Challenging knowledge in RE: Vol 1 Studying God

We begin a new series as part of the Big Questions in Classrooms programme, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The series is called ‘Challenging Knowledge
in RE’, and the purpose is to support teachers and students in investigating how knowledge is created in different disciplines,
and in helping students perceive the value of different kinds of questions, methods and explanations used to understand
big questions.

This new series explores some of the substantive knowledge often encountered in RE, in this case around the idea of God. It looks to provide creative, thoughtful and practical ideas to enrich
students’ understanding.

The new focus for the series is to increase students’ disciplinary knowledge too. As we encounter the world, we can explore it using different disciplines and methods. These disciplines then generate knowledge. The knowledge we encounter depends on what we are looking for and how we look. In this volume, we
are focusing on the kinds of questions, methods and findings that are opened up by the disciplines of theology and psychology.

Of course, both these disciplines are complex,
containing within them many other subdisciplines, so we will only be able to do some preliminary study, exploring a limited range of questions and methods. Our intention is to outline
the broad processes so that students have enough disciplinary knowledge to carry out their own (rudimentary) investigations.

We introduce students to our resident experts, Dr Carissa Sharp and Dr Simeon Zahl, and invite students to become investigators themselves. In so doing, they are encouraged to evaluate the methods and answers, as well as reflect on their own position and the impact it has on their understanding and responses.