Ethical intelligibility in religious education: Tri Hita Karana and the practice of cross-faith coexistence in Balinese schools

Religious education scholarship increasingly calls for frameworks that treat lived religious traditions as sources of pedagogical theory rather than merely as content to be taught or accommodated. Indigenous relational philosophies, however, remain largely absent from this conversation, typically appearing in tourism or governance scholarship rather than in religious education. This gap is urgent given the growing number of religiously plural schools worldwide that must cultivate coexistence without relying solely on Euro-American models of interfaith dialogue. This study addresses that gap through Tri Hita Karana, a Balinese Hindu philosophy of threefold harmony, examined as a framework for interfaith religious education practice. Drawing on multi-sited critical ethnography across Balinese schools involving eighty-seven participants, the study develops the concept of ethical intelligibility, defined as the institutionally mediated capacity for students and teachers to enact shared ethical obligations across religious difference without theological equivalence. Findings show the philosophy functioning as a negotiated religious ethical infrastructure sustained through interreligious contact, shared practice, and recognition without conversion. However, boundary uncertainty between civic participation and religious observance persists even in mature institutions. The study provides a transferable framework for religious education in plural societies worldwide, informing how schools can mediate interfaith coexistence through indigenous ethical resources.