Taking Religion Seriously Across the Curriculum

In Taking Religion Seriously Across the Curriculum, Warren A. Nord and Charles C. Haynes chart a middle course in our culture wars over religion and public education—one that builds on a developing national consensus among educational and religious leaders. While it is not proper for schools to practice religion or proselytize, it is not permissible to make them into “religion-free” zones either; schools must take religion seriously. Unfortunately, religion is taken far from seriously in the K–12 curriculum, as the authors’ review of textbooks and the new national content standards makes clear.


In Part One Nord and Haynes explain why schools should take religion seriously, and they outline the civic, constitutional, and educational frameworks that should shape the treatment of religion in the curriculum and classroom. In Part Two they explore the major issues relating to religion in different domains of the curriculum—in elementary education, and in middle and high school courses in history, civics, economics, literature, and the sciences. They also discuss Bible courses and world religions courses, and they explore the relationship of religion to moral education and sex education. The result is a book that is unique in the scope of its consideration of the relevance of religion across the curriculum.