Rite and Reason:The attacks on New York's Twin Towers made dramatically clear the need to understand the role of religion in society, writes Kevin Williams.
In the last two decades of the 20th century, the claim that knowledge of religion could have a possible role in civic understanding was regarded with suspicion.
But recent years have seen a recovery of the religious roots of citizenship. There are three reasons for this change in attitude.
The first is an enhanced sense of the significance of religion as a cultural phenomenon and as an important feature of civilisation.
Awareness of religion as a cultural fact is perceived as contributing to an understanding of one's own culture and to intercultural sensitivity. The intercultural dimension of knowledge of religion involves understanding the cultural forms that faith can assume both within the boundaries of the nation-state and also beyond these boundaries.
In 2005, the Council of Europe expressed a concern that in an increasingly secular world children are not acquiring knowledge of religion within their own families. Consequently they are at a loss when it comes to making sense of the commitments of other people.
The council believes knowledge of religion is "an integral part of the knowledge of the history of mankind and civilisation".
The second reason for the transformation in attitude towards the role of religion in citizenship education was triggered by the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001.
It became dramatically clear that there was need to understand the motivation of fundamentalists who have recourse to terrorism and more generally to appreciate the place of religion in societies characterised by diversity.
Knowledge of other religions is essential to understanding them. A striking if salutary effect of encountering other worldviews is to be found in James Cowan's novel, A Mapmaker's Dream.
The more the narrator, a 16th century monk, translates a Turkish text, the more he finds himself in contact with a mindset entirely different from his own.
The monk does not know what to think and wonders if the author is an "imposter" or else if he enjoyed access to knowledge closed to one brought up in Europe. He comes to the conclusion that neither he nor the Turkish author has a monopoly on truth.
The tension between religion and civic belonging discloses a very sensitive fault line in contemporary societies. This tension can arise between liberal democratic principles and demands for public recognition on the part of religious groups - for example, the demands of Sikh police officers to wear turbans while on duty.
The third reason for the change in attitude towards the role of religion in citizenship education is due to recognition of religion as a moral resource and as a source of social capital.
The Council of Europe is very clear on this. Its Recommendation 1,720 emphasises the need to keep politics and religion separate but argues that religion should not be "incompatible" with democracy and that both "should be valid partners" in pursuit of the "common good". Regret is expressed that the role of the study of religions in building a democratic society "has not yet received special attention".
Many of the values endorsed by the council derive from Judaic, Christian and Islamic sources.
Dr Kevin Williams lectures in Mater Dei Institute and is currently participating in a project on citizenship in Europe