The author is an academic educationist, and this book clearly distinguishes between religious education and religious indoctrination. It is concerned with the philosophy of religious education and is designed to acquaint the reader with the main issues involved in the debate that surrounds the place of religious education in the curriculum of the public school system in Nigeria. His contention is that religious educators, as with other disciplines, should present the subject matter as a legitimate object of enquiry capable of (...) yielding knowledge and understanding. Amongst topics covered are knowledge and truth; justification of religious education, its aims, the role of the bible, modern educational methods, indoctrination and commitment, and religious education in a pluralist society. (shrink)

This paper explores the contribution of Vico's philosophy of imagination to a practical recognition of the importance of the imagination in the conduct of human affairs in general and in education in particular. Vico's claim that the imagination is an essential component of our human nature together with the claim that all human knowledge ultimately has its origins in the imaginative activities of our forebears (a claim which has received empirical support from recent research on the history of oral cultures) (...) provides us with the necessary philosophical basis for establishing a logical connection between imagination and education. If accepted, such a perspective would, in my view, dispel much of the skepticism that still surrounds the role of the imagination in contemporary education. (shrink)