Friedrich Schweitzer

Religious individualization: new challenges to education for tolerance

The focus of this article is on the relationship between tolerance and individualized religion as the most common type of adolescent religion in many western countries. Drawing on a number of qualitative studies conducted by the author with children and adolescents in Germany, as well as on other larger studies conducted by others, the author identifies a number of problem areas, for example, in Christian adolescents’ views of Islam, and discusses the consequences of individualized religion for tolerance education. Different models of religious education in Germany and other European countries are considered. Special emphasis is given to the following question: if and under what conditions can religion and religious education become sources of tolerance? The author suggests that the model of co‐operative dialogical religious education has the potential to support religious identities and, at the same time, to foster dialogical openness.

Children’s right to religion and spirituality: legal, educational and practical perspectives1

The attempt to establish children’s rights can be called one of the major twentieth‐century projects, with the 1989 United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights as one of its most important results. Yet while the issue of spiritual development has played a clear role in the struggle for children’s rights ever since the ground‐breaking Geneva Declaration of the 1920s, the 1989 declaration does not include a clear reference to children’s right to religion or spirituality. The aim of the present article is to investigate the possibilities for establishing such a right, not only in legal terms but also on pedagogical grounds and in terms of religious education. How can children’s needs be taken seriously, for example, vis‐à‐vis death and dying? How does a children’s rights perspective affect the understanding of religious education? What could a more formally established right to religion and spirituality really mean for the child, as well as for educational institutions? The article discusses such questions in conversation with educational authors such as Janusz Korczak, the pioneer of ‘children’s right to respect’, as well as with psychological theories of individual, social and religious or spiritual development.The attempt to establish children’s rights can be called one of the major twentieth‐century projects, with the 1989 United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights as one of its most important results. Yet while the issue of spiritual development has played a clear role in the struggle for children’s rights ever since the ground‐breaking Geneva Declaration of the 1920s, the 1989 declaration does not include a clear reference to children’s right to religion or spirituality. The aim of the present article is to investigate the possibilities for establishing such a right, not only in legal terms but also on pedagogical grounds and in terms of religious education. How can children’s needs be taken seriously, for example, vis‐a‐vis death and dying? How does a children’s rights perspective affect the understanding of religious education? What could a more formally established right to religion and spirituality really mean for the child, as well as for educational institutions? The article discusses such question...

Let the captives speak for themselves! More dialogue between religious education in England and Germany

This article offers a German response to John Hulls recent article on ‘religious education in Germany and England’ (in BJRE, volume 27, issue 1). The author claims that recent developments have brought religious education in both countries much closer together than in the past and that the differences between the respective systems should be understood contextually. In his view, more complex approaches to comparative research in religious education are needed. Agreement should be sought in terms of criteria for quality religious education rather than in terms of a unitary model because religious education in different countries needs a pluralism of different models.

Research in Religious Education: Perspectives for the Future

Is religious education as an academic discipline really doing research? For many influential representatives of the academic world, this is an open question. Quite often, the term research is connected to science in an exclusive manner that does not allow for any claim of religious educators to research of their own. Religious educators must certainly reject such narrow-minded thinking. Yet even beyond such distorted understandings, neither theology nor education seems to take religious education seriously in terms of research. Theologians think of research in exegesis and history, in systematics, ethics, and comparative religion while they often consider the practical disciplines as limited to application. Similarly, philosophers of education tend to neglect research in religious education because they consider religion as something metaphysical or mystical that cannot be taken up in research. Given such general attitudes it is easy to see that the task of establishing religious education as a serious research discipline is of pivotal importance for the future. This task does not only include a defense of religious education as a worthy topic for rigorous research. Academic religious educators themselves must be able to clearly define the field or material object of their research, and they must be able to identify their specific perspective or formal object—a requirement that seems to deserve far more attention than it has generally received in the past. Moreover, such definitions and identifications should do justice to the relationship to religion/theology as well as to the relationship to education. Although this is not the place to develop my own understanding in detail, it might be helpful to mention that I consider the process of intergenerational religious tradition the material object and the idea of education—as opposed to indoctrination, inculcation, rote learning, habitualization, and so on—the formal object of religious education.1

Towards international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education

This article calls for international comparative research on the professionalisation of Religious Education (RE). To this end, it provides a rationale for focusing upon the concept of professionalisation and a theoretical justification for international comparative research, particularly identifying its significance in terms of the development of RE in England and Germany. The article outlines a methodology for exploring the concepts of professional knowledge, professional self-organisation and politics and professional development. The proposed methodology involves a systematic analysis of primary documentary sources including: (1) academic and professional journal articles and textbooks; (2) the archives of relevant institutions and organisations; and (3) external evidence, such as inspection and research reports. An analytical case study of two leading journals in each national context, Religion in Education in England and Der Evangelische Erzieher in Germany, in the immediate post-war era is appended to illustrate the benefits of implementing such a methodology across national boundaries.

Researching Confirmation Work in Europe: The Need for Multi-Level Analysis for Identifying Individual and Group Influences in Non-Formal Education

This article includes a dual argument, about confirmation work as an object of research on the one hand, and about general methodological questions on the other. Based on an international comparative study on confirmation work with more than 28000 persons involved, the article presents the advantages of multi-level analysis (MLA) as a method for discerning effects on the levels of individuals and of groups. Discussing the methodological implications the article gives an exemplary introduction into MLA by presenting selected models referring to confirmands’ satisfaction with their confirmation time in general and with church services in particular. It can be shown that 11-13% of the total variance is explained by factors on the group level. The group level factors include the duration of confirmation camp, the number of meetings and the aims of the workers as indicators for the educational concept of the team. Based on the intraclass correlation of MLA, the article suggests that the existence of fixed curricula in non-formal education settings like confirmation work enhances the uniformity of the programs and reduces the proportion of variance accounted for on the group level.

Conceptualising and researching the professionalisation of Religious Education teachers: historical and international perspectives

Current discussions on Religious Education (RE), both in Germany and England, focus on the quality of teaching and the professionality of teachers, but neglect the historical and institutional process of professionalisation upon which conceptions of teaching quality and teacher professionality hinge. This article seeks to provide definitional clarity by differentiating between individual and collective professionalisation; exploring teacher professionalisation in general and in the special case of RE; and operationalising the concept of RE teacher professionalisation for the purposes of planned historical and international comparative research. A threefold conceptualisation of professionalisation is proposed, consisting of the following inter-related levels: (1) initial and continuing professional development; (2) professional self-organisation and professional politics; and (3) professional knowledge. The breadth, complexity and significance of the historical and institutional processes associated with the professionalisation of RE teachers at each of these levels is described and discussed. It is argued that further historical and international comparative research on these lines would contribute a broader and deeper understanding of the presuppositions of RE teacher professionality beyond current debates.

Adolescents as Theologians: A New Approach in Christian Education and Youth Ministry

Abstract The author argues that adolescents are not only philosophers, as Kohlberg and Gilligan once claimed, but should also be viewed as theologians. This view corresponds to what has been called “lay theology” or “ordinary theology.” Moreover, the article takes up the double question what adolescents might benefit from theology and what theology might benefit from adolescents. On this background, a systematic understanding of adolescents as theologians is offered, distinguishing between theology of adolescents, with adolescents, and for adolescents. In a final section, theological views concerning adolescence as a stage in the human lifecycle are discussed.

Religion in Childhood and Adolescence: How should it be studied? A Critical Review of Problems and Challenges in Methodology and Research

This article discusses the question of how religion in childhood and adolescence should be studied. More exactly, the focus is on problems of methodology and research which are discussed in relationship to religion in childhood and adolescence. It does not present a handbook type of overview, however, but is focused on problems and challenges for future research. Four questions are addressed specifically: How can empirical research do justice to the special nature of religion in childhood and adolescence? What are the implications of viewing religion within non-religious interpretive frameworks? What methodological problems do we have to face concerning religion in childhood and adolescence? What interdisciplinary challenges can be identified in this context? The final section relates these questions to the main topic of the present publication by stating a number or criteria, i.e., criteria related to the concept of religion to be used in research across different approaches and disciplines.

Researching Religious Education Journals: Methodology and Selected Results from a German Study.

This article is based on a research project concerning the development of religious education as an academic discipline in Germany during the twentieth century. Applying a methodology that has been of growing interest in a number of fields, the project proceeded by analysing major religious education journals published between 1900 and 1975. The present report focuses on the procedures developed and used in this research project in order to make it available to others in other countries. This is why the procedures are described in detail while the material results of the study are presented only selectively, to the degree that they indicate the results that can be reached by the methodology applied, and give readers an impression of how general theories of modernization, professionalization, scientification, etc. can be used for interpreting the development of religious education as an academic discipline. The authors suggest that research of this kind may eventually create a better basis for international comparative research in religious education.