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Religion and Education Around the World
7. How religion may affect educational attainment: scholarly theories and historical background

1. Muslim educational attainment
2. Christian educational attainment
3. Educational attainment among the religiously unaffiliated
4. Buddhist educational attainment
5. Hindu educational attainment
6. Jewish educational attainment
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: Methodology
Appendix B: Data sources by country

Religion and education, two of humankind’s most ancient endeavors, have long had a close relationship. Historians and social scientists have written about this relationship and about how the two may influence each other.

This chapter presents a broad overview of scholarly research into the ways religion can affect educational achievement. It is not an exhaustive survey of the academic literature, but instead a brief summary of some explanations proposed to account for attainment differences among religious groups. Religion is certainly not the only reason for this variance; many other factors may play an equal or greater role, including economic, geographic, cultural factors and political conditions within a country or region.

The chapter begins with an historical look at ways in which scholars suggest that various religions have influenced education, especially the spread of literacy among laypeople. This section also explores how historical patterns sometimes help explain contemporary patterns in educational attainment. Next, this chapter considers hypotheses about how the cultural norms and doctrines of a religious group may affect educational attainment. It concludes with a look at some leading theories for the stark differences in educational attainment between Christians and Muslims living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Looking to the past

Contemporary access to schooling – a solid pathway to educational attainment – depends on a country’s educational infrastructure. In many instances, the foundations of that infrastructure are based on facilities originally built by religious leaders and organizations to promote learning and spread the faith.

In India, the most learned men (and sometimes women) of ancient times were residents of Buddhist and Hindu monasteries. In the Middle East and Europe, Christian monks built libraries and, in the days before printing presses, preserved important earlier writings produced in Latin, Greek and Arabic. In many cases, these religious monasteries evolved into universities.

Other universities, particularly in the United States and Europe, were built by Christian denominations to educate their clergy and lay followers. Most of these institutions have since become secular in orientation, but their presence may help explain why populations in the U.S. and Europe are highly educated.

Apart from their roles in creating educational infrastructure, religious groups were foundational in fostering societal attitudes toward education.

There is considerable debate among scholars over the degree to which Islam has encouraged or discouraged secular education over the centuries. Some experts note that the first word of the Quran as it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad is “Iqra!” which means “Read!” or “Recite!”; they say Muslims are urged to pursue knowledge in order to better understand God’s revealed word. Early Muslims made innovative intellectual contributions in such fields as mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, medicine and poetry. They established schools, often at mosques, known as katatib and madrasas. 31 Islamic rulers built libraries and educational complexes, such as Baghdad’s House of Wisdom and Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, to nurture advanced scholarship. Under Muslim rule, southern Spain was a center of higher learning, producing such figures as the renowned Muslim philosopher Averroes. 32

But other scholars contend that these educational attainments, and the regard that Muslims had for intellectual inquiry in realms outside religion, were gradually attenuated by a complex mix of social and political events over several centuries. These events included foreign invasions, first by the Mongols, who destroyed the House of Wisdom in 1258, and then by Christians, who pushed Muslims out of Spain in 1492. Some scholars argue that the educational decline began earlier, in the 11th and 12th centuries, and was rooted in institutional changes. In particular, contends Harvard University Associate Professor of Economics Eric Chaney, the decline was caused by an increase in the political power of religious leaders who prioritized Islamic religious learning over scientific education. 33 Their growing influence helped bring about a crucial shift in the Islamic approach to learning: It became dominated by the idea that divine revelation is superior to other types of knowledge, and that religious education should consist of learning only what Islamic scholars had said and written in the past. 34

In the view of some historians, this shift severely constricted intellectual inquiry in the Muslim world as the natural sciences, critical questioning and art were downplayed. 35 Education became primarily the study of established, traditional religious and legal canons. This change also tightened religious scholars’ control over the education of Muslims in Africa and the Middle East – a hold that was not broken until colonial governments and Christian missionaries introduced Western-style educational institutions. 36

Some scholars argue that the decline in secular learning and the narrowing of intellectual inquiry among Muslims have been exaggerated, or did not take place. Columbia University history professor George Saliba writes: “In particular, the decline of Islamic science, which was supposed to have been caused by the religious environment … does not seem to have taken place in reality. On the contrary, if we only look at the surviving scientific documents, we can clearly delineate a very flourishing activity in almost every scientific discipline” after the 12th century. 37

Nowadays, Islamic religious leaders and religious schools still have great influence on education in some Muslim-majority countries, but they compete with government and private schools offering secular topics.

Christianity

In the view of some scholars, the 16th-century Protestant Reformation was a driving force for public education in Europe. Protestant reformers promoted literacy because of their contention that everyone needed to read the Bible, which they viewed as the essential authority on doctrinal matters. Driven by this theological conviction, religious leaders urged the building of schools and the translation of the Bible into local languages – and Reformation leader Martin Luther set the example by translating the Bible into German.

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In more recent times, religion was a prime motivator in establishing U.S. schools run by faith groups – including Quakers, Protestants and Catholics – that educated generations of immigrant families. 38

Historically, however, Christianity and science often have come into conflict with each other, as illustrated by the 17th century clash between astronomer Galileo Galilei and the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the condemnation by prominent religious leaders of Charles Darwin’s 1859 theory of human evolution. The Scopes Monkey trial in 1925 further highlighted the rift between science and some branches of Christianity over the theory of evolution, a contentious relationship that endures even today. 39

In sub-Saharan Africa, meanwhile, scholars describe how religious missionaries during colonial times were the prime movers in constructing educational facilities and influencing local attitudes toward education. These missionary activities, the scholars conclude, have had a long-lasting positive impact on access to schooling and educational attainment levels in the region.

Research by Baylor University sociologist Robert D. Woodberry, for instance, suggests that Protestant missionaries in Africa “had a unique role in spreading mass education” because of the importance they placed on ordinary people’s ability to read scripture. As a result, they established schools to promote literacy wherever they went and translated the Bible into indigenous languages. 40

Harvard University economics professor Nathan Nunn, who contends that education was “the main reward used by missionaries to lure Africans into the Christian sphere,” says that in addition to establishing schools, “missionaries may have altered people’s views about the importance of education.” 41

Woodberry and Nunn conclude, however, that Protestant and Catholic missionaries had differing results. Except where they were in direct competition with Protestant missionaries, Catholic missionaries concentrated on educating African elites rather than the masses, Woodberry observes. And Nunn notes that Protestant missionaries placed greater stress than Catholics on educating women. As a result, Protestants had more long-term impact on the education of sub-Saharan African women. 42

Scholars of Buddhism note that Siddhartha Gautama, the religion’s founder, often is called “teacher” because of his emphasis on “the miracle of instruction.” He considered learning essential for attaining the Buddhist goal of enlightenment. 43

“In many ways, Buddhism is particularly dedicated to education because unlike many other religions it contends that a human being can attain his or her own enlightenment (‘salvation’) without divine intervention,” writes Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago.

Buddhism is “also extremely empirical in its approach, suggesting that followers try the experiment of dharma (i.e., Buddha’s Four Noble Truths) for themselves to see if it improves their inner freedom,” Asma notes, adding: “Because the philosophy of Buddhism takes this pragmatic approach favoring education and experiment, Buddhism has little to no formal disagreement with science (as evidenced by the Dalai Lama’s ongoing collaboration with neuroscientists).”

This theoretical openness to scientific knowledge, however, did not always play out at the practical level within Buddhist communities, Asma contends. “Powerful Buddhist monasteries, especially in China and Tibet, frequently resisted modernization (including science) for fear of foreign influence and threats to entrenched Buddhist power structures,” he writes. 44

Despite this tension between theory and practice, Buddhism has been a major influence on the educational systems of many places, especially India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Tibet. From around the fifth century onward, Buddhist monasteries emerged as centers of education, not just for monks but also for laymen. Several monasteries became so large and complex that they are considered prototypes of today’s universities. In India, the most famous of these educational centers – Nalanda, in what is now Bihar state – is said to have had 10,000 students from many different countries, and offered courses in what then constituted philosophy, politics, economics, law, agriculture, astronomy, medicine and literature. 45

For Hindus, education vanquishes a fundamental source of human suffering, which is ignorance, says Anantanand Rambachan, a professor of religion at St. Olaf College. As a result, education has been highly valued in Hinduism since the religion’s inception in ancient times. Hindu scriptures urge adherents to seek knowledge through dialogue and questioning, and to respect their teachers. “Learning is the foundational stage in the Hindu scheme of what constitutes a good and a meaningful life,” Rambachan says. Since ignorance is regarded as a source of human suffering, he adds, “the solution to the problem of ignorance is knowledge or learning.”

The Hindu esteem for education is reflected in different ways. To start with, the most authoritative Hindu scriptures are the Vedas, a word that comes from the Sanskrit root word vd , which means knowledge, Rambachan says.

University of Florida religion professor Vasudha Narayanan says Hindus regard two types of knowledge as necessary and worthwhile. The first, vidya, is everyday knowledge that equips one to earn a decent and dignified life. The second, jnana , is knowledge or wisdom that brings awareness of the divine. This is achieved by reading and meditating on Hindu scriptures.

Historically, the caste system in India was a huge barrier to the spread of mass literacy and education. Formal education was reserved for elite populations. But in the seventh and eighth centuries, the vernacular language of Tamil began to be used for religious devotion in southern India, which led to greater access to all kinds of knowledge for a wider group of people. “That is when you start having men and women of different castes composing poems of praise for God, poems that are still recited in temple liturgy today,” Narayanan says.

Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, both secular and religious education came to be seen by Hindus as a universal right, and it gradually began to be extended to all members of the faith. Still, today, the vast majority of Hindus (98%) live in developing countries – mainly India, Nepal and Bangladesh – that have struggled to raise educational standards in the face of widespread poverty and expanding populations, which helps explain why Hindus have relatively low educational attainment compared with other major religious groups.

High levels of Jewish educational attainment may be rooted in ancient religious norms, according to some recent scholarship. The Torah encourages parents to educate their children. This prescription was not mandatory, however, until the first century.

Sometime around 65 C.E., Jewish high priest Joshua ben Gamla issued a religious decree that every Jewish father should send his young sons to primary school to learn to read in order to study the Torah. A few years later, in the year 70, the Roman army destroyed the Second Temple following a Jewish revolt. Temple rituals had been a pillar of Jewish religious life. To replace them, Jewish religious leaders emphasized the need for studying the Torah in synagogues. They also gave increased importance to the earlier religious decree on educating sons, making it a compulsory religious duty for all Jewish fathers. Over the next few centuries, a formal school system attached to synagogues was established.

These developments signaled “a profound transformation” of Judaism, according to economic historians Maristella Botticini of Bocconi University and Zvi Eckstein of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Judaism became, they write, “a religion whose main norm required every Jewish man to read and to study the Torah in Hebrew and to send his sons from the age of 6 or 7 to primary school or synagogue to learn to do so. … Throughout the first millennium, no people other than the Jews had a norm requiring fathers to educate their sons.” 46

This religious obligation meant that male Jews, to a greater degree than their contemporaries, were literate, which gave them an advantage in commerce and trade. Jewish scholarship was enhanced in the early Middle Ages, beginning in the late sixth century, by the emergence of Talmudic academies of Sura and Pumbedita in what is now Iraq. In the late Middle Ages, centers of Jewish learning, including the study of science and medicine, emerged in what is today northern Spain and southern France.

Until the early 19 th century, however, most education of Jewish boys was primarily religious. That began to change with the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment movement initiated by East and Central European Jews.

This intellectual movement sought to blend secular humanism with the Jewish faith and to encourage openness to secular scholarship among Jews. It revived Hebrew as a language of poetry and literature, which reflected the reformers’ appreciation of their Jewish religious heritage. At the same time, they were strong proponents of reforming Jewish education by including secular subjects, such as European literature and the natural sciences. This educational project often brought the reformists into conflict with more orthodox Jewish religious leaders. 47

Contemporary religious norms and doctrines, including teachings on gender

Scholars also have explored how religions’ cultural norms and doctrines may affect educational attainment by determining which subjects are taught in schools, how much emphasis is placed on religious knowledge versus secular education, and if there is gender parity in educational attainment. 48

There has been considerable research on ways in which religious teachings on gender roles may be linked to women’s educational attainment. Some scholars have noted that from the Reformation onward, Protestant groups encouraged educating women, with effects that still resonate today. “Martin Luther urged each town to have a girls’ school so that girls would learn to read the Gospel, evoking a surge of building girls’ schools in Protestant areas,” write economic professors Sascha O. Becker, of the University of Warwick, and Ludger Woessmann, of the University of Munich. Looking at 1970 data for European countries, the two conclude that countries with higher shares of Protestants were “clearly associated” with greater parity between men and women in years of education. 49

Woodberry and Nunn, experts on missionary activity in sub-Saharan Africa, both highlight the Protestant missionaries’ insistence that girls and women be educated. In the missionaries’ view, “ everyone needed access to ‘God’s word’ – not just elites,” writes Woodberry. “Therefore, everyone needed to read, including women and the poor.” 50

By contrast, cultural and religious norms in Muslim societies often hinder women’s education. Lake Forest College political scientist Fatima Z. Rahman examines how family laws in Muslim-majority countries can affect women’s higher education. She finds that when a country’s family laws closely conform to a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law, the share of women in higher education is smaller. This is not the case when family laws are based on more general Islamic precepts. The stricter laws “impose a limit on physical mobility which is typically required for pursuing higher education or a career,” Rahman concludes. 51 There are signs that this could be changing, however, as women make gains in higher education in some conservative Muslim countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council – including Saudi Arabia.

Some academic studies have probed ways a particular religion’s attitude toward secular knowledge – whether it is seen as a necessity for spiritual growth or as a distraction from achieving personal salvation – can affect the pursuit of formal education. In this regard, sociologists Darren E. Sherkat, of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Alfred Darnell, a visiting lecturer at Washington University in St. Louis, find that “fundamentalist beliefs and conservative Protestant affiliation both have significant and substantial negative influences on educational attainment.” Young followers of fundamentalist religious leaders, they add, “will likely limit their educational pursuits.” They suggest that Christians who regard the Bible as inerrant – that is, as the error-free word of God – are less likely to enroll in college preparatory classes and “have significantly lower educational aspirations than other respondents.” 52

While Darnell and Sherkat focus their research on Christians in the United States, their observations about how religious attitudes toward secular knowledge may affect attainment offer possible insights into attainment patterns seen in other religions and other parts of the world.

Some scholars, however, hypothesize that higher levels of religious observance and engagement produce greater educational attainment. They posit that religious involvement enhances an individual’s social capital in the form of family and peer networks, which promote educational success. University of Texas sociologists Chandra Muller and Christopher G. Ellison, in a study of U.S. teenagers, find that there is “a positive influence of religious involvement on several key academic outcomes,” such as obtaining a high school diploma. 53 Similarly, in her study of women raised as conservative Protestants, University of Illinois economics professor Evelyn L. Lehrer observes that those who frequently attended religious services during adolescence completed one more year of schooling than their less observant peers. 54

Strong social capital also is proposed by Paul Burstein, a sociologist at the University of Washington, as a topic needing further research to explain the high educational attainment of Jews. Research focused on the social capital approach, Burstein argues, provides “a framework for showing how Jewish religious beliefs and practices, and the organizations created to sustain them, help Jews acquire skills and resources useful in the pursuit of secular education and economic success.” 55

Burstein argues that previous studies looking at “beliefs or behaviors that are specifically Jewish,” or at Jewish “marginality” – either from traditional Judaism or Western society in general – have not offered complete explanations for Jewish educational success.

While this chapter looks at the impact of religion on education, there are also theories on education’s impact on religion – perhaps most notably, that high educational attainment could potentially lead to a shedding of religious identity. If this is true, one might expect higher percentages of religiously unaffiliated people in parts of the world with high educational attainment. A sidebar in Chapter 3 explores data relating to this question, finding mixed results. 56

The puzzle of sub-Saharan Africa’s attainment gap

As noted earlier in this report , the difference between Christian and Muslim educational attainment in sub-Saharan Africa is among the largest intraregional gaps in the world. The region’s rapid projected population growth – both Christians and Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to double in number by 2050 – suggests that determining the reasons for the attainment gap will only grow in importance. 57

Some scholars suggest that the source of the Christian-Muslim attainment gap is rooted in the location of Christian missionary activity during colonial times. Missionary-built educational facilities were often located in what became heavily Christian areas rather than predominantly Muslim locales. 58 For example, while school establishment was widespread as a result of missionary activity in many regions under British colonial rule, in northern Nigeria, which is now overwhelmingly Muslim, British colonial administrators discouraged missionary activity, including development of missionary schools. Historic differences between colonial policy and missionary activity in northern and southern Nigeria are likely an important factor in the present-day Christian-Muslim education gap in Nigeria. 59

Some Muslims, in any case, feared that missionary schools would attempt to convert their children to Christianity. 60

As a result, Christians gained an educational edge over Muslims that lasted decades. Writes Nunn: “The presence of Christian missionaries, particularly Protestant missionaries, has been shown to be strongly correlated with increased educational attainment and the effects appear to persist for many generations.” 61

In his study of Christian versus Muslim primary school enrollment, Holger Daun, an expert in educational policy at Stockholm University, argues that religion counts as much as economic factors in determining attainment. He finds no definitive explanation for the gap, but posits that one factor may be that religious schools set up by local Islamic leaders are viewed as an alternative to government schools. Some of the Islamic schools follow the curricula of state schools, while others teach only religious subjects. 62

Melina Platas, an assistant professor of political science at New York University-Abu Dhabi, argues that the Christian-Muslim attainment gap, particularly in Muslim-majority areas, is only partly explained by poverty and access to schools. Surveys she conducted in Malawi found that Muslims and Christians express similar demands for formal education and do not perceive a trade-off between religious and formal schooling that would affect educational attainment. 63

She offers two alternative explanations for further research. One, she writes, is that parents with low levels of education are less able to help their children attend and succeed in school “even if they have similar expectations for the economic returns of schooling as more educated parents.” This intergenerational pattern may be stronger in Muslim-majority areas, where many parents have low educational attainment.

Platas suggests that a second possible explanation, particularly for Muslim-majority areas, is that some Muslims may believe that secular government schools are Christian-oriented. As during the colonial period, therefore, they may fear that attending these schools poses a threat to their religious identity and to the practice of their faith. 64

Sociologist Nicolette D. Manglos-Weber of Kansas State University offers a similar insight based on her research in 17 sub-Saharan African countries, finding that “religious identity shapes the odds of completing primary school.”

“At both national and local levels,” she writes, “there is an association between Christian groups and the state, which potentially discourages those of other religions from seeing state-sponsored schools as legitimate.”

As a result, Muslims may not favor state-sponsored schooling for their children to the same degree that Christians do, preferring instead to send them to Islamic religious schools. Muslim participation is even lower in countries that have mandatory teaching of religion in government primary schools, Manglos-Weber adds. She characterizes the perceived lack of legitimacy as a “legacy of the historical links between Christian missionization and the colonial project.” 65

In sum, scholars are still exploring the reasons behind differences in educational attainment between Muslims and Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. The gaps appear to be partly a result of historical developments, especially Christian missionary activity and colonial policy. A host of contemporary economic, social, cultural and religious factors may also play a role.

Hefner, Robert W. and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, eds. 2007. “Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education.” ↩
For descriptions of the intellectual climate under early Islam, see Sardar, Ziauddin. 1993. “ Paper, Printing and Compact Disks: The Making and Unmaking of Islamic Culture .” Media, Culture and Society. Also see Ahmad, Imad-ad-Dean. 2006. “Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer’s Perspective on Religion and Science.” ↩
Chaney, Eric. 2016. “ Religion and the Rise and Fall of Islamic Science .” Harvard University working paper. ↩
For descriptions of this intellectual shift and its consequences, see Sardar, Ziauddin. 1993. “ Paper, Printing and Compact Disks: The Making and Unmaking of Islamic Culture .” Media, Culture and Society. Also see Ahmad, Imad-ad-Dean. 2006. “Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer’s Perspective on Religion and Science.” Also see Bulliet, Richard W. 1994. “Islam, the View from the Edge . ” Also see Tibi, Bassam. 1993. “The Worldview of Sunni Arab Fundamentalists: Attitudes Toward Science and Technology.” In Marty, Martin E. and R. Scott Appleby, eds. “Fundamentalisms and Society.” Also see Halstead, J. Mark. 2004. “ An Islamic Concept of Education .” Comparative Education. ↩
Chaney, Eric. 2016. “ Religion and the Rise and Fall of Islamic Science .” Harvard University working paper. Also see Sardar, Ziauddin. 1993. “ Paper, Printing and Compact Disks: The Making and Unmaking of Islamic Culture .” Media, Culture and Society. Also see Ahmad, Imad-ad-Dean. 2006. “Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer’s Perspective on Religion and Science.” ↩
Hefner, Robert W. and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, eds. 2007. “Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education.” Hefner and Zaman write: “However different their details, the educational transformations in the broader Muslim world all had one thing in common. The ulama’s {religious scholar’s} monopoly on education had been broken once and for all. … The new educational pluralism brought intensified competition between supporters of general as opposed to religious education, and fierce public debate over the place of Islam in an imagined postcolonial community.” ↩
Saliba, George. 2007. “Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance.” For other scholars who argue that the constrictions on intellectual innovation have been exaggerated by historians, see Hourani, Albert. 1991. “A History of the Arab Peoples.” Also see Hallaq, Wael B. 1984. “ Was the Gate of Ijithad Closed? ” International Journal of Middle East Studies. ↩
Although Christian Sunday schools are now usually devoted to religious instruction, their roots lie in the British Sunday school movement started in 1780s. Launched by Christian religious leaders, the schools initially were intended to teach literacy to poor children. Their textbook was the Bible. ↩
In 1633, the Roman Catholic Church’s Inquisition sentenced Galileo to house arrest for the rest of his life and banned his writings after finding him “vehemently suspect of heresy” for contending that the earth revolved around the sun. The church regarded this view – later accepted as scientific fact – as contrary to Holy Scripture. England’s highest-ranking Catholic official, Henry Cardinal Manning, denounced Darwin’s views as “a brutal philosophy – to wit, there is no God, and the ape is our Adam.” Samuel Wilberforce, the Anglican Archbishop of Oxford and one of the most highly respected religious leaders in 19th-century England, also condemned the theory of evolution by natural selection. The defendant in the Scopes Monkey Trial, high school teacher John Scopes, was convicted of violating a Tennessee law banning the teaching of human evolution in government-funded schools. ↩
Woodberry, Robert D. 2012. “ The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy .” American Political Science Review. Woodberrry’s principal argument is that the Protestant missionaries helped spread democracy in Africa when they prioritized education and literacy as a means of conversion. “(I)n trying to spread their faith, (they) expanded religious liberty, overcame resistance to mass education and printing, fostered civil society, moderated colonial abuses and dissipated elite power,” he writes. “These conditions laid a foundation for democracy.” ↩
Nunn, Nathan. 2012. “ Gender and Missionary Influence in Colonial Africa .” In Akyeampong, Emmanuel, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn and James A. Robinson. 2014. “Africa’s Development in Historical Perspective.” Also see Nunn, Nathan. 2010. “ Religious Conversion in Colonial Africa .” American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 100. ↩
Woodberry, Robert D. 2012. “ The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy .” American Political Science Review. Also see Nunn, Nathan. 2012. “ Gender and Missionary Influence in Colonial Africa .” In Akyeampong, Emmanuel, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn and James A. Robinson, eds. 2014. “Africa’s Development in Historical Perspective.” ↩
Meshram, Manish. 2013. “Role of Buddhist Education in Ancient India,” International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Literature. See also “ Buddhist Attitude to Education .” ↩
Asma email correspondence with Pew Research Center. Also, Asma, Stephen T. 2010. “Why I am a Buddhist: No-Nonsense Buddhism With Red Meat and Whiskey.” ↩
Meshram, Manish. 2013. “Role of Buddhist Education in Ancient India,” International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Literature. ↩
Botticini, Maristella and Zvi Eckstein. 2012. “The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492.” ↩
Sachar, Howard M. 2005. “A History of the Jews in the Modern World.” ↩
Melina Platas, assistant professor of political science at New York University-Abu Dhabi, notes religion’s impact on curricula in her 2016 dissertation, “The Religious Roots of Inequality in Africa”: “The doctrine espoused by religious organizations can serve to increase or decrease the demand for certain types of education or certain skills among their constituents,” she writes. ↩
Becker, Sascha O. and Wößmann, Ludger. 2008. “ Luther and the Girls: Religious Denomination and the Female Education Gap in 19 th Century Prussia .” Discussion Paper No. 3837. The Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn. ↩
Rahman, Fatima Z. 2012. “Gender Equality in Muslim-Majority States and Shari’a Family Law: Is There a Link?” Australian Journal of Political Science. ↩
Darnell, Alfred and Darren E. Sherkat. 1997. “ The Impact of Protestant Fundamentalism on Educational Attainment .” American Sociological Review. A related study by Louisiana State University sociologist Samuel Stroope et. al finds that biblical literalism is “negatively associated with college completion.” See Stroope, Samuel, Aaron B. Franzen and Jeremy E. Uecker. 2015. “ Social Context and College Completion in the United States: The Role of Congregational Biblical Literalism .” Sociological Perspectives. ↩
Muller, Chandra and Christopher G. Ellison. 2001. “ Religious Involvement, Social Capital, and Adolescents’ Academic Progress: Evidence from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 .” Sociological Focus. Sociologist Mark D. Regnerus at the University of Texas at Austin finds similar results, writing that youths’ “involvement in church activities has a positive relationship with both educational expectations and math and reading achievement.” He finds that this holds true across income levels. “ Shaping Schooling Success: Religious Socialization in Educational Outcomes in Metropolitan Public Schools .” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. ↩
Lehrer, Evelyn L. 2004. “ Religiosity as a Determinant of Educational Attainment: The Case of Conservative Protestant Women in the United States .” Review of Economics of the Household. ↩
Burstein, Paul. 2007. “ Jewish Educational and Economic Success in the United States: A Search for Explanations .” Sociological Perspectives. ↩
Some studies suggest that religion and education are inversely related. For example, a 2015 study of education’s effect on Turkish women found a reduction in forms of religious expression (as measured by wearing a headscarf, praying regularly, attending Quranic studies and fasting) in women who had more years of schooling. Gulesci, Selim and Erik Meyersson. “ ‘For the Love of the Republic’ Education, Religion and Empowerment .” Working paper. A second study of Canadians in 2011 finds, “An additional year of education leads to a 4-percentage-point decline in the likelihood that an individual identifies with any religious tradition.” The author contends “that increases in schooling could explain most of the large rise in non-affiliation in Canada in recent decades.” Hungerman, Daniel M. 2011. “ The Effect of Education on Religion: Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws .” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. However, in Chapter 3 we demonstrate that the relationship between affiliation and education varies by country and that there are more countries in which young affiliated people have more education than there are countries in which young unaffiliated people have the advantage. ↩
Population estimates are from the 2015 Pew Research Center report “ The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050 .” ↩
Nunn, Nathan. 2010. “ Religious Conversion in Colonial Africa .” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 100. Also see Woodberry, Robert D. 2004. “ The Shadow of Empire: Christian Missions, Colonial Policy, and Democracy in Postcolonial Societies .” ↩
For discussion, see Frankema, Ewout H.P. 2012 “The origins of formal education in sub-Saharan Africa: was British rule more benign?” European Review of Economic History. Also see Thurston, Alex. 2016. “Colonial Control, Nigerian Agency, Arab Outreach, and Islamic Education in Northern Nigeria, 1900-1966” in Launay, Robert, ed. “Islamic Education in Africa: Writing Boards and Blackboards.” Also see Melina Platas. 2016. “The Religious Roots of Inequality in Africa.” Dissertation. ↩
See Moore, Leslie C. 2006. “Learning by Heart in Qur’anic and Public Schools in Northern Cameroon.” Social Analysis. Moore writes of Cameroon: “Public schooling is believed by many Muslims to interfere with the social, moral, and spiritual development of their children. Time spent in public school is time not spent in Qur’anic study and in learning tasks and responsibilities from one’s father or mother. Moreover, parents are concerned that their children do not learn much of any use at school, and that much of what they do learn — nasaaraaji (things of the whites) — is counter to the norms of Islam and Fulbe culture.” ↩
Nunn, Nathan. 2014. “ Gender and Missionary Influence in Colonial Africa .” In Akyeampong, Emmanuel, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn and James A. Robinson. 2014. “Africa’s Development in Historical Perspective.” Melina Platas also writes in her 2016 dissertation, “ The Religious Roots of Inequality in Africa ”: “Seeking to avoid unrest that may have come from proselytization among Muslim populations, colonial administrators were not only more likely to prevent missionaries from establishing churches but also Christian-founded schools and health facilities in areas with Islamized political institutions as compared to those without.” At the same time, Platas finds some evidence for a contradictory trend: That Muslim-run schools increased when missionary-built schools appeared in or close to Muslim-majority areas. “There is some evidence,” she writes, “that Muslims responded to missionary investments by building their own schools, but these remained relatively few in number throughout the colonial period.” ↩
Daun, Holger. 2000. “ Primary Education in sub-Saharan Africa – a moral issue, an economic matter, or both? ” Comparative Education. ↩
Some studies, however, suggest that many Muslim parents prefer their daughters attend traditional Islamic schools, because they preserve traditional female roles and may preserve religious values (See Ogunjuyigbe, Peter O. and Adebayo O. Fadeyi. 2002. “Problems of Gender Differentials in Literacy and Enrolment Among the Yorubas of South- West Nigeria.” Journal of Social Sciences. Indeed, a 2010 study of women in three villages in Nigeria finds that a Quranic education is more common than other types of school among young Muslim women. See Adiri, Farouk, Habiba Ismail Ibrahim, Victor Ajayi, Hajaratu Umar Sulayman, Anita Mfuh Yafeh and Clara L. Ejembi. 2010. “Fertility Behaviour of Men and Women in Three Communities in Kaduna State, Nigeria.” African Journal of Reproductive Health. ↩
Platas, Melina. 2016. “The Religious Roots of Inequality in Africa.” Dissertation. The perception of government schools with Western-style curricula being seen as a tool for conversion of Muslim students also is discussed in Csapo, Marg. 1981. “Religious, Social and Economic Factors Hindering the Education of Girls in Northern Nigeria.” Comparative Education. ↩
Manglos-Weber, Nicolette. 2016. “Identity, Inequality and Legitimacy: Religious Differences in Primary School Completion in sub-Saharan Africa.” Forthcoming in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. ↩

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Religion in Elementary and Secondary Education in the United States

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Religion in Elementary and Secondary Education in the United States by Diane L. Moore , Lauren R. Kerby LAST REVIEWED: 22 February 2018 LAST MODIFIED: 22 February 2018 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0198

The history of religion and education in what constitutes the modern United States is largely a story of Protestant Christian hegemony. From the influence of Puritans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Moravians, Lutherans, and Quakers in the colonial era, to the establishment of the common school movement in the 19th century, to the so-called culture wars of the past fifty years, the cultural and political influence of Protestant Christianity has informed and shaped trends in education for over four centuries. The religion clauses of the First Amendment (1791) are likewise pivotal to understanding the unfolding history of religion and education in the United States: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” At the time, this was a compromise that allowed individual states to maintain an established religion without the imposition of the federal government, while also protecting the rights of individuals to practice their religions freely; these clauses only began to apply to the states after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. The interpretation of the religion clauses has varied over the course of the nation’s history, both in public policy and in practice in differing social and cultural contexts. In the middle of the 19th century, the diversity of religious expressions among Protestants and the rise of Roman Catholicism among immigrant populations inspired Horace Mann of Massachusetts to advocate for “common schools,” the precursor to the contemporary public school system. Like public schools today, common schools were tax-supported and intended to promote common American public ideals among immigrants and US-born citizens, but they displayed a Protestant ecumenism that Roman Catholics found especially problematic. In spite of these and related tensions, Protestant hegemony in schools was legally sanctioned for over a century until two pivotal Supreme Court cases in the 1960s ( Engel v. Vitale and Abington v. Schempp , both cited under Law and Religion in Education ) declared that daily practices of educator-led Bible readings and the recitation of ecumenical (Protestant) Christian prayer were unconstitutional. These rulings sparked a backlash that helped shape what has become known as the “culture wars” that remain active today. The legacy of Protestant hegemony still lingers, however, in both what is taught about religion in public schools and how it is taught. The history of religion and education in the United States is thus a history of challenges regarding what constitutes “American values” and how the religion clauses of the First Amendment should be interpreted. The cultural and political hegemony of Protestant Christianity is a critical narrative thread in understanding this history and its contemporary manifestations.

Recent histories of religion and education in the United States serve as genealogies of today’s debates about the proper relationship of religion and government. Earlier works like Nord 1995 emphasized the need for schools to “take religion seriously” because it matters in the world. Following the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, arguments for the value of education about religion shifted to focus more on how it can mediate conflict, as seen in Feldman 2005 and Fraser 2016 . Prothero 2007 provides a historical account of how Americans came to be largely ignorant of religion, despite the close relationship of religion and education, and argues that citizenship requires religious literacy. Justice and Macleod 2016 looks at the history of religion and education in order to make recommendations for how to resolve contemporary legal debates. The recommended essays in Dinham and Francis 2015 offer the most concise introduction to the history of religion and education in the United States, and to how religion can be taught nondevotionally.

Dinham, Adam, and Matthew Francis, eds. 2015. Religious literacy in policy and practice . Bristol, UK: Policy.

While this volume primarily focuses on the United Kingdom, two essays discuss religious literacy education in the United States. Diane Moore’s essay presents her methodological assumptions and analytical frameworks for religious literacy, crystallizing key principles from her other work. Stephen Prothero and Lauren Kerby’s essay provides a brief history of religion and education in the United States, followed by a survey of current American efforts to promote religious literacy.

Feldman, Noah. 2005. Divided by God: America’s church-state problem — and what we should do about it . New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Feldman argues that most Americans misunderstand the principle of “separation of church and state” and offers a corrective reading of its history. His goal is to bridge the sharp divide between “values evangelicals” and “legal secularists” about what role religion should play in government by showing the fluidity of that role over time.

Fraser, James W. 2016. Between church and state: Religion and public education in a multicultural America . 2d ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

Fraser appeals to history to mediate the polarized 21st-century debate over the place of religion in American public schools. He chronicles how the function of public schools has changed as the religious demographics of the nation have changed. Additionally, he devotes chapters to African American slave and free communities and to Native American communities, looking at how religion and education worked together to enable or resist oppression. This is the best introductory text for undergraduates.

Justice, Benjamin, and Colin M. Macleod. 2016. Have a little faith: Religion, democracy, and the American public school . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Justice and Macleod survey the history of American religion and education from the Founding Fathers to the 21st century, using the lens of contemporary democratic theory to discuss how religion has been implicated in controversies in public schools. They argue that schools must teach students “public reason” and find a middle course between ignoring religion and promoting exclusive religious claims, so as to train students for citizenship in a religiously diverse society.

Nord, Warren A. 1995. Religion and American education: Rethinking a national dilemma . Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press.

In one of the earliest works to identify the problem that religion was (and is) often omitted from American students’ education, Nord argues that schools must “take religion seriously.” He argues that secularization has created the illusion that religion is a thing of the past, and proposes that religious and secular ways of thinking be taught together so that students can hear all voices in American public discourse.

Prothero, Stephen. 2007. Religious literacy: What every American needs to know — and doesn’t . San Francisco: HarperCollins.

Prothero argues that Americans need to be religiously literate in order to be good citizens of a society in which religion matters. He traces Americans’ descent into religious illiteracy from the colonial period to the 21st century, then proposes a solution: two required high school courses, one on world religions and one on the Bible. Prothero also includes a “Dictionary of Religious Literacy” that defines key terms and a religious literacy quiz and answer key.

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Essays on Religion and Education

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R. M. Hare is one of the most widely discussed of today's moral philosophers. In this volume he has collected his most important essays in the related fields of religion and education, some newly published and others now inaccessible. The book starts with an exposition of his ideas on the meaning of religious language. There follow several essays, theoretical and practical, on the relations between religion and morality, which have deep implications for moral education. The central question addressed in the rest of the volume is how children can be educated to think for themselves, freely but rationally, about moral questions, and the effects on society of failure to achieve this. Professor Hare argues that those who want to dispense with morality are in effect resigning from a vital educational task. Attitudes to euthanasia and to equality of educational opportunity are taken as examples of how our thinking can go wrong.

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Religious Education in Schools: Ideas and Experiences from around the World

The International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) is pleased to offer this booklet of essays from educators around the world on the topic of religious education.

Related Papers

Sergey Oganesyan

Journal of Beliefs & Values

Stephen F Bigger

International Handbooks of Religion and Education

Andrew McGrady

Najwan Saada

Paul Faller

What is the most fruitful way of relating religion and education in the school curriculum – one that holds a tension and does not allow the enterprise to collapse into an exclusively ‘religious’ activity bent on formation in a particular faith, or into an ‘educational’ one whose desired outcomes are solely competency based and measurable?

In the American context today, and perhaps in many other contexts, there is loud public conversation about curriculum and evaluation in public schools. Much of the discussion comes down to debate over whether and how to use standardized tests to determine the quality of education. Resulting from the discussion on testing (rather than preceding it) flows a debate over what a curriculum could and should include. Absent from these contentious exchanges, however, is attention to evaluation as understood in broad terms, or to ...

Rob Freathy

Studies in Philosophy and Education

Siebren Miedema

CEPS Journal

CEPS Journal , Ales Crnic

Religions have had, and still have, a critical role in shaping the world in which we live. As an ideology, they play a vital role in shaping world politics. In recent decades, we have been witnessing a kind of revival of religion and its re-entry into the public sphere. The context of modern globalisation in tandem with various political, economic, and ecological crises makes Western societies increasingly susceptible to influxes of heterogeneous groups of migrants, who bring with them cultural and religious traditions that are often markedly different from those of the majority of the local populations. The contrast between historically established religious practices and relatively newly established religions , combined with power struggles over the new public role of religion in some countries (especially evident in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe), is giving rise to complex social challenges, some of which are also manifested in the field of public education. The present issue of CEPS Journal systematically addresses these challenges. The growing pluralisation of European societies is bringing forth some old questions and opening up new dilemmas. The changing circumstances are probably not eroding the foundations of the modern public school laid during the Enlightenment period; the public school's commitment to secularity and neutrality (while also allowing for private schools with religious or other kinds of worldview affiliation) continues to remain at the core of its purpose in the 21 st century. However, some social developments and conflicts of the recent past are undoubtedly opening, repeating and/or worsening a number of difficult questions about the practical application of foundational democratic principles in specific social contexts of individual societies and nation-states. The old, fundamental question of the presence of religion-related content in school curricula has long been morphed into much more than the simple question of confessional religious instruction (as in catechesis) in public schools. When we discuss religion-related content in the public school today, we also-if not mostly-talk about the different forms of non-confessional education about religion(s). In the contemporary European context, which is marred by growing Islamophobia and the related growth of intolerant and radically exclusionist political (and other) extremisms, the need for a systematic critical introduction of pupils to the complex social and cultural phenomenon that is religion (with all its diversity in today's world) is particularly evident.

British Journal of Religious Education

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Three Essays on Religion

Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Date: September 1, 1948 to May 31, 1951 ?

Location: Chester, Pa. ?

Genre: Essay

Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Education

In the following three essays, King wrestles with the role of religion in modern society. In the first assignment, he calls science and religion “different though converging truths” that both “spring from the same seeds of vital human needs.” King emphasizes an awareness of God’s presence in the second document, noting that religion’s purpose “is not to perpetuate a dogma or a theology; but to produce living witnesses and testimonies to the power of God in human experience.” In the final handwritten essay King acknowledges the life-affirming nature of Christianity, observing that its adherents have consistently “looked forward for a time to come when the law of love becomes the law of life.”

"Science and Religion"

There is widespread belief in the minds of many that there is a conflict between science and religion. But there is no fundamental issue between the two. While the conflict has been waged long and furiously, it has been on issues utterly unrelated either to religion or to science. The conflict has been largely one of trespassing, and as soon as religion and science discover their legitimate spheres the conflict ceases.

Religion, of course, has been very slow and loath to surrender its claim to sovereignty in all departments of human life; and science overjoyed with recent victories, has been quick to lay claim to a similar sovereignty. Hence the conflict.

But there was never a conflict between religion and science as such. There cannot be. Their respective worlds are different. Their methods are dissimilar and their immediate objectives are not the same. The method of science is observation, that of religion contemplation. Science investigates. Religion interprets. One seeks causes, the other ends. Science thinks in terms of history, religion in terms of teleology. One is a survey, the other an outlook.

The conflict was always between superstition disguised as religion and materialism disguised as science, between pseudo-science and pseudo-religion.

Religion and science are two hemispheres of human thought. They are different though converging truths. Both science and religion spring from the same seeds of vital human needs.

Science is the response to the human need of knowledge and power. Religion is the response to the human need for hope and certitude. One is an outreaching for mastery, the other for perfection. Both are man-made, and like man himself, are hedged about with limitations. Neither science nor religion, by itself, is sufficient for man. Science is not civilization. Science is organized knowledge; but civilization which is the art of noble and progressive communal living requires much more than knowledge. It needs beauty which is art, and faith and moral aspiration which are religion. It needs artistic and spiritual values along with the intellectual.

Man cannot live by facts alone. What we know is little enough. What we are likely to know will always be little in comparison with what there is to know. But man has a wish-life which must build inverted pyramids upon the apexes of known facts. This is not logical. It is, however, psychological.

Science and religion are not rivals. It is only when one attempts to be the oracle at the others shrine that confusion arises. Whan the scientist from his laboratory, on the basis of alleged scientific knowledge presumes to issue pronouncements on God, on the origin and destiny of life, and on man's place in the scheme of things he is [ passing? ] out worthless checks. When the religionist delivers ultimatums to the scientist on the basis of certain cosomologies embedded in the sacred text then he is a sorry spectacle indeed.

When religion, however, on the strength of its own postulates, speaks to men of God and the moral order of the universe, when it utters its prophetic burden of justice and love and holiness and peace, then its voice is the voice of the eternal spiritual truth, irrefutable and invincible.,

"The Purpose of Religion"

What is the purpose of religion? 1 Is it to perpetuate an idea about God? Is it totally dependent upon revelation? What part does psychological experience play? Is religion synonymous with theology?

Harry Emerson Fosdick says that the most hopeful thing about any system of theology is that it will not last. 2 This statement will shock some. But is the purpose of religion the perpetuation of theological ideas? Religion is not validated by ideas, but by experience.

This automatically raises the question of salvation. Is the basis for salvation in creeds and dogmas or in experience. Catholics would have us believe the former. For them, the church, its creeds, its popes and bishops have recited the essence of religion and that is all there is to it. On the other hand we say that each soul must make its own reconciliation to God; that no creed can take the place of that personal experience. This was expressed by Paul Tillich when he said, “There is natural religion which belongs to man by nature. But there is also a revealed religion which man receives from a supernatural reality.” 3 Relevant religion therefore, comes through revelation from God, on the one hand; and through repentance and acceptance of salvation on the other hand. 4 Dogma as an agent in salvation has no essential place.

This is the secret of our religion. This is what makes the saints move on in spite of problems and perplexities of life that they must face. This religion of experience by which man is aware of God seeking him and saving him helps him to see the hands of God moving through history.

Religion has to be interpreted for each age; stated in terms that that age can understand. But the essential purpose of religion remains the same. It is not to perpetuate a dogma or theology; but to produce living witnesses and testimonies to the power of God in human experience.

[ signed ] M. L. King Jr. 5

"The Philosophy of Life Undergirding Christianity and the Christian Ministry"

Basically Christianity is a value philosophy. It insists that there are eternal values of intrinsic, self-evidencing validity and worth, embracing the true and the beautiful and consummated in the Good. This value content is embodied in the life of Christ. So that Christian philosophy is first and foremost Christocentric. It begins and ends with the assumption that Christ is the revelation of God. 6

We might ask what are some of the specific values that Christianity seeks to conserve? First Christianity speaks of the value of the world. In its conception of the world, it is not negative; it stands over against the asceticisms, world denials, and world flights, for example, of the religions of India, and is world-affirming, life affirming, life creating. Gautama bids us flee from the world, but Jesus would have us use it, because God has made it for our sustenance, our discipline, and our happiness. 7 So that the Christian view of the world can be summed up by saying that it is a place in which God is fitting men and women for the Kingdom of God.

Christianity also insists on the value of persons. All human personality is supremely worthful. This is something of what Schweitzer has called “reverence for life.” 8 Hunan being must always be used as ends; never as means. I realize that there have been times that Christianity has short at this point. There have been periods in Christians history that persons have been dealt with as if they were means rather than ends. But Christianity at its highest and best has always insisted that persons are intrinsically valuable. And so it is the job of the Christian to love every man because God love love. We must not love men merely because of their social or economic position or because of their cultural contribution, but we are to love them because God they are of value to God.

Christianity is also concerned about the value of life itself. Christianity is concerned about the good life for every child, man, and woman and child. This concern for the good life and the value of life is no where better expressed than in the words of Jesus in the gospel of John: “I came that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” 9 This emphasis has run throughout the Christian tradition. Christianity has always had a concern for the elimination of disease and pestilence. This is seen in the great interest that it has taken in the hospital movement.

Christianity is concerned about increasing value. The whole concept of the kingdom of God on earth expressing a concern for increasing value. We need not go into a dicussion of the nature and meaning of the Kingdom of God, only to say that Christians throughout the ages have held tenaciouly to this concept. They have looked forward for a time to come when the law of love becomes the law of life.

In the light of all that we have said about Christianity as a value philosophy, where does the ministry come into the picture? 10

1. King may have also considered the purpose of religion in a Morehouse paper that is no longer extant, as he began a third Morehouse paper, “Last week we attempted to discuss the purpose of religion” (King, “The Purpose of Education,” September 1946-February 1947, in Papers 1:122).

2. “Harry Emerson Fosdick” in American Spiritual Autobiographies: Fifteen Self-Portraits, ed. Louis Finkelstein (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 114: “The theology of any generation cannot be understood, apart from the conditioning social matrix in which it is formulated. All systems of theology are as transient as the cultures they are patterned from.”

3. King further developed this theme in his dissertation: “[Tillich] finds a basis for God's transcendence in the conception of God as abyss. There is a basic inconsistency in Tillich's thought at this point. On the one hand he speaks as a religious naturalist making God wholly immanent in nature. On the other hand he speaks as an extreme supernaturalist making God almost comparable to the Barthian ‘wholly other’” (King, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,” 15 April 1955, in Papers 2:535).

4. Commas were added after the words “religion” and “salvation.”

5. King folded this assignment lengthwise and signed his name on the verso of the last page.

6. King also penned a brief outline with this title (King, “The Philosophy of Life Undergirding Christianity and the Christian Ministry,” Outline, September 1948-May 1951). In the outline, King included the reference “see Enc. Of Religion p. 162.” This entry in An Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Vergilius Ferm (New York: Philosophical Library, 1946) contains a definition of Christianity as “Christo-centric” and as consisting “of eternal values of intrinsic, self-evidencing validity and worth, embracing the true and the beautiful and consummated in the Good.” King kept this book in his personal library.

7. Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-ca. 483 BCE) was the historical Buddha.

8. For an example of Schweitzer's use of the phrase “reverence for life,” see Albert Schweitzer, “The Ethics of Reverence for Life,” Christendom 1 (1936): 225-239.

9. John 10:10.

10. In his outline for this paper, King elaborated: “The Ministry provides leadership in helping men to recognize and accept the eternal values in the Xty religion. a. The necessity of a call b. The necessity for disinterested love c. The [ necessity ] for moral uprightness” (King, “Philosophy of Life,” Outline, September 1948-May 1951).

Source: CSKC-INP, Coretta Scott King Collection, In Private Hands, Sermon file.

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The Role of Religion in Public Education Essay

Introduction, the role religion in public education.

Bibliography

The extent and presence of religion in communal schools is a contentious and difficult issue. The latest advance by public educators to do away with religion in school programs may confirm to be injurious towards developing coaching of students. The US government has tried to interpret the proper link between public schools and religion for many years.

The role of religion in public schools has been highly debated. This paper explores the roles played by religion in public education. Due to the significance of these roles; it supports the idea that religious schools should receive public aid.

Religion has played an important role in public education by collectively joining people of diverse nationalities, culture, languages and creed. It has integrated these people together on the grounds of what they share and endeavor to achieve jointly. Moreover, it has allowed students from diverse cultures to develop a union of purpose and spirit that celebrates and appreciates their diversity.

This has promoted civil unity from which religious harmony is certain to grow. Besides, religious education has significantly contributed towards developing an informed and integrated society that enhances unity in diversity. 1 Therefore, religious schools should be supported.

In expounding the role of religion in communal education, it is imperative to mention that the advantages of a consistent teaching program in the lessons attached to religion should be appreciated. A plural, open, historically informed, interdisciplinary and intercultural teaching on religion in communal schools is in line with global development agenda.

Additionally, it is a concept that is gaining popularity and significance throughout the world. The role of religion in education is a significant human need which all students should be aware of if they are to be considered educated. Hence, schools that embrace religion should receive public aid.

Religion plays a significant role in expounding the origin of the world. It is difficult to teach literature, philosophy or history without comprehending religion and its effects in the contemporary society. Efforts to secularize the past distort power that created the planet in which we live in. Providing elective lessons in world religions or lessons to study bible stories and how they affect literature is absolutely correct towards good quality education.

However, teaching a particular religious principle or providing prayer in a specific religious tradition is completely a different issue. In public schooling, the enforced practice of a specific religion, or the training of certain religious practices is inappropriate. If all schools could provide religious courses where students would study religion instead of being instructed with religion, then such schools should be supported by the public.

Religious education promotes spirituality by instructing the public on how to interact with environment around them, and allowing spirituality to direct their individual growth. Religious education helps the public to appreciate that they are equal in the world which may be perceived as an enormous kingdom that motivates fear. 2

Hence, religion helps students to understand the ways they can boost their morals in society and also employ their personal talents and self worth. Therefore, religious education plays a vital role of promoting morality in public schools and for this reason, religious schools ought to be supported.

Religious education helps the public in understanding different convictions, what they accept as true as well as how and why this has influenced history. It is impossible to learn and understand our neighbors without comprehending their religious beliefs. Therefore, schools that include religion in their study programs should be encouraged.

Religious education plays an important role in allowing schools to teach courses that are intellectually essential to develop educated population. These include literature, mathematics, history, arts, languages, sciences and social studies. These subjects constitute the unrefined resources which can be used by the future generation to model the vision of a democratic system and their careers. Consequently, schools that include religion in their curriculum ought to receive public aid.

Inclusion of religious education in school curricula has promoted social justice and respect for environment among students. This has been achieved by encouraging religious education that embraces common values promoted by every religion such as human exploration for the implication and the integrity of service to other people.

In addition, religious education provides students with a learning program that discusses religion in its broadest meaning. This form of education has allowed students to engage with several religious backgrounds in a manner that encourages them to develop their moral dimensions and personal wellbeing.

Religious education enhances a reasonable approach towards learning and teaching various elements that are valued by society. It offers the public an opportunity to understand itself better and develop a wider social acceptance of other people. 3 . By instructing students on the function of religion in society, an integrated, multi-traditional program in religious study forms a crucial component of a well structured and inclusive education.

Religious education offers an opportunity for students to develop a disciplined approach that will empower them to appreciate a universal humanity in religious multiplicity. It forms a context in which students can improve their individual perception and the way they perceive other people, deepen their potential for sympathy and ultimately reflect seriously on challenges facing religious concerns. 4

Religion plays a crucial aspect of human undertaking that students ought to learn. Religious study programs provide students with relevant and significant discipline of knowledge. Religion plays an important role in public education by promoting specific concerns, founded on the general conviction that societal problems originate from lack of religious faith.

This can only be rectified through a specific interpretation of religion. The knowledge, appreciation and understanding of the extent of our textured and rich religious multiplicity are mirrored in school curriculums.

Religion is not restricted towards various cultures in society. It is also concerned with origins and traditional practices of various communities in society. Therefore, religious education is crucial, though it cannot be regarded as an exclusive foundation of ethical values.

There is increasing fear concerning the universal deterioration of ethical standards in the world, the increasing crime rates and evident lack of value for human life. These are important areas of concern. Religious education provides the basis for moral restoration. 5 It is also a major resource designed for clarifying ethics, morals, and developing respect for other people.

To recap it all, it is worth mentioning that religion has played vital roles in public education. For instance, it has assisted students to develop acceptable societal morals alongside contributing towards the well being of society in general. As a matter of fact, religion has been instrumental in reducing crime rate. Therefore, it is important for the public to support schools that include religion in their curriculum.

Duncan, Ann & Jones, Steven. Church-state issues in America today . Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2008.

Fraser, James. Between church and state: religion and public education in a multicultural America . New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Nord, Warren. Religion and American education: rethinking a national dilemma . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

Ann Duncan & Jones Steven, Church-state issues in America today . (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2008), 100.
James Fraser, Between church and state: religion and public education in a multicultural America . (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 200.
Ann Duncan & Jones Steven, p.100
Warren Nord, Religion and American education: rethinking a national dilemma . (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 400.
James Fraser, p.88.
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Finding objective ways to talk about religion in the classroom is tough − but the cost of not doing so is clear

Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton

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Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Dayton provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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Religious strife is common in many places. While the United States has a great deal of litigation and controversy over religion’s place in public life, it has largely avoided violence. Yet our society often seems unprepared to talk constructively about this contentious topic, especially in schools.

According to the IDEALS survey of college students on 122 U.S. campuses, conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University, Ohio State University and the nonprofit Interfaith America, just 32% of students said they had developed the skills “to interact with people of diverse beliefs.” Although almost three-quarters of students spent time learning about people of different races, ethnicities or countries, less than half of them reported learning about various religions. Most students received “C” grades or below on the survey’s religious literacy quiz.

Objective education about the world’s religions has the potential to foster tolerance and understanding , and various research groups provide guidelines for religious literacy education . Yet the study of religion may be hindered by hesitation about what is and isn’t legal in public classrooms – a topic I write about often as a professor of law and education , with a particular interest in these fields’ relationships to religion.

Other countries also face challenges in deciding what kind of religion-related instruction can or can’t be legally taught in public schools, and each deals with the question in different ways.

A peaceful scene inside a sunlit classroom with colorful decorations in the windows.

US legal landscape

Though there have been many Supreme Court cases over issues of church and state in public schools, most deal with the First Amendment freedoms of students, staff and parents rather than what’s officially taught in class.

There has been relatively little litigation about what teachers can and can’t instruct students in matters that touch on religion. Two of the exceptions involved lessons about evolution: one decided in 1968 , the other in 1987 . In both cases, the Supreme Court upheld educators’ right to teach evolution, rather than the biblical accounts of creation, to explain human origins.

Federal trial courts in Mississippi and Florida banned courses in the 1990s that included instruction about the New Testament, ruling that the way they were taught crossed a line and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution. However, this was because the courts determined instruction was being given from a Christian perspective. The court in Florida did allow teaching about the Hebrew scriptures, because the focus was on the texts’ cultural and literary significance.

In the Supreme Court’s closest response to the question of teaching about religion in public schools, 1963’s School District of Abington Township v. Schempp , eight of the nine justices agreed that state-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools violates the establishment clause. Yet the court recognized that “ the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”

The court’s decision “plainly does not foreclose teaching about the Holy Scriptures or about the differences between religious sects in classes in literature or history,” Justice William Brennan added in a concurrence . Thus, consistent with religious literacy programs’ approach, public schools can teach about religion, but not in ways that seek to instill systems of belief.

International perspectives

To place the issue in perspective, it is worth highlighting other countries’ approaches to teaching about religion in the classroom – the focus of a book I recently edited .

At one end of the 18 countries examined in the book , educators in Mexico impose significant restrictions on what can be taught about faith-based beliefs. According to the Mexican Constitution , “State education shall be maintained entirely apart from any religious doctrine.” However, it does allow religious institutions to provide faith-based education through the private schools they sponsor.

Most nations the book analyzes are more open to teaching about religion in public schools as long as instruction remains objective and does not indoctrinate students. Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa and Sweden all adopt this approach in varying degrees.

For example, according to the Brazilian Constitution , optional religious education should be offered during the day for elementary students. The country’s National Education Act describes this as a way of “ensuring respect for Brazil’s religious cultural diversity, and any form of proselytism is prohibited.”

Several men in suits stand and smile behind a group of schoolchildren in white t-shirts.

Australia allows nondenominational classes about religion to help students understand the “influence of religion in life and society and the variety of beliefs by which people live.” In addition, it permits faith-based student clubs, as well as religious seminars that amount to no more than one half day per term. Parents can ask that their children be excused, or students may participate in ethics courses instead.

At the other end, England, Malaysia and Turkey mandate teaching about religion in public schools, though British parents may exempt their children. England’s Department for Children, Schools and Families strongly encourages that instruction include multiple religious perspectives, while classes in the other two countries are allowed to be more from faith-based perspectives.

Malaysia, which declares Islam the official religion , mandates faith-based instruction on Islam for Muslim students. Non-Muslims must attend moral studies classes. Turkey, meanwhile, requires religious culture and moral knowledge courses for grades 4-12 that focus on Islam. Parents who belong to other religions have the right to exempt their children from these classes.

What happens in public schools in the U.S. today will significantly shape tomorrow’s society. I believe encouraging teaching about religion can help America’s rapidly diversifying population to understand and respect others’ beliefs or lack thereof. Discussing religions in an inclusive, objective and academic way can certainly be challenging in a classroom, as there is a fine line between teaching about it and proselytizing – but not doing so has risks as well.

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Essays on religion and education

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Engel v. Vitale

This First Amendment activity is based on the landmark Supreme Court case Engel v. Vitale, dealing with the line between religion and public schools. Using these talking points to start the discussion, argue your position in answer to the question: Is school-sponsored prayer in public schools unconstitutional?

About These Resources

The First Amendment has two provisions concerning religion: the Establishment Clause and the Free
Exercise Clause. Learn more about these clauses in First Amendment and religion .
Analyze the facts and case summary for Engel v. Vitale.
Build arguments for both sides, starting with these talking points .
Use critical thinking skills and share reflections on the discussion questions .
Compare Engel v. Vitale to similar cases .

How to Use These Resources

This activity is a modified Oxford style debate.

To get started, have participants read the Engel v. Vitale facts and case summary .
Assign student attorneys to the issues listed in the talking points . They are suggested points– not a script–for the debate. Student attorneys are encouraged to add their own arguments.
All other students are jurors who deliberate (and may refer to these talking points) during the open floor debate. They debate among themselves in the large group or smaller groups and come to a verdict after the attorneys present closing arguments.

DISCLAIMER: These resources are created by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts for educational purposes only. They may not reflect the current state of the law, and are not intended to provide legal advice, guidance on litigation, or commentary on any pending case or legislation.

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Engel v. Vitale
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