Framing of the Issue

Abstract

This book is about Religious Education, a school subject that manoeuvres in the midst of a field that, on the one hand concerns crucial knowledge in a pluralistic society and, on the other hand, deals with highly contested questions in a society characterised by diversity and secularity. Increased migration and travel, changing conditions with regard to social media and the use of the Internet are some of the factors that have contributed to a more pluralistic society. This development has also contributed to the new visibility of religion. Simultaneously, secularity (In the literature, the words secularity and secularism are often used interchangeably. I will, however, in line with Possamai (Sociology of religion for generations X and Y. Equinox, London, 2009) and Scharffs (Relig Hum Rights 6(2):109–126, 2011), distinguish between the two concepts and use the word secularity descriptively when referring to secularity as a result and part of theories of secularity that try to grasp the role of religion in the contemporary world. I will use secularism as a normative and ideological stance, with reference to proponents who often can be described as anti-religious and who advocate that the public sphere should be kept free from religious expressions) has increased, not least in the case of Swedish society, and questions pertaining to the freedom of religion in the public sphere are a subject of debate.