Religious Education in the European Context

The current government in Hungary decided to introduce religious education and ethics as compulsory subjects in state schools from 2013 on. This has started a contested debate in Hungarian society about the place of religion in school. Arguments opposing this decision refer to tendencies of secularisation and to decreasing influence of churches in society. It is stated that the government tries to re-invigorate the importance of religion (Christianity) in Hungary for political reasons. This article provides an introduction to the situation of religious education (RE) in Europe from a comparative perspective to support a more differentiated adjudication. HERJ Hungarian Educational Research Journal 2013, Vol. 3(4)