Thirteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The notion of secularism and the binary distinction between the secular and religious it presupposes has since long been subject to discussion. Post-secularism is not the disappearance of the religious but rather a shift in the consciousness of the role of religion in public life. Thus, post-secularism implies an acknowledgement of the entanglement of the religious, spiritual, and secular in our modern world, including education. Current studies in music education research point to different ways music/art, education, and religion relate, conflict and can come together, both in theory and practice. If, as these scholarly contributions suggest, music/art, education, and religion can foster a sense of community and connections between different worlds and within people, it is crucial also to be attentive to the performative art educational processes where such relations can take place. With this paper, I focus on how relations between religion and art education are explored in an interdisciplinary co-art project (music, dance, and drama) in a Norwegian upper secondary school. The paper is part of an ongoing ethnographic study following fifty students and five teachers in staging and performing “Dante’s Inferno”. Data material consists of participant and video observation, teacher- and student interviews, and field notes. A narrative thematic analytical approach is applied. I contribute to the ongoing discourse with a reading of the German sociologist Hartmut Rosas resonance theory and its relevance for understanding the role of art and religion in education.