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Abstract
In the current situation of globalization and migration, migration societies are increasingly becoming culturally and religiously more diverse. As a result, interreligious learning processes in religious education have to be initiated. At the same time the reality of Christian internal differentiation and Christianity’s own cultural diversity should also be taken into consideration. Today’s challenge is to build a Christian identity that does not fall back into “traditional patterns of confessionalization”, but rather unfolds religious diversity and intra-religious plurality. However, intercultural theology and postcolonial theory are still not sufficiently taken into account in religious education. Questions relating to migration society are predominantly negotiated in the field of interreligious learning. Therefore, this article examines postcolonial theory and intercultural theology, showing possible ways in which intra-religious learning can be shaped and the search for cultural-religious interspaces can be encouraged. According to the essay’s main theory intercultural theology confronts us with contrasting religious interpretations, conceptions and practices and thus becomes a challenge, but also a resource for the shaping of religious identity in the context of migration and globalization. Intercultural theology challenges us to develop a denominational self-understanding which is not based on ‘religious othering’ or on intra-religious othering.
Postcolonialism refers not only to the historical epoch after the end of the colonial era, but also to a theoretical concept for the analysis of power relations. In German-speaking theology, this concept has so far received little attention. In the bilingual volume Postcolonialism, theology and the construction of the other, scholars of all theological disciplines, including religious studies, explore the heuristic possibilities that postcolonialism provides for their subject. In particular, the question is how “the other” is constructed as the counterpart of a “we”. In times of global migration and growing right-wing extremism, theology must remain capable to offer answers to the urgent questions of the present.
Postcolonialism refers not only to the historical epoch after the end of the colonial era, but also to a theoretical concept for the analysis of power relations. In German-speaking theology, this concept has so far received little attention. In the bilingual volume Postcolonialism, theology and the construction of the other, scholars of all theological disciplines, including religious studies, explore the heuristic possibilities that postcolonialism provides for their subject. In particular, the question is how “the other” is constructed as the counterpart of a “we”. In times of global migration and growing right-wing extremism, theology must remain capable to offer answers to the urgent questions of the present.