This paper takes up the theme of divergent political and educational paths in Religious Education (RE) by drawing out some educational theories from the German tradition of what is sometimes called 'continental pedagogy'. As a development of work undertaken within the "After Religious Education" project, my interest in this paper is what…

In the long history of the Catholic school in Europe, it has taken various forms, linked to local cultures and to the history, particularly religious but also political, of each state. While it is possible to account for this diversity, it is also important to highlight common features and challenges, such as secularisation and globalisation,…

In Islamic religious education (IRE), as well as in the context of pedagogical and theological Islamic Studies at universities, Muslim educators, teachers, and learners in Germany and Austria encounter each other in a cultural, religious, theological, and ideological plurality. However, the existing intra-Muslim plurality is often neglected and…

This article argues that crucial elements of the three most important theoretical models of twentieth-century education can be traced back to three Protestant denominations that were developed in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. First, rather than to look in depth at the Protestant Reformers' own educational ideas, the paper…

The primary goal of religious education (RE) in Germany is to enable students to develop a personal worldview. According to the literature, this goal can best be achieved when RE a) presents material from various worldviews and b) relates this material to the student's daily life. Denominational RE, which is the organisational format of this…

This article critically reviews the European religious education landscape and argues that a religious notion of religion prevails in most models, not only in confessional RE but also in integrative models and even in so-called alternative subjects that are compulsory for pupils who do not take part in confessional RE. Thus, schools in Europe…

Today, the term 'global' has become a pervasive description of universities that aim to alleviate their importance and reach. The global looks inherently big. By relating to a spherical shape it attributes size in two distinct ways: it signifies the comprehensive and extensive reach of a theme or issue as well as the spherical centrality of an…

This paper deals with the disclosure of subaltern thinking in current German-language textbooks for religious education. For the hermeneutical framing of this analysis, the approach of a postcolonial reading is particularly profitable. Obvious hierarchical relationships from clearly up and down can consequently be made visible and their presumed…

"Life Design-Ethics-Religion Studies" (LER) is the only non-confessional form of religious education (RE) in Germany. Six years after German reunification, the federal state of Brandenburg introduced LER with its dimension of non-confessional RE into the school curriculum. In this contribution, LER will be elucidated in three steps.…

This paper addresses the situation of non-governmental religious schools in Germany. The available empirical data demonstrate an increasing demand for these schools in recent decades. In this paper, possible causes of this development are discussed. First, the given constitutional framework for religion in governmental and non-governmental schools…

The Eurydice network has been collecting data on instruction time for more than two decades. These data have been published in many Eurydice publications, notably all editions of the 'Key data on Education'. Since 2010, annually updated data on instruction time has been available on the Eurydice website. Since 2013, the Eurydice network has been…

The history of the North German Mission Society (established 1836 in Hamburg) and its activity on the West African coast (from 1847 onwards among the Ewe, in what is now Ghana and Togo where it was and still is known as the "Bremen Mission") mirrors neatly the various phases of the idea of "mission": its composite motivation…

Girls' schools in the early modern era were largely run by nuns and can therefore be distinguished as Catholic institutions of learning. These schools flourished in the Catholic parts of Europe since the turn of the seventeenth century. Despite their focus on religious education, elementary skills such as reading, writing and sometimes arithmetic…

In the current climate of increasing alienation from religion, traditional concepts no longer suffice to explain the relation between education and religion. Thus, Religious Education needs to take on the task of reconceiving of this relation. This article looks specifically at Religious Education in Germany. The term religious literacy, which is…

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…