Was macht die Didaktik zur Religionsdidaktik? Zur Bedeutung (systematisch-)theologischer Überlegungen für eine Religionspädagogik der Vielfalt!

Abstract

Summary Whilst religious education (Religionspädagogik) is considered a young discipline that entered the academic discussion in the late 19th century, the term religious didactics (Religionsdidaktik) developed only in the 1980's and is still lacking a precise definition. While taking into account the efforts to define it through the scope of pedagogics, this article uses a different approach: Can the term religious didactics be rendered more precise by using theological positions? To achieve this aim, philosophical and theological literature on this topic is analyzed: Which entry do they propose for an insight of religion? What kind of relation exists between an anthropological view and structures of faith? In which direction do they pursue the mediation of the unmediatable, or communication of the incommunicable (Vermittlung des Nichtvermittelbaren)? Friedrich Schleiermacher (1786–1834), Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) and Max Weber (1864–1920) finally present different structures of argumentation. These structures can be considered as (ideal) types, which facilitate discussions of the aim, the diagnostics, and the observation of religious lessons.