Religious Education and Didactics of Protestant Religious Education

Religious education deals with all practical activities in which the religious dimension of development, socialisation, learning and education plays a role. It therefore does not only focus on the school as a place of learning - and therefore not only on the phase of life between starting and finishing school. Rather, it takes the entire life course into consideration as well as the various places of learning in which religious or religion-related learning processes take place intentionally or rather "incidentally" (e.g. family, peer groups, media, religious events).

Religious didactics is an important sub-area of religious education. It is primarily concerned with aspects of religious learning in the classroom. Much more important here than the question of suitable methods is the question of meaningful goals or competences to be aimed for in religious education as well as central content.

As a theory of practice, religious education uses a variety of scientific methods (including hermeneutic, empirical, historical and comparative methods). As an interdisciplinary science, it is closely linked in particular with other theological disciplines on the one hand and with neighbouring pedagogical, educational and didactic disciplines on the other; it also draws on findings and research approaches from other sciences, such as linguistics, cultural studies, history, religious studies, social sciences and philosophy.