Research Center for Religion and Education

Ceiling panorama of the Goethe Gallery in Jena

Image: Alexander Koerbs

FZRB Logo

Image: FZRB

Welcome at the RCRE

The 'Research Center for Religion and Education' (FZRB; formerly Research Center for Religious Education Research, ZRB), founded in 2011, is dedicated to accompanying, stimulating and conducting scientific research on the connection between religion and education. The center's work focuses on past and present educational processes and its historical, systematic as well as empirical methods. At the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, the FZRB is assigned to the profile line "Liberty"External link as a structure-forming center; within the Faculty of Theology of the University of Jena, it shapes the profile-forming focus "Religious Education in the Context of Social Change".

The FZRB explicitly focuses its work on current challenges of religious education in order to be able to contribute to a contemporary religious education work in society, media, school, community and family.

Latest News

Image: Dariusz Sankowski

FZRB Launches New Doctoral School "Communities and Networks" We are delighted to inform you that our doctoral program, the Doctoral School of the Diaspora Studies Research Network, was accepted into our university's Graduate Academy in June 2025.
Image: Thomas Heller

Congratulations!External linkde Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Thomas Heller on his new position as Professor of Religious Education at the Martin Luther Institute at the University of Erfurt. We wish him all the best and much success in his future work.
Image: FZRB

Successfully Secured EU Project Funding We are pleased to announce that the new project VIRTU-PEACE has successfully secured funding and began on February 1st, 2025, with a duration of three years.
Image: Comenius-Institut

FORUM differenzsensible Religionspädagogik #2: RaumBuilderExternal linkde The second FORUM on Diversity-Sensitive Religious Education will take place on April 23-24, 2026, in Siegburg, with the theme "Images of Space." The focus will be on the question: Are spaces simply what they are, or is there more to them? Physical spaces can either encourage or hinder interactions and communication. But what about other types of spaces?

The forum is organized by the Comenius-Institut in cooperation with various partners.

The FZRB will participate and offer a workshop on "space-sensitive parental work in the post-migration society" as part of the forum.

Updates

Image: Screenshot: gorodenkoff/GettyImages

‘It's Christmas now. But now you have to!’External linkde
By Dorothea Siegle

It all started with ‘#heimkommenExternal link’, Edeka's advert for Christmas 2015, which has since been watched over 70 million times on YouTube. Dr Heller, you have analysed these films - what do they have in common?

You can find the link to the full article here: ‘Now it's Christmas. But now you have to!’

Veranstaltungen

10th Expert Conference of the "Confessionally-Cooperative Religious Education in Thuringia" Unit
13 Nov 2025
2 s.t. ·
- Symposium
The expert conference aims to create a space where we can discuss experiences with confessionally-cooperative religious education in Thuringia and Saxony.
- presence
- public
- barrier-free
- Subject to registration