Catholic Religious Education

The Master of Education program in Catholic Religious Education deals with the contents and traditions of the Christian faith using academic/scientific methods. The “God question,”– who or what is God?–which is then immediately formulated as “the man question”–who or what is man?–is a key part of this degree program. Students deepen their knowledge of biblical, historical, systematic and practical theology themes.

While in the bachelor's degree program students focus on the knowledge side of their two school subjects, the Master of Education degree program puts a stronger emphasis on educational sciences and subject didactics. The basic approach to teaching religion is Elementarisierung, or the breaking down of difficult concepts into basic understandable elements. The five cornerstones of Elementarisierung–elementary structures, truths, ways of access, experiences and forms of learning–are applied to exegetical or church-historical themes. Students explore theological knowledge and teaching/learning processes in religious instruction, giving special consideration to inclusion-related matters. This provides a backdrop to the practical parts of this teaching degree program and enables students to work through the specific challenges of religious instruction.

In teaching degree programs for grammar and comprehensive schools, students choose two school subjects. Thus, in addition to Catholic Religious Education, students are enrolled for a second subject as well as Educational Sciences. The practical semester is a centerpiece of the degree program.

Possible lines of work:

Teaching at schools

For other possible lines of work, please refer to the Old Catholic Theology and Ecumenical Theology (MA), and Catholic Theology (Church Examination/Magister Theologiae) degree programs.