In Europe, religious and spiritual education happens in a context which is at the same time increasingly secular and religiously plural. This places the problem of religious experience on the agenda. Today most students of religious and spiritual education lack appropriate experiences and show different opinions about what religion or spirituality could be. This Setting raises several questions: How can religious experience be conceptualized in a context of religious plurality and secularity with the traditional religious traditions as just one option among others? Do the concepts of spirituality and implicit religion give way to a new understanding of religious experience?

This edited volume aims to shed light on the relationship between the design of the Subject of religious education in different Nordic countries and the Subject knowledge and generic abilities that the Subject aims to develop, such as the ability to discern and relate to various aspects where religion and outlook on life are central factors. This volume further examines theoretical, methodological and empirical issues concerning the practice and the study of religion and non-religion, spirituality and worldviews within contemporary education.

There is an increasing recognition today that young people need to have knowledge about religions and world views in order to live and work in diverse societies. What kind of ‘maps’ are they provided with through religious, values and ethics education? Does education address the challenging existential questions that children and adolescents ask about life and the world? This volume addresses different aspects of how existential questions have been dealt with in educational research. It especially draws attention to the Swedish research tradition of focusing on life questions and the interpretation of life in education, but with contemporary international research added.