Publications

Won, Jieun / Park, Yura: 공존과 소통을 위한 기독교교육의 역할과 과제 탐색: 독일 작센 종교교육의 사례를 중심으로 (Exploring the Role and Challenges of Christian Education for Coexistence and Communication: A Case Study of Religious Education in Saxony, German), in: Journal of Christian Education & Information Technology 84 (2025), 1-42.

In contemporary Korean society, religious diversity and the value of coexistence have become critical educational challenges within a multicultural and multireligious environment. This study aims to analyze the case of religious education in the German state of Saxony to explore the educational role and direction of Christian education in a multicultural and multireligious society. To this end, it examines the background and key characteristics of interreligious education in Germany and analyzes the religious education curriculum implemented in Saxony. Based on this discussion, the study derives potential improvements and practical implications for Christian education in Korea.

The study finds that religious education in Germany is designed not merely to transmit specific religious doctrines but to deepen understanding of various religious traditions and promote mutual respect among religions. In particular, religious education in Saxony maintains a Christian identity while actively embracing an interreligious educational approach. This allows students to recognize religious diversity and learn the values of coexistence through dialogue with other religions. However, limitations such as the declining participation rate in religious education due to secularization and insufficient implementation of interreligious cooperation are also observed. These challenges are similar to those faced by Christian education in Korea.

Hong, Sungsoo: Selbstanzeige. Heterogenität und Inklusion. Eine Metastudie zu komplexen Diskursfeldern in der Erziehungswissenschaft und der Religionspädagogik, in: Pädagogische Rundschau 75/2 (2025).

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The discourse on heterogeneity and inclusion brings together fundamental questions of social change and the public debates that accompany it. Consequently, this discourse has developed into a highly complex field whose entire topography is hardly comprehensible anymore. Academic engagement with these topics is taking place in a large number of studies from various disciplines. These studies have different orientations and theoretical references, from which specific arguments for the current discussion can be derived.

Käbisch, David | Wermke, Michael | Woppowa, Jan (Hrsg.): Ambivalente Beziehungen. Historische Narrative und Bilder von Judentum, Christentum und Islam in Bildungsmedien. Leipzig 2024.

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The image of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their reciprocal relationships has fundamentally changed in recent decades. The complex relationships and the associated processes of perception and transformation are as diverse as they are ambivalent, as they often involve the reproduction of stereotypes and power structures.
This volume aims to identify related narratives and images in educational media and pedagogical discourse. In doing so, it also ventures into new thematic and methodological territory by primarily asking about the depicted "relationships between religions" in educational media and pedagogical contexts from the Enlightenment to the present day.

Hong, Sungsoo / Wermke, Michael: Diversitätssensible Bildung. Der Beitrag des Religionsunterrichts, in: Grundschule Religion 88 (2024), S. 25-26.

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The article examines the importance of diversity-sensitive education in religious instruction and highlights how diverse dimensions such as gender, religion, and cultural background can be taken into account. The theological foundation of being created in the image of God, which emphasizes the uniqueness of every individual, plays a central role. Religious education is described as an ideal setting where students learn to deal with religious and ideological diversity.

Hong, Sungsoo:  Kulturtransfer und Translation.  Impulse der Kultursemiotik von Jurij M. Lotman für interkulturelle und interreligiöse Bildungsprozesse, in: Anusiewicz-Baer, Sandra / Hild, Christian / Mohammed, Abualwafa (Hrsg.): Religiöse Bildung im Transfer. Vermittlung zwischen Religionen, Sprachen und Kulturen, Stuttgart, S. 99-113.

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The current discussion in cultural studies is leading to a critical engagement with conventional understandings of culture that view it as a static and homogeneous entity. In this context, the cultural semiotics of Jurij M. Lotman, a Russian-Jewish literary scholar and semiotician, gains particular significance.

The article delves deeply into Lotman's approach, which makes it possible to understand cultures and religions in their dynamic processes of transfer and transformation. These insights offer valuable guidance for educational and religious educational practice, especially in intercultural and interreligious contexts.

Van der Hoek, Stefan/Wermke, Michael (Hrsg.): Dr. phil. Tonja Soloveitchik und die Wandlung des jüdischen Volksbildungswesens in Polen – and the Transformation of Jewish Popular Education in Poland, Berlin/Leipzig 2024. 

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In the Footsteps of a Lithuanian-American Educator: The Lithuanian-American educator Tonja Lewit (1904–1967) was a contemporary witness to the history of the Jewish diaspora in Lithuania, Germany, and the USA. Having grown up in a religious family in the heart of Vilnius, the "Jerusalem of the North," she earned her doctorate at the University of Jena. Alongside her husband, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903–1993), she founded a modern Orthodox school for girls and boys in Boston. This volume contains Tonja Lewit's 1931 dissertation on the little-known history of the Jewish school in Poland. The re-publication of this work is accompanied by a piece about her time studying in Jena, a portrait of her life written by her daughter, Tovah Lichtenstein, and a tribute to her life's work from State Rabbi Zsolt Balla, a board member of the "Orthodox Rabbinical Conference of Germany."

Gräbe, Viktoria/Wermke, Michael: "The Circulation of Academic Knowledge in the Medium of School Programmes"

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Professor Dr. Michael Wermke, the director of the FZRB, together with Dr. Viktoria Gräbe (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), co-authored the article "The Circulation of Academic Knowledge in the Medium of School Programmes," which was recently published in the Routledge Handbook of Academic Knowledge Circulation (2023).

The article examines how school programs in the 18th and 19th centuries served as a medium for cross-border communication and knowledge exchange. The authors specifically analyzed programs from two schools, as well as documents from the Prussian Foreign and Cultural Ministries and the German Empire. Their analysis clarifies that the institutionalization of the program system and the dissemination of academic knowledge through this medium laid the foundation for the development of an imagined, cross-border sphere of higher education.

With its special focus on transnational knowledge exchange and the creation of transnational educational spaces, the article can make a significant contribution to research in the field of Diaspora Studies (FNDS). It is also noteworthy that the handbook was created within a large network involving many colleagues from all continents.

Jäger, Sarah/Wermke, Michael/Schramm, Edward (Hrsg.): Kindeswohl zwischen Verantwortung und Autonomie. Juristische, theologische und pädagogische Zugänge, Tübingen 2023. 

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The welfare of the child is usually discussed when it appears to be at risk and provides a basis for state intervention. However, a positive concept of child welfare is needed to establish a standard for what should be avoided. Its understanding has been undergoing significant change for some time. In its semantic openness, the term creates room for discretion for institutions. It allows for the autonomy of the child while also ensuring freedom for parents in raising them. This volume addresses how a modern definition of child welfare that emphasizes the positive can be achieved, and how the well-founded responsibility of the state for the endangered child should be structured. It gathers voices from ethics, education, law, and theology.

Hong, Sungsoo: Heterogenität und Inklusion. Eine Metastudie zu komplexen Diskursfeldern in der Erziehungswissenschaft und der Religionspädagogik, Leipzig 2023.

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Discussions surrounding heterogeneity and inclusion have now reached a considerable density and complexity, making the entire field difficult to navigate. Against this background, the present work is designed as a meta-study to analyze and reconstruct these ongoing discussions systematically. This aims to make the meanings, impulses, and main points of the respective strands visible, as well as their problems and limitations. Furthermore, it is intended to contribute to the interdisciplinary integration of educational science and religious education.

Das Wissenschaftlich-Religionspädagogische Lexikon im Internet (WiReLex)

The FZRB has contributed to WiReLex with various articles, including:

• Heller, Thomas: VerschwörungstheorienExternal link, 2023.
• Hong, Sungsoo: Resilienz und ReligionExternal link, 2023. 
• Koerrenz, Marita/Pemsel-Maier, Sabine: Ökumenisches LernenExternal link, 2023.
• Wermke, Michael/van der Hoek, Stefan/Sehr, Sophie: Bildungs, diversitätssensibleExternal link, 2023.
• Wermke, Michael: Bohne, Gerhard (1895-1977)External link, 2023.
• Wermke, Michael/Salloja-Günz, Claudia: KindertagesstätteExternal link, 2022.
• Koerrenz, Marita: Schneider, Paul (1897-1939)External link, 2021.

Gräbe, Viktoria Luise/ Wermke, Michael: Periodika höherer Schulen im 19. Jahrhundert: Schulprogramme als Spiegel jüdisch-bürgerlicher Repräsentation? in: Marten-Finnis, Susanne/Nagel, Michael (Eds.): The Historical German-Jewish Press: Platform, Mouthpiece, Sources Die historische deutsch-jüdische Presse: Forum, Sprachrohr, Quellenfundus, Bremen 2022, S. 173-194

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Gräbe, Viktoria Luise/ Wermke, Michael: Die ministeriellen Inspektionen in den Schulprogrammen höherer jüdischer Schulen im 19. Jahrhundert - das Beispiel Frankfurt am Main, in: Kaser Tomás et al. (Eds.): From School Inspectors to School Inspection. Supervision in Europe from Middle Ages to Modern Times, Bad Heilbrunn 2022, S. 153-172.

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Al-Janabi, Fahed:  Migration, Erziehung und Religiosität. Empirische Ergebnisse zum Bildungsbedarf von Müttern mit Migrationsgeschichte aus dem arabischsprachigen Raum, in: Boger, Miriam/Kleint, Steffen/Schirrmacher, Freimut (Hrsg.): Familienreligiosität im Bildungshandeln. Theorie – Empirie – Praxis, Münster u.a., 2022, S. 185-210.

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Fahed Al-Janabi presented the results of the accompanying research for the mothers' workshop at a conference of the Comenius-Institut in March 2022 and published them in an article in the edited volume Familienreligiosität im Bildungshandeln (Family Religiosity in Educational Action).

The article presents the findings of a quantitative study conducted as part of a needs analysis. It shares selected results on the topics of well-being, educational ideas and practices, religious upbringing, and the related challenges. The study aims to determine the support and educational needs of the target group and to discuss them with a view toward developing parenting programs for immigrant parents.

Muth, Katharina/Seher, Sophie/Wermke, Michael/Morosoli Milena: Vielfalt in der Gesellschaft — eine vielfältige Gesellschaft? Vielfalt in der Religion — eine vielfältige Religion? In: Andreas Beelmann/Danny Michelsen: Rechtsextremismusforschung, Demokratiebildung und gesellschaftliche Integration: Interdisziplinäre Debatten und Forschungsbilanzen. Wiesbaden 2022, S. 285–309.

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This contribution presents the praxeological concept of the Research Unit for Culturally and Religiously Sensitive Education (KuRs.B), which has been part of the Center for Religious Education Research (ZRB) at FSU Jena since 2016. The research unit sees itself as a transmission belt (science-to-action transfer) for scientific approaches and evidence, particularly from the fields of (religious) pedagogy, cultural and religious theory, and integration research. In doing so, the actors of the KuRs.B project aim to reflect on contemporary social experiences and transformation processes from the perspective of educational professionals and their fields of work.

Wermke, Michael: Ein letztes Treffen im August 1941. Kurt Silberpfennig und die Praxis religiös-zionistischer Pädagogik. Münster/New York 2021. 

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The memory of the religious-Zionist educator Kurt Silberpfennig (1905–1942) is like a glass shattered long ago; most of the shards have been crushed into splinters, gone blind, and ground into sand. Only a few things remain of him: a file with study documents, an emigration application, a police interrogation report, a few correspondences, two journal articles, three photos, and his name in address books.

Katharina Muth/Michael Wermke/Gisela Mettele (Hrsg.): Religion  im Transit. Transformationsprozesse im Kontext von Migration und Religion, Bielefeld 2021.

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The focus of this volume is on the complex and ambivalent interactions between migration and religion, which are examined from interdisciplinary perspectives. To this end, historical case studies in three thematic areas—Transit Spaces, Diaspora, and Identity—are presented, which examine the environment of specific migrant groups. They provide insight into conditions for both demarcation and integration and highlight strategies that promote integration. By placing the case studies within the current cultural-sociological discourse on migration, the volume successfully builds bridges to contemporary issues.

Katharina Muth: Bewertungskriterien ethischer und religiöser Urteilskompetenz. Eine qualitative Studie über Prüfungsaufgaben und Bewertungsvorgaben im schriftlichen Abitur des Faches Evangelische Religionslehre, Leipzig 2021.

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The goal of judgment competence is to enable students to engage in a thoughtful discussion of their world and to participate in society. But when is someone "capable of judgment" and what is being tested and evaluated when judgment competence is required in exams?

This study analyzes written Abitur (high school graduation exam) questions and the corresponding grading rubrics from the German states of Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and Thuringia. It takes up a highly current discussion about the comparability and transparency in the evaluation of complex skills, which is of interdisciplinary interest. In conclusion, concrete proposals are formulated that are central to both the further development of educational administrative guidelines and classroom practice.

Marita Koerrenz: Ich lege Protest ein! Mit Paul Schneider Glaube und politische Verantwortung erkunden, Göttingen 2020 

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Religious education, among other things, has the task of remembering. This also applies to the dark chapter of National Socialism in recent German history. This work focuses on the Protestant pastor Paul Schneider (1897-1939), who, along with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller, is one of the well-known figures of the Confessing Church. It thus offers students an insight into this historical period from the perspective of a pastor who bravely expressed his protest against the unjust state.

Marrita Koerrenz: Ich lege Protest ein! Mit Paul Schneider Glaube und politische Verantwortung erkunden, Göttingen 2020 

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The topic of "creation" plays a key role in religious education for grades 7–10 as a practical ethical challenge. This textbook connects the subjective learning challenges of young people with ideas from the church and wider society. "Shaping Creation" is a real-world, ethical application of the fundamental engagement with human creatureliness as well as the animate and inanimate environment. The guiding principle of this volume is the global effort toward "sustainable development," to which a religious education approach can contribute a unique perspective of hope.