This article addresses two current debates that have generated increasing interest in a number of countries but have rarely been considered together: the debate on religious and interreligious literacy and the debate on the assessment of the outcomes of Religious Education (RE). Against this background, both debates are reviewed and critically…

This article refers to the new European discussion on international knowledge transfer in religious education. Readers are introduced to the background of the recent manifesto 'International Knowledge Transfer in Religious Education: A Manifesto for Discussion' which was the outcome of a first international consultation of researchers in the field…

This article discusses the recent report of the Commission on Religious Education on "Religion and Worldviews". While it praises the report for its honest critical evaluation of the current situation of Religious Education in England as well as for the effort of improving this situation by suggesting far-reaching amendments at a systemic…

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…

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…

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…

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…

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in empirical research in religious education and (practical) theology. No doubt, empirical procedures not only promise important insights for religious education--they also promise academic credibility because they are part of the established methodology in a number of disciplines like psychology,…

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…

This article offers a German response to John Hull's 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…

This article gives a report on a recent empirical study on cooperative religious education in German primary schools. Special emphasis is given to the views, needs, and rights of children. Results from interviews with the children and with the teachers as well as from classroom observation form the basis for the authors' suggestions concerning the…