This paper arises from our concerns regarding the documented increases in xenophobia in the UK and more widely around the world. This is evidenced by a rise in religiously motivated hate crimes, especially against Muslims and Jews. Our enquiry is into the potential religious education has to mitigate xenophobia and educational justification for it to do so. We suggest that a religious education seeking to mitigate xenophobia will need teachers who take plurality seriously. Such teachers will need courage as well as the capacity to navigate complexity of lives lived with a religious orientation, with open mindedness. This means not only appreciating there is a great deal to know in terms of history and the lived human religious experience but also that religious life has an existential dimension which cannot be reduced to beliefs and practices. We ask what it is that the public sphere needs educationally from religious education at this point in history. This paper concludes by making the point that religious education is uniquely placed, to bring humanity to the heart of education and in so doing mitigate xenophobia, in light of its close connection to human experience. Finally, we alert the religious education community to the significance of doing this at this time, and the danger of ignoring it, for the continued well-being of the public sphere itself.

中文翻译：

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宗教教育和缓解仇外心理的潜力

本文源于我们对英国和全球范围内仇外心理的文献报道增加的担忧。出于宗教动机的仇恨犯罪，尤其是针对穆斯林和犹太人的仇恨犯罪有所增加，就证明了这一点。我们的探究是，潜在的宗教教育必须减轻仇外心理，并为此提供教育依据。我们建议寻求减轻仇外心理的宗教教育将需要认真对待多元性的教师。这样的教师将需要勇气，以及有能力以开放的心态来度过以宗教为导向的生活的复杂性。这意味着不仅要鉴赏从历史和人类宗教经历中获得的大量知识，而且还意味着宗教生活具有存在层面，不能简化为信仰和实践。我们问，在历史的这一点上，公共领域在宗教教育方面需要进行什么教育。本文最后指出，宗教教育的独特之处在于将人类带入教育的核心，并以此来消除仇外心理，因为它与人类经验有着密切的联系。最后，我们提醒宗教教育界当前这样做的重要性，以及忽视它的危险，这对于公共领域本身的持续福祉而言。