Church and School Relationship Through History
1. Church-School Relationship Through the Ages
In the early centuries of Christianity, paganism dominated official schools, while Christian education took place within the community. This lasted until the end of the 4th century. With barbarian invasions and the early Middle Ages, a Christian regime emerged in schools, characterized by clerical structure and predominantly sacred content. By the 8th century, the school was entirely in the hands of the church.
Medieval Christianity saw a profoundly Christian school with a clerical structure. Abundant profane content was integrated with the sacred, from the Carolingian period (9th and 10th centuries) to the 13th century, reintroducing pagan culture. In the humanist epoch, the regime remained Christian, but the school’s structure wasn’t exclusively clerical. Profane and pagan content prevailed alongside religious instruction.
In the modern and contemporary eras, a gradual shift occurred from a confessional Christian school to a secular, state-run system. This marked the emancipation of temporal activities from religious authority. The Second Vatican Council (a meeting of the Pope with bishops) accepted religious pluralism and public schools, while defending Christian students’ rights to religious education consistent with their faith.
2. Religion in School: A History of Controversy
The current education system, dating back to the 19th century and established in the 20th century, has a history marked by conflict regarding religion’s role in schools. The Enlightenment paved the way for secularism, which wasn’t necessarily anti-church. However, the “religious issue” arose, with three main positions emerging at the beginning of the 20th century: incorporating the Roman Catholic religion in public and private schools, establishing a purely secular school, and adopting an intermediate, neutral position.
During the Second Republic in Spain, an unusual conflict led to the imposition of a single, secular school system, abolishing religious teaching in a sectarian and secular climate. The Vatican’s declaration Dignitatis Humanae proclaimed religious freedom, while Gravissimum Educationis affirmed parents’ right to choose schools and provide religious education for their children.
The 1978 Spanish Constitution marked a shift towards a pluralistic society with a secular foundation. Article 27 provides for freedom of education, and Article 16 proclaims religious freedom. The Bishops’ Conference document of 1979 clarified the identity and nature of ERE (Religious Education in Schools), emphasizing its legal basis, individual and parental rights, integration into human formation, and role in providing religious freedom.
During the UCD era, mainstream schools offered ethics as an alternative to religion. Under the PSOE, the LOGSE (1991) made religious education mandatory for schools but optional for students, with non-assessable teaching. Four Supreme Court rulings nullified several LOGSE articles. A revised LOGSE (1994) regulated religious education, making it assessable but without impacting academic records. The PP government introduced a new approach with “Society, Culture, and Religion,” and the LOE repealed the LOCE, making religion assessable and countable for academic progress.
3. Objections and Criticisms of ERE
Despite a secular state, arguments support religious education as a university discipline and integral part of formation. These include anthropological arguments (humans are inherently religious, and religious knowledge provides meaning), historical arguments (religion is crucial for understanding history and tradition), cultural arguments (many cultural symbols are religious), and arguments for cross-cultural understanding (promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue).
Sociological arguments highlight the link between social habits and religion, while linguistic arguments emphasize the rich symbolic language of religious knowledge. Pedagogical arguments advocate for integral education encompassing ethics, aesthetics, and religion. Metaphysical arguments suggest that religious knowledge complements metaphysical understanding, helping overcome contingencies.
4. Ten Reasons for the Presence of Religious Education
Religious education is presented as fostering a three-dimensional perspective, interpreting culture, encouraging critical thinking, promoting autonomy, facilitating dialogue, fostering coexistence, exploring self-identity, instilling hope, encouraging effort, and integrating acceptance of life’s limits.
5. Identity of ERE
ERE is characterized by scientific and curricular precision, with rigorous content, methodology, and evaluation. It fosters knowledge of the environment and presents knowledge across various fields. Its legislative basis includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1978 Spanish Constitution, agreements between Spain and the Holy See, organic laws on education, the Organic Law of Religious Freedom, and Council of Europe resolutions and UNESCO reports.
Guiding principles for content selection include educational purpose (familiarizing students with religious tradition, exploring life’s meaning, and developing a critical attitude towards contemporary culture), age-appropriateness, addressing students’ life aspirations, theological consistency, and didactic consistency (alignment with curriculum elements, adaptation to students’ learning capabilities, and institutional and psychological congruence).
Methods should facilitate meaningful learning and discovery, allowing students to integrate new content into their cognitive matrix. Effective learning avoids isolated acquisition and fosters internal growth rather than mere juxtaposition of external elements.