Religious Education in Spain: 25 Years of Evolution
Summary Table
Three basic positions regarding religious education:
- Religious education in school
- Religious education outside of school (secularism) – admissible but not confessional
Year 31 – Republic – freedom of education
Year 33 – Secular republic – no religion
Year 36 – Civil War — personal government until 1975
Year 39 – Catholic confessional element – the church supports the regime.
Franco Regime – religion is compulsory – membership of the church in the regime (60s). The Vatican is created, which enhances the Decree on Religious Freedom that promotes plurality. Here there was a clash between church and state; some go with the scheme and not others. Key figures at this time were A. Suarez and the King (state), Villar Palasí (education), and Cardinal Tarancón (church).
Year 1970 – Villar Palasi Law, which aims for the person to express and interact.
Religious Education: A Proper Function of the School
Religious education is a proper function of the school, forwarding culture systematically and critically. Children go to school not only to have a scientific education but to learn to find their place in life. Religious training seems necessary with these goals:
- To playfully situate oneself before cultural tradition.
- To critically insert oneself into society.
- To answer the ultimate meaning of life with all its ethical implications.
From all this, we can say that religion is a proper and rigorous school subject, comparable with other subjects.
The Teaching of Religion in Schools
There are two areas: the school, where people gather for academic subjects, and catechesis, where believers gather together for faith.
Catechesis: The church acts as an initiative in the structures provided herein, such as intentionality coming by one’s own initiative. The personal goal is to mature in the faith community.
The School: As a church initiative, it serves as a framework for the education of the citizen, as intent on integrating the human and the meaning of life and an objective understanding of the faith, and having interdisciplinary dialogue between the Gospel and human culture. The two areas of religious education are assumed to complement each other: evangelization, catechesis, and theology.
ERE: 25 Years in Spain
There are three types:
1. From Pluralism to Multiculturalism
Modern society has become a multiethnic, multicultural, and multifaith society. In this pluralistic society, common knowledge is presupposed within the cultural heritage that was broadcast in school. In a society, common knowledge cannot come into being; therefore, the educational model that emerges for this is an intercultural model.
2. From a Culture of Time to a Culture of Space
There are two cultures that are transmitted at school:
- Existing culture: Prevailing scientific knowledge and a particular form of rationality.
- Cultural Heritage: Pillars rest with the aims and tasks of the school.
The worldview of the young generation is based on the correlation between the events in this space we call culture and based on the facts of the past culture of the time, which is what conveys the cultural tradition.
3. Changes in the Function of the School
Schools have different roles than they did 25 years ago: the creation of skills and organization of reality and culture. Homework goes from:
- Learning to learn skills to learn
- Doing school activities to learn to do
- Learning together to learn to live together
- Being good at learning to be