FACING DIVERSITY OR LONGING FOR HOMOGENEITY? DISCUSSION WITHIN THE DRC ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Abstract
The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in South Africa can be regarded as one of the important pressure groups for religious education (RE) in schools. Based on a case study this contribution focuses on the following question: Does the DRC opt for a traditional, Christian National approach of RE in public schools or does it open up to new forms of RE, reflecting the religious and cultural diversity in the country? The contribution investigates this question from three perspectives: The development of ideas on the official level of synodical statements, the semi-official level of reports in the church’s newspaper Die Kerkbode, and the opinions of students at grassroots level. We find both an increasing willingness to open up to diversity and a line of thought that leans toward isolation and disrespect of other religions. The question of accepting diversity in the field of religion is crucial for the broader field of diversity in the country.Downloads
Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
This is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal webpage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in Scriptura, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University’s’ Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
