Hans-Ferdinand Angel & Monika Jakobs & Ulrike Witten
Has the world come apart at the seams? Terms such as “turning point” or “permacrisis” characterize the current political situation and the attitude to life of the present, especially among the younger generation. What are the political, psychological and religious implications of the experiences that young people are having in the context of the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East?
Maike Domsel
In this article, a literature review is conducted on crisis discourses in the humanities journals of Educational Sciences, Psychology, and Sociology from 2020 to 2023. The examination focuses on contemporary societal crises such as the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and geopolitical tensions. Particularly, it analyzes, from a theological or religious education perspective, how the research subject is perceived and conceptualized in neighboring disciplines. The methodology involves a comprehensive search in relevant journals, aiming to gain in-depth insights into conceptual trends and research themes, especially regarding questions in religious education.
Claudia Gärtner
The "Last Generation" is characterized by apocalyptic thinking. The impending (climate) crises weigh heavily on adolescents, especially because they perceive intra- and intergenerational injustices. The article analyzes the similarities and differences to biblical apocalypticism and explores the potential of apocalyptic thinking for politically oriented religious Education for Sustainable Development. Corresponding religious education principles, as formulated in the Schwerter Konsent, can thus be concretized for the "Last Generation".
Cosima Quirl
The article emphasises the need to include intergenerational justice in educational theories due to the challenges of the climate crisis. After an insight into the philosophical and educational discourse on intergenerational justice, it explains how generationality is understood in the educational context. The climate crisis challenges this understanding and requires an expansion through a post-humanist perspective on pedagogical generational relations. The article explores post-humanist perspectives to better take ecological conditions into account and emphasise their pedagogical and ethical significance. The article thus poses the question of how intergenerational justice can be understood in a pedagogical context.
Simone Birkel
In recent years, the discipline of religious education has been very slow to embrace approaches to religious education for sustainable development (rESD), and still lacks a manageable framework. The further development of the ESD concept in the context of transformative education is currently being discussed in pedagogical discourse. In this context, transformative learning is considered to be of great importance for shaping a socio-ecological transformation. The question is what contribution religious education can make to a socio-ecological transformation and what theoretical foundations it can draw on. The urgency of the topic is emphasised not least by the demands of the Last Generation, in which religious references certainly shine through. After a classification and an introduction to the topic of Last Generation and socio-ecological transformation, four areas of the current transformation debate are taken up hermeneutically and reflected on from a theological-ethical perspective. This is followed by a summary for religious education and the basic principles of transformative religious education.
Boris Kalbheim
The group “Last Generation” protests against the climate catastrophe and thereby attracts public attention, but also sometimes aggressive rejection; it polarizes society. In their own statements about their protest and legal persecution, the activists reveal motives for their actions that go beyond concern for the climate. Seven requests to society can be identified in these motifs: the legality principle of the judiciary, the demand for concern for one's own health, the political compromise, the lack of consequences and individualization of one's own actions, the systemic movement towards the climate catastrophe and the disorientation of politics and politics Company. The last generation is positioning itself against this with seven counter-strategies. The significance of these inquiries and the usefulness of these counter-strategies are critically reflected.
Alexander Maier
In succession of climate change and the associated concerns about the future of the planet, a global climate movement has been developing since 2018, following the initiative of Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg. Alongside Fridays for Future, which use demonstrations to encourage politicians to act quickly, more radical groups have also formed, hoping to achieve more success through high-profile provocations. In Germany, the Letzte Generation is one of these groups. The climate movement is characterised by a strong interest in apocalyptic rhetoric and symbolism. On the one hand, this article will compare the historical youth movement of the first third of the 20th century with the Letzte Generation. It will show that youth protest movements are particularly open to apocalyptic motifs. On the other hand, it will highlight the challenges for religious education, because secular apocalypticism, which lacks important aspects of its Judeo-Christian origin, can be not uncomplicated.
Simone Ziermann
If religious education aims to respond in a meaningful manner to contemporary apocalyptic interpretations, it needs clarity on its own theological positions. Such a point of view shall be formulated in this article: The specific of Christian apocalypticism will here be described as a distinct allocation of present and future hope. Although Christian apocalypticism anticipates God’s intervention in the present, the hope that arises from this is not directed towards the present situation, but to the transcendent future.
Georg Bucher
The article examines the relatively new term “climate emotions” from a religious pedagogy perspective. Based on a reference to hope theory and an educational example of multimedia processing strategies for climate emotions, the article first analyzes the term and then theoretical perspectives of “environmental theology”. German religious education theory, especially its political variant, proves to be theoretically very compatible with this discussion. At the same time, it becomes clear that dealing with climate emotions leads to the border areas of pedagogical and didactic settings and that educational work on and with climate emotions is exposed to a variety of risks of functionalization and permanent contingency. This is why theologically (modal) hope is crucial.
Lena Tacke & Vanessa Henke & Stephanie Spanu & Jan-Simon Zimmermann
Various problems are associated with emancipatory education for sustainable development (ESD) as a reaction to multiple crisis. This article is based on the thesis that participation is a prerequisite for the success of emancipatory ESD, which implies specific challenges for the design of learning and educational processes. In order to approach these challenges, the article focusses on university teacher training by reconstructing the implicit knowledge of student teachers. Implicit knowledge is crucial for dealing with crisis situations, as it determines a person’s patterns of thought and action. The reconstructions expressed by the documentary method point to orientations that negotiate an assumed incompatibility of teaching and participation. This reveals desiderata for ESD in the context of teacher education.
Julia Lemke & Magdalena Buddeberg & Vanessa Henke
Confronted with global crises, such as the climate crisis, many young individuals experience emotions like concern, fear, anger, and helplessness, which may lead to dystopian visions of the future. It is argued that in addressing the climate crisis within the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in schools, emotions should be considered. To this end, the management of emotions in schools is first outlined, followed by an elucidation of the importance of emotion-sensitive ESD. In context of emotional management, the consideration of negative emotions and development of hope and utopias on an individual level are discussed. Within this framework, this paper highlights the significance of participation in terms of societal agency and dealing with uncertain and complex futures.
Axel Siegemund
Current approaches to dealing with the climate and environmental crisis aim to motivate action by teaching skills for sustainability. This study asks whether the associated programmatic approach meets the ethical requirement for religious education to be a place for reflection on the understanding of reality. In particular it describes the relationship between the self-design of young people, the normative implications of the climate discourse, including a possible orientation towards external norms of behaviour and the reference to nature in religion. If sustainability is seen as an interpretation of our technically determined way of life and the shaping of the nature-culture process, then possibilities of self-positioning beyond heteronomous orientations open up for young people.
Mirjam Schambeck sf
Anti-Semitism is returning powerfully and loudly to European societies despite decades of dealing with the Holocaust, including training programs in schools. As important as concepts of Holocaust education (= HE) and concepts of remembrance continue to be, they also make it clear that their previous focus on cognition and encyclopaedic knowledge has hardly enabled students to develop attitudes and skills to stand up against anti-Semitism. Outlining the background of the current state of research, the article develops a concept of education critical on antisemitism that is shaped on the one hand by the concepts of HE and remembrance, on the other hand by definitions and manifestations of antisemitism and thirdly, above all, by the visualization of Jewish life in the past and present.
Vera Uppenkamp
The potential of queer theology in religious education has not yet been rudimentary explored. This article takes a first step towards identifying the opportunities and limitations associated with the implementation of queer theologies in the context of inclusive religious education. Based on the specific experiences of queer students, it is explained why it is important also for religious education to reflect on one's own heteronormative imprint. The possibility of queer-theological deconstruction of heteronormativity as a context of religious education is outlined on the basis of three didactic theses, in order to then use the example of Inklusive Religionspädagogik der Vielfalt to suggest how didactic connections to diversity-conscious and power-critical approaches that focus on the contextuality of religious education can be designed.
Alfred Garcia Sobreira-Majer & Karsten Lehmann
The present article is based upon the results of an empirical research project that dealt with a concrete Interreligious Encounter Day (IRBT) at a Viennese school. Based upon a participatory observation, a group of researchers from the KPH Vienna/Krems recorded and analyzed the preparation, implementation as well as reflection of this day. The analyses of those observations made it clear to what an extent organizational and didactic preliminary decisions as well as structural framework conditions affect the course of the IRBT – especially with regards to the possible acquisition of competences by the students. Some aspects are, as it were, "adjusting screws" that can be "turned" in the sense of optimization – e.g. the choice of the topic or the consideration of the students’ attention span. Other aspects seem to be inherent in IRBT (e.g. the power relations between minorities and majorities or opportunities/risks of attributing religious expertise to students). They all need to be considered when planning and implementing an IRBT with students.
Jan-Hendrik Herbst
The article re-reads the religious didactic model of elementarization in the context of the pedagogical and didactic debate about controversial issues in (religious) education. To this end, I reconstruct that controversiality is a basic principle of elementarization as a whole and of each of the five dimensions. This reveals a reciprocal benefit: on the one hand, controversiality becomes visible as a consistent but rather implicit topic in the discourse on religious education; on the other hand, it emphasizes that the model of elementarization is permanently relevant and sensitive to contemporary developments.
Mónika Solymár & Jutta Henner
This article deals with the question whether – and if, to what extent – it is arguable to continue to include the „Erzeltern-Traditions“ in Genesis in curricula of religious education. These traditions have been and still are a key element of religious education curricula. In addition, this article deals with the question whether more recent theological trends exceeding traditional interpretations – like Feminist Theology and interreligious dialogue – have had an impact on materials for use in religious education published more recently. Finally, it is reflected how knowledge as well as competencies can be built through engagement with the „Erzeltern-Traditions“ in religious education.
Alexandra Schramm & Margit Stein & Veronika Zimmer
The interreligious and intercultural diversity increasingly shapes both private and public life. Simultaneously, marginalized groups such as Muslim and Jewish individuals often encounter racist, discriminatory, and stigmatizing attitudes. A social, democratic value orientation is crucial for peaceful coexistence in a plural society. Previous research has already posited that religiosity plays an important role in shaping a social, democratic value orientation, yet specific investigations regarding the impact of both individual and parental religiosity on the development of social values in terms of a democratic attitude among young adults remain insufficiently explored. The present study examines the relationship between (familial) religiosity and value orientation among young adults. Data from 927 young adults and 325 parents are analyzed. The study is based on Shalom Schwartz's theory of values and the understanding of religiosity as a multidimensional construct.