The contributions look at the topic from different angles. The first four set up important interdisciplinary points of reference for discourse in religious education:
Annette Stroß starts off by expounding a critical educational science point of view on health education. Constanze Rossmann illustrates a communications science perspective on health communication. Hans-Martin Rieger writes from a systematic-theological perspective on challenges of health society and Nina Rothenbusch on the fostering of resilience among children and teenagers in educational institutions. The next four contributions mark the transition to the discourse in religious education in a narrower sense: In an interdisciplinary dialogue between religious education and systematic theology Mirjam Zimmermann and Michael Roth deal with the phenome-non of self-optimization. Monika Jakobs reflects on “religion and health from a reli-gious psychology of religion perspective – and what that means for religious educa-tion”, and Bernd Kollmann starts his contribution “Difficult texts for religious educa-tion?” with an examination of Jesus as a charismatic healer and the hermeneutics of healing miracles followed by an exposition on the didactics of miracle healings. The thematic section concludes with an analysis of curricula and school books by Julia Spichal, in which she examines the prevalence of the topic of health in the context of Protestant religious instruction using content analysis.
The section “research and discourse” contains those two of the seven contributions that passed the double-blind review process: Mirjam Schambeck’s contribution considers the fundamental question of what abilities are needed for good teachers of religion. Her reflections are remarkable for being interdisciplinary and grounded in educational science within the scope of the COACTIV study (a big empirical study on mathematics teachers). Hanna Rose deals with the question “collaborative youth theology?” and by recounting two vignettes illustrates that research into youth theology leaves much to be desired in terms of partner and group work.
As in every issue you will find a comprehensive literature report by Martin Schreiner in the reviews section, which grants a good overview of new releases in the field of religious education. We also recommend reading the conference retrospective and announcements of future conferences.
Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to our Viennese colleagues Karin Sima, Marietta Behnoush, Julia Spichal, Nadine Mund, Katharina Schmutterer and Maximillian Saudino as well as to our colleague Christa Tribula in Nuremberg for their great help in terms of editing, proof-reading and technical support.
We hope you will enjoy reading this issue of Theo-Web and are looking forward to your feedback!