Worldviews and Religious Education. Modelling a fairly New Relationship
Worldviews and Religious Education. Modelling a fairly New Relationship

Summary/Abstract: RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: This paper raises the question of how religious education may address the variety of worldviews.THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The concept of worldview seems to be able to reconcile religious education with a society that is both secular and religiously plural. Such education, however, is defined by its focus on religion. Even when religion is seen as sub-category of worldview, religious education still does not include secular worldviews.THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: It therefore first clarifies the concept of worldview by relating it to the German term of “Weltanschauung”. Worldviews represent a comprehensive perspective on the world that originates from an individual’s aesthetic and intuitive understanding of daily life and gives meaning to this life. Then, it delineates the basic didactic characteristics of three models of religious education, namely the denominational, the pluralist-informative, and the interpretative-dialogical models. Based on these models, the paper finally discusses the challenges and obstacles of religious education which attempts to address the plurality of worldviews.RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis shows that none of the models is able to comprehensively grasp this plurality. The advantages and disadvantages of each of the three models, however, indicate that the main tasks of worldview-conscious religious education are to clarify the constitutive rationality of worldviews and to find a balanced representation of both organized and personal worldviews via classroom interaction.CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The realization of these tasks is basically the job of the teacher and does not at all depend on the model of religious education itself.

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