Symposium: Religious Education and the
Liberal State
By: Michael Scaperlanda
This symposium is premised on the belief that questions
surrounding religion and education in this country can best be
answered by straightforward engagement with the views on education
espoused by our various faith communities, and that these views are
presented at their most authentic through the lens offered by the
understanding and experience of the community’s own
members. The symposium centers on the work of James Dwyer,
whose skepticism toward a reflexive embrace of parental rights has
opened up new fronts in the debate over religion and
education.
Michael Scaperlanda, writing from the Roman Catholic tradition,
argues that Dwyer’s framework is grounded in anthropological
presumptions that ignore the spiritual dimension of the human
person. He extols the virtues of Catholic education as
deriving from a holistic conception of the person, embracing and
shaping body, mind, and spirit. By marginalizing the
educational relevance of the spiritual, Scaperlanda fears that
Dwyer’s brand of liberalism stands to produce children who are
disconnected from their true selves.