According to literature, the classic "paideia" ideal, that is, the ideal of the well-rounded, fully educated, rational human being, has survived to this day, despite many historical and socio-cultural influences that impacted on it through the millennia. In the process, it has to a considerable extent retained its rationalistic bias, but…

A hermeneutic-communicative model of religious education is proposed which is grounded in a Christian anthropology. The human person is presented as a 'fragile hermeneutical space'--consisting of a radical openness to reality, an essential indeterminateness and an ability to transcend his or her own reality. This means that people have an inbuilt…

A key epistemological assumption in the ideologies of many of the groups termed extremist is that there is an unmediated access to a Divine Will. Driven by this assumption, and facilitated by several other factors, a range of coercive actions (including violence) to force others into submission to the perceived Will of God are seen as justified by…

Thomas Groome suggests good teaching begins with experience in particular times and places. His work focuses on a community that is "losing" many of its members at this particular time and in places like the United States. This article suggests the hermeneutic central to shared praxis provides a helpful lens through which to understand…

This qualitative study investigates the knowledge about the Bible and the skills required for biblical interpretation as imparted by three textbooks for Norwegian upper secondary religious education (RE). The multidimensional theoretical framework combines models from biblical hermeneutics and RE. One model distinguishes between the worlds behind,…

Though personhood formation is often perceived as an important aim of Christian education, there is little clarity about how the concept can be understood from a Christian perspective. Furthermore, teachers lack the tools to nourish the development of students' personhood. In this article, we develop a framework that aims to fill these gaps. The…

Working with normative considerations is an important part of empirical research in religious education (RE) and in the formation of practical theologians, in general, and of religious educators in RE faculties/programs, in particular. What does sufficient reflection on normativity look like in teaching religious educators? From a practical…

The argument of this article assumes that religious literacy is urgently needed in the present geopolitical context. Its urgency increases the more religion is viewed in opposition to criticality, as though religion entails an irrational and inviolable commitment, or leap of faith. This narrow view of religion is reinforced by certain rather…

This paper explores the function of teachers' witnessing of faith in worldview education in the context of diversity in the classroom. Pollefeyt described three teaching roles for hermeneutical-communicative worldview education: moderator, specialist, and witness. These roles aim to support students in their personal worldview identity…

The goal of this article is to present the coherence between the human social world and religious education in Poland. The motive for taking up this subject is the cultural context relating to the problem of attitudes towards refugees. Reconstruction of the worlds of life demands to be expanded to include the religious education context in order…

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the term "soul" was virtually deleted from curriculum theory and replaced with the categories of "self" and "mind" from the learning sciences. This dissertation is a hermeneutic study undertaken to explore inviting the term back as a structuring concept in curriculum theory…

In light of ongoing debates about religious education as hermeneutical, this contribution proposes a 'hermeneutical-communicative' (HCM) paradigm for RE through the development of a twofold reflection: (a) a critical (re-)evaluation of the theological and anthropological foundations for RE in light of (b) a context marked by religious and…

In a transnational world, Muslim cosmopolitanisms are both numerous and diverse. These cosmopolitanisms constitute a broad spectrum of views and practices, representing a range of interpretations and expressions of Islam, some of which are polarized and polarizing. In this reflective, theoretical paper, I discuss the potential implications of…

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…

Historically, Blacks have out of necessity prioritized survival in educating their younger generations for existence in the racially hostile and divided context of the U.S. This education and religious education has occurred formally and informally in homes, schools, community organizations, and in congregations. This paper examines three aspects…