Between belief and disbelief, between religion and secularity: introducing non-doxasticism and semi-secularity in worldview education

• Published in: British journal of religious education Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 109 - 121
• Main Authors: Jonbäck, Francis, Palmqvist, Carl-Johan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Beliefs; Didactics; Didactics (including General and Subject Didactics); Didaktik; Didaktik (Här ingår: Allmän- och ämnesdidaktik); Education policy; Educational Sciences; Filosofi; Filosofi, etik och religion; Humaniora och konst; Humanities; Humanities and the Arts; Non-Doxasticism; non-doxasticism, Sweden; Philosophy; Philosophy, Ethics and Religion; Religionsvetenskap; Religious education; Religious Studies; Samhällsvetenskap; Semi-Secularity; Social Sciences; Social studies education; Sweden; Utbildningsvetenskap; World Views; Worldview Education; Sweden; Worldview education; Sweden; semi-secularity
• ISSN: 0141-6200; 1740-7931; 1740-7931
• DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2023.2286184

In order to include all outlooks and perspectives on the world prevalent in contemporary society, countries like Sweden have replaced traditional religious education with worldview education. However, current worldview theory fails to make justice to two important facts concerning the contemporary religious landscape. Firstly, a great many people are semi-secular rather than traditional believers or atheists. Secondly, many have non-doxastic attitudes such as hope or acceptance instead of belief. We therefore suggest that worldview education needs to include semi-secularity, and that it needs to clearly separate the content of a worldview from the variety of epistemic attitudes a person might have towards that content.