This fascinating collection of essays examines religious experience and tradition. The first part focuses on the nature and sources of authority in each of six major religions and considers how freedom is perceived by them. It goes on to examine the religious contexts of two examples of nations divided within themselves: Northern Ireland and Israel. The second part of the book looks at the process of education, the tensions between freedom and authority and their implications for religious education.

The authors of this volume, over thirty authoritative practitioners and scholars, illuminate the context for religion in public education nationally and globally. Their principal focus is on Religious Education in England, with its distinctive matrix of Christianity, plurality of beliefs and secularity. The volume's complementary attention to RE provision in eight other countries and within Europe is revealing of each and a source for comparative comment on the English approach'. Religion is understood universally as referring to the deepest meanings which we have generated to live with, both...