Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction --W︣hat is wrong with religious education? --D︣emocracy, ideology and a new world order --R︣eligious studies, religious education and the return of theology --H︣uman rights, values and religious freedom --W︣orldviews, justice and inclusion --H︣umanism, worldviews and hermeneutics --R︣eligious education and a statutory national religious education curriculum --C︣ompulsion, conscience and the right of withdrawal --T︣he holy, the idea of the holy and religious education --T︣owards the future.

Crisis, controversy and the future of religious education sets out to provide a much-needed critical examination of recent writings that consider and respond to the crisis in religious education and more widely to a crisis in non-confessional forms of religious education, wherever practised. The book is critical, wide-ranging and provocative, giving attention to a range of responses, some limited to the particular situation of religious education in England and some of wider application, for example, that of the role and significance of human rights and that of the relevance of religious studies and theology to religious education. It engages with a variety of positions and with recent influential reports that make recommendations on the future direction of religious education. Constructively, it defends both confessional and non-confessional religious education and endorses the existing right of parental withdrawal. Controversially, it concludes that the case for including non-religious worldviews in religious education, and for the introduction of a statutory, objective' national religious education curriculum for all schools, are both unconvincing on educational, philosophical and evidential grounds. Timely and captivating, this book is a must-read for religious and theological educators, RE advisers, classroom teachers, student teachers and those interested in the field of religious education.