This article outlines the 'Big Ideas' approach to curriculum reform, as applied in the 'Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education' project (Harlen 2010). A critical analysis follows of the outcomes of the University of Exeter's 'Identifying Principles and Big Ideas for Religious Education' project, which sought to apply the same approach to Religious Education (RE) in English schools (Wintersgill 2017). This project made great headway in generating 'Big Ideas' to inform and improve the selection and sequencing of RE curriculum content. However, its primary focus on subject content knowledge mean that 'Big Ideas' about epistemology and methodology are lacking. The article recommends an additional focus on multi-disciplinary, multimethodological, inquiry-based, reflexive learning, which would ask why, how, where and by whom our 'knowledge' of religion(s) and worldview(s) is generated. In this regard, the article posits four 'Big Ideas about the study of religion(s) and worldview(s)' to highlight the symbiotic relationship between knowledge and knower, and to reject the false dichotomy between the object of study and method of study. In so doing, it draws upon the theoretical framework underpinning the 'RE-searchers approach' to primary school RE, which correspondingly exemplifies how such ideas can be taught in practice.

This article offers insights into the narrative of the Gerasene Demoniac (Luke 8:26–39) from grassroots interpreters in Owamboland, Namibia. The participants’ perspectives on the ‘Living Landscape’—contextualised against a background of Owambo ethnographic data—disrupt understandings of landscapes and spirits found in Western-centric professional biblical scholarship. This illustrates the potential of Contextual Bible Study (or variants thereof) both to bring forth original interpretive insights and to capitalise on particular cultural contexts as sites of expertise.

This article considers how biblical scholarship might break out of its western-dominated, largely historical-critical mould. I argue that we might challenge the hegemony of ‘western worldview’ scholarship by capitalising on the interpretative insights of alternative worldviews; in that regard, I advance a cross-cultural methodology. Additionally, I advocate engaging with grassroots interpreters, thereby contributing to the decentring of scholarly biblical criticism. Finally, this article focuses on the value of interpretation through dialogue, which functions here on two levels: the researcher dialoguing with grassroots interpretation groups in cross-cultural settings, and the resulting grassroots interpretations dialoguing with western professional biblical interpretations. The potential of this approach is demonstrated using a case study: Mark 4:35-41 interpreted with Cross-Cultural Biblical Interpretation Groups in northern Namibia. The interpretative insights of grassroots groups in non-western contexts, free(r) from the influence of western worldviews and scholarship, function to highlight the equally contextual nature of mainstream professional biblical interpretation.

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