Abstract
Is state support for religious education compatible with autonomy-based liberalism and its neutrality constraint? This is the core question of this chapter, in which it will be argued that state support for education about religion is in our contemporary society required by justice, while education into religion is only permitted by justice. In both cases, different criteria must be fulfilled so that support for religious education does not oppose autonomy-based liberalism and its neutrality constraint.
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Notes
- 1.
For the difference between education into, about and from religion, see Grimmit 2000.
- 2.
In the next paragraphs, religious education is interpreted as confessional religious education or education into religion.
- 3.
Different from faith-based schools, faith-schools do not teach the regular curriculum, but they only organize religious classes. Examples are Sunday schools, Talmud schools or Quran schools.
- 4.
RvS (Council of State), Sluijs, nr. 25.326, 1985-05-14.
- 5.
RvS (Council of State), Vermeersch, nr. 35.442, 1990-07-10.
- 6.
RvS (Council of State), Davison, nr. 35.834, 1991-11-13.
- 7.
RvS (Council of State), de Pascale nr. 5885, 2015-03-12.
- 8.
Unfortunately, students can be exempted for LER and they can thus in theory take only confessional RE if they wish to do so (even though this seems not to be the usual case in practice).
- 9.
Different from Jensen (2011, 146), I do not agree that education into religion should necessarily take place outside the state school, e.g. “in Sunday Schools, in Quranic schools, in private schools, at home etc.”. As long as students are not obliged to take confessional religious education, as long as this kind of religious education is only organized at parental request, and as long as it is not considered to be a regular subject, it can be organized in state schools as well.
References
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Evans, Carolyn. 2008. Religious education in public schools: An international human rights perspective. Human Rights Law Review 8(3): 449–473.
Franken, Leni, and Patrick Loobuyck (eds.). 2011. Religious education in a plural, secularised society. A paradigm shift. Münster: Waxmann.
Grimmit, Michael (ed.). 2000. Pedagogies of religious education. Case studies in the research and development of good pedagogic practice in RE. Essex: Great Wakering.
HRC (Human Rights Committee). 2004. Leirvag et al. v. Norway, Communication No. 1155/2003, adopted on 3 November 2004 (CCPR/C/82/D/1155/2003).
Jensen, Tim. 2011. Why religion education, as a matter of course, ought to be part of the public school curriculum. In Religious education in a plural, secularised society. A paradigm shift, ed. Leni Franken and Patrick Loobuyck, 131–149. Münster: Waxmann.
Temperman, Jeroen. 2010. State-religion relationships and human rights law. Toward a right to religiously neutral governance. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.
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Franken, L. (2016). Liberal Neutrality and State Support for Religious Education. In: Liberal Neutrality and State Support for Religion. Boston Studies in Philosophy, Religion and Public Life, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28944-1_10
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