This seminar examines traditional religious education across cultures and the role of intellectuals therein. We start with a brief view of the social nature of education as argued by Durkheim and Weber. We then raise the following question: Is education about the development of rationality in the intellectual and moral domains as argued by Piaget, or is it more a matter of internalizing habits in the context of institutional constraints as argued by Foucault and Bourdieu? To answer, we examine religious education as it is found in the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions and discover that these traditions have been preoccupied with the same issue. We examine the different answers and models that these traditions propose and raise further questions concerning the nature of religious education: What is traditional religious education about: knowledge, indoctrination or the development of a religious character? Is there a special type of knowledge or rationality in religious traditions? How different is traditional religious education from our modern liberal arts education? We conclude by considering the role that intellectual technologies play in education, particularly the implications of literacy, both in the past and in the present. Reading list: Berger, The Sacred Canopy. Olson, The World on Paper. Ong, Orality and Literacy. Street, Literacy in Theory and Practice. Halberthal, People of the Book. Fisch, Rational Rabbis. Mottahedeh, The Mantle of the Prophet. Lecture and discussion. Requirements: full attendance, a class presentation and a research paper. No prerequisites. Enrollment limited to 30.