From Archives to the Classroom: Using Religious Archives to Promote Religious Literacy and Toleration amongst European Young People

Abstract

This article examines the thinking behind the Religious Toleration and Peace (RETOPEA) project, and specifically the construction of a digital archive of sources concerning religious diversity in Europe and beyond, past and present. It argues that European young people tend to accept Enlightenment assumptions about the past and ‘religious conflict’ and that their views of religious history are shaped by ‘presentism’. The article explores RETOPEA's approach to selecting, preparing, and curating a digital archive which presents to young people a fuller picture of both religious intolerance and tolerance in the past, and which enables them to think ‘with’ history rather than assume simplistic lessons from the past.