Doing God in Education

Dr. Trevor Cooling

A cool, reasoned and nuanced contribution to the debate on Doing God in Education

If modern Britain is becoming a battlefield between those with religious faith and those with none, education is on the front line. Debates about the role of religion in school life are heated and sometime acrimonious, with some bandying about terms like indoctrination and even child abuse.

Trevor Cooling's report offers a cool, reasoned and nuanced contribution to the debate. Drawing on several detailed examples he shows that the idea that education is morally neutral or objective is indefensible. Teaching is shaped by our understanding of which virtues we should practise, what qualities we should value, ultimately of what kind of people we should be. To pretend otherwise is naive or, worse, an attempt to ban from the classroom moral and metaphysical commitments simply because a minority of anti-theists dislike them. God belongs in the classroom, Cooling argues, not simply because it is a right that comes with living in a liberal society, but because the Christian contribution to education is positive and constructive, contributing powerfully to our common good.

Doing God in Education is an important, reasonable, balanced and thoughtful contribution to the case for Christian education. It deserves to be read by those who seek to shape Christian education in our public life and those who want to eradicate it.

To read / download the entire report click here.