Engaging Religious Education

Joy Schmack is Director of RE Services at Liverpool Hope University. After teaching in schools in South London for 20 years she joined the Croydon Inspection and Advisory Service where she particualrly focussed upon religious education, faith relations, and inclusion. As a chief examiner for GCSE, Joy has written many textbooks and teacher handbooks. Her particular research interests include challenging misconceptions through religious education and raising standards at Key Stage 4.Matthew Thompson is a part-time Senior Lecturer in Religious Education at Liverpool Hope University. He is also Director of Liverpool Community Spirit, a unique community education partnership which for the past eight years has been promoting inclusive, caring community spirit in the heart of Liverpool through innovative adult learning programmes and an interfaith youth council. He has published a number of papers, most recently in Michael H. Grimmitt's edited volume, Religious Education and Social and Community Cohesion: Challenges and Opportunities (Great Wakering: McCrimmons, forthcoming 2010).Dr. David Torevell is Associate Professor in the department of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies at Liverpool Hope University. He has written two books on Christian worship, Losing the Sacred: Ritual, Modernity and Liturgical Reform (TandT CLark, 2000) and Liturgy and the Beauty of the Unknown: Another Place (Ashgate, 2007). He has published numerous articles on his research interests which include theology and the arts, contemplative theology, Christian spirituality and worship and religious education. He is presently completing a study of aspects of contemplative theology in dialogue with a new interpretation of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.