THE CONTRIBUTION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION TO THE PROMOTION OF (INTERRELIGIOUS) DIALOGUE

Abstract

In the introduction the author of the article (lecture) revives the issue of the importance of dialogue and points to the growing complexity of challenges facing dialogue, and in particular interreligious dialogue, in the contemporary society. The article focuses on several important issues underlying interreligious dialogue. Thus, in the introductory part, the author emphasizes some important features of dialogue and outlines important assumptions for its functioning. She observes dialogue from the anthropological, theological and religious point of view. Further on, she identifies the specificity of religious dialogue and describes the important levels at which interreligious dialogue is realized. As the author comes from the Catholic milieu, she analyzes the starting points of interreligious dialogue from the perspective of Catholic Church. In doing so, she particularly appreciates the views and teachings on dialogue of the previous few popes: from Pope Paul VI to the current Pope Francis. The author considers culture as a place for dialogue. Therefore, she points to some of the challenges of contemporary culture in relation to dialogue. In a cultural environment, school and education in general play an important role in terms of dialogue promotion. In regard to interreligious dialogue, the privileged role in its promoting is certainly performed by religious education. She sees religious education as a link or bridge between culture and religious tradition. The last section of the article lists some areas that can and should be promoted in religious education, regardless of which religion in taught. It is first and foremost a commitment to a holistic vision of a person, promotion of the meaning of human life, the responsibility for others, and promotion of dialogue between religion and mind. When it comes to interreligious dialogue, the author believes that it should not be reduced to an optional choice but should be perceived as an imperative obliging all people.