Interreligious Learning

Interreligious learning happens when members of different religions learn with and from each other, both in direct and indirect encounters. It is a topic in particular of religious education and interreligious dialogue .

Concern and definition

The concern pursued with interreligious learning concerns not only people interested in religion, but also many institutions due to the problems associated with increasing religious diversity in Europe. In schools, teachers and school administrators are faced with questions such as "What to do in the event of conflicts due to different religious or cultural origins?" Or "How can we treat religious regulations in everyday school life with appreciation?"

With regard to school, the following can be defined: interreligious learning in the context of teaching means “intentionally controlled, pedagogical processes in which spaces for encounter with religious ... [witnesses and testimonies] are opened up whose religious background differs from that of the learners [or one significant part of the learning group] is constituted, and which are designed to develop religious competences on the basis of a constructive discussion and in respect for the other ”.

Levels or modes of religious disclosure

Didactically, different levels can be distinguished on which learning can take place:

• the level of religious studies or religious studies approaches that aim at methodologically objective clarifications and debates;
• the level of dialogical orientation towards existential questions, which aims at theologizing or philosophizing and own positioning;
• the level of practical interaction with those who believe differently, but also generally with other religious matters with a view to foreignness, differences and similarities, which u. a. aims at conflict management and tolerance of ambiguity and
• the level of personal, local and global commitment in the religious dialogue, which takes into account further social and (regional) political contexts and (co-) shapes them.

Karlo Meyer has visualized this subdivision in a graphic. Its vertical axis extends from the emphasis on the coherence of content (when researching or positional discussions) down to questions about situational practicability (in managing conflicts or on-site engagement). The horizontal axis shows on the left the focus on the (more distant) factual reference (e.g. when clarifying factual problems such as in critical overlapping areas of traditions) to the right on the weighting of one's own (inner) involvement (in local or global engagement for religious dialogue and for existential questions).

For teachers who do not have the time to work in depth in all variants, a decision must be made as to which of the directions they want to emphasize. The federal state of Bremen and some Swiss cantons are based on religious studies and religious studies approaches (top left). Denominational religious education in other German federal states also repeatedly focuses on the possibility of theologizing and philosophizing about existential issues (top right). Dealing with current conflict-prone situations with a view to objective solutions plays a role at focus schools (bottom left). Current local issues (e.g. mosque construction) can suggest approaches to local engagement (bottom right).

Older and more recent approaches to interreligious learning can also be entered in this graphic. In this way, Udo Tworuschka's pedagogical suggestions can be located at the top left (research approach). The question of overlapping situations, as concerns Joachim Willems, tends towards the bottom left (management of difficult situations). Henrik Simojoki's appeal on globalization also asks about the commitment (bottom right). Approaches by Catholic religious educators such as those of Monika Tautz and Clauß Peter Sajak as well as the approach of Karlo Meyer (with a Protestant background) always emphasize the existential questions and clarifications of the students and should be shown in the top right.

literature

• Stephan Leimgruber : Interreligious Learning . Kösel, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-466-36417-5 ; expanded 2007, ISBN 978-3-466-36748-1 .
• Peter Schreiner , Ursula Sieg, Volker Elsenbast (eds.): Handbook Interreligious Learning. Gütersloher Verlags-Haus, Gütersloh 2005, ISBN 978-3-579-05574-9 (to be downloaded as a pdf from the Comenius Institute ).
• Udo Tworuschka: History of non-Christian religions in Christian religious instruction. A demolition , Cologne-Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-412-04883-6 .
• Monika Tautz: Interreligious Learning in Religious Education: People and Ethos in Islam and Christianity. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-020101-9 (also dissertation at the University of Bonn 2006).
• Monika Tautz: Interreligious Learning at Special Schools. In: Handbuch der Religiönen [LOTR], ed. by Michael Klöcker / Udo Tworuschka, 62nd supplementary delivery , Hohenwarsleben 2019. ISSN  2510-6740 .
• Karlo Meyer : Basics of Interreligious Learning . Vandenhoeck, Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-72006-6 .

Web links

• Amani Abuzahra, Alfred Garcia Sobreira-Majer: “You get closer to your own religion, you learn to understand and tolerate others”. Interreligious encounter learning in religious education teacher training. Concept and evaluation of a project of the KPH Vienna / Krems and the IRPA. In: Austrian Religious Education Forum 2014, pp. 55–64, on the web: University of Graz, ÖRF .
• Karlo Meyer, Monika Tautz: Interreligious Learning (2015), in: The Scientific-Religious Education encyclopedia on the portal Bibelwissenschaft.de

Single receipts

1. ↑ The Advisory Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Issues in Vienna deals with such questions . This center is operated jointly by the Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule Wien / Krems and the Islamic Religious Education Academy .
2. ↑ Monika Tautz, Karlo Meyer: Interreligious Learning. wirelex, 2019, at https://doi.org/10.23768/wirelex.Interreligises_Lernen.100068 . Based on Karlo Meyer: Basics of interreligious learning. Vandenhoeck, Göttingen 2019, p. 19 f. and 69.
3. ^ Karlo Meyer: Basics of interreligious learning. Vandenhoeck, Göttingen 2019, p. 189.
4. ^ Karlo Meyer: Basics of interreligious learning. Vandenhoeck, Göttingen 2019, p. 178.
5. ^ Karlo Meyer: Basics of interreligious learning. Vandenhoeck, Göttingen 2019, p. 178.
6. ↑ Lessons in Biblical History .
7. ^ Karlo Meyer: Basics of interreligious learning. Vandenhoeck, Göttingen 2019, pp. 180–186.