Religious Literacy in Policy and Practice

✍ Scribed by Adam Dinham (editor); Matthew Francis (editor)

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 298
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This valuable book is the first to bring together theory and policy with analysis and expertise on practices in key areas of the public realm to explore what religious literacy is, why it is needed and what might be done about it. It makes the case for a public realm which is well equipped to engage with the plurality and pervasiveness of religion and belief, whatever the individual’s own stance. It is aimed at academics, policy-makers and practitioners interested in the policy and practice implications of the continuing presence of religion and belief in the public sphere.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Notes on contributors
one
Religious literacy: contesting an idea and practice
Why is religious literacy needed?
Religious Literacy Leadership in Higher Education Programme
The challenge of pinning down ‘religious literacy’
The real religious landscape
Outline of the chapters
two
Diminishing religious literacy: methodological assumptions and analytical frameworks for promoting the public understanding of religion
Religions are internally diverse
Religions evolve and change
Religious influences are embedded in cultures
Definition of religious literacy
Cultural studies
Johan Galtung: direct, structural and cultural forms of violence and peace
Implications
Conclusions
three
Religious literacy in the context of Theology and Religious Studies1
Theology and Religious Studies
Theology and public argument
Theology and description
Institutional contexts
Conclusions
four
The irony of religious illiteracy in the USA
Origins of American religious illiteracy
Conclusion
five
Religious literacy as lokahi: social harmony through diversity
Introduction
Concept of lokahi
Lokahi and religious literacy
Case studies: religious literacy as an encounter with diversity
Conclusions
six
Religious literacy and welfare
The willing transfer
Invisible presence
Anxious re-visibility
seven
Religious literacy, radicalisation and extremism
Tackling the threat through policy
From many gods to more
Division from cohesion
Case study in complexity: Buddhism in the UK
‘Brainwashing’ and ‘radicalisation’: we’ve been here before
Conclusions
A future for religiously literate policy?
eight
Religious literacy, equalities and human rights
Introduction
The cases
Eweida v British Airways4
Ladele v London Borough of Islington8
McFarlane v Relate Avon Ltd10
Noah v Desrosiers13
Amachree v Wandsworth Borough Council16
Fugler v MacMillan-London Hair Studios Limited20
Discussion and conclusions
nine
Religious illiteracy in school Religious Education
Introduction
Sum and the parts
Examination system and religious illiteracy
Rise of the personal and gaps between home and school
Failure to address the ‘other’
Conclusions: underlying causes
ten
Religious literacy in higher education
Emergence of the modern university
Towards a higher education market
Religion in the university today
Priorities and challenges for religious literacy in higher education
Conclusions
eleven
Religious literacy and social work: the view from Australia
Religious literacy for working with others
Religious literacy for working with faith-based organisations
Religious literacies for social workers employed by faith-based organisations
Conclusions
twelve
Religious literacy and the media: the case of the BBC
Understanding the background: the BBC and religious broadcasting
View from the inside
Why religious literacy is important
Confusing religion and the far right
thirteen
Religious literacy and chaplaincy
Introduction
How and where chaplaincies have been established
Existing shapes, sizes and models of chaplaincy
The need for religiously literate chaplaincies
Risks
Four challenges for improving religious literacy in chaplaincy
Conclusions
fourteen
Religious literacies: the future
A modern problem: plurality and ignorance
A modern solution: understanding and engagement
Looking forward: a religiously literate world?
Summary
Index