From Noumenon to Phenomenon as an Object of Official Religious Education in Colombia

Abstract

In Colombia, the Ministry of National Education issues Circular 21 of 2023 with the purpose of eradicating Colombian illiteracy in relation to the fundamental right of religious freedom. The Constitutional Court, through Sentence T – 357 of 2024, orders the elimination of Catholic dogmatic content and takes Circular 21 into account to teach the religious phenomenon in a neutral manner. The Episcopal Conference of Colombia comments on the Sentence, suggests legal actions to restore Catholic instruction to Catholic students, and requests new governmental regulations for religious education. In this context, the objective of the present study is to examine the codes of the Circular and the Sentence with the references of the Colombian educational system to identify their implications in factual contexts. The study adopts a qualitative approach with a documentary and hermeneutic-systemic design. The result is the interpretation of eight implications in six factual contexts of the educational system impacted by the change in the object of instruction of religious education in official educational institutions, as it transitions from the noumenon to the phenomenon, in the Kantian sense. The teaching of the religious phenomenon is established with a primary focus on the meaning of religious freedom as a fundamental right and as an integral public policy; the systemic implications lead to changes in the training, evaluation, and academic management of religious education teachers, updates for teaching administrators and academic peers, inclusion in standardized tests, disciplinary responsibility, and reflection on the Church-State relationship.