With a Departure in Christianity – the Alchemy of Religion Education

Abstract

This article has a point of departure in the reform of Swedish upper secondary education in 2011. Here, the focus of the school subject of religion shifted from different religious perspectives, various existential questions, and pupil-initiated questions, to an emphasis based on a scientific-rational content, with an exceptional position for Christianity compared to other world religions. This article aims to clarify the implications of this shift for the purpose, content, and socializing dimension of the subject of religion for Swedish upper secondary school. We depart from Popkewitz’s understanding of Alchemy and analyze the purpose of religion education through a historical and theoretical approach. By conceptualizing the purpose and content of the school subject of religion over time and relating it to the ‘zeitgeist’, we identified four different ‘waves’ of religion education, ranging from its past clerical focus to the present-day’s non-denominational and scientific orientation. First, the ‘confessional wave’ focused on the clerical Christian inheritance in order to produce subservient and Christian citizens. Second, the ‘objective wave’ aimed to educate objective and broad-minded citizens, responsive to religious plurality. Thereafter, in the ‘uncertain wave’, religion studies became a matter of subjective beliefs, focusing on learning from their encounters with other persons in order to become broad-minded citizens, with an understanding of religious and existential plurality. Finally, the curriculum from 2011 gave birth to an ‘objective wave 2.0’, with the purpose to educate rational citizens with a scientific view on religion as a social phenomenon. We conclude the article by discussing some didactical implications of the 2011 reform.

Keywords: religion education, alchemy, socialization, curriculum, didaktik