Religious Education (RE) has the potential to identify as gifted many students who might otherwise be missed. The findings discussed here are based on a study of Heads of Department in three very different secondary schools in Cambridgeshire, which investigated how their training and praxis affected the way they identified and challenged students gifted and talented in studying religion. Reasons are given for the gap between RE and gifted education, internationally, nationally and regionally. The lack of student challenge in much RE is identified and ways are suggested to extend and enrich all. Strategies are discussed for doubly exceptional students, with profound insights but poor written skills. Questioning the dominance of pragmatic approaches in the UK, the article suggests how the RE profession could develop a critical and theoretically informed approach to giftedness, with direct implications for classroom practices. (Contains 2 notes and 1 table.)