Contemporary Practices and Issues in Religious Education

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Religions is dedicated to the topic of contemporary religious education, especially from the perspective of religious education in Christian faith communities and churches, with a particular focus on Catholicism. Religious education is an unavoidable topic within the framework of the discourse regarding contemporary education. An authentic educational process aims to develop the integrity of a person in all of its dimensions. Comprehensive education is fully focused on humans, their world, and their present-day material or spiritual problems. It is a topic that can be rather broadly interpreted, as it encompasses numerous issues related to religious education carried out in families, religious communities, preschools, and school educational institutions.

The current situation in which the contemporary Church lives and works, especially in the Western world, is imbued with deep cultural, political, ethical–spiritual and religious transformations, showcasing a clear tendency towards further complexity. The prevalence of numerous changes, such as globalization, pluralism, migration, the complex world of media communication, changes affecting the notion of a family, scientific and technological development, various forms of intolerance and conflict, processes of modernization, secularization, and materialism, which are increasingly difficult to manage, lead to changes in religious practice, as well as humans’ relationships with religion and the Church. Today's mentality, customs, values, and life choices are becoming ever-less rooted in the Christian faith or inspired by its teachings. 

We are also witnessing a crisis of religious socialization. Traditional educational institutions, such as family, school, and church, are losing their influence on children and young people. There is a strong crisis at work regarding the intergenerational transmission of faith. Family, which is the first educational and socializing institution, is increasingly distancing itself from passing on religious traditions to its own children. This Special Issue, therefore, considers the extent to which Christian parents, whose Christianity is only an expression of belonging to a certain tradition and culture, are able to raise their children in a Christian manner.

The scope and depth of contemporary changes have not circumvented the Christian community and its educational activities. Religious education/catechesis cannot ignore the historical and cultural context in which it is taught. Current religious education requires serious consideration of the modern world as a different interlocutor; it does not involve providing an answer to a person whose behaviour, thinking, sensibility, and language do not belong to such a world. A special challenge that religious education faces is the new culture, i.e., the so-called digital culture. Influenced by digital culture and the related phenomenon of cultural globalization, we are witnessing changes in behaviour, which then affect the formation of personal identity and interpersonal relationships. The global character of digital culture strongly influences the personal process of building an identity, as well as interpersonal relationships; awareness of time and space; how individuals understanding themselves and other people; how individuals understand and experience the world; the way in which people communicate, learn, inform and establish relationships with others; language, and personal formation. This context represents a challenge for religious education, especially in the context of communication and language. One of the major challenges facing religious education is the erosion of trust in religious institutions. This decline in trust has been particularly fuelled by the sexual and financial scandals that came to light in recent years.

Religious education in schools occupies a special place. When it comes to religious education, the situation in Europe is rather colourful and diverse. However, confessional religious education still prevails in most European countries. The predominance of confessional religious teaching necessarily brings about the multiplication of confessional school subjects, meaning that in most European countries in which confessional teaching is carried out, the school system offers several confessional versions, depending on the religious composition of the population. Many countries, in addition to denominational models, offer a non-confessional alternative. Issues related to the state of religious education in schools include the compatibility of confessional education and public secular schools, as well as the connection of the model of confessional education, which also represents learning religion, to the fact that young people are increasingly distancing themselves from religion and from the Church. A special challenge for religious education lies in the requirements of intercultural education and its religious dimension. Today, there is a broad consensus in Europe that religious education has an important place in the school system and represents an important dimension in the intercultural education of young people. In Europe, religious education has been recognized as a resource, i.e., a tool to be used for the purpose of promoting democratic values and realizing human rights and active citizenship. More precisely, religious education serves as one of the tools used to accomplish European policies related to the matter of coexistence in a pluralistic Europe. However, there is no consensus when it comes to the most suitable model of religious education.

Since the quality of religious–pedagogical and catechetical activity largely depends on the models of religious–pedagogical and theological–catechetical training used to instruct future teachers/educators, the initial and permanent religious–pedagogical and theological–catechetical training of teachers/educators is an issue of particular importance.

Papers that explore and present the relationships between family, society, the Church, school, media, and religious education are welcome. Theologians, philosophers, historians, educators, and religious educators are invited to submit their papers for publication in this Special Issue.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Areas of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following research topics:

Topics:

• Family and religious education;
• The crisis of adulthood and the consequences for religious education;
• Christian approaches to dialogue and reconciliation in an educational context;
• Religious education in the Christian community (parish catechesis);
• Education of mature Christians;
• Religious education of persons with special educational needs;
• Young people, faith, spirituality, and ecclesiasticism;
• Education aiming to promoting spiritual values as a counterbalance to globalisation, which is understood almost exclusively as an economic and technological phenomenon;
• Religious education at a time of growing public distrust of the Church;
• School and religious education;
• Religious education in Europe;
• Ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue and religious education;
• The religious dimension of intercultural education;
• Media and methods in religious education;
• Contemporary religious and moral circumstances and religious education;
• Religious education and ecology;
• Bioethical issues in the framework of religious education;
• Digital culture and educational issues;
• The training of religious educators/religious education teachers;
• Institutions that train religious educators/religious education teachers.

Prof. Dr. Ružica Razum
Guest Editor

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• catechesis
• the Church
• confessional religious education in school
• crisis of religious socialization and education
• traditional educational institutions
• theological–catechetical formation of teachers/educators