Rechtspopulismus als Herausforderung für den Religionsunterricht in Deutschland und Polen : Problemanzeigen und Implikationen für die religionspädagogische Praxis

Kurzfassung/Abstract

For years, right-wing populists in Germany and Poland have been “hijacking” the Christian religion not only for their political agenda but also to exacerbate social divisions and fuel resentment and fear towards people of other cultures, worldviews or religions. These anti-pluralist and anti-democratic attitudes are also widespread among young people today and should therefore be seen as an urgent challenge for education, including religious education in schools. Based on these premises, this article aims at a comparative analysis of right-wing populism as a challenge to religious education in neighbouring countries. In a first step, a definition of (right-wing) populism is given and three areas of tension between this phenomenon and democracy, Christianity and youth are outlined. This is followed by a problem-oriented concretisation in which right-wing populism is discussed as a problematic phenomenon for denominational religious education. The entire discussion culminates in an attempt to identify conceptual and practical implications for dealing with right-wing populism in the context of German and Polish religious education practice.