Religious tolerance and intolerance: ‘Engravings’ on the soul

Abstract

The recent violent anti-social acts by individuals and groups who feel deeply committed to some or other religious ideal have underscored the importance of the inculcation of religious tolerance in young children for the sake of peaceful coexistence in increasingly diverse and pluralistic communities. The key to such inculcation is education in the most positive sense of the word, i.e. as nurturing, guiding and equipping. Research has shown that some young people are being subjected to a form of negative pedagogy or anti-pedagogy that shapes them to be religiously intolerant. The purpose of this article is to show how education in the most positive sense of the word could be employed to make such etchings on the souls (personalities) of young people that would shape them to become cultured and religiously tolerant persons. They could become people with integrity, equipped with life-maps helping them to live peacefully in increasingly diverse and pluralistic societies, able and willing to contribute to their own well-being and also to that of all other people.