Religious culture - a challenge for religious education

On November 27, 2019, the Chair for Didactics of Religious Education, Catechetics and Religious Education organized a study day on the topic "Religious Culture - a Challenge for Religious Education". Guest speakers were Dr. Viera Pirker from the University of Vienna and Prof. Dr. Konstantin Lindner from the University of Bamberg. The program was tailored to the students and included theoretical inputs as well as workshop units during which the participants could actively participate and try out the topics. The aim of the study day was to work on educationally relevant elements of religious culture. It was devoted to culturally effective forms of expression of Christianity as well as to the media transformations of religion.

The study day began with a lecture by Dr. Viera Pirker, who gave the plenum an insight into "Visual religious cultures - religious education impulses and perspectives". Dr. Pirker was able to show impressively that the mediatization of modernity also has an impact on religious education studies. The "Visual Turn" as a turn towards the image is the starting point for a paradigm shift. Using an image cluster analysis of Instagram profiles from the Christian Catholic milieu, Dr. Pirker was able to identify visual religious cultures on the Internet. It becomes clear that religion is also visually represented on the Internet and has an impact there. This visuality represents uncharted territory for religious education research and practice.

Afterwards, the students had the choice to participate in a workshop. In Dr. Pirker's first workshop, the students examined images that they themselves had available on their smartphones for religious connotations and patterns of interpretation.  The second workshop, led by Akad. Dir. Klaus König, was based on the assumption that in young people, religious socialisation through family and community is largely replaced by religious self-socialisation in encounters with pop-cultural material. Using a number of pop songs and raps from recent years, the workshop therefore examined which religiously relevant images, motives and positions young people encounter.

After the workshop unit the group met for another keynote speech. Prof. Dr. Konstantin Lindner presented in his lecture "Religions in the context of cultural diversity. Bildungsbezogene Verortungen", Prof. Dr. Konstantin Lindner addressed the question of the role of religion in the context of cultural diversity. He showed that religious education can make a contribution to culturally relevant education. From a didactic perspective of religion, the study of religious cultural contexts is significant in three respects. On the one hand, it promotes a "transcultural-religious training of perception", on the other hand it shows a "metareflexive thematizing of religious world coding", and finally it refers to an "active engagement with cultural-religious expressions".

In the subsequent workshop phase, Prof. Lindner dealt with the question of the extent to which classical testimonies of religious culture - figures of saints, chapels, martyrdoms, etc. - can be used as a basis for the development of a new religious culture. - make a contribution to religious self-assurance. The second workshop was led by Klaus König. The students dealt with the thesis that Christianity exists in a civilizing garment, for example in legal regulations, social action, conventions, etc. The workshop explored ways in which Christian elements have been transformed into civilizing patterns. For example, since the reformation in the 16th century there has been a gradual communalization of Christianity. On the other hand, ecclesiastical behaviour (penance, confession) has unintended consequences for disciplining in modern professional and everyday life.