Education in History: Religious and Cultural Models of Knowledge

British Journal of Religious Education , 2010

This article explores the mixed fortunes of historical inquiry as a method in educational studies and exposes evidence for the neglect of this method in religious education research in particular. It argues that historical inquiry, as a counterpart to other research methods, can add depth and range to our understanding of education, including religious education, and can illuminate important longer‐term, broader and philosophical issues. The article also argues that many historical voices have remained silent in the existing historiography of religious education because such historiography is too generalised and too biased towards the development of national policy and curriculum and pedagogical theory. To address this limitation in educational research, this article promotes rigorous historical studies that are more substantially grounded in the appropriate historiographical literature and utilise a wide range of original primary sources. Finally, the article explores a specific example of the way in which a historical approach may be fruitfully applied to a particular contemporary debate concerning the nature and purpose of religious education.

This paper sketches some of the various ways in which I had come to the view that there is something distinctive about teaching and learning ancient religion, even within the broad field of classics, and what I was interested in discovering from others. It will then report on key outcomes of the collaborative work to date.

Everyday Orientalism, 2023

Since 2014 the Sangalli Institute for the religious history and cultures is actively engaged in supporting the activities of young researchers, especially in the field of the religious studies, with particular attention to history and humanities. We are convinced that, only through the pooling of scientific cross-sectional and generational experiences, the study of the past can effectively foster social and cultural progress. That is the reason why the Sangalli Institute intend to dedicate its annual workshop for young researchers, between 2nd and 4th of October 2019, to the following topic "Entangled Knowledges. Education and Culture in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, XIVth-XIXth centuries". The workshop is scientifically coordinated by Massimo Campanini (Ambrosian Academy, Milan-IUSS, Pavia), Massimo Carlo Giannini (University of Teramo), Maurizio Sangalli (University for foreigners of Siena) and Myriam Silvera (University of Roma Tor Vergata), with the collaboration of Marco Ricca (Protestant Cultural Center 'Pietro Martire Vermigli', Florence) and Letizia Tomassone (Waldensian Church, Florence), and it will take place at the Sangalli Institute (Piazza di San Firenze 3, Firenze-Italy). The workshop aims to deepen the contacts and the differences which, between the end of Middle Ages and the beginning of the Contemporary Era, have characterized the transmission of knowledges and culture within the three monotheistic religions. The workshop will focus on the processes of the formal and informal channels of cultural dissemination in the religious perspective, in order to establish comparisons among them.

ReIReS is a starting community of twelve European institutions that are building a unique and highly qualified infrastructure on religious studies. ReIReS brings knowledge into the field of religious pluralism in Europe, thus contributing to a stable society. It explains and implements the idea of "Knowledge Creates Understanding".

History and Theory, Theme Issue 45 (2006): 10–26, 2006

This essay seeks to clarify the relationship between history and religion in the modern age. It proceeds in three steps. First, it draws attention to the radical asymmetry between first-person and third-person statements that Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations rescued from the metaphysical exile to which it had been condemned by Descartes’s definition of the self as a thing. Second, it argues that religion alleviates the peculiarly human kind of suffering arising from this asymmetry. Third, it maintains that history relies on the same means as religion in order to achieve the same results. The turn to historical evidence performed by historians and their readers is more than just a path to knowledge. It is a religious ritual designed to make participants at home in their natural and social environments. Quite like the ritual representation of the death and resurrection of Christ in the Mass, the historical representation of the past underwrites faith in human liberty and hope in redemption from suffering. It helps human beings to find their bearings in the modern age without having to go to pre-industrial churches and pray in old agrarian ways. History does not conflict with the historical religions merely because it reveals them to have been founded on beliefs that cannot be supported by the evidence. History conflicts with the historical religions because it is their rival.

SSRN, 2024

The core objective of this paper is to infer and deduce why we believe there is a need to revitalize religious studies for the twenty-first century and beyond, and it is of paramount and extreme importance for society and science as a whole. The chief and principal objective therefore is to show and explain why we believe religious studies in western universities need a foundational overhaul, and doing so could be of vast and immense benefits to science and to allied fields of study. Therefore, we begin this paper by tracing the history of western universities from around the tenth century after Christ, and explore the impact they have had on scholarly thought-the history of writing and education and literacy in general is ignored for the purpose of this paper given the fact that we have already dwelt on it several times before, in our multiple papers and books. Likewise, the history of religion is also given the short shrift given the fact that we have probed and investigated in multiple times earlier. The very nature of religious studies are explored in this paper in a fairly great level of depth, and in granular detail, and along with it, the various schools of thought are also explored. Likewise, the interface between religious studies, and other fields of study such as anthropology, sociology, psychology and economics are also explored. The weaknesses of current approaches as we see them are suitably investigated and analyzed, and remediation measures are also recommended from our perspective. We hope, expect and believe that this will constitute a very important paper in twenty-first century social science.

1. Introduction 2. Religion’s contribution to History 3. Religion’s influence on History 4. Religion vs. History 5. Conclusion 6. References In a glance, one could consider that these are two absolutely different concepts. However, a closer look reveals that Religion has had a strong influence over human conduct and, consequently, over History, ever since Man acquire knowledge of himself, sometimes encouraging his evolution and, some other times, trying to control it. There was an age when rulers were descendant of gods and, in their name, took war to their neighbours; in these days, they no longer consider themselves relatives to the divinities, but they still act as if they were God’s gift to their countries and they still engage in one conflict after another.

THIRD CALL FOR PAPERS * The HEIRNET 2018 conference brings together colleagues from around the world interested in History Education's key civilising, cultural, moral, social, political and citizenship roles. HEIRNET is a forum for a research-based discourse on history educational theory, scholarship, policy and practice: for details see attached conference circular that lists its 12 themes and 130 topics http://www.cvent.com/events/history-educators-international-research-network-heirnet-conference-2018/event-summary-f6aec3ae91b64dc284719aa8ee4018bf.aspx

*FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS * The HEIRNET 2018 conference brings together colleagues from around the world interested in History Education's key civilising, cultural, moral, social, political and citizenship roles. HEIRNET is a forum for a research-based discourse on history educational theory, scholarship, policy and practice: for details see attached conference circular that lists its 12 themes and 130 topics http://www.cvent.com/events/history-educators-international-research-network-heirnet-conference-2018/event-summary-f6aec3ae91b64dc284719aa8ee4018bf.aspx