Religious Education and the Challenge of Pluralism

Abstract

This is an edited volume rich in analysis and written with authority. Seligman's book deals with difference and how societies live with it. The scholars present a nuanced account of present-day phenomenon of religious and cultural diversity through country and continental cases studies: “Teaching Religion in the European Union” (Silvio Ferrari); “Religion and Ethical Education in Divided Societies: The Case of Cyprus” (Dilek Latif); “Teaching Religion in Bulgarian schools: Historical Experience and Post-Atheist Developments” (Daniela Kalkandjieva); “The Vanishing State: Religious Education and Intolerance in French Jewish Schools” (Kimberley A. Arkin); “The Crisis of Liberal Citizenship: Religion and Education in Israel” (Schlomo Fischer); “Secularism(s), Islam, and Education in Turkey: Is E Pluribus Unum Possible?” (Ahmet T. Kuru); “Walking the Tightrope: Prospects for Civil Education and Multiculturalism in ‘Ketuanon Melayu’ Malaysia” (Joseph Chinyong Liow); “Educating Citizens in America: The Paradoxes of Difference and Democracy” (Ashley Rogers Berner and James Davison Hunter). Nicely sandwiched between the European and American continental overviews are case studies of lesser studied societies. Of course there could be more exemplars: we have Israel but no Palestine, Turkey but no Syria, and perhaps above all, Bulgaria but no Russia. Yet among the book's many qualities is its power to get the reader thinking about what those gaps are, perhaps even why such gaps exist in the literature. Here we have templates of historical, political, and religious analysis that provide not only an ethnographic wealth of detail but also the methodological tools for further investigation.