This thesis is concerned with the role of Religious Education (RE) in achieving the flourishing of society. It claims that the approach that has the greatest potential for the flourishing of society in the face of the tension arising between conflicting truth claims of faiths and the need to promote the flourishing of society, can be considered the most appropriate existing path to do this. I have found that Critical Religious Education which prioritises addressing the question of truth is the most promising available account for supporting society to flourish. In addition to centralising truth, this thesis argues centralising the notion of happiness in relation to what humans ultimately aim to achieve supports RE to achieve the flourishing of society. Thus, the most appropriate path to achieving the flourishing of society is found to be centralising truth and happiness.
In this context, the notion of religious literacy has been found useful in that it enhances the contribution of RE to the flourishing of society by centralising truth and happiness. This is because religious literacy implies the feasibility of what is being studied in RE.
Moreover, because considering together the current situation about religious literacy and this tension in schools and the things we say about how these issues should be approached can reinforce change towards a better approach to these elements, this thesis includes a survey study investigating RE teachers’ perspectives of the term religious literacy and the tension between contested truth claims of faiths and the need to promote the flourishing of society.
The findings show that teachers’ understanding of religious literacy is limited. They also indicate that teachers are in favour of engagement with truth claims of faiths. Overall, I argue that understanding of religious literacy in schools should be enhanced by teachers’ desire to engage with the question of truth, and with centralising the notion of happiness.
