EditorialThe European Institute of Religious Sciences
Training institute, Resource centre, European observatory on religion

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Plan

The European Institute of Religious Sciences –Institut européen en sciences des religions (IESR) – is a division of the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), and was created by a decree signed by the Minister of National Education on June 26 2002.

The IESR is a training institute, a resource centre and a European observatory on religion associated with the Religious Sciences department of the EPHE. Its mission is to serve as a secular centre offering expertise and consulting on the history and the current state of religious issues.

• Honorary President: Régis DEBRAY

• President of the management board: Dominique BORNE

• Director: Jean-Paul WILLAIME

• Assistant director: Isabelle SAINT-MARTIN

• Management board

• Scientific advisory committee

• Executive board

• Staff members

An institute for the teaching of religious facts

Training adapted to specific school subjects

The IESR was created in direct response to the recommendation of the report on the teaching of religious facts in the secular school system submitted to the Ministry of National Education in 2002 by Régis Debray: "to bring educational methods and scientific research closer together".

Along with its regional affiliates and the institutions and ministries with which it is associated, the IESR participates in the implementation of the teaching of religious facts in primary and secondary schools.

In this context, the IESR serves the IUFMs (teacher training colleges) and local boards of education (in particular through its regional affiliates), as well as the inspectorate of national education, by helping to implement initial and ongoing training programmes for National Education personnel (teachers, training instructors, etc.). The programmes that are offered support the specific methods used in those subjects where religiousfacts are discussed (History, Geography, French, Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Art History, Sociology).

The IESR holds seminars and manages internship programmes where long-term thinking is carried out on religious facts and how they are taught:

• “Laïcité” and the teaching of religious facts (IUFM, Créteil);

• Teaching about religion and colonisation (INRP – IESR);

• Philosophy and religions; religious facts in the teaching of Literature, Languages, etc.

Professional Master's Programme

As part of the EPHE, the IESR coordinates the professional training component of the SHPR ("Sciences historiques, philologiques et religieuses") Master's degree specialising in Religious and Social Sciences (a degree programme jointly managed by the EPHE and the EHESS),which is entitled "Religions et laïcité dans la vie professionnelle et associative" (Religions and laïcité in professional life and community work). This study course is meant for anyone whose activity involves religious facts, and includes both initial and ongoing training, to be applied in the fields of social education, politics, law, community health or culture. It allows the student to master the fundamentals of laïcité and the study of religions and beliefs, via the many different ways in which they are represented in French society and the transformations they undergo within it.

Evening education and training days

In the framework of the EPHE's continuing education programme, the IESR coordinates the scientific conception and organisation of evening courses and daytime seminars, open to all.Every year, fifteen study cycles are offered, on subjects including: Islam: founding texts, law, diversity and practices; Figures of the feminine in the Bible (texts and arts);Darwin and creationism;Laïcité: the legal context; Jewish mysticism and exegesis; Buddhist art; etc.

A centre for expertise and resources

Institutions and representatives of civil society: partnerships, training programmes

The IESR is a centre for expertise and resources, working with representatives in the fields of politics, administration, culture, health and social issues, and developing partnerships withdifferent Ministries (Interior, Justice, Health, etc.) or culturalorganisations (Institut du monde arabe, Musée d’art et d’histoire du judaïsme, Bibliothèque nationale de France, etc.). The IESR conducts outreach programmes for all professions that deal with religious facts and offers training programmes suited to their needs: Hospitals and religious facts, Evolution Science and Creationism, etc.

Promoting research

Supporting the EPHE's scientific expertise, the IESR's mission is to publicise and highlight the investigations underway on religious phenomena, shedding light on contemporary issues by looking at the written and historical origins of religions and their transformations over time.

• Conferences: Quel avenir pour les chrétiens d’Orient ? (Paris, 2007), Lumières, religions, laïcité (Nancy, 2005), Religion et politique en Asie (Paris, 2003) ;

• Seminars: René Rémond, un intellectuel chrétien (Paris, 2007), Statuts et rôles des Ministres des cultes, Islam et politiques publiques en Europe (IESR – IISMM), École et religions en Europe (IESR – GSRL);

• Publications: Histoire de l’islam (La documentation Française, 2007), Enseigner les faits religieux (Armand Colin, 2007).

Every month, the IESR organises anIESR Wednesday in Paris: a conference on a book and its author, followed by a discussion.  This is an opportunity to present works to the public dealing with religious facts and to cover many different subjects through scientific exposés.

The IESR stays current with publications in the study of religion, which it carefully analyses in order to keep the world of education informed on the latest work. Thevirtual library on the IESR's Web site offers analytical summaries of various texts, written with school curricula in mind, as well as resources of an educational or scientific nature on the teaching and study of religious facts.

A European observatory on religion

The IESR observes and compares the evolution of practices and legislation concerning religious facts in all the countries in Europe, especially on the educational level. Des maîtres et des dieux. Écoles et religions en Europe, a book published by Belin in 2005 and edited by Jean-Paul Willaime (IESR) with the assistance of Séverine Mathieu (EPHE – GSRL), is one of the examples of European research supported by the IESR.

In 2006 – 2009, the IESR is participating in the European research programme REDCo, Religion in education. Eight countries take part in this programme, which is financed by the European Union: Estonia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Its mission is to study the evolution of the systems and practices governing the teaching of religious facts throughout Europe, in particular by incorporating the students' point of view. The findings of this research are published regularly: R. Jackson, S. Miedema, R. Weisse, J-P. Willaime (eds.), Religion and Education in Europe (Waxmann, 2007).