Religion makes you think

Religious Education Theological Study Day

"Religion makes you think" - the title of Prof. Rudolf Englert's (University of Essen) "Didactics of Religion in 19 Teaching Pieces" published in 2013 (so the subtitle) was the motto and program for the first study day organized by the Department of Religious Education under the direction and initiative of Prof. Annegret Reese-Schnitker at the Institute of Catholic Theology.

About 90 future and present teachers of religion from the greater Kassel area came to the study day: students, trainee teachers, teachers of religion of all school levels, interested in the urgent questions about the shape of a future-oriented religious education.

With his opening lecture, Prof. Englert ensured right from the start that "cognitive activation", the use and development of which is one of his central concerns, especially in the subject of religion, was not just a phrase in the room, but also became tangible in many of the listeners' faces in the course of his explanations.

Rudolf Englert posed necessary questions about the current form of religious education: Are students no longer interested in theological questions? Does the work on theological questions have too little clarification value? Do religious education classes too seldom provide experiences of progressive proficiency? Does religious education not offer enough cognitive challenges? After a critical analysis of current religious education, he proposes in the above-mentioned work the introduction of a theological didactics of teaching and concretizes it by means of 19 teaching pieces on important questions of theology. In this composition, theological, philosophical and literary texts are to invite teachers and students in religious education to think and to challenge them to take a stand. The didactics of the teaching pieces aims to build up networked knowledge, to support students in independently pursuing paths of cognition and argumentation, and to form and consolidate basic theological knowledge.

In three subsequent workshops, the participants were then able to deal with different, original examples of application and in-depth further development of individual teaching pieces, each under the direction of Gabriele Cramer (Münster), Birgit Menzel (Frankfurt) and Dr. Monika Rack (Kassel/Engelsburg).

Rudolf Englert's approach - perhaps to be equated with "more theory in (teaching) practice" - showed itself, especially in the practitioners' commitment to theory, by no means to be reduced to an erudite act of information and instruction: His collection of (text-) building blocks proves rather to be a stimulating set, by means of which the abundance of existing occasions, which in the area of religion still challenge the reflection and thinking along, are used in a thoughtful way and just by this seem catchable in open appropriation processes according to what is permanently worth thinking about.

In conclusion, we would like to thank all those who made this day possible:

To the students of the basic courses in religious education I and II who, thanks to waffle dough and bread smearing, prepared the physical basis for intellectual exchange during the breaks, to the diocese of Fulda for the financial subsidy and the presence of staff, to the leaders of the three workshops and finally to all who accepted the invitation on a Friday afternoon despite full schedules: Through the togetherness of students and trainee teachers of the 2nd study phase as well as already experienced practicing teachers, this afternoon became, as hoped, a place of encounter and exchange between the different phases of teacher training. Through the interaction of students and trainee teachers of the second study phase as well as already practicing teachers, this afternoon became, as hoped, a place of encounter and exchange between the different phases of teacher education.