Religious culture and education in 20th and 21st century Europe
Maria Giuseppina Meloni and Anna Maria Oliva (eds.)

A workshop on the topic “The presence and the quality of the religious history in the school texts for the high school and in the most important texts of general history edited in the last three decades " took place in Rome, on January 10th and 11th, 2019 organized by  the CNR - Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea. The workshop was part of the activities carried out within the European project ReIReS - Research Infrastructures on Religious Studies (Horizon 2020 INFRAIA).
The workshop aimed to analyze the state-of-the-art of the relations between the development of historical religious studies and the educational programs in Europe, focusing on the role that school and school textbooks have in the knowledge of religious history. The scholars discussed how far the progress in understanding of religious history, which comes from the possibilities granted by ReIReS, could have an impact in reframing the education programs and enriching education as a process of knowledge transferred from academia to a larger audience.
The papers, held by scholars and policy makers, covered various topics related to religious history and how it is dealt with by teaching and historical communication in the different European Union countries. All this was analysed not only with regard to textbooks, but also in relation to museums, websites, ongoing debates and the relationship between religious and political history.

Published: 2020-01-13