The freedom of religion and the freedom of education in twenty-first-century Belgium: a critical approach

In spite of recent tendencies of secularisation and religious pluralism, most Belgian schools are Catholic schools, where Roman Catholic religious education is a compulsory subject. As we will argue, this can lead to a de facto undermining of the freedom of religion and education and a shift in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of religious education
Main Author: Franken, Leni 1981- (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge [2016]
In: British journal of religious education
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Belgium / Catholic school / Religious education / Secularization / Religious freedom
RelBib Classification:AH Religious education
AX Inter-religious relations
KBD Benelux countries
KDB Roman Catholic Church
Further subjects:B Higher Education
B Education
B Civil Rights
B Freedom Of Religion
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:In spite of recent tendencies of secularisation and religious pluralism, most Belgian schools are Catholic schools, where Roman Catholic religious education is a compulsory subject. As we will argue, this can lead to a de facto undermining of the freedom of religion and education and a shift in the system is therefore required. In the long term, the number of Catholic schools should be in proportion with the number of students/parents choosing these schools. In the short term, however, this strategy is not recommended and for pragmatic reasons, we propose a system in which religious education in substantially subsidised faith-based schools is no longer compulsory. We will argue that such a system does not lead to an infringement of the (internal) freedom of religion of faith-based institutions and that it will guarantee more educational and religious freedom than the current system does.
ISSN:0141-6200
Contains:Enthalten in: British journal of religious education
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2015.1113934