Religious individualization: new challenges to education for tolerance

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the relationship between tolerance and individualized religion as the most common type of adolescent religion in many western countries. Drawing on a number of qualitative studies conducted by the author with children and adolescents in Germany, as well as on other larger studies conducted by others, the author identifies a number of problem areas, for example, in Christian adolescents’ views of Islam, and discusses the consequences of individualized religion for tolerance education. Different models of religious education in Germany and other European countries are considered. Special emphasis is given to the following question: if and under what conditions can religion and religious education become sources of tolerance? The author suggests that the model of co‐operative dialogical religious education has the potential to support religious identities and, at the same time, to foster dialogical openness.

Keywords:

• Tolerance
• Education
• Religion
• Identity
• Dialogue