Religion - once again a social megatopic, at least since the turn of the millennium. How can we live together in a religiously diverse world? This is a question that religious education teacher Joachim Willems is looking into.
He was young, he was in love - so these thoughts didn't fit in at all. It was during his student days that Joachim Willems became more closely involved with Buddhism; not at all unusual for a theology student. But it became a formative experience for him: what if he followed this world view - wouldn't he then have to completely question his previous views and way of life? In the pursuit of serenity in the face of life, wouldn't he have to retreat, break up with his girlfriend, go to a monastery and learn to meditate?
Joachim Willems, Professor at the Institute of Theology and Religious Education since spring 2016, followed the path he had already taken instead of going to a Buddhist monastery. However, his intensive involvement with different religions remained and remains his constant companion, and the topic of "interreligious competence" crystallised as a focus of his research and teaching.
Interreligious competence: for the theologian and educationalist with a doctorate in theology, this is a basic cultural competence that everyone needs in today's religiously pluralistic world. It means more than just knowing about religions, namely recognising and ideally understanding each other. It also means questioning whether religion is actually behind everything you suspect it to be - after all, every person has an individual character. "Cultures are not homogeneous, and neither are religions," emphasises Willems, whose CV has included repeated visits to Russia since his school days, where he conducted research for both of his dissertations.
Whether in the face of a mosque being built in a Christian neighbourhood or the debate about school examinations during the fasting month of Ramadan: "Interreligious competence is about being able to classify religious phenomena from different perspectives," says Willems. "This enables me to adapt to situations of interreligious encounters - without having to specify how I do this."
"Key qualification of the 21st century"
This ability has become increasingly important since the turn of the millennium: "For a long time, religion had fallen out of the spotlight; it was all about breaking with tradition and secularisation. Around 2001 - with the attacks of 11 September, among other things - it came back into focus," explains Willems. "Today, when you watch the news or open the newspaper, religion is the mega-topic." It is often less about religion itself and more about religion practised by others. "And you realise that you have to deal with it - whether in sociology, education or religious studies," emphasises Willems. In the blurb of his book on the theory of interreligious competence, he therefore calls it "a key qualification of the 21st century".
How do young people deal with religious plurality? Willems is investigating this question in a project funded by the German Research Foundation: "Experiencing - interpreting - evaluating religious diversity" (REVIER). By qualitatively analysing interviews with 14 to 19-year-old Christians, Muslims and non-religious young people, he is trying to get to the bottom of their attitudes and world views. Although these are not representative, similarities allow statements to be made beyond the individual cases - which, taken individually as case studies, can also reveal successes and deficits in interreligious coexistence and thus sensitise people.
For example, the case of the 17-year-old Muslim who talks about singing a Christmas carol in music lessons. According to the interview, a fellow pupil told him: "'Jesus Christ is born', in other words provocative. In other words, Jesus Christ is in Christianity. You see?" The reply probably surprised his classmate at least: "Hey, of course, I think it's great that we're singing about it! That's a prophet, and he brought a lot of things. The Bible itself is one of the books of God, so in Islam now."
Willems also developed a concept for a religion lesson from this situation - with a role play about the possible outcome before the unexpected denouement, and points of reference for further lessons on Christianity, Islam and interfaith encounters. The father of two implemented these himself at a Berlin school centre, where he taught alongside and after his habilitation at Humboldt University.
Encouraging pupils to adopt their own positions
The findings from the 30 interviews that Willems analysed are complex. With regard to the Muslim interviewees, he states that they "all recognise the stereotypes of the non-Islamic majority society and are constantly able to change their perspective". Example: a pupil wearing a headscarf who reports on a conversation with a teacher. Interesting: "that the supposedly pre-modern and undemocratic pupil invokes individual freedom rights when wearing her headscarf - while the teacher, who sees herself as a representative of a legal, social and cultural order based precisely on this, denies the pupil these rights". Whilst the pupil is also aware of the other side's way of thinking, says Willems, the teacher has her own point of view and believes that this is the way the world is. He is familiar with similar examples when it comes to prayer opportunities during school breaks.
In the REVIER project, Willems also realised "how quickly you get to Islam in general when it comes to the topic of religion". There, religious practice becomes visible or some people become aware of it for the first time and thus apparently becomes an issue. This also demonstrates his students' great interest in the topic of interreligious learning, especially when it comes to Islam. Willems has employed an Islamic scholar in his team, "and her seminars are full".
For the 43-year-old, the subject of his professorship, religious education, goes beyond the didactics of religion - and describes targeted religious communication processes in the context of society, not only in schools, but also in the church community, for example. Nevertheless, schools are a central venue for teaching religious and interreligious skills, "because there is no other place where you can actually reach everyone".
Subjective references seem particularly important to him: Willems compares religious education that does not encourage pupils to adopt their own position with "music lessons without a listening experience that only look at music in a distanced way based on scores, lines and accidentals". His appeal not only to the students, but also to the teachers: to be touched and challenged - for example by the sometimes radical statements of biblical stories - and to clarify their own attitude to questions of meaning. Just as he was once challenged by Buddhism. "Something happens to me as an individual by engaging with the world, by acting in the world - that's what education is all about."
