In his article ‘Teaching of Ethics and Religion’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, June 26), philosopher and professor of education Prof. Kenneth Wain said I had made a “strangely misinformed declaration” about the new ethics programme. However, I still think that ethics, not the local ethics programme specifically, is “narrow” and “very limited” when compared to religion.

Ninian Smart, the former presi­dent of the American Academy of Religion and of the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace, ex­plained it well when he said there are seven dimensions of religion.

There is the doctrinal dimension, which refers to the systematic formulation of religious teachings; there is the mythological, which refers to the narratives that provide an interpretation of the universe and of humanity’s place in it; there is the dimension of ritual, that is, the forms and orders of ceremonies; there is the experiential dimension, which covers the private sphere; there is the institutional dimension, which focusses on communal membership and public participation; there is the material dimension, which ex­plains how with religion, the sacred or supernatural is symbolised or manifested through ordinary objects or places; and there is the ethical dimension. The latter is only one of the dimensions of religion. This is why I stated in my previous contribution that ethics is “narrow” and “limited”.

Prof. Wain does not have to convince me that teaching ethics is worthwhile. Of course it is! Whoever thinks I am against ethics has misread my article. The issue in my article was not ethics per se, but religious education, and in particular, its place in the curriculum. I only referred to ethics because it is advertising itself as a better alternative to religious education and because the two are having to ‘compete’ for students.

Religious education is not just about forming young people in values. It is so much more than that

I agree with Prof. Wain’s statement that the new ethics programme is “gathering momentum and popularity in our schools”, and that the number of parents who have withdrawn their children from religious education has increased. But I would disagree that ethics is necessarily the best alternative to religious education. I think it is the best alternative to Personal and Social Development.

The issue I object to is the replacing of religious education with ethics, not the provision of ethics to students in schools. The Education Minister and the Director of Curriculum would do well to review the situation before it is too late. Religion will not go away just because we stop providing religious education in schools or simply because we stop thinking about it.

We need students to be able to ask whether there is a spiritual dimension to existence; whether religious leaders should have any authority; whether the belief that sacraments are efficacious is well founded; whether the kind of allegiance people express towards religion is religious at all, or whether it is simply ideological; why prayer and pilgrimage are still so significant in this day and age, and so on. We need an academic forum where the questions of revelation, sacred texts and truth can be discussed.

Prof. Wain also said I had not even “bothered with the outcome of the recent Learning Outcomes Framework exercise which put religion and ethics in the same learning area with a great deal of overlap where learning outcomes are concerned”. He pointed out that religious education and ethics will only have a great deal of overlap where learning outcomes are concerned if the “ethical” takes priority.

But religious education is not just about forming young people in values. It is so much more than that. The deepest ignorance does not lie with ethics. It lies with religion and with religious education.

To be concluded.

Pauline Dimech is a full-time lecturer at the University of Malta’s Faculty of Education and Faculty of Theology. She is a religious educator with over 30 years of experience, and is a specialist in theology and education.

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