Dissertation and habilitation projects

Professionalization in Theological Conversations - to what extent are
students' personal theological questions relevant?
(working title)

The basic idea for the research topic arose from the large-scale project 'Professionalization through Networking (PRONET)', which is part of the Germany-wide 'Quality Offensive Teacher Education' funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In 33 sub-projects, the aim at Kassel University is, in brief, to improve and further develop teaching for teacher training courses. Protestant religious education is also part of PRONET and is concerned with the professionalization of students within the framework of the certified study profile 'Theological Conversations'.

At the center of Theological Conversations is the promotion of independent theological thinking of children and adolescents. However, in order to be able to promote the independent thinking of children and adolescents in Theological Conversations appropriately, teachers themselves need a variety of different competencies. Elisabeth Schwarz considers philosophical competence, as she calls it, to be important for leading theological conversations: In the sense of a searching, researching, open basic attitude, teachers should be able to engage themselves in the question-worthy aspects of theological topics. For students who conduct Theological Conversations, there is thus a particular need to engage with theological questions themselves. But to what extent does this actually happen? And to what extent does the personal engagement with theological questions possibly even change as a result of leading Theological Conversations?

Although there has been little research on students' actual engagement with theological issues, studies by Andreas Feige, Hans Mendl, Christhard Lück and others have interestingly identified the desire to engage with theological issues as a key motivation for prospective theology / religious education students. In contrast, there is a certain tension to these findings in another study by Mendl, in which young teachers criticize the fact that they are confronted with theological questions (theodicy, miracles, creation, ...) in everyday school life, for which they have not been prepared by the university. Basically, according to Andreas Feige, there is still more detailed research work to be done in order to "get a comprehensive and typifying view of the variety in the content of the 'interest in basic theological questions'".

Such a more detailed research work is the goal of the planned dissertation: With the help of a qualitative setting (Grounded Theory in the style of Juliet Corbin / Anselm Strauss and Kathy Charmaz), the meaning of student theological questions is to be investigated more deeply than has been done so far. 

The dissertation will focus on the following questions:

I To what extent did students actually engage with personally significant theological questions in their studies?

II What is the significance of students' own theological questions against the background of leading theological conversations?

III What exactly do students understand by an 'interest in basic theological questions' in terms of content? What personal meanings does this have for them?

Allowing empathy and change of perspective to grow in interreligious encounters among children in primary education - Consideration of approaches to beneficial effects supported by empirical research using the example of the university education program "Children's Academy - World Religions in Dialogue" (working title).

Interreligious empathy and also interreligious change of perspective are highly complex and multi-factorial phenomena, research agrees. Therefore, a clear definition of both terms does not yet exist.

The overarching goal of the planned dissertation is to initiate interreligious settings that will have the most efficient effect on deepening interreligious empathy and perspective change in children.

Interreligious empathy and interreligious change of perspective is understood as the attempt to perceive members of different religious communities in a comprehensive way from different perspectives , to understand them and to deal with their biographies of life and faith. In this process, the concrete counterpart, his or her religiosity, and then his or her religion are considered in as reciprocal a relationship as possible - this means, in a first step, the consideration of the person and, in a second step, his or her religious background. If one acts empathically and thoughts, feelings, attitudes and convictions become comprehensible, then changes of perspective inevitably result. Thus, by looking at the individual counterpart, not only differences or similarities, but also one's own viewpoints, values and opinions can be discussed and made more bearable for one's own self.

Empathy and change of perspective are therefore often "door openers" and thus represent a necessary prerequisite, especially for interreligious encounter situations, to allow further interreligious educational processes to grow. Among other things, they determine how fruitful or productive an interreligious dialogue can be.

On this basis, the research work focuses on the concrete interreligious encounter situations of children in primary education who participate in the university educational program "Children's Academy - World Religions in Dialogue". In this project, the guiding idea is to specifically strengthen and promote the children in their competencies of interreligious empathy and change of perspective. The initial question is therefore: How can this succeed?

The work would like to make suggestions for conditions for success. It is systematically structured by a scientific and an empirical part, which in a further step analyzes and combines the central results of both. Methodologically, the work follows a multi-method approach, i.e., it works with qualitative and quantitative elements in order to achieve a more comprehensive and valid picture. This research will be conducted within the Children's Academy of World Religions. Ultimately, fundamental results are to be derived from both the scientific and the empirical part, which show conditions that are conducive to interreligious settings and in which interreligious empathy and change of perspective can grow in children.

"Needs of a sustainable Protestant youth work, focused by the full-time and voluntary experts of the field of action" (working title)

The aim of the planned research work is the empirical investigation of the field-specific expert knowledge. Protestant youth work is currently in a fragile state. Various factors are responsible for this, including demographic change resulting in the thinning out of a social infrastructure, the increase in commercial providers in the field of extracurricular youth work, changing school conditions, social change and the developmental tasks of young people that are changing in the course of this. In this respect, it seems indispensable that Protestant youth work thinks about its origins, its genuine specifics, the particularities of the social situation and the resulting options for action.
Recent studies and publications on the topic of (Protestant) youth work, such as the survey of the German Youth Institute "Growing up in Germany: Everyday Worlds" as well as "Bridges and Barriers - Young People on their Way to Protestant Youth Work", offer good basics on partial aspects of the research topic, but they are hardly related to each other. They seem more like a "patchwork-like work of art", which is attractive because of the multitude of shapes and colors, but a dominant theme remains hidden to the person looking at it. In addition, the appreciation of the field-specific knowledge of the experts has so far only been partial.
The focus of the research work is on the expert knowledge of the full-time and voluntary actors in the field of action. They are invited in guideline-based interviews to discuss their perception of Protestant youth work - taking into account current needs. The guideline-based interviews will be analyzed according to the Grounded Theory methodology. The aim is to relate the internal field knowledge with the basics and specifics of the Protestant youth work and to work out a possible potential for change. In this regard, the statement of Richard Münchmeier is guiding: "The future of child and youth work cannot be planned without the perspective of the young people".
Due to the named questions, the empirical survey promises new insights on the topic of a sustainable Protestant youth work, which can be elaborated especially by the field-specific experience, the knowledge about real life worlds of young people, their individual challenges, regional specifics and others. Last but not least, it can be assumed that in the experimental field of Protestant youth work many an experiment has already been carried out in order to position the field of action well for the future. In this respect it is to be expected that in a part of these field tests the potential for action-guiding recommendations for the purpose of constituting a future-capable Protestant youth work is to be found.

"Students Advise Students in the Kassel Research Workshop 'Theological Conversations'. Investigations of reflective conversations and impulses of a student mentoring concept." (working title)

Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Petra Freudenberger-Lötz, the so-called research workshops "Theological Conversations with Children and Adolescents" have been implemented in university teaching as part of the practical school studies. The students are offered the opportunity to deal intensively with the concept of theology of children and youth within the framework of the research workshop. The individual professionalization of the students and the making of a "research contribution to the further development of the profession" are seen as primary goals of the FoWe. A spiral interrelation of planning, practical action, reflection and the continuous consideration of scientific discourse characterize the professionalization process of the students. Since 2014, students have received support from student mentors. Each team of two is assigned a student mentor. Students receive intensive support from their mentor throughout the semester. Among other things, through a weekly reflection meeting, which is the core of a complex advisory system. The reflection meetings not only represent a step forward in the professionalization of Theological Conversations, but also foster the students' ability to reflect, which is crucial for the formation of their teaching personality. To ensure some quality assurance, mentors participate in mentor training to help develop their advising skills.

However, the question arises as to what constitutes a reflective conversation in order to promote or activate students' reflective capacity and thus advance their professionalization in the area of Theological Conversations. Thus, the investigation of the internal structure of reflection conversations for the professionalization of student teachers in the area of theological conversations and consequences to be derived from this for mentor training is the focus of the planned dissertation.

Promoting Interreligious Learning Processes among Learners and Teachers -  An Explorative Design Developed at a Vocational School (Work Title)

Germany today is characterized by a multitude of different religious beliefs. As a result, people come into contact with a wide variety of religions and cultures in all areas of life. This religious and cultural diversity is also reflected in classrooms. Learners of different faiths are particularly likely to encounter each other in schools and classrooms. The most significant place for integration, because of this fact, is schools. The responsibility for the school and the individual teachers, especially the religious teachers, is accordingly very large and very challenging.

Therefore, the question arises for me how interreligious learning can be appropriately implemented in schools and how openness towards other religions can be supported. The existing religious and cultural diversity should be used in the BRU to promote interreligious and intercultural competencies. As a result, it is necessary to develop competence-oriented teaching that takes into account the resources of the learners. It is essential that learners can build on their existing knowledge structures and acquire new knowledge based on them. Each learner has his or her own biography and, accordingly, his or her own prior knowledge. In order to take all this into account, however, religious education teachers need many different competencies.

Due to the high importance of promoting interreligious competencies, I would like to determine in the context of an empirical study to what extent interreligious competencies can be promoted among learners and teachers with the help of a competency-oriented teaching unit.

How exactly could such a teaching unit or a religion project be designed so that interreligious competencies as well as independent learning processes are taught and practically implemented in school and especially in the BRU?

I would like to shed more light on these questions with the help of a comprehensive religion project. Specifically, the food traditions in the monotheistic religions will be addressed and dealt with in detail from different perspectives. I decided to do this because the topic "food tradition" is very close to everyday life and every learner has already had experience with the topic in different ways. Eating and drinking affects everyone on a daily basis and therefore there can hardly be a more elementary topic for the learners than eating and drinking.

Habilitation thesis on Responsible Action (title to be determined).

In the research work I deal with the phenomenon that knowledge often does not lead to action. This is especially relevant for ethical questions. People often act against their ethical convictions: For example, they are against child labor, but keep buying products produced with it. For example, children work in the coltan mines in the Congo, ruining their health there; the coltan is built into smartphones, which are bought and used without hesitation. Children are sold on the cocoa plantations of the Ivory Coast as child slaves, who work there without schooling from morning to night all day long for the chocolate that is enjoyed here without hesitation. Most people are of the opinion that people have to be paid adequately for their work, but they buy clothes that are produced in Bangladesh or China, for example, under conditions that are anything but humane: i.e. the workers do not receive living wages with which they can feed their families, they often cannot send their children to school, they have no health or retirement benefits, they work without protection with substances that are harmful to their health, and so on. Thus, one can speak of modern slave labor and assume that for one person from Western countries with an average consumption pattern, about 40-60 people perform slave labor. This is not a populist exaggeration. The working conditions in many countries from which our consumer goods come are catastrophic.

Why are we constantly buying these products instead of alternatives (which do exist!)?

The same phenomenon can be found in the treatment of creation: For example, millions of animals are kept annually in industrial factory farming in Germany alone. Thousands of them spend their entire lives in confined spaces and without daylight, only to be slaughtered in slaughterhouses on a piecework basis. Factory farming is a major factor contributing to global warming, much of the feed for animal fattening comes from countries where a large part of the population suffers from hunger, and so on. People know about these conditions and actually reject them, yet they buy and consume e.g. meat from factory farming.

The list of problematic consumer behavior could be extended many times over. These are only some striking examples.

How is it that people pay little attention to acting responsibly in their daily consumption, that is, why do they give little thought to where the products they buy come from? Why do they often make little effort to live in a way that does not exploit people and the environment? Why are so few fairly produced products purchased?

How can people be persuaded to accept their responsibility and to live, consume, etc. according to their ethical convictions?

These questions are especially important for theology and also for the training of religious education teachers.

Are we as Christians not especially called upon to act responsibly?

Shouldn't such questions be dealt with intensively within theology?

How can these questions be integrated into the study of theology and the training of teachers of religion? How can students be prepared to implement topics such as responsible action also in school?

These are questions I am exploring in my research.

Interreligiousness in university religious education teacher training. A Qualitative Study of Students' Dealing with the Question of Truth in the Plural of Religions.

Within the research community, it is widely agreed that we live in a world in which several processes are simultaneously taking hold in our society, affecting people's religious lives: Secularization, Individualization, and Pluralization. In this contemporary situation, individuals are repeatedly forced to choose and position themselves. Encounters with different worldviews take place every day in people's everyday lives, so-called patchwork religions emerge from the plural, religious offer.

Accordingly, prospective teachers live in a functionally differentiated society that is characterized by multi-layered religious plurality (diversity of religions and denominations as well as the diversity of individual faith practices), individualization (people's own beliefs are created syncretistically from the range of religions on offer) and de-traditionalization (breaking with tradition). Especially prospective teachers of religion are faced with the special challenge of making these three processes fruitful for their own (religious) teacher identity and of finding viable answers to religious questions for themselves, which in turn can be embedded as authentic testimonies in the school lessons.

A prominent question for one's own (religious) life is the question of truth: Why do so many religions exist (in Germany/in Europe/around the world) that (all) claim an absolute or relative truth? How is the personal answer to be formulated in the tension between one's own (non-)religiosity and socially demanded tolerance of the religions' claim to truth and thus also to salvation? In the planned dissertation project, with the help of a qualitative study, it is to be worked out whether and which sustainable answers to the coexistence of religions and thus their often sole claims to truth have been found by students of the Protestant religion. Which types can be classified? And to what extent can these types be intertwined with other dimensions of interreligious competence? For teacher training it is important to know which attitudes and attitudes the lecturers encounter within this phase in order to be able to respond to them appropriately. Finally, with the help of this study, it should be possible to make visible links between university teaching in the area of interreligious learning and the effects of this on students, in order to be able to formulate consequences for university teacher training.

"... because of oneself one already knows the opinion"
The metacognitive dimension in learning in religious education using the example of theologizing (working title)


In children's theology, the children's expressions in theological conversations are primarily considered from a theological or religious pedagogical perspective at the level of content. Thus, it is a matter of perceiving, taking up and promoting the children's questions as well as their interpretations. In my research project, the metacognitive dimension of theologizing is to be given special attention.

The importance of metacognitive abilities for learning is well known. Metacognition plays a role in research, in didactic approaches, and increasingly in the classroom-as early as first grade. However, observation during teaching consultations and in-service training shows that this is less the case in religious education than in other subjects. There is little question about how children explain their learning or what ideas they have for influencing their learning. However, this does not mean that children do not think about their learning and do not have explanations for how they learn or how learning can succeed for them or even why they do something the way they do.

While Elisabeth Hennecke (2012) basically asks what children learn in religious education classes during their elementary school years and what they are able to do at the end, this study aims to shed light on children's perspectives on their own learning. Therefore, nine- to twelve-year-old children have space here to reflect on their own learning and to share their thoughts and explanations. Based on the open question "How do children talk about their learning and skills when theologizing, and what aspects come up?" children's explanations and theories will become visible, as well as  metacognitive skills as such.

In order to get as close as possible to the concrete thoughts of the children, the data collection should be located as close as possible to the concrete lessons. In circle talks or group discussions, the children get into conversation with each other after a lesson project on the Trinity, in which theologizing plays a significant role.
A suitable theoretical frame of reference for this is Grounded Theory, which is also used to evaluate the data. An advantage of this approach is that the generation of a theory takes place in an intensive examination of the material itself. Finally, the circular procedure results in a permanent reflection with regard to the entire study as well as with regard to its partial steps. This corresponds to the open question and enables a slow and step-by-step recognition.

The aim of the study is to be able to make statements about what is important to children when they think about and talk about their learning and ability, as well as how they explain this to themselves. Finally, based on the results and insights, challenges and implications for religious education will be asked.

Completed supervised doctorates:

1.     Ulrike Szlezak: Religious Education. Biographical Studies in the Horizon of the Stage Theory according to Oser/Gmünder and Religious Education Consequences (2008)

2.     Christina Lange: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Religious Education (2008)

3.     Isabel Schneider-Wölfinger: Listen while talking. On change of perspective and competence-oriented teacher action in children's theology (2008)

4.     Meike Rodegro: "Between Big Bang and Creation." An Empirical Investigation in Secondary Religious Education (2009)

5.     Ina Bösefeldt: Gender Specifics of God Understanding and God Relations Eight Boys and Eight Girls Growing Up in a Majority Nondenominational Context (2009)

6.     Anke Kaloudis: Keeping the Horizon Open - Didactics of Religion in a Philosophy of Religion Perspective (2012)

7.     Nina Rothenbusch: Student Perceptions of God - Empirical Studies on the Professionalization of Perception (2012)

8.     Annike Reiß: Young People Interpret New Testament Miracle Narratives. Results of the Research Workshop "Theological Conversations with Young People" (2013)

9.     Karina Möller: "For the divine experience the chemistry must be right." Personal Experiences of God by High School Students from a Youth Theological Perspective (2014)

10.  Daniel Faßhauer: "Church, Youth, Internet." The Regional Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck on the Net - Accessibility and Involvement of the Young Generation after Confirmation by Means of a Special Homepage (2015)

11.  Alina Bloch: Interreligiosity in university religious education teacher training. A Qualitative Study on Students' Dealing with the Question of Truth in the Plural of Religions (2017)

12.  Damaris Knapp "...because of oneself one already knows the opinion."  The metacognitive dimension in learning in religious education using theologizing as an example. (2017)

13.  Werner Meyreiß: The Competent Child. (2018)

14.  Heike Regine Bausch: Faith in the Performance Context of Religious Education. Theologizing about the Doctrine of Justification in the Gymnasiale Oberstufe (2019)

15.  Marie-Sophie Kitzinger: Counseling Concept of the Kassel Research Workshop Criteria of Successful Reflection Talks and Practical Testing of Student Mentoring (2020)

16.  Johanna Kallies-Bothmann: Ideas of Death and Christian Hope of Resurrection in the Field of Youth Theology (2020)

Completed supervised habilitations:

1. Prof. Dr. Britta Konz: Von der Rückeroberung der Zeit. Eindenken-lernen im Religionsunterricht (2015) Ms. Konz is now Professor of Religious Education at the University of Dortmund.

2. Prof. Dr. Stefan Piasecki: Redemption through annihilation?! Entertainment, fascination with technology and patterns of the religious in video games - an explorative study at intersections of religious education, social sciences and game studies (2014) Mr. Piasecki is now Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the HSPV North Rhine-Westphalia.

Gender specifics of God understanding and God relationship of eight boys and eight girls growing up in majority non-denominational contexts (May 2009).

Since April 2005 I have been involved in the evaluation of the "Rostock Long-Term Study on Children's Understanding of God and Relationship to God Growing Up in a Majority Non-Denominational Context". Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Szagun was responsible for the content, methodology and organization of the study, which began in 1999. My focus in the evaluation of the long-term study is the 'gender question': Are there differences in the religious development of boys and girls from Rostock? And if so, what shape do they take? To date, research has come to the conclusion that there are gender-specific differences in religious development. However, in order to be able to describe and analyze these in more detail, there is a lack of detailed long-term observations. In addition, the group of boys and the group of children who grow up in a predominantly non-denominational context are only marginally present in previous research. These two research desiderata are met by the layout of the thesis.

In the first part of the thesis, the theoretical basis is laid down. That is, first and foremost, an intensive examination of the concepts of the concept of God and gender/sex. In the second step a methodology was developed, which tries to do justice to the qualitatively collected data of the long-term study. The coexistence of theory, previous state of research and methodology results in a list of questions. On the one hand, there are questions about the relationship and communication behavior of the adolescents, and on the other hand, there are questions about the adolescents' own understanding of gender and the gender of God. The evaluation of the data under the specific questions leads to the creation of so-called profiles of the adolescents. The profiles reflect the development of their understanding of God and their relationship to God in a concentrated and gender-specific form.

In the last step, the insights resulting from the profiles of the adolescents are brought into discussion with the previous research results in order to make a contribution to the understanding of the gender-specific characteristics of boys' and girls' understanding of God and relationship to God.

"Between the Big Bang and Creation. An Empirical Investigation in Religious Education at Secondary Level II

Research question and objectives

Using the example of scientific theories of the origin of the world and biblical creation narratives, the connection between adolescent preconceptions and individual evaluation strategies was investigated. The aim of the data collection and analysis was to test how students (abbreviated in the following: SuS) determine the relationship between natural science and faith and whether the structural types of a determination of the relationship in the mode of conflict, separation and dialogue discussed in the theory of science can be measured empirically? The basis of the measurement instruments are British as well as German studies in this field.

In order to familiarize young people with different levels of "truth" (Schweitzer 2003) as well as to open up chances and limits of dialogue (Barbour 2003; Kropač 1999; Polkinghorne 2001), thinking in complementarity (Reich 1995, 1996, 2001) was to be promoted by means of a teaching unit. Guiding the research were the following research questions:

1. what influence do variables such as attitudes, interests, as well as religiosity exert on the development of agreement strategies on the topic of "Big Bang" and "Creation"?

2. can mediation strategies on the relationship between natural science and theology be promoted?

Methodological approach

First, a closed-ended questionnaire was used at three data collection points, namely before and after the teaching series (pre-, post-, follow-up test). The questionnaire is partially designed as a replication study (Gibson 1989, 1996; Rothgangel 1999). Within a preliminary study of 200 SuS, the data were tested and analyzed for reliability and validity using SPSS 12.

Second, data collection took place within a qualitative setting in which the pupils participating in the main investigation presented their respective points of view on the basis of open-ended sentence starters. The actual classroom events were documented through videotaped participant observation. The crucial sections of the videotaped instructional sequences were transcribed. The evaluation of the students' texts as well as the evaluation of the transcripts was based on qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2003, 2005).

The dissertation is published by kassel university press in the series "Beiträge zur Kinder- und Jugendtheologie" (Ed: Petra Freudenberger-Lötz):

www.uni-kassel.de/upress/publi/schriftenreihe.php

Student conceptions of God - Empirical research on the professionalization of perception.

During an elaborate qualitative research process, three categories  of student conceptions of God  were identified. These three categories denote "Christian triune," theistic or deistic," and "esoteric transcendent" conceptions of God. These three types could be clearly distinguished from each other with respect to their abilities within three competence-relevant dimensions. Whereby from a religious education perspective, in all dimensions, an increasing competence from the "esoteric-transcendent" to the "Christian triune" conception of God could be recognized. 

A general competence-oriented, training-critical view of the results showed that the entry competencies or prerequisites of students at the beginning of the study of theology differ greatly from one another.

The results within the question on the theological dimension (individual, theoretical and theological knowledge of the student) give rise to the assumption that too large a proportion has too little knowledge or a low level of religious education.
The evaluations of the religious pedagogical dimension (ability to link theological knowledge with religious pedagogical action) showed a genuine effort on the part of the students, which, however, was not sufficient for goal-oriented religious pedagogical action.
The results within the self-reflective dimension indicated that a large part of the students were basically willing to critically examine their own view, their own actions and also seemed to be in search of religious orientation.

The results show that many students cannot be assumed to have a stable religious identity of their own. Against this background, the question arises as to how students want to teach religious education in a competence-oriented manner in the future and enable children and young people to acquire orientation parameters for interpreting the world from a Christian perspective. According to recent studies, students are very consciously turning to the study of theology in search of answers to their religious questions and are dependent on impulses from the university with regard to their individual religious development. Under these conditions, university education is of great importance within the religious education process of students.

Keeping the Horizon Open - Didactics of Religion in a Philosophy of Religion Perspective.

Presented on the basis of the question: Is the human being a "homo religiosus? (Secondary level II).

Protestant religious education is currently facing different challenges. It has to position itself in the area of the current educational discussion (educational concept, educational standards, competencies), it has to include the consequences of secularization (loss of importance of institutionalized religion) and globalization (clash of different religions) in its didactics, and it has to orient itself to the religiosity and development of young people, if it is to have a meaning for students on their way to adulthood. In the school landscape, it takes many forms, including denominationally separate or cooperative, religious studies or religious history instruction, independent of models that go beyond this, in which its denominational character is hardly recognizable, as in the "Hamburg Religious Education for All" or the instruction in LER in Brandenburg.

The dissertation "Keeping the Horizon Open - Didactics of Religion in a Philosophy of Religion Perspective" pursues the goal of developing a didactic model for Protestant religious education that has its focus in the philosophy of religion, taking into account the above-mentioned challenges. If conventional religious education is positioned between educational science and Protestant theology, philosophy of religion becomes the "reference science" of educational science in the concept developed here, because it represents an adequate form to react appropriately to the challenges mentioned above. The dissertation therefore shows with its contentual orientation in the context of the research situation on the one hand connection possibilities to the concept of "children's philosophy" and "children's theology" and on the other hand makes clear connections to the elementarization concept of Wolfgang Klafki or Karl Ernst Nipkow.

On the basis of a teaching module from secondary level II(Is man a "homo religiosus?")the didactic approach for Protestant religion described here will be exemplified and tested for its practical suitability. That is, with the help of concretely designed and evaluated teaching processes, the question will be pursued as to which educational processes are triggered in students with the help of an approach based on the philosophy of religion.

Young people interpret New Testament miracle narratives. Results of the Research Workshop "Theological Conversations with Adolescents" (working title).

In recent years, children's theology has received a significant profile due to numerous research projects; especially the primary, but also the elementary level have been studied in this regard. However, theologizing with adolescents in secondary education is almost unexplored. The aim of this study is to gain insights into the theological thinking (and speaking) of students in adolescence in order to draw conclusions for a concept of youth theology. Characteristic for the transition from primary to secondary school is the beginning upheaval in the students' thinking and worldview: The child's magical world of imagination changes to the adolescent's scientific explanatory model.

In the encounter with biblical miracle narratives within the addressed age phase, this transition as well as the accompanying conflicts become openly apparent. By the middle of lower secondary school, the scientific worldview has usually completely displaced the magical ideas of childhood - with the consequence that adolescents either think of God outside, i.e., not intervening in worldly events, or also locate God within themselves as a feeling. In the biblical miracle stories, however, it is precisely God's intervention in the world that is told; the New Testament understanding of reality leaves no doubt about God's possibility to act in and on the world. It is therefore to be expected that the study of miracle narratives will touch on an essential breaking point in the faith of young people. But it also touches on central theological questions that lead into Christian dogmatics: Who is Jesus? (Christology); Who does Jesus save? (Soterology); What is man before God? (Theological Anthropology). Therefore, the topic of miracles seems to be suitable to enter into a conversation with young people about their ideas of God and Jesus Christ as well as their (expected) doubts.

Due to the lack of or only marginally existing research on youth theology and on the didactics of miracles in lower secondary education, only open and preliminary questions can be formulated for the research project at first. These questions are to be pursued within the framework of the research workshop in the didactics of religion at the University of Kassel founded in the summer semester of 2008 (title: Research Workshop "Theological Conversations with Young People"). The concept of the Kassel research workshop is based on the experiences of the Karlsruhe research workshop on theological conversations with primary school children. In the context of the Kassel Research Workshop on Theological Conversations with Adolescents, about 10 students teach students in an 8th grade class in small groups. In the spirit of action research, the students learn to adopt a research attitude towards their own teaching. They transcribe crucial teaching sequences, which they reflect on together with the lecturers under specific questions. Going through this cycle of action and reflection contributes to students' professionalization. In addition, work in the research workshop is linked to an overarching research mission: Due to the characteristic process orientation of the research workshop, preliminary findings are named with regard to theory generation and influence the further course of the research work.

The aim of the project is to provide a first empirically collected and object-anchored research contribution to youth theology. Furthermore, research on the didactics of wonder in secondary education will be advanced. 

Listening while talking. On Change of Perspective and Competence-Oriented Teacher Action in Children's Theology (August 2008).

Children's philosophy and children's theology are closely related. Coming from children's philosophy, I was first interested in what children's theologians do at all. I examined three representatives more closely: Rainer Oberthür has brought children's philosophy and questioning into religious education, Anton Bucher has been primarily concerned with the empirical study of children as theologians and has coined the term children's theology, and Petra Freudenberger-Lötz has furthermore focused on the professionalization of teachers.

In addition to children's philosophy as a precursor for children's theology, the change of perspective, the more recent research on childhood and constructivism can be seen. Whether one can really see the world through the eyes of children, as demanded at the 1994 Kirchentag, was therefore a central question and can only be affirmed to a limited extent.

For the design of religious education, however, this question cannot be dispensed with, so that children's theology has been incorporated into the religious education conceptions, not as a conception but as a basic attitude toward the students. It is a matter of perceiving, recognizing and promoting the children's own theological interpretations and ways of thinking.

This was followed by the question of the teacher's competencies in order to be able to design a children's theological religious education. Finally, I examined several teaching examples from the publications on children's theology to see whether these competencies can be derived from the presentations. This is not possible for all competencies at the same time, but depends on the intention of the authors. Sometimes it is the preparatory competencies, sometimes the discussion or the overall design.

This results in demands to also present the less successful passages in order to facilitate the readers' entry into children's theology. Furthermore, supporting systems, such as a cartography according to topics and the possible and actual interpretations of the students for preparation, are useful to promote the theological thinking of children and to relieve the teachers in their daily work.

The work is published by kassel university press: http://www.upress.uni-kassel.de/online/frei/978-3-89958-882-8.volltext.frei.pdf

Religious Education. Biographical Studies in the Horizon of the Stage Theory according to Oser/Gmünder and Religious Education Consequences (January 2008).

Our life today is characterized by strong processes of change. We have to react quickly to changes. Children and adolescents in particular therefore need a sense of security and safety in order to be able to cope with the demands placed on them.

What is the significance of religion in the context of their self-development? Is a religious education important and - if so - what should it look like?

Based on four biographies (1. the psychotherapist Tilmann Moser, 2. the writer Christine Brückner, 3. the theologian Fritz Reber and 4. the singer Xavier Naidoo) and their comparative presentation, it is worked out how religion is experienced and lived in each case.

For the classification of the results the stage theory according to Fritz Oser and Paul Gmünder ("Der Mensch. Stufen seiner religiösen Entwicklung", 4th edition 1996) is used.

In borderline situations of life, in which it is a matter of coping with contingency, partly surprising religious reaction and interpretation schemes come into play. What consequences can be drawn from these results for today's religious education processes?

In summary, we can speak of the demand for authenticity in religious education. Therefore, in conclusion, characteristics are shown which meet this demand.

The work is published by kassel university press: http: //www.upress.uni-kassel.de/online/frei/978-3-89958-395-3.volltext.frei.pdf

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in religious education (January 2008)

In my thesis I have investigated whether and how Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a subject of religious education. The work consists of two parts, an empirical investigation and didactical-methodical considerations.

The empirical investigation revealed that Bonhoeffer is mentioned in various thematic contexts in a large part of the curricula for Protestant religion and in quite a few textbooks and teaching materials of secondary levels I and II.

In the didactic-methodical considerations, possibilities are shown how interest in Bonhoeffer can be awakened in the classroom, which in my opinion succeeds best when life-world points of reference are shown. Thus, various biographical and theological points of contact are presented and possibilities of encountering Bonhoeffer in his poems and his representation in art, music and film are shown.

The work is published by kassel university press: http: //www.upress.uni-kassel.de/online/frei/978-3-89958-439-4.volltext.frei.pdf

Ideas of Death and Christian Hope of Resurrection in the Field of Youth Theology (working title).

In the field of youth theology, there are no major research contexts on the topic of death and resurrection so far. Although there are some studies that deal with eschatological conceptions of young people (overall, children's conceptions are more widely researched than those of adolescents and there is a lack of differentiation in terms of age, developmental and school stages), they do not include the field of vision of youth theology. These studies reveal that the resurrection often presents itself as inaccessible and dubious to adolescents. The question arises as to how this topic can be made accessible to young people. Death is not necessarily present in everyday life, but rather in borderline situations. Especially in adolescence, the image of God and the concepts of death are in a state of upheaval. On the one hand, adolescents are strongly oriented toward the present; on the other hand, they become aware of the finiteness and vulnerability of their own lives in adolescence.
According to Friedrich Schweitzer, a distinction has emerged in the theology of, with and for adolescents. So far, research in theology of adolescence has primarily emphasized one dimension. In the planned dissertation, the development and exploration of this threefold determination of youth theology is envisaged using the example of the topic of death and resurrection.
After an intensive scientific study of the subject matter, a teaching unit in the ninth grade of a Gymnasium in Kassel will investigate young people's ideas about death with the aim of entering into the process of theologizing with the students. The interest is directed to the question to what extent the belief in the resurrection is integrated into the (after-)death conceptions of the students. In this context, it is of interest which ideas of death are present among the young people at all, how the change from children's faith to youth faith takes place with regard to this topic, to what extent the young people succeed in thinking in a complementary way and which Christian faith contents are found in their interpretations at all. In addition, it will be explored to what extent the topic of resurrection is evident in the young people's own lives and experiences, to what extent the hope associated with belief in the resurrection from a Christian perspective becomes personally meaningful and relevant to the students' lives, and whether it can function as a coping strategy for overcoming contingency. The transcribed classroom discussions will be analyzed in accordance with grounded theory, and on the basis of this, a theory will be created that is committed to both theological precepts and relevance for adolescents.
New insights are to be expected in three respects: a) It can be exemplarily shown how the three dimensions of theologizing intertwine in planning, implementation and reflection. b) Conditions of success for the thematization of the equally sensitive and significant topic of death and resurrection on the part of the teachers and on the part of the learners can be shown. c) A contribution should be made to the discussion about the possibilities and limits of subjective experience of hope (using the example of the hope of resurrection) in the context of religious education.

Redemption through Destruction ?!
Entertainment, fascination with technology, and patterns of the religious in video games - an explorative study at the intersection of religious education, social sciences, and game studies
Stefan Piasecki

Computer and video games are considered to glorify violence, or at least to trivialize it, and are associated with a drop in academic performance as well as school massacres. In the public discussion, video games appear as a medium with a potential for danger, in which young people in particular can lose themselves. It is only in the recent past that video games have increasingly been attributed positive characteristics.

At the same time, social networks are growing as technology-supported socialization incubators, ever new parts of life are being "e-commercialized," and procedures and problem-solving mechanisms developed in the context of and for video games are spilling over into the real world; this is where the process of "gamification" has recently been talked about. "Augmented reality" describes the insertion of data and information from virtual information and communication networks into real-world perception. Knowledge transfer and behavior control are allowed to be "fun."

Nevertheless, people still believe. Life decisions are made on the basis of assumptions and hopes and against the background of fears. Who serves these existential questions today? Religion at any rate, so it seems to be ascertainable with Gräb, shows up today not only in churches, but also elsewhere - not least in the media. Religion, however, has above all and still has to do with the "big questions" - and these are not only the themes of the Bible or film but also those of video games, for they are at the same time traditionally places full of myths, riddles, legends and also religion.
First games present players with moral choices. Content and experience frameworks no longer result from predefined scripts and technical conditions and limitations; they are increasingly the result of free human choices and actions in otherwise increasingly expansive game worlds. The traditional boundaries between (fictional) game and (real) life world are blurring. Virtually all technical devices today allow some form of play. Computer or video games automatically report back and inform us of current events in the game world via the smartphone, for example.
If games can therefore spill over into the living world and influence behavior and thinking, it is time to consider who actually develops these games and with what intentions.

Based on classical communicator research, the following questions are asked:
-     Who generates certain emotions, disseminates content and conveys values with what intention in viewers and users?
-     What (learning, educational, entertainment, etc.) results are intended?
-     What roles do religion, denomination and one's own ideological convictions play?

In a study conducted at the Berlin Games Academy, young game developers were asked for the first time about their ideological views.

This work addresses relevant questions, especially from the perspective of religious education and the social sciences, taking into account findings, theories and other aspects of media theory and reception research, and brings them to the attention of game developers in the hope that a broader range of content will point the individual specialist discourses to new or adjacent subject areas and make them connectable. How people receive media, what effects are revealed, how their lives and behavior change as a result, what forms of life develop or die off in real and virtual social space, and how these living spaces are shaped and how they shape back appears as a task with an interdisciplinary thrust. Theology, social sciences, pedagogy, psychology and the young science of game studies are to be increasingly brought into conversation through this explorative work.

"Church, Youth, Internet. " The Regional Church of Kurhessen Waldeck on the Net - Reaching and Involving the Young Generation after Confirmation by Means of a Special Homepage.

Based on the strong break in contact between young people and the church after confirmation, the question arises as to how young people can continue to be addressed after confirmation. The focus of the work is on the currently central medium of the Internet and the possibilities it offers for addressing young people with a special website and keeping them in contact with the church. This is examined exemplarily on the basis of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck. In the context of the theoretical preliminary considerations, it becomes apparent that the church should use the opportunities of the Internet in accordance with its public relations mandate - especially since the youth presents itself as media youth when considering the target group. As the primary medium of everyday life and leisure, the Web plays an important role in contemporary youth life. At the same time, changes in the religious attitudes of adolescents are becoming apparent, which are characterized by individualization and a loss of church ties, in addition to the break-in points typical of old age.

Against this background, the study analyzes the current state in the form of the regional church homepage, which has existed since 1996. In addition to a professional appearance, the site is designed for adults in terms of content and design. Meanwhile, the existing site does not offer adequate content or appealing offers for young people. This picture is confirmed by an overview of other Christian websites, which do not offer anything for this age group and thus clearly show the need for action.

Starting from this existing gap, a two-part quantitative and qualitative empirical survey focuses on the target group itself. In addition to two questionnaires, which were collected throughout the church district of Hersfeld (2013; 419 confirmation students surveyed), two guideline-supported small group discussions deepen and confirm the insights gained. The interdisciplinary survey revealed a high level of interest among adolescents in a special youth homepage, which would be used by more than half of the survey participants. In addition to the wishes of the adolescents, suggestions and correlations are also collected and potentials are presented that further support the positive attitude. Such a site is desired by the majority and could thus reduce the interface after confirmation.

Overall, the evaluations of the empirical surveys reveal eight impulses for action, which are necessary for maintaining contact between the young people and the church: Both the confirmation period and prior forms of participation are important and require increased focus. Likewise, the transitions between the confirmation period and the subsequent youth period should be more fluid. Furthermore, a website created especially for young people after confirmation is needed, which enables participation and takes into account the wishes of young people. At the same time, the site should have a unique selling point in terms of religious guidance, since this is possible through such a website. In addition to a website that offers a wide range of services, an overall concept must be developed that also includes the other members of the family. Taking these impulses into account, a youth homepage can be used fruitfully to help maintain contact in the long term. The thesis thus underlines the great potential that the Internet and a youth homepage can offer for the church and its youth work.

The dissertation is published by kassel university press in the series "Beiträge zur Kinder- und Jugendtheologie" (edited by Petra Freudenberger-Lötz):

http://www.upress.uni-kassel.de/katalog/schriftenreihe.php?Jugendtheologie.htm

"For the divine experience, the chemistry must be right."
Personal Experiences of God by High School Students from a Youth Theological Perspective

"Do young people verbalize personal experiences as experiences of God?" I first asked myself this question after a classroom observation as part of the research workshop in an upper-level course. It not only motivated me to further explore the topic of experiencing God, but became the central research question of my dissertation.
In an empirically designed research project, I finally pursued the question by explicitly asking a majority of religiously socialized high school students about their personal experiences of God by means of impulse texts and evaluating them in accordance with Grounded Theory.
In the dialogue with high school students about their personal experiences of God, insights for a theology by, for and with young people could be gained. The starting point is the survey and evaluation of the students' positions as a theology of young people. The examination of theoretical foundations and practical works of youth theology as well as different positions of the religious pedagogical and systematic theological tradition on the concept of experience I dealt with under theology for young people. On the basis of both, I was able to conclude and present theoretical and practical-instructional reflections on the thematic field of experiencing God as a theology with young people. With the help of the three core theses "Experiences of God are experiences of faith, experiences of life and experiences of relationship" some findings of current and past theories of developmental psychology and studies of religious education could be critically questioned, falsified or also verified. For the practice it was important for me to show how theologizing with young people, which has a cognitive one-sidedness but only few content-related methodological approaches to transcend the cognitive, can be enriched by means of experience-oriented concepts with their affective dimension to a holistic learning, so that young people can reach "cognitive clarity and emotional security". This seems to be indispensable against the background of a predominantly scientific worldview, as many of the young people bring with them - as also presented in the title of the thesis.
My results, which I place in the current debate in religious education on multifaceted individual aspects of the thematic field of the experience of God, are to be understood as an impulse for future research in youth theology.

My dissertation is published by kassel university press in the series "Beiträge zur Kinder- und Jugendtheologie" (edited by Petra Freudenberger-Lötz) in volume 34.

Faith in the Performance Context of Religious Education.
Theologizing about the Doctrine of Justification in the Upper Secondary School.

Questions:
Is the didactic approach of theologizing particularly suitable for bringing up the doctrine of justification in such a way that it becomes an identifying feature of the learners' faith in the performance context of the upper school? What competencies corresponding to the core curriculum for the Gymnasiale Oberstufe in the subject Protestant Religion are acquired in the process? What can be assessed as an achievement in the process of theologizing within the framework given by the KCGO (2016)? In the process of theologizing about the doctrine of justification, is the discrepancy between the transmission of performance-oriented knowledge and the development of a personal attitude of faith overcome?

Objective:
Taking the doctrine of justification as an example, I would like to work out that a dogmatic topic in its scientific dimension is not only used for performance assessment through the didactic basic attitude of theologizing in the upper school, but becomes relevant for the shaping of the learners' lives. The project is committed to the school context and is based on a teaching project. At the same time, however, it takes into account the resulting perspectives of individual piety, which are always implied by the learners anyway. I would like to investigate whether and how the didactic basic attitude of theologizing in the context of performance-oriented religious education gives voice to the "iustitia Dei" in such a way that God, in the sense of Paul Tillich, can be experienced by the students as the ground of being.

One goal of my teaching project is to impart the knowledge that makes both theologically appropriate reflection on the doctrine of justification and performance acquisition possible in an upper-level course. Equally important is the other goal: the formation of a Christian-strengthening attitude to life in the learners, which opens up a fear-free encounter with the challenges of life's reality beyond school. The reflection of this Christian-strengthening attitude to life while theologizing about justification by grace in faith leads - so my thesis - to the development of a religious identity. Religious identity is the harmony of the individual view of the world and of one's own life with the message of the Gospel. The doctrine of justification is the systematic presentation of the gospel in a condensed form.

In theologizing about the doctrine of justification, the head and heart engage in a cognitive and experiential process. It finds its form in an individual religious fluency. It becomes public in the conversation of learners and teachers in the context of religious education. The religious language ability of the students leads to the development of a religious identity that enables them to discover the doctrine of justification as a reconnection to the triune God and the resulting possibility of a self-confident individual freedom of decision and action in dealing with the challenges of life. I consider the discovery of this freedom to be a specifically religious pedagogical competence, which is formed as religious human formation when theologizing about the doctrine of justification. In the theologizing examination of the doctrine of justification, the material to be acquired cannot be separated from the liberating message it holds for the learners.

Of the Reconquest of Time.
Learning to Remember in Religious Education

The work "Von der Rückeroberung der Zeit" (On the reconquest of time) is a contribution to the current discourse on remembrance that is oriented towards the Judeo-Christian tradition. It asks for possibilities of a specifically theological approach to history and memory in religious education that does not lead back to conceptions of salvation history. Based on Hartmut Rosa's thesis of the history of acceleration in modernity, the work takes a look at the present experience and the processes of experience formation of young people. It is shown that the processing of experiences into genuine experiences (W. Benjamin) and the development of historical consciousness are elementary parts of the identity formation process and must be supported by conscious reflection processes in school lessons. For this purpose, the concept of learning to remember is developed in an interdisciplinary discourse. Learning to remember builds on the theological foundations of theologizing with young people and brings this together with elements of aesthetic education, in particular the artistic search for traces. Through creative design processes, possibilities are opened up for students to find their way into theologizing through remembering and also to "communicate" experiences and thoughts that they are not (yet) able to articulate verbally. Learning to remember initiates an attitude of generativity that will later enable students to establish new bearers of culture and to take responsibility for the generations to come. Especially in religious education, a one-sided orientation towards progress, the profitable, the feasible and the optimizable can be questioned and religion can be experienced as an interruption of the everyday. Biblical remembrance, according to a central thesis of the work, is a reflection in the perspective of hope, which questions life with all its apparent self-evidentness. It is meant to irritate and to stimulate rethinking and responsible action. In the best case, through the encounter with the past and its transmission, something new, productive, and changing takes place. The biblical zachor! Remember! wants to release ethical impulses for the shaping of the present and the future. It is about shaping the space of the present and future in the face of the past. The aim of learning to remember is also to make room for the hope that there can and will be a better world and for the experience that God suffers with and is present in suffering. Particularly in religious education, students can address hopes and fears and experience relief by making it clear that, although human beings are placed in a position of responsibility, they may also hope for a reconciliation that is accomplished outside of themselves.

"The competent child..."

The author describes and analyzes in his dissertation the anthropological CONCEPTION of the construction of the image of the child as a competent child in the Hessian Education Plan. At the same time, the analysis refers to the socio-pedagogical, developmental-psychological and religious-pedagogical background of this construction. The Hessian Education Plan (Hessischer Bildungs- und Erziehungsplan, BEP) is a framework plan for the education of children in day care centers and elementary schools and covers the age range of children from birth to 10 years. The plan is intended as a steering instrument for all educational institutions involved in a child's upbringing in the sense of a steering instrument for spreading a changed view of the educational and upbringing possibilities of children in Hesse. 

Social-pedagogical, developmental-psychological and religious-pedagogical influences in the creation of the plan are analyzed and  evaluated in their effects, scope and influence on the plan.

The concept of the "Competent Child", which is included as a basic anthropological construction in the BEP,  goes back to an account of the psychoanalyst Dornes, who presents in his work a synopsis of psychoanalytic ideas about the development of a child and developmental psychological observations and considerations. Integrated into this concept of the "competent child" are observations by Stern (interactions between mother and child are exclusively social), the concept of attachment based on the work of Bowlby and his successors and starting from the event of the loss of the mother (figure) as well as the recourse to the work of Piaget with the theorem of the genetic epistemology. 

The BEP is fixed on the position of the dyad (child-mother/ or child- educator). This determination should be extended by drawing on the concept of "intermediate space" first formulated by Winnicott. This refers to the fact that children often use a transitional object, a teddy bear, a stuffed teddy bear, or the like, which  involves for them the task of defending against anxiety. For adults, these transitional objects belong to the external world, but for children, on the other hand, they do not belong to the internal world. Culture and religoin can be located in this "intermediate space" that is created in this way. In this intermediate space, stories are created that can be connected to other stories. This includes the development of GEmory as a social construction; the beginning of one's own biographical narrative and the development of one's own religious ideas. 

The BEP's goal is to enable children's early education. This includes openness to new things and establishing one's own point of view. The efforts presented in the BEP to shape early education are in the context of post-modernity, which addresses the multifaceted nature of all areas of life.  In the post-modern age, it is not knowledge that is ultimately problematic, but non-knowledge. Education and upbringing should lead to humanity  and to religious sensitivity. Educational plans are signposts, but not the way. The path in the present with the claim to the future is walked by adults and children together and needs the courage to walk even on rough terrain.

English: 

The author describes and analyzes in his thesis the anthropological conception of the image of the "competent child" in the Education and Development Programme of the state of Hesse in the Federal Republic of Germany (Bildungs- und Erziehungsplan des Landes Hessen). The program sees the child as a competent child. In his analysis the author refers to the background of this conception based on social education as well as developmental and religious implications which led to the current formulation of the program.

The Education and Development Programme provides the framework for curricula of various institutions dealing with the care and education of children from birth to the age of 10 (from kindergarten through primary school). The main concern of the Programme is to further development and motivation, not only while caring for the children during their time at the particular institution, but also to further their ability to speak, to read, even to write, and to start exploring the world as it is.

The notion of the "competent child" is a fundamental anthropological construction based on the theoretical work of the psychoanalyst Dornes of Frankfurt/Main, Germany. He combines psychoanalytical theory and the so-called "baby watching" approach to observe and reflect the given behavior of a mother and her child. "Baby watching" is based on the research of Stern and other psychologists working in the field of developmental psychology. Also integrated into this theory are the findings of Jean Piaget (genetic epistemology) and John Bowlby (attachment theory).

The theoretical position of the program is bifocal: child and mother (or a substitute figure, such as the teacher). But the analysis suggests that the view of the program should be broader in the sense that a transition object, for example, should be integrated. This means that children often need a doll, a teddy bear, a cuddly blanket or the like when they go to bed, the function of which is the reduction of fear during the absence of the mother. The transition object also opens the "intermediate space" which makes way for a broader understanding of culture and religion, not only for the children, but for all who deal with the matter.

The program is based on the concepts of post-modernity and post-modern knowledge. But this is only half of the picture, because knowledge is not the problem of post-modernity. The problem is the lack of knowledge. The narratives that shape our lives are living narratives, always changing. The relationship of transcendence and immanence in human life is both expressed and experienced through narrative. Even with such a program we are obliged - and free - to live in the creative tension of our limitations and uncertainty. That is what religious education in the field of infant education should be.