Limit or liberation Ellen Key’s view on religious education in school

Abstract

The Swedish author Ellen Key (1849-1926) argued, in her time and from her idealistic and modern perspective, for a disconnection between the educational system at schools and the authorities of the State Church of Sweden. Meanwhile, in her pedagogical manifest The Century of the Child (1900/1912) she promoted a deeper encounter between the pupil and the textual stories of the bible. Not as fundaments for theology and a systematic structure of belief, but as an important contribution for the growth of the child.

The article takes it’s point of departure from the historical context of Ellen Key’s time, the educational and political-religious framework where Key’s visionary ideals developed and were formulated. Furthermore, Key’s arguments and demands in The Century of the Child for the exclusion of Christian instruction in schools, as well as her perception of the implication on the educational practice, is detailed.

Key’s texts will be analyzed through the methodical and theoretical works of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor (1931 -  ). In his work Taylor investigates the possibility to view the world in “excarnated” or “incarnated” terms, and Ellen Key’s arguments are sharpened in this classical theological and philosophical structure.

In the conclusion the over-arching question is: will religious instruction in general and Christian instruction in particular, in Key’s opinion, create problems or possibilities for the child in its upbringing? Will they serve as limit or as liberation for the development of the individual?