TOPIC 1

INTRODUCTION TO RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

This section of the course deals with the following:-

 Nature of Religious Education
 Concept of Religion
 Conceptualising Religious Education
 Relationship between religion and Religious Education
 The rationale and aims of Religious Education
 rationale for Religious Education in the school curriculum
 Relationship between RE and moral education

NATURE AND PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

This unit focuses on conceptualising Religious education as subject knowledge. You
shall learn how religion and Religious Education differ, but most importantly how the
two entities relate to each other. You will further be introduced to the aims of the subject
in its specific context both at a global and local level, and how they have shaped the
development of the subject especially in the context of Swaziland.

Upon completion of this unit you will be able to:

Outcomes
 Explain the following concepts; religion; and religious education and how they
relate to each other
 Justify the place of Religious Education in the secondary and high school
curriculum of Swaziland (rationale)
 Critically analyse the developmental history of Religious Education as a school
subject globally and locally
 Discuss implications of the development history of the Religious Education
subject to its current status in Swaziland.
RELATIOSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

What is Religion?
You have possibly heard the public view that a Religious Education teacher is one who
teaches religion. This view implies that religion and Religious education are
synonymous, while in actual fact, the two phenomena are different. This means Religion
and Religious education are related but not synonymous. This section focuses on
establishing how the two differ, starting with religion:
Several definitions of religion have been offered by various authors, sociologists,
philosophers and theologians, but there is still no consensus on a single particular
definition.

Selected definitions of religion

a) Durkheim (1999) has defined religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices
relative to sacred things…things set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which
unite into one single moral community all those who adhere to them.

b) Barrow (1999) defines religion as a set of beliefs involving a supernatural being who
influences people’s lives and offers a code of conduct.

c) Marx (1871) Sees religion as a sigh of the hard-pressed creatures, the heart of a
heartless world, the soul of soulless circumstances. It is the opium of the people.

d) Freud (1886) conceptualized religion as religious ideas that are illusions, fulfil lments
of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind. [These urges] are born from
man’s need to make his helplessness tolerable and built up from the material of memories
of the helplessness of his own childhood and the childhood of the human race. Religion is
the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity; like the obsessional neurosis of children
which arose out of the Oedipus complex, out of the relation to the father.

Study the selected definitions of religion presented here. Which one do you find
more appealing to you as a plausible definition of religion? Explain your choice.
THERE IS NO CORRECT OR WRONG DEFINITION OF RELIGION. You
probably noticed that each definition of religion, including the one you chose as the
best depends on ‘who is defining the religion and from which context’. This has led
to the multiplicity of religions, cults, sects, denominational developments and
diverse spiritual movements. Taken together, the world religions reflect the
geographic, social and linguistic diversity of the planet itself. While no scholar can
be expected to know about all these religions, anyone seriously studying any of them
will hunt for some principle, definition, or criterion of meaning that identifies the
‘one in many’.
As you might have noticed from the definitions presented here, all of them express

different opinions about what religion is. This indicates that different

people have different opinions about the existence of a metaphysical being,

the ultimate reality or the supernatural being.

SELF Activity
Read the definitions presented above again together with the statements presented in the
table which presents opinions of different people about the existence of a supernatural
being. Match each opinion with a corresponding definition.
Opinion on existence of a supernatural Definition ( and a proponent)
being

a) The Believer/Theist who

unquestionably believers in the existence
of ‘God’

b) The Atheist who believes that there is

no God

c) The Agnostic who has no definite

 answer but says that there may be or there
may be no God

d) The secular Humanist who believes

that ‘society’ is some kind of ‘ultimate
reality’.

I have no doubt that you made a good attempt to answer the above questions. Now you
know why it is not easy to come up with a definite definition for the term ‘religion’. Most
importantly, these definitions also raise the question of the functions of religion.

SELF Activity
Spend at least 7 minutes in this activity
Study these three quotes and explain what you think they mean. Write your response for
each quote in the space provided.

a) ``If there was no God, Man would have created him´´ (Voltaire, 1818).
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b) `` Religion at its best is an illusion, at its worst it is fraud`` (Freud, 1900).
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c) ``Religion is the opium of the people `` (Karl Marx, 1879).
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You probably thought long and hard when you were trying to explain the above quotes.
Such statements express both the positive and negative views people have about
religion. Here are some of the negative views about religion:
 Religion can be used as an instrument of oppression. Karl Marx (1879) arrived at
this conclusion when he observed how those in powers (the ruling class) were oppressing
the masses (working class) yet emphasising Christian values. Some critics argue that he
used religion as a scapegoat. Of course there might be elements of truth in the view
especially when remembering the history of Africa and how `Missionaries` acquired land
and slaves for their mother countries in the course of their preaching of the `gospel`.
 Religion has also been viewed as a cause of dissent- causing wars, interfering
with the rights of people, indoctrination of adherents, cause of religious intolerance and
societal disunity.
Some positive views which can be highlighted are as follows:
 Religion might have a positive impact on people`s behaviour
 It restrains social immorality
 It gives guidance in solving social or individual problems

Let us now look at some of the reasons why people are attracted to religion. Previous
psychologists tried to explain religion in terms of just one or two overarching
psychological needs. The most common reason they cite is that people embrace religion
because of fear of death and fear of the unknown. These fears lead to lack of security. It
is for this reason that Tylor (1999) has defined religion in terms of a belief in
metaphysical beings or things or `animism` which is the belief that detached and
detachable vital forces make up a supernatural realm of reality that is just as real as the
physical world of rocks, trees , and plants. According to this definition there is need to
appease, placate or to bribe these spirits with rituals, doctrines and sacrifices hence the
existence of religion.

Reiss (2004) expresses a different opinion on the subject. He argues that religion is
multi-faceted hence it cannot be reduced to just one or two desires. Reiss described his
new theory which he said may be the most comprehensive psychological theory of
religion since Freud`s work more than a century ago. The theory is based on his overall
theory of human motivation, which he calls sensitivity theory. Reiss said there are
actually sixteen basic human psychological needs that motivate people to seek meaning
through religion. The desires are namely power; independence , curiosity , acceptance ,
order , saving , honour, idealism, social contact , family ,status, vengeance , romance,
eating , physical exercise, and tranquillity.

 In a study published in 2000, Reiss found that religious people (the study included
mostly Christians) expressed a strong desire for interdependence with others. Those who
were not religious, however, showed the opposite feeling. They wanted a stronger need to
be self-reliant and independent.
 The study also showed that religious people valued honour more than non-
religious people, which Reiss said suggest many people embrace religion to show loyalty
to parents and ancestors.
 On the desire for curiosity, Reiss said religious intellectuals, who are high in
curiosity, value a God who is knowable through reason, while doers, who have weak
curiosity, may value a God that is knowable only through revelation.
 People who have a strong need for order should enjoy ritualized religious
experiences, whereas those with a weak need for order may prefer more spontaneous
expression of faith.
 The prophecy that the weak will inherit the earth should appeal especially to
people with a weak need for status, whereas the teaching that everybody is equal before
God should appeal especially to people with a strong need for idealism.
The above desires (and the many others you will read about) help us to think about the
following:
• nature of religion;
• its functions; and
• purposes in the lives of the believers.

Features of religion
There cannot be one definite definition of religion that is generally accepted by scholars.
Sharing this statement is Tylor (1871) and others who prefer to articulate the main factors
of religion instead of an overall definition. It seems to be possible to approach the
phenomenon usually called ``religion`` from angles which are found in all the literate and
non-literate societies. This brings us to a brief discussion of characteristics and/ or
dimensions of religion.
Characteristics of religion according to Edward Tylor
Tylor (1871) has come up with what he calls essential characteristics of religion. There
are:
 A deity
 A founder
 A set of beliefs
 A priesthood
 A liturgy (ritual/religious ceremony)
He argues that if any one of these characteristics is missing, it is not a religion but either a
religion tradition, a tribal tradition or a social life customs.

Edward Tylor based his interpretation of `primitive` religion on the idea that primitive
people make a mistaken logical inference-an intellectual error. He thought that they
confuse subjective and objective reality in their belief that the vital force (soul) present in
living organisms is detachable and capable of independent existence in its own mode.
Dreams, he thought might be a basis for this error. Tylor`s definition of primitive
religion as Animism (a belief in spiritual beings), expresses his interpretation that the
basis of primitive religion is the belief that detached and detachable vital forces make up
a ` superhuman` realm of reality that is just as real as the physical world of rocks , trees ,
and plants. It is from this premise that he came up with what he believes are
characteristics of religion in order to differentiate between religion and religious, social
life or tribal traditions.

It was not Tylor only who struggled with an attempt to outline the features that make up
religion, other authors like Ninian Smart joined in.

Ninian Smart’s Seven Dimensions of Religion

Smart (1989) in his attempt to define religion came up with what he termed seven
``dimensions`` along which a religion can be quantified. Note that the more of these
dimensions are present and the more strongly they exist in any human system, the more it
qualifies as a religion.
The Seven Dimensions of Religion are as follows:
I. The Practical or Ritual Dimension- contains all of the rituals and practices,
including praying, marching and taking holidays etc.
II. The Experiential or Emotional Dimension –includes religious experiences such as
visions, revelations, enlightenment and general religious ecstasy (the acute, the gentler
and more mundane religious feelings).
III. The Narrative or Mythic Dimension- is the ``story side`` of a religion; it includes
written as well as oral tales, formal as well as informal teachings, alternative histories,
predictions, etc.
IV. The Doctrinal or Philosophical Dimension- this is the official, formal teachings
which underpin the narrative /mythic parts of a religion. It`s important to note that the
doctrine doesn’t necessarily predate the narrative. In Christianity for instance, it was the
existence of a cult which followed the life of Jesus and their stories and rituals which led
to the formation of the Christian doctrines. Note that very few doctrines are actually static
over time, though their authors usually like them to appear so.
V. The Ethical or Legal Dimension – these are the laws, formal and moral, that
comes out of any system.
VI. The Social or Institutional Dimension- this and the following dimension are the
only ones that require a physical form, as opposed to the others which can be purely
abstract. The Social Dimension consists of the formal organization such as the church,
mosque etc, as well as other institutions which may come about as a result of the religion.
This is the dimension of how the religion works in people`s lives.
VII. The Material Dimension – this dimension contains all the physical creations of a
religion, including buildings and architecture, icons etc. It also includes natural features
of the earth which may be important to the system, for example sacred mountains, holy
ground etc. The objects of the material dimension consist of works of art, or any simple
object.

SELF Activity
Spend at least 7 minutes in this activity
You should try applying these dimensions to the Swazi Traditional Religion. Give
examples of each dimension. Use a separate answer sheet.
I know you did a good job. I hope your answer included Swazi traditional songs, Incwala
rituals, the myths, the sacred objects, sacred places, national history and Swazi code of
conduct etc.
Smart`s dimensions are an excellent way to denote which human systems bear the traits
of religion. He does not answer the question about what a religion is, but he does provide
a very useful system of determining whether something is functioning as a religion in any
given society. Let us now turn to the concept of Religious Education.

Conceptualising Religious Education

The term Religious Education (RE) like the term religion, has been defined in various
ways by different authors.
SELF Activity
Spend at least 5 minutes in this activity
What definition of Religious Education can you think of?
I hope in your attempt to provide a definition you analysed the two words `religious` and`
education` to give you an idea of what it involves.
Let me point out that among the many definitions of RE that we shall look at, no
consensus as to the precise meaning of the term has been reached. Therefore, it is
important for us to adopt a generally accepted classic (high quality) or working definition
for purposes of our discussion. Let us review some of these definitions so we can arrive
at a definition that will be plausible enough for us to adopt:
 Morake (1993) has defined RE as teaching students about religion in order to
bring about knowledge and understanding.

 Moran (1989) in his book entitled ` RE as a second language` defines RE as the

study of religion for its educational value. Expanding his definition the author asserts that
it is a study of religion which exposes not imposes, informs not conforms, and which
educates not promotes a particular belief.

 Sealy (1982) defines Religious Education as a study involving the learning of

concepts by which the phenomenon and experience of religion can be grasped, known,
and understood. The author suggests that RE is essentially an educational enterprise as
opposed to teaching ` religious life` which does not involve knowledge and
understanding of the religious life concomitant with the concept of education. The author
also alludes to RE as a `conceptual enterprise`. This observation is pertinent to the
Religious Education teacher because it alludes to the fact one can have a concept of RE
which then means there is a cognitive model of what RE entails. This is because as
human beings, we think with concepts (we cannot think effectively if we do not have the
relevant concepts). This therefore implies that it is essential for the RE teacher to assist
students in forming concepts on which the subject is based, thus more emphasis should
be given at certain levels of RE to developing religious language and concepts.
You will agree with me that in the above definitions the conceptions of the nature of RE
are those that emphasise it as an educational activity rather a religious activity.

Sutcliffe (1984) supports this view and further argues that if RE is understood as an
educational activity rather than a religious activity, its nature (for instance its essential
characteristics and purpose) becomes different from the traditional catechism approach
(to be discussed later). It emphasises the following perspectives:
a) The cultural/sociological perspective (Its role in the transmission of culture).
b) The methodological perspective (Its method as a child-centered activity).
c) The cognitive perspective (Imparting knowledge of religion as a form of human
understanding).
d) The imaginative and affective perspective (Its role in changing the young people`s
attitudes).
e) Its role in imparting certain techniques and skills to young people.
f) Its role in contributing to moral development of children.

Straughman (1991) brings another aspect to the concept of RE .He views RE as a moral
activity. He asserts that RE should help to develop the learners` concern for others and all
life by offering a wider range of alternative views /concern for `others` and other forms
of life.

Awino (2007) has conceptualised RE as a `second order process`. Conceptualised this

way, it implies that pupils will learn what religion is (for instance the study of religion)
without reference to personal belief or practice. Let us note at the outset that the practice
of religion is normally seen as `a first order` activity in which no study/inquiry in the
practice of religious life is necessary. Awino (2007) further argues that in RE as a
`second order process` we involve learners in a study of religion. The study of religion
involves the following activities in RE:
• developing skills of reasoning;
• enquiry, discussing;
• speculating, analyzing; and
• questioning and evaluation of some aspects of religion.
Viewed in the above-mentioned way we can conclude that according to Awino ( 2007)
the teaching of RE should be treated like all other subjects, in that it must conform to
the following criteria mentioned by Peters ( 1978) who states that:
 there must be a body of knowledge criterion. This implies that RE learners must
process a body of knowledge and some kind of conceptual scheme to raise this above
mere collection of facts.
 there must be a Transformation/change criterion. This means that the learner`s
outlook must be positively transformed by what he/she knows
 there must be a caring or communicating criterion. This means that the learner
must care about or be committed to RE standards.