In Europe, religious and spiritual education happens in a context which is at the same time increasingly secular and religiously plural. This places the problem of religious experience on the agenda. Today most students of religious and spiritual education lack appropriate experiences and show different opinions about what religion or spirituality could be. This Setting raises several questions: How can religious experience be conceptualized in a context of religious plurality and secularity with the traditional religious traditions as just one option among others? Do the concepts of spirituality and implicit religion give way to a new understanding of religious experience?

Religious Education is on trial in Germany and other European countries. The focal questions are whether teachers should communicate essential issues about religion and religions to their pupils in a neutral way or whether they should convey personal and individual convictions as well. How should public schools in civil societies deal with positions of truth in the context of cultural and lifeworld conditions? Are there pedagogical concerns about professional teachers expressing an individual commitment in class? What is the significance of denomination in RE? The articles of this volume offer new perspectives by means of empirical studies and theoretical consideration.

Moderne Bildung im Wandel: Blicke ins Schnittfeld von Geschichte, Religion und Pädagogik

There is an increasing recognition today that young people need to have knowledge about religions and world views in order to live and work in diverse societies. What kind of ‘maps’ are they provided with through religious, values and ethics education? Does education address the challenging existential questions that children and adolescents ask about life and the world? This volume addresses different aspects of how existential questions have been dealt with in educational research. It especially draws attention to the Swedish research tradition of focusing on life questions and the interpretation of life in education, but with contemporary international research added.