From 2009 -14 Dr Barnes was Reader in Religious and Theological Education, King’s College London; before that he was Senior Lecturer in Religious Education at King's.

Dr Barnes has been Chair of the Postgraduate and Research Committee; a member of the Executive Committee of the Department; Programme Director of the Doctorate in Theology and Ministry, of the MA in Religious Education and of the MA in Jewish Education.

He studied theology and philosophy at Queen's University Belfast, the University of Hull and Trinity College Dublin, where he was a student of Professor John Gaskin (Philosophy) and a scholarship holder.

Research interests

• The theory and philosophy of religious education.
• The history and politics of religious education in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
• The relationship of religious studies and theology to religious education.
• The Northern Ireland Conflict.
• Christian theology, particularly the subject of forgiveness (including political forgiveness).
• Practical theology.

Publications since 2018

BOOK

Barnes, L. P. 2020. Crisis, Controversy and the Future of Religious Education. London: Routledge. pp. xiii+222.

EDITED BOOKS

Barnes, L. P. (ed.) 2024. Debates in Religious Education, 2nd edition. London: Routledge (pp. x+250).

Barnes, L. P. (ed.) 2023. Religion and Worldviews: The triumph of the secular in religious education. London: Routledge (pp. vi+193).

Barnes, L. P. (ed.) 2018. Learning to Teach Religious Education in the Secondary School: A companion to school experience, 3rd edition. London: Routledge (pp. xxii+239).

Barnes, L. P. (ed. and revised) 2021. Religion, Interreligious Learning and Education [based on Grundlagen Interreligiosen Lernens], by Karlo Meyer. Berlin: Peter Lang (pp. 330).

ESSAYS

Barnes, L. P. In press. ‘Religion and the Northern Ireland Conflict.’ In Companion to Northern Ireland Politics and Society: Conflict: Continuity and Change, edited by J. W. McAuley, M. Braniff and G. Spencer. New York: Peter Laing.

Barnes, L. P. In press. ‘Religion and Education in Northern Ireland.’ In Oxford Handbook of Religion in Modern Ireland, edited by A. Holmes and G. Ganiel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Barnes, L. P. In press. ‘Christianity, Humanism, and Non-religion: The 2021 UK Census and Religious Education.’ In Religious Diversity in Post Secular Societies - Conceptual Foundations, Public Management and Upcoming Prospects, edited by R. R. Andrés and Z. Sajir. Berlin: Springer.

Barnes, L. P. 2024. ‘Rewriting the Historical Narrative of Post-Confessional English Religious Education.’ In Religion and Worldviews in Education: The New Watershed, edited by L. Gearon, A. Kuusisto, S. Poulter, A. Toom and M. Ubani (93-106).

Barnes, L. P. 2024. ‘Introduction: Entering the Debate’. In Debates in Religious Education, edited by L. P Barnes. London: Routledge (1-9).

Barnes, L. P. 2024. ‘Compulsion, conscience and the right of withdrawal.’ In Debates in Religious Education, edited by L. P Barnes. London: Routledge (69-79).

Barnes, L. P. 2022. ‘British and Germany religious education in dialogue: A British Perspective’. In Religionsunterricht im Plausibilisierungsstress: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf aktuelle Entwicklungen und Herausforderungen, edited by M. Domsgen and U. Witten. Bielefeld: Verlag (285-301).

Barnes, L. P. 2018. ‘Values, Human Rights and Religious Education: A critical analysis.’ In Learning to Teach Religious Education in the Secondary School: Contested Grounds, edited by J. Astley, L. J. Francis and W. Lankshear. Oxford: Peter Lang (69-89).

Barnes, L. P. and Jeff Astley. 2018. ‘Religious Education and Religious Language.’ In Learning to Teach Religious Education in the Secondary School: A companion to school experience, 3rd edition. London: Routledge (73-88).

Barnes, L. P. 2018. ‘Public Theology or Religious Studies? Deliberations of the basis of multifaith religious education.’ In Public Theology, Religious Diversity and Interreligious Learning, edited by M. L. Pirner, J. Lähnemann, W. Haussmann, S. Schwarz. London: Routledge (118-132).

Barnes, L. P. 2018. ‘Religious education in Northern Ireland: Conflict, curriculum and criticism.’ In Religion and Education: Comparative and International Perspectives (Oxford Studies in Comparative Education), edited by M. Sivasubramaniam and R. Hayhoe)
Oxford: Symposium Books (273-288).

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Barnes, L. P. Under review. ‘Challenging Humanist privilege in religious education.’

Barnes, L. P. In press. ‘The travail of multi-faith religious education in Britain.’ Revista Internacional de Teoría e Investigación Educativa.

Barnes, L. P. 2022. ‘Hume’s Criticism of the Argument from (to) Design (Part 1).’ Challenging Religious Issues 18 (Spring): 14-20.

Barnes, L. P. 2022. ‘Hume’s Criticism of the Argument from (to) Design (Part 2).’ Challenging Religious Issues 18 (Spring): 21-27.

Barnes, L. P. 2022. ‘The theology of education and religious education in schools.’ Theology 125 (6): 429–436.

Barnes, L. P. 2022. ‘Religious Education for free and equal citizens.’ British Journal of Religious Education 44 (1): 4–13.

Barnes, L. P. 2022. ‘The Commission on Religious Education, worldviews and the future of religious education.’ British Journal of Educational Studies 70 (1): 87–102.

Barnes, L. P. 2021. ‘The character of Controlled schools in Northern Ireland: A complementary perspective to that of Gracie and Brown.’ International Journal of Christianity & Education 25 (3) 337–348.

Barnes, L. P. 2018. ‘Cult books revisited: John Hick’s God and the Universe of Faiths.’ Theology 122 (2): 111–118.

Barnes, L. P. 2018. ‘A Critical Response to Heidi C. Giannini.’ Journal of Religious Ethics 46 (4): 784-792.

Barnes, L. P. 2018. ‘English Religious Education: Developments, identity, and diversity.’
Changing Societies & Personalities 2 (3): 232-241.

 

A full list of Dr Barnes’s publications is available from the author.