Complicated confessionality: How the concept of ‘confessionality’ could serve the debate on religious education better?

Abstract

Among concepts concerning religious education, confessionality is one of the most frequently used. In a pluralistic setting it has been contested (but also defended) as it is linked to identity, culture and worldviews and their transmission. There is not, however, a clear agreement on the definition of what is meant by ‘confessional’. The concept seems to be important for two different functions, first, for describing and comparing the character of religious education in different contexts, and second, for defining what methods or aims are legitimate in a religious education class in a certain context (e.g. public vs. denominational school). Without a proper definition the concept does not serve these functions very well. This article attempts to develop the concept by dividing it into four dimensions, including contents, teaching methods, aims of education and identity assumption. Furthermore, issues concerning evaluating confessionality of a certain teaching process are reflected on with the help of a didactic model of teaching and learning.