Educational Secularization Within Europe and Beyond - (Studies in the History of Education and Culture / Studien Zur Bildungs- Und Kulturgeschichte)

About the Book

Secularization as a political and ideological project has been part of transforming and giving new life to religion, not least through reforms in the education system and in public enlightenment efforts. The volume provides new insight into what we

Book Synopsis

Did religion disappear with modernization and the secularization reforms that changed the relation between religion and state throughout the European empires and nation states from late nineteenth century onwards? Or was religion rather transformed becoming a part of the new social and national imaginaries on the road from European empires to African, Middle Eastern, European Union- and Post-Soviet nation states? What are the historical roots behind the divisions of state, church and education that characterized the late nineteenth and during the twentieth century? What has been the role of education in this context, both with regard to political reforms targeting the education systems and with regard to broader public enlightenment efforts and modernization of the state?
Connecting scholars across the fields of history and historical sociology of education, church history and historical religion research and political history, and covering the time span from the early modern period and up until the present, this volume explores how education reform has functioned as an arena for the political project of secularization and in which way this contributed to transforming and revitalizing religion.

About the Author

Mette Buchardt, Centre for Education Policy Research, Aalborg University, Denmark