Between 2017 and 2020, a University of Birmingham project examined the personal perspectives and professional beliefs of RE teachers in England. In a project article, three dominant moral assumptions of RE teachers were identified in historical literature. These moral assumptions were explained using the metaphor of a rhizome, in that they appear at regular intervals from the time of the 1870 Education Act to the present day. The first is the universalist assumption, which is that there are universal truths behind the all of the major world’s religions, and that the study of religion can identify these and present them to pupils. The second is the vicarious assumption, which is the idea that teaching religion, one can build pupils’ world views, and also, therefore, their moral belief structures. The final is the instrumentalist assumption, which posits that through studying religion, pupils instrumentally become more moral over time.