España: evolutionism & religion, Century XIX

From the Englightenment to the middle of the 19th century, geological time and the antiquity of human beings received ever growing attention. This was caused by a series of events, such as: *the beginnings of experimentation in Geology (Buffon, 1778) *the development of the transformism (Lamarck, 1809) *the recognition and description of extinct animals (Cuvier, 1812) *as well as the studies made in alluvial deposits, caves and gravel beds, with brought to light artefacts, human rest and bone of extinguished animals (from John Frere, 1797, to Albert Gaudry, 1859). The development towards evolutionism (Darwin, 1859) came gradually. In Spain, all these currents found their echo: Spain, e.g. was the third country where the Palaeolithic remains were discovered (Verneuil and Lartet, 1863). Also the Darwin ideas were introduced forcefully, right from the beginning. But the change in worldview, which was prerequisite to these ideas, lead to polemic controversies in the political and religious realm. The most significant evidence was the official prohibition of the teaching Darwinism in public educational centres (1875). At theological level, thanks to the advance of the geologic knowledge, went leaving the literal interpretations of Biblical texts was eventually discontinued and replaced by more liberal interpretation. In some case, the process was difficult because some political, religious and scientific authors and researchers didn’t understand the new scientific ideas.

The light of the Cross in the Twentieth Century : the influence of the Church on modern civilization, her treatment of the great moral and social problems of our time, by master minds, the foundations, history and progress of her great educational institutions in the United States, her great religious orders of men and women for spreading the Gospel and teaching secular and religious knowledge, the history of the organization, development and aims of the great Catholic fraternal societies of the United States and their national federation with many other important subjects, the teachings of the Church made manifest to the modern mind /

Contents: v. 3. The glorious teachings of our holy religion

Ourselves and the universe : studies in life and religion /

"First edition, June, 1902 ... Sixth edition, November, 1906."

Cognitive dissonance and the effect of acceptance of methodology, beliefs about religion, religious orientation, and dogmatism on the success of university students in a religious studies course

The problem investigated was negative effects on the ability of a university student to successfully complete a course in religious studies resulting from conflict between the methodologies and objectives of religious studies and the student's system of beliefs. Using Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance as a theoretical framework, it was hypothesized that completing a course with a high level of success would be negatively affected by (1) failure to accept the methodologies and objectives of religious studies (methodology), (2) holding beliefs about religion that had potential conflicts with the methodologies and objectives (beliefs), (3) extrinsic religiousness, and (4) dogmatism. The causal comparative method was used. The independent variables were measured with four scales employing Likert-type items. An 8-item scale to measure acceptance of the methodologies and objectives of religious studies and a 16-item scale to measure holding of beliefs about religion having potential conflict with the methodologies were developed for this study. These scales together with a 20-item form of Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale and Feagin's 12-item Religious Orientation Scale to measure extrinsic religiousness were administered to 144 undergraduate students enrolled in randomly selected religious studies courses at Florida International University. Level of success was determined by course grade with the 27% of students receiving the highest grades classified as highly successful and the 27% receiving the lowest grades classified as not highly successful. A stepwise discriminant analysis produced a single significant function with methodology and dogmatism as the discriminants. Methodology was the principal discriminating variable. Beliefs and extrinsic religiousness failed to discriminate significantly. It was concluded that failing to accept the methodologies and objectives of religious studies and being highly dogmatic have significant negative effects on a student's success in a religious studies course. Recommendations were made for teaching to diminish these negative effects.

Conditions for Teaching and Learning in Religious Education (RE) : Perspectives of Teachers and Pupils at the Beginning of the 6th Grade in Sweden

In this article empirical findings from interviews with teachers of three classes of 12-year-old pupils are presented, together with questionnaire-responses from these 54 pupils. The interviews focus on teaching aims for Religious Education (RE), a subject that in Sweden, besides dealing with religion, also explores other kinds of beliefs, ethics and life questions. In the questionnaire the pupils are asked to solve four RE tasks with content that is central from a Swedish curriculum perspective. The research involves pupils at the beginning of the sixth grade and the purpose of this article is to look at the teachers’ aims and the pupils’ responses, and consider what these may indicate about conditions for teaching and learning RE in these classes. The findings show that the perspectives of the pupils at the beginning of the sixth grade seem to be rather far from the expectations of the RE syllabus. The pupils’ statements are rather vague with regard to religion as a phenomenon and there are few examples of pupils interpreting religious symbols in a way that is useful in further analysis. While existential and ethical plots, messages and point of views are comparatively easy to describe, it is harder to express multiple perspectives, reasons, comparisons and questions. A problem for the teachers in developing the perspectives of their pupils is that they find it hard to say what kind of general difficulties pupils have in RE, a fact that makes it hard to direct the teaching. Another challenge is that the teachers’ RE-aims are rather overarching and primarily related to fostering fundamental values. What improves the conditions for teaching and learning is the teachers’ concern for the pupils and their relationships with the teacher and with each other, a factor which is of vital importance for learning and which can also be used as a specific teaching method in subject matter education.