How can we communicate why religion in public education matters? This was the guiding question of the Klingenthal online conference on 21st October 2021. With the help of two high-quality inputs, one by a theologian, one by a journalist, participants developed their own stories and metaphors to demonstrate the value of religious education. Rainbows, which are signifying the bringing together of a plurality of religions and worldviews, young kids who are encouraged to get out of their boxes and discover the inner life of the boxes of others… the creativity of the participants from Anglican, Lutheran, Orthodox and Catholic backgrounds from all over Europe knew no limits.

We get connected via stories. I really enjoyed the group work in storytelling and better than sharing stories with each other is what we did today: creating our story together!

During the first part of the programme, Dr Werner Haußmann, theologian from the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, invited the participants to think about how differently the contribution of religion can be seen by Churches on the one hand and by the public sphere on the other hand. While Churches might emphasis their engagement for peace, public opinion may consider religion as the source of a conflict rather than its solution. Public theology advocates for transportation, transformation and translation to bridge that gap.

Lena Ohm, journalist for the German Protestant news platform evangelisch.de and coach for RE teachers, presented innovative methods of storytelling to do exactly that: bridging the gap and conveying a message across. Which kind of basic plots can one use to tell stories about religion in education? Which kind of hero and storyline is suitable to make parents or politicians identify themselves with it? These questions were at the heart of her input.

In the end, the participants were delighted with the inspiring keynotes, the lively exchange with colleagues from various countries and the creative stories they came up with. The organising networks ICCS and CoGREE were also very pleased with this outcome and thanked the “relilab café” for hosting the event on their zoom platform.

Materials

Public Religious Education

Presentation by Dr Werner Haußmann, University Erlangen-Nürnberg

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Storytelling

Presentation by Lena Ohm, journalist for evangelisch.de & religionen-entdecken.de

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