Religionsunterricht - Ethikunterricht: Mehr Konvergenzen als Divergenzen

More convergences than divergences

Abstract

After outlining the conflictual history of religious- and ethics education in schools, where mostly the first one claimed some kind of added value, there is a plea for placing both subjects equal to each other and elaborating the divergences and convergences. Among the former there are different legal regulations but also the fact, that catholic, protestant and orthodox religious education address the topics in a biblical christian perspective. However, this does’nt implicate, that ethics would be pointless, since they are oriented towards the fundamental human rights, the right of freedom and towards the dignity of the human being. Thereafter the many convergences are pointed out: fatigue, connecting to the students’ world of experience, religious topics in ethics classes, ethical topics in religious classes. Factual religious and ethics classes are often indistinguishable from each other. Here as well as there are a lot of discussions and less performance pressure than in other classes. In conclusion, due to many similarities, it is advocated not to lose sight of the vision of a common class “Ethics and Religions” for all students.