The conference "Minding the Gap": Religious Education in the Face of Artificial Intelligence, planned by Dr Mariusz Chrostowski and Prof. Johannes Heger (University of Würzburg) for autumn 2025, promises to be a forum for interdisciplinary exchange and is funded by the renowned Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently one of the most prominent topics in social and scientific discourse. This attention is generally justified, as tools and devices based on AI are already a ubiquitous part of our world. At the latest since the public launch of ChatGPT, it has also become particularly clear to the collective consciousness that AI is becoming a driving force of digitalisation - with ambivalent effects on all levels of social interaction: at the macro level, for example, the opportunities for increased political participation go hand in hand with the risk of manipulation of democratic processes. By automating communication and production processes, commercial enterprises can save on human resources and maximise profits, but this leads to a transformation of the world of work ('Society 4.0') (meso-level) that requires reflection. Finally, each individual (micro-level) can benefit from personalised algorithms, although freedom may be restricted and opinions may be influenced.
Digital sovereignty is needed at both institutional and individual levels in order to navigate reflectively in a 'culture of digitality' (Stalder) in the face of these and other challenges. The technical innovations in the field of AI therefore also trigger changes in the educational sector: Scientists (including educational scientists and subject didactics), education and training policy-makers and school practitioners all have an equal responsibility to equip students for an increasingly digitalised world. As early as 2016, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) stated in its strategy paper "Education for the Digital World" that digitality should be an "integral part" of all subjects. More recently, the Standing Scientific Commission of the KMK has updated this framework in its policy paper 'Große Sprachmodelle' (2024), which emphasises not only technology-related knowledge but also aspects of reflection on sources and self-regulation as important skills in dealing with new technologies.
Against this background of educational theory and policy, religious education is also faced with the central task of identifying what contribution religious education can make in the face of artificial intelligence and what consequences this has for the theory and practice of religious education. In doing so, it is important both to highlight tried and tested innovative developments in school practice and to enter into dialogue with representatives of related disciplines.
Since the pace of technological development demands that the research desiderata outlined above be addressed quickly, the conference aims to bring together existing expertise, facilitate a critical and productive exchange between experts, and thus to work on a conceptual orientation for sustainable religious education. We believe that such an effort is necessary not least to bring the perspectives of theology and religious education into the academic and educational policy discourse ('Minding the Gap').
(Text: M. Chrostowski & J. Heger)