and pareto-scaled orthogonal partial least-square discriminant multivariate analysis together with a jack-knifing-based cross-validation approach was used on all datasets to reduce false positives. Consolidation, retrieval and extinction were correlated with distinct patterns of gene expression 2 hours later. Extinction-related gene expression was most distinct from the profile accompanying consolidation. A highly specific feature was the discrete regulation of neuroimmunological gene expression associated with retrieval and extinction. Immunity–associated genes of the tyrosine kinase receptor TGFβ and PDGF, and TNF families’ characterized extinction. Cytokines and proinflammatory interleukins of the IL-1 and IL-6 families were enriched with the no-extinction retrieval condition. We used comparative genomics to predict transcription factor binding sites in proximal promoter regions of the retrieval-regulated genes. Retrieval that does not lead to extinction was associated with NF-κB-mediated gene expression. We confirmed differential NF-κBp65 expression, and activity in all of a representative sample of our candidate genes in the no-extinction condition. The differential regulation of cytokine networks after the acquisition and retrieval of CFM identifies the important contribution that neuroimmune signalling plays in normal hippocampal function. Further, targeting cytokine signalling upon retrieval offers a therapeutic strategy to promote extinction mechanisms in human disorders characterised by dysregulation of associative memory.

In this article the phenomenological approach to religious education is subjected to careful analysis and criticism. Something of the contemporary debate on the nature of religious education between liberals and conservatives is sketched in, before the origins and nature of the phenomenological approach to the study of religion are considered. This is followed by an account of the way in which the phenomenology of religion proper has been appropriated by educationalists and developed into what is regarded as a suitable methodology for religious education. Finally, it is argued that certain features of a phenomenological approach to religion are untenable in the light of recent work in the philosophy of language and mind.

(2001). IDEOLOGY, THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH, AND HERMENEUTICS: A RESPONSE TO PROFESSOR LOVAT. Religious Education: Vol. 96, No. 4, pp. 572-581.

This essay reviews and assesses Ninian Smart's contribution to religious education. Attention is given to his account of the nature and purpose of religious education as expressed and developed in a series of works published between the late 1960s and the early 1970s, beginning with The Teacher and Christian Belief (1966) and ending with Schools Council Working Paper 36, Religious Education in the Secondary School (1971), which was produced under his direction. Continuities and tensions in his thought are identified and discussed in the context of recent debates within religious education and the academic study of religion. Smart's case for non-confessional religious education is considered, as is his support for a phenomenological approach to religious education. Although serious criticisms are raised, it is concluded that his work is of abiding significance and relevance to both British education and beyond.

This essay is intended as a tribute to Dr John Greer, who retired in 1993 from a Readership in Education at the University of Ulster, Coleraine and died in August 1996. Its aim is to provide a straightforward account of the process and results of recent educational reform in Northern Ireland with regard to Religious Education. Discussion focuses on the joint production by the four main churches of a Core ('Agreed') Syllabus, and the Government's decision to accord it statutory status. Reactions to the Core Syllabus are recorded and a number of critical points are made.

FAITH IS THE overall purpose of everything we do as Christians, but education has a purpose in itself. Luther's model of the two governments is useful in thinking about the purpose of education. According to this, God governs his world through both his spiritual and his secular government. He has two purposes in what he does - both to save people and to make the world a good place to live. Education is primarily part of God's secular government, and its ultimate aim is the service of God by doing good to other people. Christian education, unlike liberal education, claims that there is basically only one good life, namely the service of God. It teaches pupils about God and his salvation, but it cannot create or maintain faith.

THIS ARTICLE IS a response to John Hull's analysis of ‘religionism’ and of its significance for religious education. The article takes issue with both Hull's understanding of the nature of the problem of religious prejudice and his suggested solution. It is argued that Hull's direct linking of religious intolerance with religious claims to uniqueness and superiority is unwarranted. Empirical evidence does not support a causal link and a deductive link runs into logical problems. In addition, Hull's particular educational and theological strategy for overcoming religious intolerance is ill-advised and may run counter to his best intentions.