Reflecting on the Possibilities of Religious Education Research

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will provide a look at important research in religious education that is taking place in diverse areas of the globe and from multiple perspectives. This Special Issue will allow contributors to provide a wide-angle look at critical issues that the field of religious education can and should address in order to make a decided contribution to faith communities and religious educators in a wide range of contexts. Issues and questions that may be presented range from defining a faithful life in a post-coronavirus world and addressing the questions of the coming generations on the impact of religious education on environmental concerns, challenges to justice and equality, economics, religious education and faith in a digital online world, insights into teaching and learning, and the possible influence of neuroscience.

The global community is changing on an almost daily basis. While this is not a new phenomenon, the sense that such ongoing change is outside of one’s control serves to increase fears and stress. Moreover, life with the current global pandemic has seemed to heighten these concerns, reminding humanity that we are profoundly interconnected. More importantly, the global context has laid the groundwork for those of all ages to raise essential and profound questions. For those of us in the field of religious education, we regularly deal with these concerns and questions from within our faith communities and our educational institutions. The questions being raised include how one defines their faith during challenging times and especially in a post-pandemic world. What kind of spiritual, moral, and faith roots are needed to maneuver in and survive in such chaotic times? What is the nature of the religious education that will best prepare individuals to meet the future with faith and hope?

Some studies on the future of religion and faith would have us believe that the future is bleak, as we see the rise of the new category designated as “nones” or those who are religiously unaffiliated and similar generational issues. However, at the same time, one can also choose to view our present day as an opportunity to broaden the focus of religious education research. For example, what might the field of neuroscience and neurotheology offer our conversation? In what ways would a multidisciplinary focus broaden and enhance the work of religious education? What options are presented by the use of digital technology when it comes to effective teaching and learning in the field? What type of religious education research is needed that will highlight new boundaries in religious education?

The overall focus of this volume is about exploring these questions and others that will lead us to look at the breadth of religious education research. The scope of this Special Issue will be wide-ranging, allowing contributors to highlight religious education research that addresses vital areas such as environmental challenges, justice issues, and discrimination. Contributors can also pursue the arena of what Gabriel Moral has discussed as the four “inters”: intergenerational, interreligious, intercultural, and international religious education in terms of the challenges and opportunities that they offer the field. The purpose of this volume will be to open the field of religious education to a wide-ranging discussion at a time of tremendous richness and opportunity.

There have been journal articles and books that have addressed specific issues and concerns such as religious education and our secular world, pluralism, postmodernism, and the moral demands of religious education, as well as critical realism and other philosophical issues in relationship to religious education from international and interreligious perspectives. This Special Issue will serve as a complement and supplement that will continue to add to the current scholarship across the theological and educational spectrum by bringing together, in one volume, research that has been conducted by theologians, religious educators, practical theologians, and educational researchers in order to bring their research into religious education to the forefront so that the breadth and depth of the field is more easily available. In essence, this Special Issue allows contributors to dream and theologically reflect on what might be possible as we move forward in the field of religious education and so present the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing development of the field.

Dr. Kathy Winings
Guest Editor

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