International Conference on Catholic Religious Education in Schools

Home / News-events / 2018 / International-conference-on-catholic-religious-education-in-schools-malta

Date

February 07th - February 10th

Location

Malta

The brain child of Professor Adrian-Mario Gellel of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Glasgow and Professor Michael Buchanan of the Faculty of Education at the Australian Catholic University, the first International Conference on Catholic Religious Education took place in Rabat, Malta in February 2018. 

This was an opportunity for scholars in the area of Catholic Religious Education to gather and exchange ideas and theories on the place of Catholic Religious Education in the world today and into the future.  There were educators, scholars and post-graduate students form all over the world who offered papers in a number of parallel sessions throughout the four days of the conference.  This was enhanced by key note addresses given by some of the leading scholars in Catholic and Religious Education, including Professor Tom Groome, Boston College; Robert Jackson, University of Warwick and significant contributor to the religious education work of the Council of Europe; and Professor Terry Lovat, Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle, NSW.

Dr. John-Paul Sheridan offered a paper on the use of Religious Art in the Liturgical Catechesis of Children.  Liturgical catechesis was discussed as meaning behind ritual, meaning during ritual and meaning in front of ritual. The paper analysed the intersection between religious art, pedagogy and the religious imagination, and the spirituality of the child.  The paper was accepted for future publication