The Lakota Sioux are a traditionally nomadic Plains Indian society who now reside in South Dakota in the USA. This paper examines how they maintain and practice Wo Lakota (the Lakota way), which is their traditional belief and value system and by which they set their standard of behavior. The author situates their traditional Four Values: Generosity, Courage, Respect and Wisdom, and Seven Rites: Sweat Lodge, Sundance, Vision Quest, Hunka, Ghost Keeping, Girl's Puberty, and Throwing the Ball as major constituents of Wo Lakota and gives an account of how they are carried out in their current living. The paper further considers the instrumentals that support the succession and practice of Wo Lakota and examines the role of Medicine man, Tyoshipaye, and school education. The author recognizes in particular the importance of Lokota language and culture instruction introduced during primary and higher education that serves as a strong engine for maintaining Lakota culture, ultimately contributing to the revival of Lakota society.

View full abstract

The aim of this paper is to understand the meaning of "metalogue" within the context of the succession and education of religion. Metalogue is a special dialogic form of representation which was invented by Gregory Bateson, an ecologist of the mind. At first, we will confirm the important meaning of metalogue within Bateson's works. Then, we will investigate its efficacy and orientation within the study of the sacred, in which especially the interaction with Fritz Pearls' Gestalt therapy and Milton Erickson's hypnotherapy were examined. In the conclusion, metalogue can be taken as a form of representation in which the sacred is just to be shown without explicit discussion. This would shed some light on the problem of how we succeed to and educate about a sacred text.

View full abstract

This article examines the significance of the religious culture of Jewish law in which a critical attitude against "idolatry" was highly evaluated. So-called Rabbinic Judaism, which was shaped by the two devastating wars of Jews in Palestine with the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries, put the divine teachings as its basis and endeavored to establish the rule of divine law. The sages chose the liberty of faith in divine revelation in place of political liberty and independence based upon Messianic expectations. They compiled the oral teaching of divine revelation called the Mishnah in about 200CE, and then compiled the Babylonian Talmud around 500CE, which is renowned as the basis of the way of Jewish life throughout Jewish communities in the Diaspora in the Middle Ages and to the modern era. They regarded themselves as the legitimate heir of the Biblical prophetic tradition and promoted a distinctive way of Torah studies. Based upon the prophetic tradition of the struggle against idolatrous worship, they challenged the struggle against inner idols which were thought to prevent the true understanding of divine teaching; "idolatry" in this context includes uncritical subjection to social authority, attachment to conventional prejudices, and other intellectual laziness.

View full abstract

In this article, I seek to examine the religious education of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, with attention to overlapping fields of nationalism and the privatization or diffusion of religion. The privatization of religion in modern societies is a frequent subject of discussion, and is equally applicable to New Zealand (and to some degree to Maori in New Zealand). However, in the Maori people's case, though religiousness has been privatized it does not consist of selective alternatives; rather, it is inclined to involve Maori nationalism and concepts of a collective ethnic identity because of poverty and alienation in the society. In the process of the politicization of their status as indigenous people and the resultant mental decolonization, "Maoriness," which is often described as holistic and containing religious spirituality, and is conceived of as the inverted image of the individualistic Pakeha or white New Zealander, has pervaded the mindsets of modern Maori. Consequently, nationalism-based movements have been leading to the expansion of independent Maori-controlled territories in the post-1980s, such as a newly established Maori-specific television station. This "Maoriness" or "Maori religiousness" has now come to be disseminated in uniquely separatist Maori educational institutions such as Maori-language immersion primary schools (Kura Kaupapa Maori) and university departments of Maori Studies. I will thus examine learning practices at the para-religious Maori schools and provide insights into how the introduction of a Maori philosophy in such institutions has resulted in unique forms of teaching and learning.

View full abstract

Social changes, characterized by globalization and information, have progressed rapidly since the 1990s in Japan. These changes call for new cognitive frameworks to go with existing frameworks. Most of the debate over religious education in postwar Japan has been focused on the three sub categories of education about religious knowledge, inculcation of religious sentiment, and confessional education. Inculcation of religious education has been most debated regarding the possibility of religious education in public schools. This is due to the unique development of Japan's modern religious history. Nonetheless, more research has been taking place on education about religion as a part of education to improve understanding foreign countries, religious education based on coexistence of diverse value systems, and religious culture education. These are based on new cognitive frameworks. Setting aside a normative point of view of religious education, these have been the established response to changes throughout society. They are products of a new framework different from most conventional viewpoints.

View full abstract

The "Basic Act on Education" (amended in December 2006) and the "Course of Study" posted in academic year 2008 encouraged religious education in Japanese primary and secondary education to step into a new stage. This article analyzes religious education in National or State Schools, and then presents several problems to be solved. First of all, the contents of religious sentiment under discussion are to be examined in the broader perspectives of education of religious sentiment before and after World War II. The examination naturally shows that the cultivation of religious sentiment in Japanese National or State schools is hardly possible for theoretical, historical, and practical reasons. Japanese schools in fact adopt alternative education for the education of religious sentiment. This alternative education has much to do with religion in two points but goes beyond religious education. Finally, lectures on religion in social studies are discussed. The issue of lectures on religion is so closely connected with developing the sense of values in life that more intensive research on the relationship is to be expected.

View full abstract

The terakoya (tenaraijuku) is known as private schools in the Edo Period that taught reading, writing, and arithmetic for children of mainly farmers, merchants, and ordinary townspeople. This paper explores the roles of Buddhist priests in the development of the terakoya and tries to clarify the characteristics of priests as teachers and intellectuals in villages and towns, referring to a case in Iyo province (present day Ehime Prefecture). The results of this study are as follows. 1) Buddhist priests made up over 30 percent of the total of 1215 teachers of the terakoya in Iyo province. Both warriors (samurai) and Shinto priests, regarded as the educated class of the day, made up only around 15 percent. The ratio of the number of Buddhist priests was highest among that of all classes. 2) There was one temple which created and operated the terakoya for every two or three temples. 3) Basically, every Buddhist priest had the experience to learn at their head temple or its attached college for several years. In most sects their head temples were located in big cities like Kyoto, Nara, and Edo and these were the central cities of culture and learning. The experience gave Buddhist priests the authority as not only religious leaders but also as teachers and intellectuals, and distinguished them from the common people. Terakoya literally means "temple school." But indeed they were not necessarily operated by just Buddhist priests. Whatever the case, Buddhist priests fulfilled an important role in education for the common people in the early modern society of Japan.

View full abstract

"Skills" (work, art) refers to various techniques that human beings have made and handed down with various modifications. There is the techniques of body methods and arts, including methods of breathing or meditation. A skill is a mediator between a mind and a thing, and is a style of the mind using the body. While it is related to religious ideas and religious thought, religious "physical intellect" also involves various skills. I will introduce the originality of the Japanese religious physical intellect and "ecologocal wisdom" by focusing on "waterfall praxis" as one example of a religious skill.

View full abstract

In this article the author discusses particular characters of the Confucian heritage in Japan, China, and Korea. Generally speaking, in the area of the "cultural sphere of Confucianism," the author has focused on particular characters through a comparative perspective. Above all, Confucian religiosity must be mentioned as part of background knowledge. In the field of Chinese Confucianism, the perspective of Tu Weiming (Research Professor of Harvard University) is contrasted with that of Ren Jiyu and Fang Keli. As the result, the author points out the difficult situation of the Confucian heritage in the present day. The above situation can be described as the distress of researchers who are aiming for a complicated and complex combination of atheism and theism. Furthermore, while depicting the dynamic condition of Korean Confucianism in Korean society today, the author argues that the vitality of Korean Confucianism is due to a complex combination of Oneness constructed on "the thought of Heaven" and "the theory of Confucianism." In conclusion, based on the statement above, the author argues that the specific and complicated interior condition of Japanese Confucianism is a result of the syncretistic fusion of Shintoism and Buddhism. While taking a look at some details of Japanese history, specifically from the Edo to Meiji period, the author comments on Confucian heritage in present-day Japan.

View full abstract

Au Quebec, la <<Revolution tranquille>> des annees 1960 induit d'importantes mutations sociales dans lesquelles la religion est egalement impliquee. Les rapports entre le gouvernement, les eglises et la famille etant reconfigures, l'ecole releve le defi de la diversite religieuse et culturelle de plus en plus croissante. Pour jouer le role de la normalisation sociale des enfants et leur education a la citoyennete, l'ecole quebecoise commence a s'appuyer sur le principe laique. A la difference de la laicite francaise qui tendrait a faire sortir la religion de l'ecole, la laicite quebecoise consacre a l'ecole une place pour la formation morale ou ethique, l'education de la culture religieuse, ou encore le developpement spirituel. Cela suggere que la laicisation au Quebec se situe en quelque sorte entre l'orientation resolue du gouvernement et un certain compromis avec les conservateurs, notamment catholiques. Il est ainsi bien probable que les mots comme <<la morale>>, <<l'ethique>>, <<la culture>>, <<la spiritualite>> renferment le conflit entre les tenants de la confessionnalite et ceux de la laicite. Notre article se propose de clarifier la connotation sociolinguistique de ces mots et de mettre en evidence la continuite des divergences internes autour d'un consensus laique.

View full abstract

This paper describes the relationship of religious education and the education of a Shinto priest. The training and education of Shinto priests can be clarified from the history of the Association of Shinto Shrines in the span of 65 years after World War II. The Association of Shinto Shrines was established by the unprecedented change after the World War II. Shinto priests were presented with new qualifications. The qualification examination for a Shinto priest was modeled on the examinations prior to World War II. An increase in Shinto-related subjects was made to improve the quality of the Shinto priests. Today, social circumstances have changed, and the issue of lifelong learning is an important topic for future successors of Shinto priests. The Association of Shinto Shrines has established a training center to introduce such improvements.

View full abstract

The pedagogies of religious education have been changing worldwide in this age of globalization. Drawing upon recent international discussions, this article critically reexamines what has conventionally been called "shukyo chishiki kyoiku ('teaching/learning about religions' or 'religion teaching')" in Japan, in terms of who, why and what. It is mainly based upon researches and arguments in the special issue on religious education of Numen, and the last several years' issues of British Journal of Religious Education, as well as my own latest work (Kyokasho no nakano shukyo [Religions in Textbooks], Iwanami, 2011) and my comparison between England's Non-Statutory National Framework of Religious Education and ministerial documents of Quebec's new "Ethics and Religious Culture" program. Special attention will be paid to how opinions are divided upon the impartiality of religious education in the Western contexts. The article will finally argue that the current Japanese way of teaching about religions, which is a legacy of the early modern Japanese version of Bildung movements, is highly problematic if the education is expected to play a role in intercultural education. It will yet question whether or not the Western model of multiculturalism can be directly applied to the Japanese context, admitting that Japanese society is also increasingly being diversified ethnically and religiously.

View full abstract

There are many significances and functions of religious art. Visual images and structures which are concerned with religions not only embody religious experience and belief, but also work as educational media in religious practice. As examples of the Marian beliefs and images of the Holy Trinity there are so-called "opening Virgins" (Vierge ouvrante, Schreinmadonna). This statue, the small nursing Madonna, opens to show the Holy Trinity inside. The devotional object indicates the idea that Mary is the tabernacle that houses God. On the other hand this image suggests the doctrine of the Incarnation. Further, there are interesting examples that depict the figure of Jesus' grandmother Anne. Some visual representations such as Anna Selbdritt, which has Anne holding the Virgin Mary and Child, stress the female lineage of Christ. This image shows at once the belief of Immaculate Conception and the educational function. Iconographic motifs such as the Nativity with Joseph, the Anna Selbdritt, the Holy Kinship, the Education of Mary, and stories of the childhoods of Jesus and Mary were popular with folk traditions and stressed the importance of family ties. Visual images in religious practice responded to the question of both personal salvation and folk spirituality and worked in the educational context as well.

View full abstract

The focus of this paper is the religious education of Western monasticism in the early 6th century. It mainly deals with the divine reading (lectio divina) in The Rule of St Benedict and The Rule for Nuns of Caesarius of Arles. The adjective "divine" refers to the nature or quality of the texts being read. They are not profane literature, but include the Old and New Testament, the Fathers of the Church, or some other monastic writing such as the Rule of Basil of Caesarea, the Conferences and Institutes of John Cassian, or the Lives of desert fathers. The activity of "reading" has been understood traditionally as a meditative, reflective, prayerful reading. Through the divine reading nuns and monks prepare for the divine office which is the heart of liturgical life in the monastery and so aim for the perfection of monastic life. The Rule of St Benedict calls this monastery a school for the Lord's service (scola dominici servitii). This can also be applied to the women's monastery of Caesarius of Arles.

View full abstract