Religion and American Education: Rethinking a National Dilemma / Edition 1

by Warren A. Nord

Overview

Warren Nord's thoughtful book tackles an issue of great importance in contemporary America: the role of religion in our public schools and universities. According to Nord, public opinion has been excessively polarized by those religious conservatives who would restore religious purposes and practices to public education and by those secular liberals for whom religion is irrelevant to everything in the curriculum. While he maintains that public schools and universities must not promote religion, he also argues that there are powerful philosophical, political, moral, and constitutional reasons for requiring students to study religion. Indeed, only if religion is included in the curriculum will students receive a truly liberal education, one that takes seriously a variety of ways of understanding the human experience. Intended for a broad audience, Nord's comprehensive study encompasses American history, constitutional law, educational theory and practice, theology, philosophy, and ethics. It also discusses a number of current, controversial issues, including multiculturalism, moral education, creationism, academic freedom, and the voucher and school choice movements.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807844786
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	05/31/1995
Series:	H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	502
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.12(d)
Lexile:	1430L (what's this?)

About the Author

Warren A. Nord is director of the Program in the Humanities and Human Values and teaches in the department of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Comprehensive, balanced, and extremely readable, Warren A. Nord has written the best introduction to the vexing issue of the role of religion in public schools. It is hard to imagine a more reasonable book, yet it is also full of fresh insights and driven by a vision of fairness to some provocative conclusions.—Teaching, Theology, and Religion



[A] thoughtful analysis of religion's role in public education. . . . Nord persuasively argues that educators in public institutions exclude religious points of view.—Commonweal



Nord clearly wants to engage the interested general reader, not the specialist, and his conversational writing style helps him succeed.—Christian Science Monitor



An important achievement that should become a standard reference in years to come.—Washington Times



This is a book and a set of proposals to be taken very seriously indeed.—Washington Post



Nord writes about a serious public problem with clarity and fairness. For intelligent general readers who seek to understand historical, constitutional, and philosophical implications of the current cultural war over religion and public education.—Choice



Nord has done both public and Catholic education a service by raising challenging questions that both communities need to address.—America



Religion and American Education is a powerful book, perhaps the most judicious, most persuasive discussion about the proper role of religion in the public schools to appear in print. . . . Deserves the widest possible audience, and should be required reading for school administrators and faculty at all levels of American education.—Religion & Education



[Nord] provides an insightful history of the secularization of American education and offers balanced analyses of the legal, political, ethical, educational, and religious dimensions of the national dilemma.—Books & Culture



This book needs to be read by all the school board members and school superintendents in this country. Its paperback price makes that possible.—Clayton Georgia Tribune

Editorial Reviews

ÝA¨ thoughtful analysis of religion's role in public education.

"Commonweal"

It is hard to imagine a more reasonable book, yet it is also full of fresh insights.

"Teaching, Theology, and Religion"

Nord clearly wants to engage the interested general reader, not the specialist, and his conversational writing style helps him succeed.

"Christian Science Monitor"

"It is hard to imagine a more reasonable book, yet it is also full of fresh insights.

"Teaching, Theology, and Religion""

"Nord clearly wants to engage the interested general reader, not the specialist, and his conversational writing style helps him succeed.

"Christian Science Monitor""

[A] thoughtful analysis of religion's role in public education.

"Commonweal"

An important achievement that should become a standard reference in years to come.

"Washington Times"

This is a book and a set of proposals to be taken very seriously indeed.

"Washington Post"

From the Publisher

Nord argues for the teaching of religion in public schools and universities, not to indoctrinate students but to help them take religious worldviews seriously in the pursuit of knowledge. His reasoning is convincing, but his writing is laborious and repetitive. To put his proposals in context, he attempts to summarize all relevant Supreme Court rulings, religion's role in the intellectual history of Europe and the United States, and major contemporary philosophical movements and worldviews. Three long chapters, more than a third of the text, are devoted to such background material, much of which is summarized again in later chapters. The end result is a thin argument with more background than development: require courses in religious studies, but don't institutionalize school prayer. Nord directs a program in the humanities and values at the University of North Carolina. While his historical knowledge is broad, he appears not to have concrete information about contemporary U.S. secondary education other than that gleaned from having analyzed the textbooks used in North Carolina schools, and he seems ignorant of current experiments in teaching religion and values in schools. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this comprehensive study, Nord (philosophy, Univ. of North Carolina) addresses religion in the curriculum in American public schools and universities. Although he professes that public institutions should not promote religion, he takes to task those secular liberals who discount its importance in the curriculum. He concludes by strongly suggesting that "a little humility is in order" when tackling this issue. Nord also discusses such other relevant topics as multiculturalism, creationism, and academic freedom. His timely work should appeal to a wide academic audience, as it incorporates history, law, educational theory and practice, theology, philosophy, and ethics. Recommended for academic libraries.Samuel T. Huang, Northern Illinois Univ. Libs., DeKalb

Library Journal