On 3 August 1944, a new Education Act for England and Wales received Royal Assent. The purpose of the Education Act was not only to 'rebuild' education during the war, but also to lay the foundations for a new start and a better society after the war. One of the key innovations of the Education Act was the introduction of compulsory religious education in state schools, depending on the denomination of the pupils. There may be different reasons for such a legal provision, but a main and fundamental conviction of the authors of the text and the British politicians of that time was that confessional religious education would be beneficial for the development and cohesion of modern democratic societies. And the Challenges of today´s European societies may be in some aspects similar to those eighty years ago. Taking into account also the critical voices that argue for the total elimination of religion from the public sphere and, consequently, from school curricula, this paper aims to discuss different arguments and positions in favour of confessional religious education in all schools. Only when citizens are aware of their own religious identity and have attained a certain level of religious literacy commensurate with their general level of education will interreligious dialogue be possible. And without such dialogue, it is unlikely that multicultural and multi-religious populations in modern states will be able to coexist peacefully and sustainably.