This book brings together new thinking and research on religious education's complex and evolving role in the multicultural, diverse postmodern era. It facilitates new realism and understanding of the current situation from empirical and reflective accounts relating to a variety of countries and political contexts, as well as providing innovative methodological approaches to the study of education and religion.

Part I: The Ongoing Debate: Enhancement of Worldviews and Life Orientation in Religious Education.- 1. The Study of Religious and Worldview Diversity in Public Schools: Contributions from the Council of Europe; Robert Jackson.- 2. "Playful searching truth": An exploration of the role of 'life orientation' in a plural World; K.H. (Ina) ter Avest.- 3. Worldview identity discourses in Finnish religious and worldview education: mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion; Poulter Saila M.- 4. Teacher Identity in a post modern world: Who am I and do I think it matters?; Yune Tran and Amy Lynn Dee.- 5. How Christian Chief Student Affairs Officers Envision Their Practice?; T. F. Cockle, Perry L. Glanzer, Elijah G. Jeong, and Britney N. Graber.- Part II: Refugee Education, Immigration and Alienation.- 6. Multicultural Learning Environments in Turkey: A New Challenge about Refugee Education; Aybice Tosun.- 7. Anti-religious Education or Preventing Religious Extremism? - An Examination of the re-education camps in China's Uyghur region; Dilmurat Mahmut.- 8. The Integral Link between Islamic Education and Religious Education: A Bonhoeffer Reflection on the Urgent Task of Countering Jihadist Pedagogy; Terence Lovat.- 9. Testing the contact hypothesis in interfaith encounters: Personal friendships with Sikhs countering anti-Sikh attitudes?; Ursula McKenna and Leslie Francis.- 10. "I am Human; Nothing Human is Alien to Me": Countering the Fear of Contamination and Resistance to Education in a Post Modern Climate; Stephanie Lovett.- Part III: Critical Thinking, Social Justice and Liberal Autocracy.- 11. Critical thinking in Islamic Education: its Meaning and Possible Implications; Najwan Saada.- 12. Muslim education and claims of justice in a Global Post Modern World; Yusef Waghid.- 13. The Totalitarian Imagination Revisited: Liberal Autocracy and Religious Education; Liam Gearon. Part IV: Spirituality, Prayer and Affective Learning.- 14. Prayer in Schools: In Search of a New Paradigm; J. Stern and E. Kohn.- 15. The Holocaust as a source of spirituality among adolescents in Israel in a post modern era; Zehavit Gross.- 16. Religious education for the Mexican immigrant community in Albuquerque: The vital role of compassion; Richard Kitchen.