Abstract

In the 1970s, there was a creative tension between ecclesiastical interests in the outcomes of Australian Catholic school religious education and the concerns of religious educators to promote the personal development of their students, whether or not they were churchgoing. Since then, the discourse of RE in this context came to be dominated by ecclesiastical terminology, with ‘Catholic identity’, ‘faith formation’ and ‘new evangelisation’ as the currently most prominent constructs. In critiquing this development, with the hope of reviving a creative tension between ecclesiastical and student-centred concerns, it is proposed that the discourse of RE needs to become more outward looking, and more overtly concerned with what it means to educate young Australians spiritually, morally and religiously for life in an increasingly challenging culture.