MasterClass in Religious Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning

This is a serious work, well worth reading to challenge thinking about the purposes and teaching of RE.

The title of this work says it all-it is indeed a “master class” in the pressing religious education issues of our time. Drawing on a broad international perspective, the author presents a vibrant history of religious education, and makes a convincing case that it has much to contribute to the contemporary subject. This work is an invaluable resource for those who are studying the theory and practice of religious education and its import for contemporary times. Liam Gearon draws from a rich array of international sources to show the many facets of religious education. This is a volume that I have been waiting for, and I applaud the author’s thorough and balanced presentation. It is a model of academic scholarship, and it is most interesting, too. Not an easy accomplishment!

Liam Gearon’s MasterClass in Religious Education is a comprehensive and polymath tome – polymath in the sense that it draws on so many disciplines, perspectives and political realities in providing for an entirely original, indeed unique coverage of the scope, purpose and usefulness of religious education. There are many outstanding features of the book that contribute to the distinctive understanding wrought by it. Principal among these, in my view, is that it elevates the often marginalized, taken for granted and much maligned religious education to having a status that is arguably of greater centrality, pedagogically and indeed politically, than any other area of modern education. Certainly, anyone who reads this book and retains the tired view that religious education has a place only in the religious square, but not the public one, has not understood what Gearon is saying. Granted the world the way it is, the potential of religious education to forge distinctive and helpful communication across the religious divide, as well as that between religion and non-religion is unmatched by comparison with any other educational field. Gearon’s work will stand the test of time in underlining the central importance of religious education to the modern public curriculum.

Gearon’s book is a distinctive contribution to our understanding of UK-based religious education, in the context of international theology and politics.

This is a timely book presenting an intriguing line of argument on the context and the shape of religious education. It recognizes the international dimension of the discourse on religious education and calls for a renewed alliance between religious education and secularity. The insights on religion, politics and education are profound, rooted in historical and political narratives, and challenging and dialogue-oriented for all those who are involved in teaching religious education and those who discuss the area and the subject from a political and pedagogical perspective. It also opens the RE debate in England to an international audience.

This is an excellent book. Its style is clear, providing useful advice and comment gleaned from the authors’ systematic study and experience over many years.