Religious Education in a Non-Religious Society -A critique of religious sentiment(RS) education-

Abstract

Religious education in Japan could be categorized into three types:denominational education, religious sentiment education, and religious knowledge education. In the 1960s, the Japanese government found it necessary for religious sentiment education to be introduced to public schools, but the aim of this education was to develop of a feeling of reverence in students without teaching the actual essence of religion. The problem with this aim is that religious education without the essence of religion gives students a crooked image of religion. A feature of religious knowledge education is the distance kept from the cultivation of values and ethics. Through religious knowledge education, it is possible to prohibit students from having a lack of religious information and restrain the student's exaggeration of irrational thinking.