Constitutionalism, Religion, and Education. (July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brown, Nathan J.; Kissane, Bill; Madeley, John
• Other Names: Künkler Mirjam guest-editor.; Lerner Hanna guest-editor.; Shankar Shylashri guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: American behavioral scientist. Volume 60:Number 8(2016:Aug.)
• Page Start: 1013
• Page End: 1035
• Publication Date: 2016-07
• Subjects: religious education -- constitutions -- Egypt -- Ireland -- Norway; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002764215615352
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7642

Abstract

This article compares the constitutional protection of religious education in Egypt, Ireland, and Norway. It shows that such protection has, in each case, path-dependent qualities that suggest religious education is relatively immune to constitutional attack. This immunity has been marked both at the point of independence and in the more secularizing periods that followed. It cannot be explained by different historical trajectories or by differences in confessional culture. Although the stakes are high in this area (for states, religious bodies, and parents), contrary to what separationist understandings of the modern state would expect, each state has maintained an openly accommodationist relationship with religious bodies in this field more than any other. The conclusion explores some reasons for why these accommodationist practices, which span three centuries, have continued.