Religious education, pedagogy or didactics? An international perspective on discussions of concepts in a Norwegian context

In Norway there has been a discussion about definition and use of core concepts in education about religion, pedagogy of religion and didactics of religious education. In an article (Bråten 2014c) I discuss this in an international perspective. I look at Ivar Asheim who can be said to establish the discipline of pedagogy of religion in Norway with his book from 1977 «Pedagogy of religious education: an introduction» in relation to a significant new publication by Bengt-Ove Andreassen from 2012: «Didactics of religious education: an introduction». In his book Andreassen signals a need for a break from the theologically based tradition, and his choice of the alternative concept become a vehicle for this. In an international perspective however, it is particularly interesting to see that the distinction between secular, religious and neutral RE are often blurred. With reference to the epistemology of Religious Education, understood as an international discipline of research: where does this lead us?