Secular Principle

The Catholic Church has recently issued a call for «educating to fraternal humanism» – most notably through the encyclical letter of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti. Fraternal humanism envisions a pluralist society in which all voices are to be heard and this contrasts with previously held positions of outright rejection of pluralist societies (Augustinian Thomism) or Christianisation of such societies (Whig Thomism). This book proposes an alternative, Dominican Thomist vision of a procedurally secular society that comprises three realms, namely sacred, secular and profane. Such a Dominican Thomist enterprise is founded upon human reasoning whereby Catholic and liberal thinkers collaborate to build this society of three realms in which a fortified secular realm operates as a porous buffer against the sacred and profane realms. In such a society, the public sphere is pluralist and open to all voices. Derived from experience and classroom research into dialogic RE interventions; a socially productive pedagogy is advocated as a starting point for the development of a procedurally secular society. In particular, it identifies a common ground pathway that supports both critical RE from liberal education and critical faith pedagogy from the Catholic tradition.

Antony Luby has been a classroom teacher of religious education for thirty years and a senior lecturer in education studies for ten years. His research and scholarship has focused primarily on pedagogy through PhD, MSc, MTh and MPhil studies at the universities of Glasgow, Oxford, Aberdeen and Strathclyde. A fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching, his 100+ publications address a wide range of audiences including fellow academics (e.g. British Journal of Religious Education; Journal of Beliefs and Values); fellow practitioners (e.g. Chartered College of Teaching’s Impact); and fellow teachers (Closing the Attainment Gap in Schools: Progress through Evidence-based Practices).