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date: 17 February 2020

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter provides background information on the relationship between religion and public schools and then describes the different kinds of religion courses currently offered in some public schools. While the US Supreme Court has banned compulsory devotional religious exercises, it has not banned the nondevotional teaching of religion. The different types of religion courses command different kinds of justifications, and the legal and educational merits of these justifications are presented. The author concludes by proposing a case for teaching religion that is both constitutionally and educationally acceptable. This case rests upon the importance of the development of autonomy to the liberal tradition, and it shows how the teaching of religion as a humanistic study can serve this ideal.

Keywords: Bible history, Bible influence, Bible literacy, World Religions courses, nondevotional

Walter Feinberg

Walter Feinberg is professor emeritus of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research centers on the issue of education for democratic citizenship. Dr. Feinberg earned his PhD in Philosophy from Boston University. He served as the Charles Dun Hardie Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois and as director of the Program for the Study of Cultural Values and Ethics. A past president of the Philosophy of Education Society and the American Educational Studies Association, Feinberg’s many books include For Goodness Sake: Religious Schools and Education for Democratic Citizenry (Routledge, 2006) and Religious Education in Liberal Democratic Societies (Oxford, 2003).

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