In the Netherlands church membership amongst young adults is declining drastically, but interest in religion remains. It takes on other forms, which are found mostly outside the traditional religious institutions. This has important implications for religious education and, concomitantly, for the church as a place of religious learning. In this article I focus on the issue of the localization of religious education, in a society that is transforming into a network-society. My social-theoretical analysis also implies ecclesiological and practical theological issues. Starting from Schillebeeckx' notion of 'negative ecclesiology' I discuss the issue of the need for new ecclesiological metaphors for places of religious learning in a post-modern context, responding to Pete Ward and Miroslav volf. I will also argue that a shift from an ecclesiological to a hermeneutical perspective is needed to be able to reflect adequately on the lived religion of most of contemporary young adults.
TOWARDS AN ETHICAL-DIALOGICAL APPROACH TO RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS FROM THE CASES OF IRELAND AND ENGLAND
